The Philanthropical Sony Music Malaysia People

"We talked about music; he was into punk
Told me all the bands that I liked were junk"

Caught in the Crowd (2009) by Kate Miller-Heidke

This post will teach you how to easily get your paws on two free music albums of your choice from Sony Music.
Update: The throat of the giveaway has been cut. If you haven't already submitted your entry, it's already too late.

It recently came to my attention just how ridiculously disconnected I am from the current music scene when I was hanging out with some of my med school colleagues who were discussing the Pitbull concert they attended - and I was like, "You guys were at a concert? Performed by a dog? Freaking A!"

"I gave a concert? Where?!"

My taste in music is a bit of a curiosity to most people because the vast majority of my playlist is populated by obscure indie artistes, 90's pop punk bands, soundtracks of games and movies, the occasional Brit charter, Russian pop, French R&B and tracks from an eclectic collection of not-very-mainstream genres like folk, anti-folk, electronica, close harmony, Christian ska, Simlish, jazz revivalism and silly theme songs from kid's TV shows, just to name a few. Ages have passed and empires have fallen since I've last turned on the FM radio and tuned into a Malaysian radio station.

The closest brush I got to popular music in recent times was the TV musical Glee (which I've only watched till the Sectionals episode). It enabled me to get in on a "Who is your favourite Glee character and why?" contest hosted on Jen's blog not to long ago where she was giving away 5 Glee plastic folders to the 5 best entries, courtesy of Sony Music Malaysia. I was one of the winners and I gave my prize to the girlfriend, who is a far bigger Gleek than I am. The word "gleek" is also a slang verb meaning: "to build up saliva in the salivary glands using some stimulus, like sour food or yawning, and then pressing the tongue upon the glands, causing the saliva to shoot out, usually at an impressive distance."

You learn new things everyday, eh?

Please excuse the abysmal quality of this picture. My long distance girlfriend has a shitty camera.

Yesterday, while I was enjoying my post-dinner nap, Jen rang me and woke me up with news of yet more free loot haemorrhaging from Sony Music Malaysia's office at Solaris Dutamas - near the Pink Sage Diner where Phoebs and I double-dated Jen and David three weeks ago. There's a reason why I call Jen the Patron Saint of Bargains and Freebies, you know. This time, they are dishing out not one but TWO music albums to ANY and EVERY blogger who would extend his or her fingers over the keyboard and do a writeup mentioning their Facebook page!

Too easy! My opinion is that the Sony Music Malaysia page is a great source of music and entertainment news and is an excellent place to stick around in case they ever feel that generous itch again to bury people with even more giveaways - and judging from my admittedly limited experience with them so far, that's just another page in the diary for Sony Music Malaysia. Still, for such warm, accessible and benevolent folks, I think it's a shame that they did not put a face (or faces) to their Facebook page. All they have for profile pics are a couple of dispassionate shots of their office space.

There's also the proviso that I have to be a fan of their Facebook page, whatever that means. That posed a rather challenging hurdle for me because I have absolutely no flippin' idea how Facebook works - so I dialed Jen not two hours ago for help.

"So, um, how do I go about being a fan of the Sony Music Malaysia page on this Facebook thing?" I asked sheepishly. I had this vague impression in my mind that I was suppose to stare intently at my computer monitor with the hope that my intention to join their fandom would get across by osmosis.

"You are hopeless," she laughed. "Just click on the 'Like' button!"

Naturally, the albums would have to be recorded by artistes or groups signed to their label, so I dropped by Wikipedia to see if any of their talents fall within my eccentric set of musical interest. I lucked out because my favourite electronica and synthpop songstress, Imogen Heap, just happens to be a Sony BMG artiste! Most of you would know her as the "Mmm watcha say" chick which that Auto-Tuned twit Jason Derülo sampled in his debut single, Whatcha Say. Me? I was a fan since her Frou Frou days.

And I would do anything, anything at all for the deluxe or bonus track version of her 2009 album, Ellipse,

She killed a flock of angels and stole their halos? I never did get cover arts for music albums.

Making up my mind for my second choice proved to be a much tougher proposition and no name seemed to leap out at me from the Wiki list of Sony Music artistes. I was deliberating between Lenka's self titled album and something from the Turkish alt-rock, hip hop fusion band maNga (which was the second-placer at Eurovision 2010, justifiably losing out to the awesome Lena Meyer-Landrut) when I finally decided to just randomly pick someone I have never heard of before. A chance click introduced me to Aussie Kate Miller-Heidke who, according to her Wiki page, is a classically trained lead opera vocalist turned alternative popstar. That got my attention alright and a quick YouTube raid showed me what a real class act she is. Besides, I have had nothing but great experiences with most of the Australian female singer-songwriters I've ever listened to - and I'm saying this as a big fan of Lisa Mitchell and Missy Higgins here.

So yeah, I want Kate Miller-Heidke's 2009 live album, Live at The Hi-Fi. Looks to me it has a good mix of tracks from her two studio albums and then some.

She only got my attention because I can't pronounce one of her last names. Hide-key? Head-kay? What?

And you too, dear readers, can also join the grab-fest if you are living in Malaysia, owns a Facebook account and writes a weblog. You can get the details here in either Jen's post or Sony Music Malaysia's facebook note. The short of it is; write something about the Sony Music Malaysia Facebook page, 'Like' it, post the permalink in the comments section of Jen's post along with your real world name and contact details (e-mail address or phone number) and consider yourself the proud new owner of two original Sony music CD's of your choosing. Remember, this is NOT a competition. Everybody who participates WILL win. I'd hurry, if I'm you Oops, it's all over. This is why you should always listen closely to everything I say.

This has been your favourite bringer of good tidings, signing off.



P.S. By the way, did I mention that I use Sony's NWZ-S616F MP3 player unlike all the iPod zombies out there?



Will write for free music,
k0k s3n w4i