Lion City Rock

Check out the new Lion City Rock YouTube channel WE'RE BACK! (and this time, can see our faces! 😜 ) Welcome back – or if you're new, welcome in – to a new season of Lion City Rock! It's been one hot minute, and we're kicking off with a bit of an upgrade. No more just listening to us talk cock about local music history; you can now actually see what we’re obsessing over on our offi...

Who's the most important person when it comes to a live performance? No, not the singer. Not the band manager. Not even the guy who removes all the blue M&Ms. If you're in a band about to do a show, the sound engineer or sound tech is the person you want on your side. They can make you sound great on the night. (And vice versa if you're being a turd to them.) Like our guest,  Mark...

What is it like being an experimental jazz singer-songwriter in the Lion City? How does one navigate a musical niche in a space like Singapore? How easy is it to explore out-of-the-box musical inspirations in a place where traditional forms seem to be favoured more? Namie Rasman , lead singer of Namie & The Waves and a jazz singer in her own right, takes the hot seat to answer these questions...

With nightlife and entertainment spots closing over the past few weeks – Projector, Vertigo26, and for one hot minute, even Wala Wala – Kevin and Chris ask the hard question: How can dis be allow? In this special extended episode, the TCSS returns – iykyk – as they also unpick the "now you can drink alcohol in pubs until 4am" scheme (but only in selected areas, T&Cs apply) and pick the...

What do echoes, money, dogs and time have in common? What's the dark side of tribute bands? And how much stroking is necessary before a podcast episode can actually begin? Laurence and Noel of Welcome To The Machine, a Pink Floyd tribute band from Singapore, answer those questions and more. Their new show, a complete performance of Pink Floyd's landmark album, The Wall , is a cross between...

Dominic Chin has been singing ever since he was in his teens. His first original song, "You First Believed" – a tribute to Singapore's founding father and first Prime Minister, went viral. Now, 11 years later, he's back with a new single, "Needy" and plans for a new album drop at the end of the year. In between, he's performed thousands of shows – on his own and with th...

Can you believe that it was 60 years ago when Naomi and The Boys released their megahit, "Happy Happy Birthday Baby"? That same year, the Lion City decided to make its way in the world by itself! Coincidence? Maybe. But to mark SG60, we decided to do what all Singaporeans do best: go makan chicken rice – what else? Oh, and Kevin wrote a song for National Day too! Listen here -- "I Love...

It's been a long time coming, but we finally did it! We have Leslie Low on the show! Sure, it took us the better part of three years – specifically three years, seven months and 3 days – but hey, who's counting? Leslie one of Singapore's finest songwriters, and if there ever is a Rock 'n' Roll Hall Of Fame for Singapore musicians, he should be in it! So we got him to answer all...

WE'RE BACK! Welcome to the new phase Lion City Rock, which is... pretty much like the old phase Lion City Rock, if we're being honest – but with more sprinkles! We've quite a few things in the pipeline, though, and we're going to do our best to make sure they all come to pass. Just what are they all about? Listen to find out, lah... "Nothing Is Real" and "Screen Scars&#...

DID YOU KNOW that Leslie Low's music journey kinda sorta began at the same time as one of Singapore's influential arts companies, The Substation ? Well, we didn't – until we were asked to support this cool event on 10 Aug, 5pm at the Esplanade Recital Studio . Passing  is a lyrical and sonic journey through Leslie's indie-pop and soft rock reflections as an artist growing up, livin...

Was there a better way to spend a Sunday than having your eardrums blasted and your face melted by some of the biggest bands of the 1990s? Well, if you're not into that sorta thing, then yes, probably. But for us at the Lion City Rock pod, Day 2 of the BigO 4-0 show brought the house down as six bands took the stage at The Blackbird! Disko Biscuit, The Oddfellows, Rudra, Astreal, The Pinholes...

As crowds throng the spaces to listen to political candidates wax lyrical about how they plan to improve Singapore, the LCR team look back on two days in April when crowds thronged The Blackbird Singapore to listen to veteran indie rockers who came together to wax lyrical about the 40th anniversary of BigO magazine, the pre-eminent champion of local indie music back in the late '80s and throug...

Where can you go to hear a live band play Steely Dan's "Reelin' In The Years" or the 11-minute opus that is the live version of "Sultans Of Swing", complete with sax solo? Well, The Blackbird at Gillman Barracks, that's where. The Blackbird's resident band, Reverie, plays songs that aren't always on your Spotify Top 10; instead, revelling in dishing out rarer tr...

What a show we have for you! Yes, you and only you! Our featured guests on the podcast are none other than The Oddfellows ! They helped spearhead the Singapore indie scene in the late 1980s and have garnered much acclaim and accolades through the years. But what exactly are they doing now? Well, they're part of BigO 4-O: 40 Years Of Counter-Culture , the music fest on 12-13 April at The Blackb...

We're continuing our  Lion City Rock x BigO 4-O  series for the 40 Years Of Counter-Culture music festival, which will be held on 12-13 April at The Blackbird to celebrate the 40th anniversary of BigO Magazine, one of the cornerstones of Singapore's indie music scene of the 1990s. The line-up features The Mother, Typewriter, Obstacle Upsurge, Force Vomit, Plainsunset, Opposition Party, Dis...

It's the first of our Lion City Rock x BigO 4-O episodes for the 40 Years Of Counter-Culture music festival. Happening on 12-13 April at The Blackbird, it's two days of music remembering and celebrating one of the cornerstones of Singapore's indie music scene of the 1990s: BigO Magazine. Bands performing include The Mother, Typewriter, Obstacle Upsurge, Force Vomit, Great Spy Experimen...

IT'S FINALLY HERE: Our monumental mega-episode with ASTREAL ! As one of the key shoegaze bands here in the Lion City over the past three decades, Astreal has been going through thick and thin, releasing three albums and performing at every major gig you can think of. Ginette Chittick (bass/vocals) and Muhammad Alkhatib (guitars) share the ups and downs of Astreal's musical journey: What wa...

Happy International Women's Day! To mark the occasion, we're looking back at an album that made a splash back in the day: No Excuse For Sexism . Released in 1998, it was the first album to feature an all-female line-up, with all-female or female-fronted bands: Clothes Peg, Flying Pills, Sideshow Judy, Psycho Sonique and Astreal. How does the album hold up after all these years? Was it an a...

We're honoured to be part of  No Finer Time To Be Alive , a music event on  15 March 2025, 6pm at Vertigo26  where The Substation will kickstart celebrations for its 35th anniversary. To share more about this lively do is the lively duo behind it all, DJ KiDG, aka Robin Chua and award-winning composer Joe Ng. The gig will feature iconic Singaporean music curated and mixed live by KiDG, and you...

We're honoured to be part of No Finer Time To Be Alive , a music event on 15 March 2025, 6pm at Vertigo26 where The Substation will kickstart celebrations for its 35th anniversary. Featuring iconic Singaporean music curated and mixed live by DJ KiDG (Robin Chua), the five-hour non-stop set will take you through Singapore’s music history, with tracks from legends like Zircon Lounge and The Ques...

It's a tale of Taledrops this week! One of Singapore's freshest bands has been rocking the Lion City with their very own "Drama Rock". In this episode, the female fivesome—Shan, Jingmin, Kiara, Zee, and Pearly—spill the beans on their journey. They reveal what made them form a band, how the name Taledrops came about, who the worst timekeeper in the band is, and when their new EP wi...

We travel back to 1998 to see, or rather, hear, what happened on 15 December of that year at the Green Room, a studio run by veteran Lion City Rocker Tony Goh. The result was an album recorded live and distributed by BigO magazine, featuring music by four young bands: Electric Co. (later to evolve into Electrico), Shereene's Closet, Steel Blue Skies (started by Lilac Saint's guitarist Bhas...

Friend Of The Pod Sanny Velloo is back to share more of his continuing journey as a solo musician. Fresh from launching his latest single, "A Brighter Tomorrow", Sanny shares what it has been like going solo, what his new album is about, and the chances of becoming the world's only Rock 'n' Roll Guru! *This episode was recorded in Dec 2024 Feel free to contact Lion City Rock, g...

It's our AAR episode! And then some! In 2024, we had over 2,000 downloads from more than 40 countries! That's not something we thought we'd ever achieve and we don't take it lightly! Thank you listeners for making it all worthwhile! But we aren't just patting ourselves on the back for a job well done in 2024. We're also on the lookout for new ideas, topics, and music to fea...

Oh, what a year it has been! As we say goodbye to 2024, we thought we'd reflect on the year with our top five fave moments on the pod. Unsurprisingly - or perhaps, surprisingly - Chris and Kevin had four same items out of the five on their list. But what was the different one? PLUS! A special appearance by Shye! PLUS PLUS! Our wishes for 2025! - - "Lion City Rock theme" performed by Ke...