Music Holiday

Went to Penang for holidays for a week. Stayed at my aunt's house in Sg. Petani for about 5 days, (from last Wednesday to Sunday), then went over to Penang Island to stay on Monday.

Went for Penang Jazz Festival in Bay View Batu Feringhi. Was worth the RM55 ticket. There were 6 bands in total performing that night, but we only watched 5 of them. The memorable one was by this band called Buzz Bros Band from Holland.

THIS SONG IS AWESOME!


Their drummer is just superb, he used only brushes, even with faster songs. And he dished out this super long drum solo, switched between using brushes and using his hands on the snare. Amazing thing is he uses only one crash cymbal, one snare, one kick drum and hi hat. I bought their CD.

There was this oriental Jazz band called Sizhukong, pretty good they use traditional chinese Instruments to play jazz. Trouble is that it kinda loses it's Oriental feel after sometime.

And there was this band called Studnitzsky Trio from Germany. They used some cool dub-like effect on the trumpet. Quite trippy and club-like.

But because it was all very experimental, so sometimes it can be quite boring.

For example this prog-rock/ prog-jazz band called In The Country from Norway. Too experimental, typical post rock ambient/dronning stuff.


And that was Jazz fest for you. Then went over to Penang on Monday like I said. Went roaming the streets of Penang. I've been going to Penang for the past 14(?) years, almost once every year. And we hardly enter Penang town, mainly because of the traffic. It's insane! Narrow streets, so many turnings and so many cars!!! But it was okay, got dropped off by my other aunt (mom's brother's wife... whatever), walked around with my sis. She was busy taking pics, I just took in whatever I saw. Too lazy to take ahaha.

There were a lot of antique shops around. We just ogled at the old records, old camera, old tv, old etc. etc. You get the picture.

Wanted to see the Blue Mansion, but they were a bit strict (more like stuck up). They have this thing called a heritage trail, where you go on this trail guided by a tour guide. So this trail includes the Blue Mansion and it is only available at 11am and 3pm. And it's like RM12 for each person, and they only allow 11-12 people in a go. That's the ONLY way to see the Mansion. So we didn't get to visit the Blue Mansion.

Next day, went to do a little shopping in Gurney Plaza. Bought some shorts because I only had a few. And then went to the Artist Gallery there. They were selling old albums for 19.90 each. Old albums, from late 90s to early 2000s. I picked up Oasis' Heathen Chemistry, 2 American Hi-fi albums and then I thought I put my money on this band called Idlewild (Good stuff!). Scottish indie band got their album called Warning/Promises.

And then went to watch Astro Boy with cousin.
Astro Boy was pretty good, they actually touched on some really good issues, but they didn't further explore them. Issues like how we dispose trash, dependency on technology, and grieving over death. The graphics aren't as good as say Pixar or Dreamwork or ILM but hey - here's a 3D movie that actually has a story (if you exclude Pixar). Still the colours are really vivid and eye catching, especially the panning view of Metro City.

Overall it was a good holiday. Very musical that's for one thing. How so? On the journey to Penang, we were listening to my sister's and my music on the newly installed CD player in the car. In my aunts house, she had this collection of hits from 60's CD, so we listened to that quite a number of times. She also had a Harry Belafonte greatest hits CD. And then there was the Jazz Fest. And then there was that cool offer at Artist Gallery. And then I went to check out the price for a bass guitar in a music shop in Gurney Plaza. I'm spending too much time, effort and money on music. Hope I don't get sick of it... music that is.