Update: Saturday, 18 July – Morning

Sorry for the long silence. Mat Norr is now out of hospital already. He was discharged from the IJN about four days ago and now recuperating at an apartment in Seputeh. He will be staying at my house from Sunday onwards. The surgery went fine, there’s no complications but Mat Norr has to take it easy for at least two months. He was at the hospital yesterday to check upon his blood (as he may need to take blood-thinning pills if its still too thick, a condition he was facing before surgery).

BTW; WE STILL NEED DONATIONS TO PAY FOR THE FIRST HOSPITAL FEES AND ALSO HIS FUTURE MEDICATIONS. THE BANK ACCOUNT IS STILL THE SAME (check below).

Update: Wednesday, 8th July – Night

Just got a message from Ann who visited Mat Norr just now with Alak & Hakim:

“He’s feeling awful but looking OK – even with all the tubes! Can’t speak much, is drowsy… breathing is difficult… chest hurts… but that’s to be expected. his heartbeat is about 90 and looking rhythmic (stable). (edited personal stuff here)… I think its not a good time (for visits) anyway. The surgeon will see him tomorrow and decide if he’s OK to go back upstairs (Mawar Ward)”

Alak called later and said Mat Norr “tak senyum langsung” (didn’t smile at all) and “he looked miserable”. Well, I just think it’s the pain, the drugs and all. He’ll be better tomorrow.

BTW: Alak hasn’t checked his Maybank account today, so I can’t tell you how much we’ve collected since the emergency on Monday but I’ve had calls and messages from people who’ve banked in some money; including from the UK.

I’m also too busy to go check upon our friend but will be there tomorrow.

cheers,

Joe

Update: Tuesday, 7th July – Night

Norr went through a six-hour operation today. It started around 12.30 noon. Ann who was there (with one of Norr’s 3 brothers) when the surgery’s done told I-Lann that the doctors were happy with it.

They managed to fix the leaking, weak valve instead of having to replace it (which involves having foreign bodies squatting in your heart and that’s tricky). The doctors also checked his other valve and found that it’s fine. So only one valve needed repair, whew!

Currently Norr is highly sedated and put under vigilant watch at the ICU. He’ll be there for 48 hours after surgery. Apparently his blood pressure was rather low, so they need to fix that.

Visitors are allowed to see him but only one at each time. That said, it’s suggested that friends should wait till he’s out of danger.

I’m gonna go and see him in the morning. Will report of any changes.

cheers,

Joe

Update: Tuesday, 7th July

It’s 12.10PM on Tuesday, Mat Norr is probably being operated on at this very moment. And we are all hoping for the best!

Yesterday we managed to raise RM3K to pay for a part of the whole estimated cost of the surgery, which is RM30,000. With the help of the welfare department, the rest of the cost will be subsidised by the government.

Thanks to all of you who banked in some money, we need all your help! So even a RM1 donation is very much appreciated! WE ARE STILL LOOKING FOR MORE MONEY! This is because some of us paid for the Gleneagles “cekik darah” fee (RM5,000 +) and we need to pay them back, at least half of the amount paid.

The bank-in details is down there, if you need to send money from overseas, please use Western Union outlets near you. Email us for our recipient details.

We’ll go and see Mat Norr at about 6PM today.

Update: Saturday, 4th July

Mat Norr’s now back to his usual self. The doctors are happy with his progress, and ready to discharge him in the next few days. He still need to go through his corrective heart surgery later in the month (hopefully). Once discharged, he’ll stay at my house and we’ll take care of him until the day comes for him to go back to IJN for the surgery.

BTW: thanks to those who helped and the kind people at IJN, Mat Norr is now entitled for financial assistance from the government (”Bantuan Kebajikan”) which means that he’ll will only pay as much he able to, instead of being burdened by the whole cost of treatment and surgery. It can be a LOT still but we can only know once he’s gone through the surgery…

That said, we’ve set up a bank account for DONATIONS as we still need to pay whatever amount it is needed, including the RM5000 plus already paid by friends for Gleneagles Hospital fee. The burden is now lessened BUT there are amounts to be settled, so if you can help; please bank in to this account. (any amount will do):

DONATIONS

MAYBANK ACCOUNT NO. 1627-6801-5177
the account of: WAN ALAUDIN

for overseas donors, please email us: thericecookershop [at] gmail [dot] com

* PLEASE SMS (013-229-8211) or EMAIL US (thericecookershop [at] gmail [dot] com) ONCE YOU BANK-IN THE MONEY, WE’LL HAVE A LIST OF DONORS AT A SPECIAL PAGE SOON. If you want to donate anonymously, please tell me so.

Thanks so much for all the help!!

Joe

Update: Thursday, 2nd July

Mat Norr is much better now. He’s been transferred out of the High Dependency Unit at the IJN (where he was sent to yesterday from Gleaneagles). We are still trying to get him financial assistance as a governement-sponsored patient but we have been given the run-around by the usual bureaucracy and greed bullshit. We are not giving up the fight though. Mat Norr still needs his open heart surgery and we are going to get it for him

those who wanna visit him: Ward Mawar, 2nd Floor, IJN (old building), Jalan Tun Razak, KL – Visiting hours 4pm to 8pm.

original post:

Dear friends, for those who have been to the shop and found it shut, and also to those who have been calling me up but I didn’t answer; I apologise. Our friend Mat Norr, who have been taking care of the shop for the last 6 months, have been hospitalised in Ampang because of his heart – he has been diagnosed as having Rheumatic Heart Disease. Me, I-lann, Alak and Annie have been busy helping him out since Monday, the day he was hospitalised.

We have got his brothers to come in today and tomorrow, and we are hoping we would be able to transfer him to IJN as soon as possible. A lot of friends have been helping out with contacts and “cables”, we are most grateful.

We will be setting up a special bank account for donations today, as we may need all of you reading to help with whatever amount you can.

I will keep you people informed. But don’t worry too much, Mat is awake, talking, eating etc. I will also charge my phone proper, it has been dying on me all the time. Call me up for details.

Thanks,

Joe

if you’re on Facebook, please join FACEBOOK GROUP: Friends of Mat Norr Group

I know it’s crazy for us to NOT announce the new space opening party here, and we have lots of lame excuses to offer. Nothing would hold up to close scrutiny though, so we would like to offer our apologies to those who didn’t know about it. We’re sorry!

Anyway, we had a good party last Saturday night, with a lot of good people turning up and bands playing at the tiny backroom of the space. Excellent nasi minyak and lauk-pauk courtesy of Shammir & Atia, good live music from the recently revitalised KUCHALANA, the increasingly awesome punky reggae party of THE GARRISON, one of the best “indie-rock” bands around ORANGE FREE STATE, a new pop band we discovered PHLOX and of course, our eternal, much loved “crony” PUSHER!

Thanks to all who took time out and joined us, especially Rina & Fahd (who’s recovering nicely from his recent accident), Pijan (who again the drunken host of the live session!), Eugene (of Pertama Studio, who lent us the PA for FREE!!), the Arteri gang who was having another party at the Rogue Art Gallery a few doors away but came to ours anyway, friends we haven’t seen for a long time (Wolf Spunky, Azim – who’s now back from Perth, Farez, Vinh – who manned the PA, etc.), other beautiful people: the FNBKL gang, the Kritikal Mass kids and their bikes, Avrocore – who belted a few improv tunes, Paul Lau – the man, Rogue Art beauties – Bev, Ade & Rachel, Kean Wong – on transit from Berlin to Canberra, Lee Kwang, Dean & Yin – who came with the nice German trio), our neighbour Akhno (merci!), and many many more…

The shop will start operation tomorrow (Tuesday, 23rd). We have a lot of fresh books, brand new and second hand, and CDs of PHLOX & ORANGE FREE STATE. We also have a lot of DIY totebags from FLOWERDRUM – mostly made from vintage fabric! More coming in through out the week, expect a number of MAGNICIDE’s new CDs too! See you there!

Much love & respect!

Joe & Mat Norr

Dear friends of The Ricecooker Shop, you may have heard that we will be moving out of the Central Market Annexe building. This is true but we are NOT closing down! We have a temporary space somewhere near the Jalan Nagasari, Changkat Bukit Bintang area which we will announce soon.

The shop will take two weeks off from Monday, so we can re-group and re-organise everything back to order. Once things are ready at the new space, we will open for business again with a launch party (hopefully with a nice vegan-burger, Bar-B-Q & keropok lekor fest!).

Anyway, this weekend is going to be our last few days at the Annexe and on Sunday at 7 PM we are having a farewell party, do come! Bring food and drinks!

BTW: we are now on Twitter and Facebook, do add us in!

much love,

Joe & Mat Norr

Something to ease up your Monday blues…

A bit late to wish you all a good holiday since MayDay is now relegated to yesterday, but hey, a happy holiday anyway! Two things I need to share with you:

1. MayDay used to be a day of protest for workers all around the world. A day when they put their work tools down and go on a march, a strike, grinding the “system” to a halt, at least for one day, a day of action, where grievances highlighted, injustices challenged and workers rights and pride celebrated.

But what we see nowadays is a MayDay hijacked, de-fanged and neutralised. It’s now a holiday. where the workers pacified, enjoying a day off at the malls, buying up what they don’t really need or get stupefied with the latest Hollywood blockbusters and fattened popcorns.

I don’t expect that info will change anything for any of us, but the next time MayDay comes, I hope you’ll feel be as miserable as I did.

2. Now, here’s a song I’ve enjoyed for most parts of this decade, a rare punk rock ditty which rings so true, day in and day out, as we negotiate the bends trying keep our heads above the noxious fumes and dirt.

THE WAY IT IS
written & sung by Jim Cherry with Zero Down

My father told me “Son, it’s OK to have ideals,
but beliefs against your government well that won’t pay your bills.
You can raise your fists and publicly resist
but in the end corruption still exists

And no protest song will ever change the world
When everybody does exactly as they’re told
In the end every man works for what is his
You can fight the world, but that’s just how it is”

Your words are not meaningless to me,
And I feel their honesty but it’s my life I gotta figure out for me
It’s what I’ve always done not what I have become
and I know the consequences that’ll come

And if I never reach the world or speak to people’s souls
it’s a passion that won’t die as I grow old.
It’s what I choose to do
it may not work for you but to myself I know I must be true

“And no protest song will ever change the world
When everybody does exactly as they’re told
In the end every man works for what is his
You can fight the world, but that’s just how it is”

And I am not ashamed to stand right where I’ve stood.
My beliefs they are unchanged because I believe they should.
And I’ll measure my success one word at a time.
If the truth is spoken will I stand the test of time.

note: I wish Jim Cherry is still around to serenade us his wisdom, but the good die young as always. If you’re so inclined, do hunt down ZERO DOWN’s one and only album, With a Lifetime to Pay (2001, Fat Wreck).

Jim Cherry | Zero Down

An old friend currently living overseas called up two days ago and he was running through a list of big name rock bands visiting his part of town. “This big festival is crap though,” he said. “Can you imagine Neil Young headlining?,” he scoffed.

“What? Neil Young! Damn! Is he bringing his big-assed, 4 x 2 feet distortion pedal from the 70s? Is it gonna be with The Crazy Horse,” I asked excitedly. My friend didn’t understand my enthusiastic response. How could Joe be into Neil Young, the man was already a relic when punk rock happened? Well, maybe he didn’t know this snippet:

“The king is gone but he’s not forgotten
This is the story of a Johnny Rotten
It’s better to burn out than it is to rust
The king is gone but he’s not forgotten…”

That verse got me into Neil Young. It was the first song from the live album Rust Never Sleeps (1979). I believe the song My My, Hey Hey (Into The Blue) is about the immortal spirit of rock’n'roll, that it would never ever die and that it would continue giving life to the ones who understand it; despite the facts that Elvis died and The Sex Pistols split-up in the late 70s.

Young’s acknowledgement of punk rock made my heart jump, just like when Bob Marley mentioned The Clash, The Damned, The Jam and even Dr Feelgood on his Punky Reggae Party (1977). From there I hunted down Young’s releases and learned to appreciate his massive output right to the days when he was with CSN&Y.

Today, Big-O’s latest weekly newsletter reminded me why I love the guy in the first place. Check out this simple DIY video, which I suspect shot with the embedded videocam on his MacBook, taken right on the lawns of his house I believe. And do check out the lyrics following it.

Lyrics below:

read the rest of this entry

We have just got tonnes of new vinyls and more at the shop, do checkidout!

ENFORCER
Into the Night LP

Flash back to 1982 when vocal range and musical prowess were king; Iron Maiden ruled the world, the New Wave of British Heavy Metal is in its full swing and bands such as Mercyful Fate and Exciter began to bring heavy metal to places that it had never explored. This is the world of ENFORCER, a world where heavy metal is the law!!!

Includes a full color jacket, full color heavy-stock inner sleeve and a large full color A2 poster!

RM95

EXMORTUS
In Hatred’s Flame LP

Exmortus, armed with influences ranging from Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Yngwie Malmsteen to Slayer, Marduk and Deicide, quickly evolved to become California’s foremost masters of guitar-oriented metal, the likes of which have not been seen for many years. Exmortus is an entity unto itself and its music, both complex and thoroughly hook-laden, it refuses to lend itself to easy categorization.

From their technical death-thrash riffage and surgically precise drumming to their neo-classical, twin virtuoso lead guitar attack, their appeal is vast. Fans of death, thrash, prog, NWOBHM and all true metal sub-genres alike would enjoy having their craniums crushed by the fury of Exmortus.

This is a limited edition black vinyl, comes with a full color voucher card for a free digital download of the entire album.

RM95

read the rest of this entry

Latest Imported CDs and Cassettes @ The Ricecooker Shop.

note: all are brand new, unopened, unplayed. VERY LIMITED COPIES!

read the rest of this entry

I wanna share with you that one excellent (not to mention very industrious) individual by the name of Shinobu Goto was at The Ricecooker Shop a few days ago. Shinobu-san briefly appeared with that heavy, heavy progressive-hardcore monster ZENI GEVA (with KK NULL) and also HANATARASH (with EYE YAMATAKA of THE BOREDOMS)!

You don’t know ZENI GEVA? Well, do check this site: myspace.com/zenigeva. I love ZENI GEVA! Fukking ‘ell, there’s nothing like them and Steve Albini recorded 7 of their 12 albums, two were released in the US by Alternative Tentacles.

Shinobu-san is also good friends and collaborated with a lot of the big names in the Japanese post-everything noise/avant-rock scene. “When I was younger, I used to play “hardcore punk”… My old band also played with GAUZE around 20 years ago.. I saw THE STALIN when i was really young.. KK NULL i heard has got himself into the club scene… … Do you know Tatsuya Yoshida was with Null in YBO²?… Caspar is very good, but his father casts too long a shadow..” – those were snippets of our conversation a few night ago when he came over the shop.

Shinobu-san is now 40-years old and still designing, playing and recording, with both solo (SCIENCE NONFICTION) and band projects (SHINOBU GOTO’S BIKE and BIG ORANGE, which is an ongoing psychedelic rock band since the 80s, also dubbed as legendary in the Hiroshima underground scene).

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The Ricecooker Shop and friends will soon put out a fanzine of our own and it’s going to be called (imaginatively) as “The Ricecooker”. At this point, we’ve had a few meetings and delegating work for the volunteers. Our aim to highlight the Southeast Asian region, so the content will hopefully reflects that. Those who want to come in and help out with ideas, artworks, writings etc, do contact us.

Meanwhile, we are looking for funds to finance the whole thing and make it a sustainable project. One of the main ways is to look for those who are interested to buy advert-space in the fanzine. Now, lets go over to co-ordinator Encik Shammir for details:

The Ricecooker will be a Southeast Asia-wide collective-run pro-printed fanzine featuring tonnes of columns, audio and zine reviews, interviews, scene reports, artwork and special sections such as A Blast from the Past, a section dedicated to the historical part of the region’s scene.

on behalf of the ricecooker zine
Shammir
zine coordinator

I’m currently on an East LA punk rock binge. And that video above is one of the best thing I found while trawling the net looking for bands which I recalled from my days in the early 80s listening to Los Illegals & The Plugz (which was NOT from East LA but Hollywood) – both early examples of American punk rock coming in from the Chicano / Mexican-American side of things.

That band above is now reformed and gigging again, with a double-CD full anthology coming out soon. They are THE BRAT and they are bloody awesome!

Check their myspace: here

More on East LA punk rock: here

note: i’ve been very busy trying to keep the books in order at the shop for the last 6 weeks, and the work load continues, so bear with me if these pages have been very stale! It’d be back to its usual updates as soon as i wrestled the accounts. Selamat tak berpuasa to all who are smoking in the backroom!

We got a lot of new shit to list out but here are the ones which have just got into the door in the last few days. We’ll keep updating it as it goes.

IRON CAGE
Nature Isn’t Mute, Modern Man Is Deaf | CD

Dutch HC delivered thrashing, dissonant with chaotic, crunching power. This one rips a new one for the European scene. Their previous release was recently hailed in Short, Fast & Loud as a “masterpiece”. I’m gonna spend a lot of time with this. A very good release by Pissed Off Records, Melaka!!

RM12

MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL
#304 September 2008 | Fanzine

- features interviews with John Stabb of Government Issue, The Press, Simply Saucer, XYX, Measure [sa], Cola Freaks, Kulturekampf, and Andy T. It also features an interview with artist Raymond Pettibon (who did the Black Flag graphics back in the day).

Price: RM18

DEADHEAD
#4 | Fanzine

Very thick (96-pages/A4) Malaysian metal zine, features interviews with Impetigo, Headhunter DC, Rabbath Ammon, Levifer, Transgressor, Metal Savage, Nocturnal Vomit & Inside. Special interview with Azmi, the mainman of Black Fire, which goes back to stories about the band beginning from 1982!

RM15

TERLARANG
Manusia Sistem Keparat | CD-R

Six tracks from Kuala Kangsar, Perak. Pissed-off noisy mix of grind, blastcore and all that is annoying to those who like it preen and proper. Imagine early Disorder meets grind speed and blast beats with an equally hateful vocals.

RM5

BENCHMARX
Greatest Hits | CD

A clean and proper hard-rock version of Ben’s Bitches maybe? Rather humorous take on all things “Malaysian” written from the view points of a cynical expat maybe? Musically fitting for some top pub rocking round town. 12 songs of crisp production and a singer that sounds like he could be in Deep Purple Mark XIV. Those who like Zubira should take note.

RM15

RANJAU DI JALANAN
#01 Ogos 2008 | Fanzine – A5 – 60 pages

A new collectively-written zine in Bahasa based in Kulai, Johor. Features interviews with Mohd Jen, Nizang & Din Akar. Tonnes of articles & poems.

RM2

RAZORCAKE
#45 | Fanzine

Another very good issue of Razorcake featuring a memorial on Rich Kids on LSD (RKL), pointers on how to start an infoshop and more of the usual columns, reviews and stuff. Personally, this is issue is a MUST HAVE due to the long overdue interview with my personal hero Frankie Stubbs (Leatherface).

RM20 | Very Limited!

CUTSICK
Cutsick | CD=R

The Malaysian release of Cutsick’s blistering 7-tracker. The band was here recently but I missed the show and I’m regretting it badly. Those who are harking for the old Australian HC sound from the mid-80s should grab this pronto!

RM10

PHOBIA
Grind Your Fucking Head | Cassette

17-tracks of uber-grindcore, the tape version of the Deep Six release. “This is pure violence with a beat. It is unadulterated vehemence spewed through a Marshall stack. It is chaos captured in the studio. Rarely have PHOBIA sounded so over-the-top* and that, my friend, is saying something. Each of the 17 tracks on this puppy are threats to the seismic stability of the Earth’s crust,” said Jeb Branin for In Music We Trust

MORGENMUFFEL
#15 Oct 2006 | Fanzine – A5 – 28 pages

A comic-zine from Brighton, UK featuring pages upon pages of cleanly-drawn tales on travelling, meeting people, hanging out and more. Very cool, breezy read. A Ricecooker Shop reproduction via Mat Nor of Scenery is Free zine.

RM2

SCENERY IS FREE
#2 | Fanzine – A5 54 pages

Our good friend Mat Nor’s tales of travelling and living life as a freewheeling Malaysian kid jumping borders and seeing the world on his very own terms. The second re-printing by Ricecooker Shop. Very popular!

RM4

TORTURE INCIDENT / AGATHOCLES
Split-CD | CD

26-tracks, value for money! Belgian mincecore mainstays Agathocles meeting with Kuala Lumpur’s very own Torture Incident, fellow mince-meat grinders. Bllleuuurrgghhhh!

RM13

AMARAH
Scream of Silence | CD

Self-described as “melodic metalcore”. Debut CDEP featuring 7 songs released by OneSevenTwo Records. Apparently inspired by Caliban, Heaven Shall Burn, Asidia & Dead To Fall.

RM17

KIAS FANSURI
Dua Tahun Pertama | CD – Digipack

A 10-track collection of early stuff, previously hard-to-get recordings. Emo-violence feat members of Utarid, Kids On The Move, Before She Die, Endthrowphy. This one has been out for a while but finally we got it in stock!

RM12

Folks! We have quite a number of Maximum Rock’n'Roll back issues in the shop. Do come and check ‘em out:

MRR #290 – July 2007, #291 – August 2007, #293 – October 2007, #295 – December 2007, #296 – January 2008.

all going for RM15 each.

OTHER ZINES:

Profane Existence – #57 + comp CD (RM25)
Short, Fast & Loud – #18 (RM15)
Give Me Back – #summer 07 (RM10)

Some Vinyls:

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Goyang Gosip by Inul Daratista

First Inul was supposed to goyang in Johor. Nope! Cannot one! Banned! Then they shifted the venue to Stadium Bukit Jalil, Nope! Cannot one! Banned again!

The Kuala Lumpur city council (DBKL) said that they are stopping the show because it is a “threat to national security”! Hahahahahaha!

Man, I’m crying my eyes out for the disappointment felt by thousands of Inul’s hardcore fans in UMNO. They must be secretly cursing their luck! Anyway, do check the video up there, hear Inul sings about the finer points of her “goyang”! You should sing-a-long also lah.

On a more serious note:

“As Ms. Daratista sees it, her message aims to inspire listeners, particularly young women, to be true to themselves. “If you live according to the rules of other people you won’t accomplish a thing,” she says.” – read more Hips Don’t Lie – A pop singer and a potentially violent culture war in the world’s biggest Muslim state.

Some people have been asking me about a couple upcoming gigs flyers and announcements which are missing from Ricecooker postings.

One is the Thrash Fest, which was put up here by Kid and now being deleted after some hot and interesting comments were posted. I just wanna tell you guys that I didn’t delete it!

The second one is the Eight! Eight! Eight! show, which is a benefit for the DIY Femme Fest 2008. That one has never been put up here as the organisers asked for Ricecooker to wait until they are ready.

To those who want to know more about both shows and why the Thrash Fest posting was deleted, please contact Kid (Kah-Roe-Shi/Mass Separation), and quit bothering me!

cheers,

Joe

BTW; there are three only people with access to post and delete items on these pages; me, Kid & Nizang Nervhous.