Malaysia’s Joe Kidd spits knowledge about Malaysian punk rock’s humble beginnings

Carburetor Dung

I love love love learning about the history of various punk/hardcore scenes around Asia. So I try my best to keep tabs on people who were heavily involved with the early versions of any Asian punk rock scene because every now and then they throw up some sort of photo with a great caption full of awesome knowledge of the beginnings of where they all came from.

Joe Kidd who plays in legendary Malaysian punk rock band Carburetor Dung, now called Dung, is one such individual. And today he posted the photo above with the caption down below. The band The Pilgrims that he talks about is SOOOOO good!:

“This guy. One of my most favourite persons in the whole wide world. When we first met in the late 80s, he was already the frontman of Kuantan’s butt-shakers HIJRAH, the first Malaysian punk-influenced band to go further than just fermenting their maximum rock’n’roll in the rehearsal studios. 

Unlike others who died dreaming, HIJRAH went further than most; first they started playing all sorts of live shows they could possibly get their arses on, from local band competitions to the stages of traveling funfairs, then they put out a rehearsal-demo, recording it live, raw and direct in a jamming studio and gave it to their friends; it is one of the first demo tapes for the local underground scene.

After that they came to KL and shared stages with the various legendary early underground thrashers and death-metalheads, and more funfair shows! Haha! By the time they had to change their name to THE PILGRIMS, they already have numerous shows under their collective belts, so the next step would be an album, and they did just that with the release of Perfume Garden in 1992, the first proper punk recording for the whole country, and the rest is deeply etched in the Malaysian rock’n’roll history….

This picture is taken by I-Lann at one of our gigs in the late 90s; Lee singing for our band Carburetor Dung. He became our vocalist in 1995, played tonnes of shows, recorded our second album “The Allure of Manure” and then played tonnes more shows, until he left all of us to migrate to Australia in 2003.

We are all waiting for you to come back and get back on-stage, Lee. Much love, big hugs and a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you, boss!!”

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