69 rocks

I finally got my hands on a copy of David Tao's latest album 六九樂章 [Opus 69]. It's been 3 years since his last album. David usually takes about this long to release albums, which is an awfully long time in mandopop world, considering most of his peers put out an album almost yearly.

This is actually quite different from his previous studio effort 太美麗 [Beautiful], which I didn't like much. I reckon 太美麗 is the poorest of all the albums that he has released to date.

Opus 69 is refreshingly wide ranging, and features genre-hybrid style from raggae to rock. A perfect example is track no. 7 關於陶喆 [Re: DT] which blends raggae, rap and rock all in one song! David plays tribute to Queen in that very same song (my favourite part!)

Although predominantly rock influenced, the album still retained some mellow elements, in particular tracks 5 暗戀 [Adoration) and 9 請繼續，任性 [Miss Sweetie]. Track 5 火鳥功 [Zero To Hero] is the first single from the album, and it showcases David's amazing falsetto. The guy has really impressive falsetto and vocal range. Remember when he sang "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" on the Soul Power CD? First time I heard his rendition, it blew me away

My current favourite track from the album is track 8 我太傻 [Summer Love Triangle], which has a really infectious upbeat melody. Why does he always sing about love triangle and loneliness?

Watch out for the hidden track right at the end of track 14 - absolutely hilarious!

More Mayday NFL news

News of Mayday being ambassador for NFL in China/Asia made front page news in the Washington Post and the press are dubbing the lads as "the Chinese Beatles". Wahey!! Way to go Mayday :) now they have full exposure in the American market

Stone turned out to be the most popular member with the band's cheerleading team, to the extent that they went up and told Stone "I like you very much", making him feel rather awkward and he had to tell them that he was already happily married

According to news report, they will be attending the Superbowl finals this February.. looks like they are really embracing the American football culture

1-2-3 Football!

Mayday and NFL

So this is what Mayday got up to during their 10 day trip in the States. Promotion for NFL. WTH. American footie?

NFL is keen to break into the Chinese market and what better way to do it then through Asia's most loved rock band? According to this news report in The Washington Post, "Stone, Monster, Ashin, Masa and Ming -- the members of a Taiwanese band called Mayday -- happened to spend 10 days riding a bus around the Northeast this month, meeting cheerleaders and marching bands and playing flag football for a TV show [NFL Blitz] that will run on China Central Television, or CCTV, this fall."

So how did Mayday end up being tied up with NFL? According to the news, NFL's director of international media came up with the idea of a reality TV show.

They insisted that the show not be a hard-core football program. It also needed a star -- "an ambassador," as Chang put it, "someone we could use as a hook to sell the game."
The choice was easy. Mayday. Most of the more popular bands in China would be defined as "boy bands," with a softer sound. Mayday's is a bit harder, more rock 'n' roll.

Omigosh this is really interesting! I can't wait to watch the program (if it ever gets aired here) wanna watch them speaking English and playing American football (those who wanna see Ashin play football may be disappointed to know that according to the news, Ashin sat out of most of the games.. hehe)

Monster and Stone swapped their guitars for a football

Back from the USA

After a 2 week hiatus in the States, Mayday are now back in Asia. yay!

They made an appearance in the mainland yesterday as special guest on the finals of a local television programme singing "放肆", "戀愛ING" and "離開月球表面"

Ashin votes!

DT in da house

I met David Tao last Thursday! :))

It was surreal. Not the first time I met him, having attended his previous concert, album & concert promotions. It's been such a long time since I saw saw him, I think the last time was his last album autograph session in KL.

David is such a sweetie, he talked to us like we were old friends :D We had a couple of questions to ask him and when I asked to take photo with him and an autograph, he gladly obliged :D

Sadly I didn't have my 69樂章 album with me then as it was sold out the last time I tried to buy it at the CD shop. I told David about it and he replied 'that's what I heard'. Oh umm so David knew about his album selling like hot cakes in KL? I'm sure he's happy to know that.

Ahh.. what a night to remember!

11/21 DNA 廣州 Guangzhou

A new Mainland date has been added to the D.N.A World Tour. Mayday will rock Guangzhou on 21 November 2009. Details are as follows:-

時間: 2009年11月21日晚上8點
地點：廣州體育館
票價：855元, 655元, 455元, 355元, 255元

Tickets can be purchased from here.

So far they've only announced tourdates uptill November.. there are news that the tentatively scheduled Macau boxing day gig may be brought forward to early December, which might just coincide with Ashin's birthday! ^^

Here are the tourdates for the D.N.A World Tour (as of September):

5/20-5/22 香港
5/28 Melbourne
5/29 Sydney
7/3-7/4 上海
7/11 北京
8/01 哈爾濱
8/21 杭州
8/28-8/29 新加坡
9/24-9/27 台北
10/6 南京
10/17 佛山體育館
10/31 重慶
11/3 東京
11/21 廣州

DT sold out

I had planned to pick up David Tao's latest album, Opus 69 [69樂章] when I was out in town on Sunday. To my surprise, the album was sold out at the usual CD store I frequent!! Yen Lee had bought it at the same store just the day before.. *sigh*

Looks like I will have to hunt for that CD in Taipei instead.

And since we're on the subject of DT, he will be arriving in KL on Thursday 10 September. There's gonna be a press conference that afternoon at Boston Sunway Mentari (have no idea where that is), followed by a radio interview the next day. The T Music Festival is on Saturday.

Leehom Ashin duet

Taking a trip down memory lane to 12 March 2006, Taipei.

The video below was taken on my ancient Canon IXUS 4 megapixel camera, hence the grainy quality. I was down in the front row that night, and it was my first concert at Taipei Arena. It was also the FIRST and ONLY time I had seen Ashin and Leehom onstage together. 

D.N.A Taipei countdown: 18 days!

It's been over a week after D.N.A Singapore and all is quiet in the Mayday camp. The lads are currently in the US, travelling from New York, Boston to Virginia. Special thanks to Elly for delivering my letter to Ashin on their Mansfield stop hehe :P In case you're wondering too, what are they doing there?!

Next stop on the D.N.A tour list is their homeground, Taipei [24 - 27 September] Counting down 18 days! I finally got my Taipei concert tickets through Net in Singapore last week. Yay! I'm almost all set to go :))

my tix for all 4 DNA Taipei

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