Manhand: Malaysia's latest hip hop canto-pop band

I haven't been listening to Chinese radio channels for quite a long time. But because it's Chinese New Year, I do. Last weekend, I was listening to the 988 while waiting for a friend. I was really fascinated by a song called 'Zhun Shi Sou Ting'.


At first I thought it's from a Hong Kong band. To my surprise, it's a local band called Manhand.





Recently, one of their songs, ÂýÐÐ, already made it into the top 10 chart on 988.

Hopefully, Manhand will be able to make it big in the local music scene. And I'm pretty confident their music can reach out to music fans in Hong Kong too, given the opportunity to do so.

NKOTB is back on the block?

Is it for real?

The biggest boy band back in the late 80s and early 90s is planning for a reunion. Their website, www.nkotb.com is up again after a long period of dormancy. However there are no confirmation whether there's going to be a tour or release of a new album.

"I wanted to address the rumors of the NKOTB Reunion Tour," Wood wrote on his MySpace blog Monday. "There has been no talk of this and you are getting it from the source directly...You can't believe everything you read."

Wood, who said that he was releasing a solo album in March, didn't completely close the door on the would-be reunion, however, writing on his blog, "Never say never!"

Well, their time is over when they called it quit back in 1994. But I don't mind to see what they are coming up with. It's great to reminisce the mega success of the boy band who once rule the world and music charts.

By the way, this is my favourite NKOTB's song. I know it's kinda dorky to listen to this song now but what the heck.

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Saddest song ever

If you are an up and coming singer and want to make an impact in the music industry, here is one tip for you. Make sure you have tearjerker songs in your album. Whether it's about being dumped, breakups, physical and substance abuse, frustration in life and feeling useless, etc, it all works.

I'm just wondering what are some of the saddest songs you ever heard that touches your heart. For me, the first song that came into mind is Simple Plan 'telling his dad he is not perfect but will try to make him proud'.

Sinead O' Conner's memorable music video of the song Nothing Compares 2 U is sad enough to make it one of the saddest song ever. And I definitely can't forget Eric Clapton expressing his grief in the song Tears In Heaven.

There are so many polls in the magazines and internet listing the top saddest songs like this one. However, I believe each one of us have our own sad songs, that we love to listen especially when we are down. So what are your favourite sad songs? (Warning: Self pity is contagious and it will eat you up. So cut down on the sad songs)

Oh, what the heck? Today is already Friday and this is supposed to be a happy day.

Reviving music from the 90s

*Beware! Long post ahead*

Okay, nothing is being done to my revive90s website and I don't think I have the time to update it anytime soon. So, in the meanwhile, I'll just show some of my favourite cassettes from the dusty collection in this blog instead.

I was a big, big fan of Wilson Phillips back in the 90s. Their songs were so infectious and everyone love their harmony singing. The girls (Chynna, Wendy and Carnie) were like the most popular all-girl band back then. They had 3 number 1 singles from this debut album: Hold On, Release Me and my favourite is You're In Love (this song accompany me when I was heartbroken).

As a teenager back in the 90s, New Kids On The Block (NKOTB) is definitely one of the biggest boy band everyone love. Although the album Hangin' Tough is the album that made them famous, I love Step By Step more than any of their albums.

Well, no era beat the love songs from 90s. From Tommy Page's Paintings In My Mind album to Jose Mari Chan and from Babyface's For The Cool In You to Hi-5, these are some of the albums with great love songs that I can't missed back then. And if you still remember groups like the Guys Next Door and All-4-One, you definitely remember their love songs that made all the girls go wild too.

By the way, I love soundtracks too. Some of the soundtracks that I have are Beverly Hills 90210, Boomerang, Pocahontas, The Bodyguard and Space Jam.

Last but not least, I'm a rock 'n' roll fan. I listened to groups like Guns 'n' Roses, Firehouse, Skid Row and Def Leppard.
And didn't I tell you I fancy MC Hammer and I used to be able to rap to most of his hit songs?

Vamos Rafa song

Just like Maria Sharapova, Roger Federer (Grand Slam Man), Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt, Rafael Nadal have his own song too. You can listen to some samples and purchase the songs at Tennis Tunes.

I've purchased Vamos Rafa's song for USD1.30. Anyone interested to listen to it, drop me an email. But, there's a simple request from me, drop me a comment "Vamos VMY2007" at this campaign post of mine. If you have already done that, I'll send you that mp3 file for free.

Vamos Rafa

Music by John Macom Lyrics by John Macom/Joseph Titone Performed by Binge © 2006 John Macom (BMI)/ Joseph Titone (BMI) Vamos Rafa, vamos Rafa El Toreador Vamos Rafa, vamos Rafa It's you they adore The girls go wild when you hit one down the line You play with such gusto, mucho gusto all the time Vamos Rafa, vamos Rafa You've got them on the run Vamos Rafa, vamos Rafa You should show them your guns You make King Juan Carlos happy when you win You've got a nasty drop shot and serious, serious topspin When you leave Mallorca And get to New Yorka You will find they adore you too And your fancy tennis shoes And your Uncle Tony too Vamos Rafa, vamos Rafa Can I borrow your shoes? Vamos Rafa, vamos Rafa With them I'll never lose Adios amigos see you next time on the courts In the meantime, por favor, could you do something about those shorts?

What is the best gift you ever had?

So, what is the best gift you ever received from your other half or partner?

Last night my partner surprised me by taking out the dusty and yet good condition keyboard and gave me a personal lesson! If you read my tagged post recently, one of my wish if I'm a millionaire is to get myself a private music teacher to teach me how to play the piano.

Well, I don't have to be a millionaire to achieve that now.

Being someone who never know how the piano works, I learned two simple songs in one night, 'Mary Had A Little Lamb' and 'Do Re Mi'. And guess what? I experimented 'Mary Had A Little Lamb' with the slow rock beat while 'Do Re Mi' with Mambo beat and they worked. How cool is that?

Now I need to practice hard because my fingers kinda kaku (stiff) already at my age.

Enrique Iglesias playing ping pong instead of tennis

Instead of playing tennis, Enrique Iglesias chose to play table tennis. The picture above shows Enrique's appearance on TRL playing ping pong against MTV VJ Damien.

His latest song, Do You Know (Ping Pong Song) is quite a catchy and infectious song. If you like his songs such as 'Escape' and 'Bailamos', you are definitely going to love this one. You can listen to this song which is at the sidebar of this blog.

If you listen carefully, a ping pong ball is really used as a percussion instrument in this song.

So far I have never missed a single album by Enrique. The album is already available in the local music stores. So going to check out the album soon.

Updates: Enrique Iglesias is still dating former tennis star, Anna Kournikova.

paolo nutini - the next big thing

I don't feel like blogging on weekend but I'm just so crazy about this song called Rewind sung by Paolo Nutini I want to share it with you guys. You can listen to the song which is on the side bar too. Paolo Nutini is a newcomer in the UK, gaining popularity in the Europe and now making his wave in the US.

Yes, this is another song about ex. But this is as good and as teary as James Blunt's You're Beautiful. This song is taken from his album, These Streets. I haven't heard about this song on the local radio yet but I'm sure Paolo Nutini is going to be the next big thing. Don't say I didn't warn you.




Updates: I just went to Victoria Music Station at Atria Shopping Complex and managed to get a copy of Paolo Nutini's album, These Street. So, his CD is available in Malaysia already.

reviving music from the 90s

I've just created a new blog site about music from the 90s called revive90s. It's just a simple blog about my favourite and least favourite songs and artistes from the 90s.

I'm not going to say anything in detail here but if you are a fan of music from the 90s, do drop by and support me. I'm going to hold a 'guess the song' contest every month and giving out some cash and prizes to encourage people to listen to the songs from the 90s. The first contest will take off within this week.

Avril Lavigne trying to punk some Mandarin

If you have been listening to the radio, you know Avril Lavigne the necktie-wearing skater girl recently came up with a single called "Girlfriend" with an extremely catchy chorus ("Hey hey you you/I don't like your girlfriend/No way no way/I think you need a new one/Hey hey you you/I could be your girlfriend"). Check out her video here:



Avril is also delivering "Girlfriend" in 7 different languages including Japanese and Mandarin. Apparently a huge portion of her fans are from Asia. Listen to Avril trying to punk up some Mandarin in the chorus which goes something like this ("wo hui bu hui shi ni de nu peng you"). It's hilarious but she did a fairly good job.