R.E.M, Radiohead, Blur, Graham Coxon, Oasis, The White Stripes, Jimmy Eat World, Franz Ferdinand, Dashboard Confessional, Bright Eyes, Mew, Metallica, My Chemical Romance, Weezer, Interpol, The Smiths, Say Anything, Silverchair, Modest Mouse, Sigur Ros, Sunny Day Real Estate, Death Cab for Cutie, Coheed and Cambria, The Who, Thursday, stellastarr*, Alexisonfire, Saves the Day and many others...
The band started in early 2004 in a Performance Arts class room in a Christian private school in the obscurity of Sentul, Indonesia when Ababil Ashari (vox, guitar, bass, drum, programming) handed Kevin Yapsir (guitar, vox, programming) a sheet music for Radiohead's "Everything In Its Right Place" to read because Ababil cannot read sheet music. The next day Ababil and Kevin practiced the composition attracting future band members Alvin Lasmana (drum), Alfonsus Tanoto (bass) and Daniel Sastro (guitar). Needless to say, the Radiohead cover attempt was a disaster. But from it, a band was born.
This five-piece line-up lasted for two years, yielding several singles and EPs. It became apparent that the band can't continue as it was. This was because most of the band had committed to studying overseas after high school. So, as a final hurrah, the band released "Fanfiction: From the Seriously Absurd to the Absurdly Serious" (an album-based upon unfinished fanfiction Ababil wrote in his spare time) in April of 2006 to a lukewarm response. The band disbanded giving Ababil the rights to the band name.
At this point, Ababil was busied by med school and turned to for relief. He wrote a general mock-up of a author-surrogate character named Hanabishi Hideaki and wrote a couple of unreleased short stories. Frustrated with his inabillity to finish these short stories, Ababil wrote them as songs instead. This proved to be a success and Ababil revived the Shorthand Phonetics name.
Ababil proceeded to write and record "Apparently...I'm In Medicine / Love, or the Illusion of the Beginning Symptoms of It" (an album about Hanabishi Hideaki's first year of med school) and released it in May of 2007. Reaction to the album was better than expected. Fledgling Indonesian netlabel Yes No Wave Music offered to re-release "Apparently..." to the Indonesian public four months after the albums original release.
After the re-release of "Apparently...", Ababil started to write songs and concepts that centered around Hanabishi Hideaki and repair the continuity. Fanfiction was retconned as a collection of fanfiction written by Japanese national Hanabishi Hidaki to fit with Hanabishi Hideaki's story. The culmination of this new project has arrived!
Titled "Fire! (I Could Have Died and All I Could Think About Was My Charred Diary)". The experiemental album sees Shorthand Phonetics branching out to post-rock and electronica blending it with the old sounds of powerpop and lofi like chocolate and potatoes...go check it out!
So, what's next for Shorthand Phonetics? Stay tuned to find out!
is is about that time again just like clockwork? and all the fans scream something else meandering all but one yes except for one he perifereally sings "natalies..."
Hi there shorthand phonetics! cool stuff you're doing, especially you're all by urself (gw juga sendirian doang seh ngerjain musik nya, tapi yah gitu deh, masih blom ada apa2nya hehe)..nice stuff..btw, kalo ada waktu, tolong dengerin lagu2 gw and kasi feedback yah, thx
Yes! Thanks again for the link. My favorite song so far is "To the Girl I Think Might be Similar to the Girl Flight of the Conchords Were Thinking About When They Were Writing". =)
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