Pretty Ugly

PRETTY UGLY
Pretty Ugly - quite ugly or pretty BUT ugly? However you may want to interpret it, they chose the name as it's "catchy, unique and easy to remember". Well, it definitely is.

Pretty Ugly introduced their unique brand of psychedelic rock and they have been around since 1997, going by the name Seven back then. The vocalist, Raizan Zainal Abidin goes by the name Neves (that's pronounced 'nervous' without the 'r'), which is actually Seven spelt backwards, as "a reminder of the group's origins". There's also J (Mohamad Raziz Zainal Abidin), Nett (Nik Muhammad Histami Nik Mohammad Din) & Juad (Ikhwan Ajwad Rawyani).
However, when they signed a recording contract with KRU Records (after going from one recording company to another - none of which accepted their musical style), they changed their band name (Seven) as the Indonesian band Sheila On 7 became a big hit among Malaysians then. Not wanting to be accused of cashing on Sheila On 7's success story, they opted for the name PrettyUgly - a name that would raise eyebrows for sure.



A weird name for a band - but wait till you check out the song titles in their debut effort, AbstrakVersiFantasi, released in 2001. The titles range from En Ronald Moore, CD Bagasi Honey, AnalogiBerdialog to Rontak. Each song has a distinct 'psychedelic' flavor with lots of sound effects thrown in for good measure. Plus quirky lyrics as well.
En Ronald Moore was their first single and it caused a mild stir within the entertainment circle. A week before the press conference to introduce PrettyUgly, the media were shocked to receive a newspaper cutting from KRU Records about a man in Dallas who made (or rather forced) his six-year-old son to shoot him in the head. The controversial (actual) news piece turns out to be the lyrics of the song. Neves actually took the news article word by word and made an interesting song out of it.
AbstrakVersiFantasi contains 10 tracks altogether, all of which was composed & produced by the members of PrettyUgly themselves. Influenced by music from Beatles, Radiohead, Jamiroquai, Garbage, Blur, etc, they had initially planned to record in English. The idea was then scrapped as other local bands are already doing it, thus they wrote the lyrics in Malay. International music with Malay lyrics if you may. Their main aim is to revolutionize the local music industry with their songs; going out of the mainstream stuff you hear everyday.
After En Ronald Moore, the band continued to be listeners' favorites with their follow-up singles like CD Bagasi Honey, Superstar and Bidadari, which is a remake of TYCO's hit, taken from the 10/10 album.
The band has even been nominated in Anugerah Industri Muzik 2002 for the Best New Artiste and Best Rock Album categories.
Transformasi ke Stereo, under the Big Bang label has been released on 11 June 2003. It contains 10 new tracks including the first single, Francis Ford Coppola & c.k., a song written for the movie Cinta Kolestrol. Bintang is their next major hit airplay followed by Nanti.
Transformasi ke Stereo received rave reviews from music critics & fans alike. It has been nominated for Best Rock Album categories in Anugerah Industri Muzik 2003.

Their third album 'Rockaholic' released on April 2006 with new hit singles 'Diari seorang lelaki, Kasih, Jika diberikanku satu peluang & Gabra'. They have won for Best Rock Song in Anugerah Era 06 recently. Being one of the finalist for Anugerah Juara Lagu 06 is one of their BIG achievements. They have released the new single 'Kelab Jiwa Muzik & Itu Bukan Aku' recently. The 4th album will be out approximately in January 09. And with their distinctive, if not peculiar, music and image - they are definitely here to stay.