We're buzzed with...The Wongs

It could have all gone awry when The Wongs played the special Moonshine x Lo-fideo gig at Laundry, The Curve, last July. They were there to duke it out for votes against fellow Junk Lo-fideo contenders Bite Me Butterfly.

From the time they played the first note, you couldn't help but notice that one of the guitars was out of tune. The Wongs huddled together after the first song and banked on charismatic frontman Azzem to haul their collective asses out of the bog. Azzem-who in energy and rotundity is equal parts Jack Black and Brian Johnson of AC/DC, with a haircut lifted straight out of Manowar's hairdresser handbook-commanded his portion of the stage with androgynous grace, and ensured everyone had their eyes and ears affixed firmly on him.

It worked, and today Junk is hanging out with the newly crowned Lo-fideo Cycle #2 champions at the old school Capital Café in Kuala Lumpur. Good lads, they drove down all the way from Ipoh dressed in their finest mod gear-British Royal Air Force belts and everything. "We love Britpop bands like Oasis and The Bluetones," says Azzem, "but we don't want to sound like them." The Wongs don't exactly, but they do deliver the same optimism of Britpop anthems at their sunniest; something like Oasis on famed 'D'You Know What I Mean' B-side 'Stay Young'.

It's been a pretty steep rise to these heady heights. They've only been in existence for three years and haven't come out with an EP yet due to a lack of funds. What little money they have had, they've spent it on singles, like their latest 'Orked Cina' (and to think they were giving it out for free). They're nice, happy guys, you see. And arguably it is their very natures that saw the crowned champions voted ahead of the caustic/cute Bite Me Butterfly and Indonesian post-punk behemoths Denial.

It's a remarkable achievement, given that their contenders are no worse off musically than the perpetually jolly Azzem, Nick, Keyrol, Paan and Syed. How The Wongs clinched the bastard was with their sheer earnest "aw shucks" charm. "We'd like to thank Junk for giving us this opportunity; we really needed this exposure."

Aw, they're welcome. But keep in mind this isn't some band that we deliberately chose to pimp; no, the people voted and the people love The Wongs. They love them because where other bands spend months perfecting a rockstar persona before launching onto the scene, the thought probably hasn't crossed their minds.

It's probably down to progress coming in fits and starts. "We've been meaning to do an EP for some time. We got the songs written and everything," Azzem says. And now they have the free recording hours at Purplehouz. To do just that, they'll smell like the rockstars they are (refreshingly) yet to grow into-thanks to the RM1,500 hamper they won from Paco Rabanne. If they look like rockstars, and if they smell like rockstars, they will be. Someday.

WORDS JASON PHOTOS CIPOI
www.myspace.com/thewongsmusic

*Taken from Junk's September 2009 issue