A: Yeah! Bizarre, right?

Jazzy tunes were second nature, but I always had this little gremlin inside of me who loved to listen to all the devilish bad boy bands like Limp Bizkit, No Doubt, Sublime and even System Of A Down. I grew up listening to my father perform classic old Latin and Jazz tunes, like from the Real Book, therefore these styles were what I knew. I felt comfortable and confident singing them, they’re way more easy going on the vocal chords. Then came my high school days in a Sydney performing arts boarding school, The McDonald College. My world opened up to Jeff Buckley, RHCP, and Nirvana. I felt so connected to those sounds and their song lyrics but I was in serious denial because I was known as the soulful jazzy ballad singer, who was clearly slanted towards the hip-hop scene, so I kept quiet about it until one day an angel by the name of Liz Oprandi came along and asked me to sing a song with her husband Leo Sinatra. She’d written this song called “Hope” for Leo’s band Suicidal Sinatra. Thanks to those cool cats I began my rockabilly/punk rock romance. Oh, just so you know, the first rockabilly band I was obsessed with was The Hillbilly Moon Explosion.

Read more: http://www.rudolfdethu.com/2013/05/23/homegrown-well-known-brianna-simorangkir/

Cc. Lauren Shipman Ary Astina Liz Adela Leo Sinatra

Cc. Dewa Palguna, Lauren Shipman

Cc. Dewa Palguna, Lauren Shipman

“Frekuensi Perangkap Tikus” (Mousetrap Frequency) is not exactly a new album but this compilation, released on December 9th, 2012, is one of those masterpieces that needs to be acknowledged, respected, celebrated and shouldn’t ever, under any circumstances, be relegated to the list of albums currently being consumed by the bowels of your iTunes never-playlist. Each song is equal in infectious excellence, each featured artists is as intellectually badass as the next, and the theme behind the compilation is, and has always been, an uber sexy topic, the ultimate headline in Indonesia: fighting corruption.

First initiated by one of the very few die-hard, uncompromising, anti-graft groups, Indonesia Corruption Watch, the entire record—this is the best part—is available as a free download at beranijujur.net. The reason? To get you actively supporting the cause. So to get yourself this epic album, you’re going to have to get yourself on the activism bandwagon and commit to at least one good cause before collecting the free songs (click the “agree” button to support the anti-corruption movement, and so forth). In fact, while you’re at it go be a good little human and tell your daddy, your mumma, your little sisters and brothers to get clicking too.

Go ahead, put your hand where your mouse is and take a step toward creating a corruption-free Indonesia, complete with good-corporate-governance by downloading “Mafia Hukum” (Navicula), “Kings and Barbarians” (Sajama Cut), “Kami Bosan Jadi Negara Dunia Ketiga” (Morfem), “Mimpi Basah Pembangkang Sipil” (Eyefeel Six feat. Morgue Vanguard) and all those other playlist-worthy Frekuensi Perangkap Tikus tracks today. We dare you.

→ Indonesian version: http://www.rudolfdethu.com/2013/02/18/frekuensi-perangkap-tikus/

Cc. Lauren Shipman

A: It was 2004 and a friend of mine came back from Australia for school holidays and gave me a Living End album on cd. I was so was amazed by them, I went over to Opix’s house (Suicidal Sinatra’s vocalist). We went for a drive, I cranked up the music and he was so unimpressed that he turned off his cd player. I laughing so much, but I didn’t give up and honestly it didn’t take long for him to come round. We started studying The Living End rigorously and that really influenced our next album, Valentine Ungu. Surprisingly the album, despite how different it was to our metal stuff, was really well received by both friends and fans and well, gigs kept rolling on in after that. We started playing gigs, gigs, and more gigs and by then we all felt that rockabilly feeling burning our hearts. By the time we released our second album, Love Songs and Stinkin’ Cheese, we had changed our name to Suicidal Sinatra.

The album was produced by Electrohell Records, which is owned by Bobby Kool of Superman Is Dead. They’d shown a lot of interest in the band over the years and post that we went on to meet heaps of new and interesting music-industry people. It was amazing, I felt like I’d found my way, musically speaking.

And since, having tapped into psychobilly music, things’ve kept getting increasingly better, bigger, and more interesting. During that Living End inspired era I discovered Tiger Army and were totally and unbelievably hooked. All my bandmates were just as hooked as me. So all of us jumped in together; like we were drowning in a Tiger Army frenzy! That band changed our vision. We became darker, angrier, and became increasingly conscious of sociopolitical issues. The shift we made in the psychobilly-infused Boogie Woogie Psychobilly album is a testament to that. It’s darker, heavier, faster, but it also makes you want to dance like a drunken devil. Man, my wildest dream would be to share a stage with Tiger Army—it’d be totally insane. I’m going to keep being optimistic about that, it’ll happen. You know, not so long ago I shared a stage with Travis Demsey, the former drummer of The Living End. Best feeling ever!

Read more: http://www.rudolfdethu.com/2013/02/15/homegrown-well-known-leo-sinatra/

Cc. Leo Sinatra, Liz Adela, Lauren Shipman

A: I keep shouting, screaming, and writing complaints but, even though I’m doing this, the government hasn’t accommodated the protests. To me this means that they are clueless. In truth, the government has no adaptive policies for environmental troubleshooting.

More often than not, our protests have been regarded as destructive moves rather than constructive solutions and, as our protests are not considered serious, they have been responded to with unproductive statements, responses which can only be described as a significant disrespect upon our right to express our perspectives—rights which are supposedly guaranteed by Indonesian law.

In a few of these cases, such statements from the government have forced us, Walhi, to sue the Governor through the Denpasar Civil Service Arbitration Tribunal. In once such case, permission was given to PT Tirta Rahmat Bahari to manage the mangrove park of Ngurah Rai. There have also been many cases where the governor has let developments go ahead even though they are in complete breech of environmental law.

But the same thing has happened with the parliament, especially Commission III, which focuses on environment. It’s a complete joke. There are times when they act as if they appreciate our activities, and support us by, say, releasing harsh statements to environmental criminals, but then they retract. All of a sudden they just change; they’ll swing from angry to a bit calmer, from calm to taking sides, and then wham, they make us their enemy!

It was a bit of a sad joke when the Secretary of Commission III asked us to send a letter of admonition to the Badung Regent regarding the development of Hotel Mulia in Nusa Dua. Oh, and also when the general public requested to know how come Commission III weren’t progressing with the mangrove park problem, they said that they are waiting for Walhi to send a formal letter to the court. Isn’t it a little weird how legislative action is dependent on us initiating a move?! I mean, isn’t it their job?

Read more: http://www.rudolfdethu.com/2013/02/01/homegrown-well-known-i-wayan-gendo-suardana/

Cc. Gendo Suardana Steve Palmer Sarah Forbes Ary Astina Arian Arifin Robi Navicula Alfred Pasifico Ginting Tandun Tony Ade Putri Paramadita Lauren Shipman

Dan gusar saja tidak cukup. Dan tiada gunanya saling menyalahkan. Tindakan nyata harus segera diambil, aksi mesti direalisasi: mendirikan institusi radio sendiri. Begitu keputusan bulat kawan-kawan sepemikiran. Identitas pun ditentukan: Radio Rebel Indonesia—yang kemudian berevolusi menjadi Rebel Radio Indonesia).

Baca selengkapnya: http://www.rudolfdethu.com/2013/01/25/rebel-radio-indonesia-persetan-dogma-usang/

Cc. Marlowe Bandem Ayip Bali Ridwan Rudianto RudeBoy Dodix Wayan Wiraprastha Ary Astina

Read more: http://www.rudolfdethu.com/2013/01/08/domestic-groove-sammy-bramantyo/

Cc. Sammy Bramantyo