Strangely, this was something that I had been warned about.
A couple of years back, I'd attended a seminar on making money in the Creative Industry.
Eric Wainaina had just given an inspirational talk on the business side of the Music Business, and was taking question. Murfy's fLaW had just had our first mention in the a local paper. The writer managed to spell the band name wrong, get the wrong number of band mates, and blessed the mentioned ones with a whole string of made-up names and features.
"So," I asked Eric, "How can you ensure the press get the details right?"
Eric said, "You can't".
Fast-forward to the present. 1.5 albums, dozens of gigs, a few blurbs and a multitude of scandals later, and I wonder why I still felt let down when I read this article.
http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/mag/InsidePage.php?id=2000036217&cid=616&
Pretty innocent, you might think.
YOU'RE WRONG!
All along, we were led to believe that this would be an article about the "band". They gave questionnaires for all of us to fill, took lots of band photographs, and individual photos as well.
Then, the article comes out, and they've gone ahead and edited 9ine out of it.
I get that people think it's really amazing that there are so many girls in the band. Power to women and what not. And yeah, Murfy's fLaW is made up of pretty amazing people who've overcome pretty amazing things and formed a band. And sure, 5 of them are girls, but 1 is a guy and it's this grouping that makes us as awesome as we are.
So yes, I get upset when they'd rather just blindly ignore the one guy in the band, just coz he's "ruining" a perfectly nice "girl band" picture.
Get over it people. We are not a girl band. We are a band with girls and a guy. If you want to take pictures of pretty girls, you've got Spice girls and The Moipei Sisters. (Pause. No disrespect to them). Does the world need another all-girl grouping so desperately that you'd kick the boy out?
I guess what bothers me is that they were so sneaky about it. Why go ahead and involve 9ine in the entire interviewing process if they were going to edit him out? There wasn't even a token "whole band" photograph, just to appease my troubled heart. (Let alone the trouble hearts of all the lovely female flawbots out there who only watch the band coz they like 9ine). The whole thing ended up leaving a pretty foul taste in my mouth.
They say there's no thing such as bad press. Yay for free publicity etc. But man, sometimes it feels like crap.
(DISCLAIMER: Written by a highly-emotional band mate. Views of the writer do not necessarily reflect the views of Murfy's fLaW).
Murfy's fLaW
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Monday, April 4, 2011
Rumours
noun: rumours
- Gossip (usually a mixture of truth and untruth) passed around by word of mouth.
- Second single off the Murfy’s fLaW album, Makosa.
Happy New Fiscal Year!
So some of you may have been wondering about the recent spate of rumours that have been appearing about Murfy's fLaW members. (A lot of you haven't even heard of these rumours, but lets pretend you have heard, and you've been wondering...)
WONDER NO MORE! THE TRUTH HAS BEEN REVEALED!
The video for Rumours is up on our YouTube channel, just a single click away.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDWsoHQp4lc
Hope you enjoy it, and as per our usual request, please call up your favourite vee-jays and harass them to play it on your favourite music video stations.
Thanks for your continued support.
Murfy’s fLaW
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Wednesday, March 9, 2011
ROCK MUSIC & WITCHCRAFT!
 | ROCK MUSIC & WITCHCRAFT!H[EAR] ON MUSIC by N. Arthur |
During my usual evening walk, the twilight light lit the street with a blue hue that brought to mind the ending of Michael Jackson video for Black or White.
Everyone says the Black Panther-Michael Jackson transformation was just camera tricks, but recently I have come to the realisation that this transformation can be done without any video manipulation.
My reporter instincts kicked in when, from the windows of a restaurant, I could heard a band playing what sounded like Murfy’s fLaW song Rumours.
I walked into the venue, and sure enough Murfy’s fLaW was playing. I immediately understoond why the song sounded different. Vicky was not drumming, someone else was there instead! The band went into a wild instrumental solo, and Reema, the lead vocalist leapt off the stage to mingle with the audience.
“Where is your drummer?” I managed to ask as she danced circles past me.
“Kanvar? He’s on stage, taking a solo,” Reema replied as she danced back, arriving on stage just in time to begin the a capella intro to All I Know.
But where did Vicky go? I wondered. As if in answer to my silent query, the stage was suddenly flooded in light as the instruments came back in full volume, riding on the syncopated beat of Vicky attacking the bass drum.
I was absolutely stunned. So, Vicky was drumming, what happened to Kanvar? I looked at the band, but they carried on playing, not seeming to notice that their drummer had magically transformed into someone else!
Luckily, I some lovely interent people sold me a genuine $100 degree from Cambridge University, A PhD in The Art of Being Scientific. So before I jumped to conclusions, I knew I’d need proof. I set out to do this by asking myself a set of rigorous questions.
Q1. Do Kanvar and Vicky both play drums?
A1. Yes.
Q2. Have Kanvar and Vicky been seen playing drums for Murfy’s fLaw at the same time?
A2. No.
Based on this elaborate scientific methodology, I am now confident in believing that Kanvar and Vicky are the same person.
Monday, March 7, 2011
DIVASTATING!
| | DIVASTATING!H[EAR] ON MUSIC by N. Arthur |
SAY What!? investigative journalist, N. Arthur, got a first hand account from one of Ms Jojo’s victims.:
I was taking my usual evening walk, doing my Christian duty of visiting the sick. I would never have suspected that there was anything particularly suspicious about Patient X’s case, had it not been for her hospital chart, which was marked, Patient X.On attempting to get Ms Jojo’s reaction to Patient X’s statement, she merely said, “I do not wear acrylic tips. My nails are natural.”
My reporter instincts kicked in, and I sneaked into the private room holding Patient X.
Patient X turned out to be a young petite girl who looked physically shaken and emotionally distraught. It was difficult but she eventually agreed to share the details of her traumatic incident at Ms Jojo’s hands.
Æ“It was terrible,” she said in a shaky voice, “I’m a production assistant on the set for the Murfy’s fLaW tour, and had been sent into the backstage area to advise Ms Jojo that the microphone was ready for her sound check. To my horror, as I approached her, she caught my reflection in the mirror, and started hurling profanities at me. I tried to back away, but she grabbed at my hand with a vice-like grip, and held me in front of the mirror, bringing my attention to the purple eye shadow that we were both wearing.
‘Why are you wearing the same colour of eye shadow that I am?’ she demanded, ‘I’m the only one who is allowed to wear ™Blueberry Marshmallow!’ and with that pronouncement Ms Jojo began to claw at my face with her freshly-polished acrylic nails.
I tried to get away, but the woman has unnatural strength! By the time I was rescued by the body guards, her acrylic nails had left deep grooves in my face. My skin was torn, and I was bleeding. The doctors say I may need skin grafts and 36 months of emotional therapy. I’m devastated!”
ÆPatient X’s account has been edited for clarity, and to conform to content standards of SAY What!? magazine.
Friday, March 4, 2011
WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER!
| | WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER!H[EAR] ON MUSIC by N. Arthur |
“Where did you get this picture?” the bartender asked. My regular evening walk, had led me to the Juba Grand Hotel. Tired from a day of hard-core investigative reporting, I plugged in my headphones, put on my walkman. Yes. Walkman. That’s how I roll. It was at this point that the bartender began to demand answers.On 7 February 2011, the referendum commission published the final results, with 98.83% voting in favour of independence. While the ballots are going to be suspended in 10 of the 79 counties for exceeding 100% of the voter turnout, the number of votes are still well over the requirement of 60% turnout, and the majority vote for secession is not in question.
I looked up and found that he was brandishing the cassette case, jabbing a finger at the artwork on the cover.
“Oh, that is Punky Monkey,” I said, “She plays guitar in Murfy’s fLaW”
“No!” he insisted, “This is a soldier of fortune! I remember her from Malou. Sunday, Feb.25, 2001!”
My keen reporter instincts kicked in. I leaned forward, drink forgotten, “You mean she’s a child soldier?”
“Child!?” He spat out incredulously, “That’s no Child! She’s a Soldier of Fortune! A mercenary! She fought for the South, and then she fought for the North. And then she fought for the east, and then fought for the West! At the same time! Scumbug! It was the mission of everyone to find her, but she was too sneaky! Look!” He showed me a “WANTED” poster from early 2001.
I studied the poster and the album cover, “Wow, she hasn’t aged at all in all these years!” “That’s her trick,” the bartender explained, “She used her childlike appearance to sneak into and out of the Rebel Camp”
“Really?” I was amazed. "How old was she when this wanted poster was made?”
“Seventy six”
Sunday, February 27, 2011
SELLING HIGHS ON THE DOWN LOW!
| | SELLING HIGHS ON THE DOWN LOW!H[EAR] ON MUSIC by N. Arthur |
Despite intensified crackdowns on drug traffickers in Kenya
SAY What!? investigative journalist, N. Arthur, tells of his run-in with a notorious drug dealer, who plies her ruthless trade under the cover of being an instrumentalist in a band.
It was the subtle sign that first attracted my attention. I was taking my regular evening walk, when the setting sun cast a ray of light on a crude mabati sign nailed onto an electric pole. It had two lines, “Problems?” followed by a phone number.
On dialling the phone number, I was given a set of directions which led me to a location in Nairobi's westlands area.When I arrived at the location, I found the band, Murfy’s fLaW, playing. I dialled the number again, believing I was lost, and was shocked to see the bassist pick her phone and walk off the stage. My reporter instinct kicked in.
“I can see you have a headache. The spirits tell me everything.” she said when we met, even before I asked anything. She started counting out some tablets from a brown bottle.
“I don’t have a headache,” I said, “I actually wanted to talk about - ”
“Your backache!” she interrupted, waving the tablets at me, “The spirits sometimes have problems translating to English. It’s okay, this medicine will also work for backaches.”
“My back is fine!” I cried, “Your sign said ‘Problems?’ I thought you meant - ”
“Women!” she interrupted again, “Yes, this same tablet is also a love potion. Just grind it into the girl’s tea, and she will follow you forever!”
“When I read ‘Problems?’, I thought I was calling a plumber!” I eventually shouted.
“Yes! I was right!” she said, “I was only confused because the spirit word for ‘plumbing’ is the same as the spirit word for ‘headache’ Luckily, if you put one of these same tablets in the cistern every day then flush, it will fix the toilet.”
So, I bought the tablets. I surreptitiously took a picture of the notorious drug dealer.
After this, I then watched the rest of the Murfy’s fLaW show.
Rosemary Owino, a deputy chief State counsel at the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, said better training of prosecutors and enactment of relevant control laws are needed to curb rising cases of drug trafficking in Kenya
Thursday, February 10, 2011
NAIROBI NIGHTRUNNERS!
| | NAIROBI NIGHTRUNNERS!H[EAR] ON MUSIC by N. Arthur |
Residents in the leafy suburbs of an upscale residential area in Nairobi were on Monday night kept awake by the one thing their high-priced security companies cannot keep away. Nightrunners.
SAY What!? investigative journalist, N. Arthur, happened to be on the scene:
The first clue was the strange noises. I was taking my regular evening walk, when from the darkness, I heard rhythmic chanting. The eerie sound chilled me to the bone. Strangely though, the chanting felt strangely familiar. I then noticed a shape approaching with unnatural speed.
Instinctively, I ducked behind a tree, keeping an eye on the road.
Within the shadowy form, I noticed two bright green spots. I watched transfixed as the green orbs floated towards me, before I realised that they were actually a pair of eyes, glowing with a radioactive glare. The darkness took the shape of a person, and all the pieces fell into place!
The chanting… The unnatural speed… The glowing green eyes… I was looking at a night runner!
With no regard for my safety, I leaned towards the road, took a picture with my handy camera, and hid behind the tree again.
But the shock wasn’t over! As I sat later at my computer, downloading the pictures, I realised that I recognized the nightrunner! No wonder the chanting was familiar! For there, before me, was a picture of none other than Reema, lead singer of Murfy’s fLaW.
Thinking back, I realised that the night runner’s chant had sounded like the chorus of one of their songs!
The residents of the neighbourhood seem familiar with these strange goings on.
“She does this regularly,” an unnamed source said, “Usually about 3 times a week. She talked some of us into accompanying her, and I have to say, these runs have really improved my life”
According to local lore, the typical behaviour for Night Runners is to kick people’s doors, throw sand through any opening, throw things on the roof, and especially iron sheet roofs which make a lot of noise. They take pleasure in disturbing people’s sleep. [Source]
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Contagious
adjective: contagious
- Easily diffused or spread as from one person to another "a contagious grin"
- (of disease) capable of being transmitted by infection
- First single off the Murfy’s fLaW album, Makosa
Happy New Year People!
Murfy’s fLaW is ushering in 2011 with something new.
OUR VERY FIRST MUSIC VIDEO!
The video for Contagious is up on our YouTube channel, just a single click away.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y37SMYAzpfc
So watch it, enjoy it, rate it, comment on it, tell a friend about it.
Blog about it, tweet it, link to it, and make a general fuss about it.
After all, it’s only when you buzz about it, that we get the motivation to make yet more confusing videos for your viewing pleasure.
Call up your favourite vee-jays and harass them to play it on your favourite music video stations.
Thanks for your continued support.
Murfy’s fLaW
http://www.facebook.com/flawbymurfy
http://www.youtube.com/flawbymurfy
http://www.twitter.com/flawbymurfy
http://flawbymurfy.blogspot.com
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