DDA is looking for musicians to join the band! If you can play the trumpet, keyboard or any sort of percussion, please contact me. You must be above 18 and you must be living in Penang.

Next gig : Indepedent Bands Festival July 22
Mp3 music download  

As you can see from the dates, I'm quite inconsistent with updating the news section but today I feel invigorated. Last night was the first time the "new" DDA played a big stage. It was fun! It was awesome. Thanks to all those that came upfront and danced. Especially that guy on crutches!

I should have mentioned this earlier. We had an amazing time at our last gig at Church St. Cafe. Thanks to the organizers for inviting us. They made a loss but they insisted on paying us. Class!

I'm happy to say that despite the fact we keep changing bass players faster than we do our shorts, DDA is progressing very well. We are writing alot of songs and we are in no hurry to release them. I've noticed we're writing songs that easily fit into 3 categories, 1, a reggae and dub vibe with spacey guitars, or 2, straight out heavy rock instrumentals and finally, 3, nicely packaged melodious verse chorus verse singy songs. I like the fact that we have no idea what we are doing and what DDA will sound like. Alot of people have expressed shock over the reggae direction but I'm sure they'll be pleasantly suprised by the final outcome....if not, no matter, it's just a project, rock is still our bread and butter!

I'm weirded out to say this but it seems the music scene in Penang has a heartbeat again. The jamming studio where we rehearse is constantly booked and there's a gig almost every month. All thanks to Church St. Cafe for breathing new life to the scene. Alot of good new bands out there.

This saturday, 24th June, is the French Music Festvial again, we are playing at around 9pm at the main stage, upper Penang Rd. Come on down, its free!

Yours truly,

Pedram

We are playing this Sunday in Penang

Wanting to record an album and actually getting it done are completely different things. It wouldn't be DDA of us if we didn't leave things to the last minute... which we did. We recorded 14 tracks, 3 weeks before our bass player had to leave, at a kick ass studio in Taman Tun run by Mr. Funny man Nick Lee. Guitars were just a guide so I didn't have the stress to play perfectly. Vocals and Guitars will be done in Penang at our own studio. This will take a while so please don't expect an album soon.... we don't have any vocalists confirmed yet.

Bob and I would like to thank Shanker for taking over bass duties over the past few months. His level of professionalism and commitment was beyond the call of duty. If it weren't for him, we wouldn't have had any recording done. Thank you and good luck in your new life in New Zealand. May the sheep bring you endless pleasure.

It is confirmed we are playing this thursday at a charity show to support the Methodist Girls College. Whitelight, Love me Butch and Lucy in the Loo are playing as well.
Thursday 6 October, 7pm
Pan Pacific KLIA

Hello everyone. Just wanted to let you all know that the new bass player, Shanker is working out really well. The jam sessions have been very fruitful. We've got around 15 songs sorted out and we're trying to sort out some gigs now. We're also planning on recording very soon. Just trying to sort which studio.

If there are any sound engineers out there interested in recording us, contact me.

2 nights ago was a major step forward in the DDA camp. We recorderd live at a jamming studio with my brother Sina at the helms as the sound engineer. After 3-4 months of jamming with the new line up, it was nice to see the fruits of our labor. Playing it and hearing it are 2 completely different things.... and it sounds great. A real incentive to go on. I'll probably upload one of the songs in the future but it's not "professional" enough for mass consumption.

We had a pretty shit show at the hard rock cafe due to lack of ambience so I wasn't too excited about beautiful junk before we came on. Thank you to everyone that came and supported us, your vibe and energy made it a great set. Now we are looking forward to this Saturday's Fete de la Musique.
We are playing out on the street at around 8pm right outside the Garage's Slippery Senorita. It's Free!

Looky looky, there's an article about the hard rock show in the malay mail

Welcome to noisemonkies ver 5. Damn Dirty Apes are back. We are currently working on 2 albums, the first a reggae/dub based album and the second a continuation of exploration left off in Ape Kill Ape.

Our Shows for this month

4 June, Hard Rock Cafe
with Prana and Klux Klux Adventure
starts at 3pm

11 June, Beautiful Junk
Music and Art Festival, Dewan Sri Penang

18June, Fete de La Musique
Upper Penang Road
Free show

20.01.05
Sorry for the lack of updates. As some of you know, DDA is now defunct. I haven't talked to Ian, Paul and Amit for ages so I have no idea if they want to be Apes anymore. It's difficult to give commitment to a band when you have to sort out your own life. Right now my life is in complete disarray, trying to sort where to live and where to work.

I've decided that when I get my life sorted, I'm going to continue releasing music under the DDA name. Regardless of the line up.

The MERCHANDISE section is finally updated with a list of where to buy APE KILL APE.

I'm considering doing a reprint of Valve State Dreams. We are almost out ot stock and there stills seems to be a demand for it. If I do a reprint, I'll add some extra tracks. Peace.

Pedram

04.11.04
It's a dark, dark day in our planet's history. The dark emperor has once again regained power.

27.10.04
I just found out that the great John Peel has passed away. He's been a supporter of many great bands in the UK and has helped promote reggae and punk in the 70s. Some of the Peel sessions are some of my favourite recordings by the bands I like. He's a great loss in the music industry.

I wrote this earlier in the guestbook...
There is an article and a review on KLue and JUICE magazine.
The Adorable video will be online a months time after I get all my school work done. And I'm planning to put up a demo of feedbach. I personally think it's way better than the album version.

I'm in love with this band from Melbourne called MY DISCO. It's phenomenal. It's Slint meets Mars Volta meets fugazi.
Another band that has really impressed me is OENIDA from Oregon, USA. I really don't know how to describe their music. very dirty.
If you can, I highly recommend you check out both these bands, one way or the other.

how's the Channel V thingy mejiggy? I remember feeling very stupid during the interview. We had nothing of interest to say. If it's good then they edited it really well.

If there are any Americans reading this, for the love of all that is good about this world, please don't vote for George Bush. Every vote counts!

me Pedram.

27.09.04
I would like to apologise to everyone who had a defect in their "APE KILL APE" casing. A few months ago on Ian's birthday, I had the band and the some friends over at my place. We went through 2000 cases looking for any defects and around 200 had glueing problems so we got rid off them. I don't understand why there seem to be more defects out there. We don't have any extra copies. I don't even own a copy of the final product! In the future when we get more printed I'll sort out an exchange service.

There was a review in the STAR, here is the link
This is the second time I've read a review that says we have out of tune guitars.... funny

15.09.04
The response so far has been phenomenal. We've run out of CDs! All 1000 copies have been shifted out! We're trying to get more printed before the stores run out. Again, thank you to everyone for the support.

There will be a review of the album in the STAR newspaper this Sunday the 19th.

I've updated the HISTORY section since there was no mention of Amit in it.

Ian will be a guest on RED 104.9FM this coming Thursday evening at 12.30am so techincally on friday. If it works out I'm going try and call from Australia. New heights baby!

8.10.04
I've been informed that there is a review of the album in Malay Mail today. My source tells me that "it is da bomb!"

7.10.04
There have been confirmed citings of "Ape Kill Ape" being sold in Central Market. Do you have a confirmed citing of the album on a store shelf? Please share it with us so other people can know where to go.
Star Newspaper has an article on us today. Section 2, page 17.

1.9.04
Dear Friends, I have updated the contact page with info on our distributor Music Street and added photos in the PICTURES section

If there are any underground fanzines who need info on the new album, click on the space logo.

In the next few weeks there will be (hopefully) an onslaught of DDA news in the media. If anyone knows of any forthcoming articles, please inform us. And if anyone is gracious enough to scan them, I'll put them up on the site.

25.8.04
I just found out that there is a small article today in the Malay Mail about the upcoming album.
Pedram

24.8.04
Ok, this is it. I know its hard to imagine but it's finally out. We started recording the album almost a year ago. There were times I just wanted to give up but the beast is finally out of the hairy belly womb.

There were countless problems with the mix, the mastering, the printing, the distribution, the finance and the mental state of band members.

Thank you for all those who waited and letting us know you waited. What would the guestbook be like now?

Sony, the scheming little bastards, played us for a fool, when they decided not to be our distributor for no given reason. But lo and behold, there is a light at the end of the tunnel! A hero came and saved the day. Who is this you say? Why its Brian Veeriah, our new manager. Yes, its true, we got all serious and got a manager for we are helpless little monkeys.

He helped us get a distribution deal with Music Streets so anyday now the album will be at a shop near you. There's more to write but I'm going to pace it.

peace,

Pedram

PS Welcome to noisemonkies ver 4.0