New Thai music to listen to
I make a habit of buying as much Thai music as I can. The low cost of CDs means that I can buy a few every week and not really notice the expenditure. There’s also a weird satisfaction in confusing store cashiers, who seem to find it hilarious that a foreigner could even comprehend buying Thai music.
Lately, I’ve been buying albums based on cover artwork. It’s kind of like a musical lottery – sometimes I end up with indie music, sometimes ska, sometimes country music. Here are my tips for decent Thai music that I’ve been listening to recently.
I don’t know much about the Richman Toy, but they’re a four-piece who look like the sort of kids you see at Happy Alone parties in Bangkok. The music of the Richman Toy is really exciting, although it sounds like a Thai carbon copy of everything that’s vogue in the current indie scene. The vocalist sounds almost off-key, although I’m told that Thai scales differ to Western scales, so he may be on the ball. If you can find anything by the Richman Toy then I recommend you buy it. The album I have is called Dan Sawan Koi You.
I bought T-Bone’s album Seasons because I liked the cover. The music turned out to be really good, too. It’s kind of ska, jazz, blues, rock and everything in between. T-Bone have been around for more than 10 years, so I was a little embarrassed to have never heard of them, but am glad to have finally picked up an album that breaks the mold in the current music scene.
My final tip for Thai music is Four Mod. No, it’s not really. It’s Bear-Garden. Bear-Garden is June Subnai, a female vocalist signed to Panda Records. She’s released four albums and is currently releasing her fifth one track at a time for free music download through the Panda Records website. Bear-Garden makes the most beautiful pop music I’ve heard for a long time. You’ll either love it or you’ll hate it.
I’ll leave you with the video for "No Regrets" from the new Silly Fools album, The One. This video was made by Andre Weiss, who I met a few times in Bangkok and had no idea he did this kind of thing. Enjoy.
I heard Bear-Garden a few songs, it's cute! and Silly Fools is good too. i just want to tell you T-bone is a legend!!! :)
Yawn yawn, dated ( that means already done 5 years earlier, think Evanescence, or 10 years earlier think Foo Fighters) and fully predictable from the silent lapse to the crescendos, but I am describing today's music… And the lyrics,God, is that part of the soundtrack for "Smallville" or "I will ever know what you did last summer?"
I'd also recommend a Thai band called 'Goose'
Bear-Garden, T-Bone and the Richman Toy are nothing like Evanescence.
does someone have the new song that you can here everywhere in bangkok but nobody can tell me the name of that song!!
dou dou dou, dou ther tam… tam mai…