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.

PrettyUgly 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 Neves' brother J (Mohd Raziz Zainal Abidin), Fariz (Mohd Fariz Ahmad Shamsuddin) and Net (Nik Muhammad Histami Nik Mohammad Din).

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 Garbage and Blur, 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.

On 11 June 2003, PrettyUgly released their second album, Transformasi ke Stereo, under the Big Bang label. It contains 10 new tracks (including the first single, Francis Ford Coppola & c.k., a song written for the movie Cinta Kolestrol) and 5 of their previous hits (Analogi Berdialog, En Ronald Moore, Superstar, Bidadari and CD Bagasi Honey).

The album received rave reviews from music critics & fans alike.

Rockaholic is the latest mini album by PrettyUgly. The concept of this third album differs from the previous two. While still maintaining the Psychedelic music, this time it is fused together with Acid Jazz. They now dub the concept of this album as 'Acid Rock'. It contains four new tracks and acoustic versions of two of the tracks.

Track 1 of the album is entitled Diari Seorang Lelaki and tells the tale between two lovers where one of them went overseas to further the studies while the other stayed back. Track 2 - Jika Diberikanku Satu Peluang - is a song telling the story of a love who realized the meaning of true love soon after breaking up and wants he/she back into his/her life.

Track 3 is Gabra, a rock & roll song about current issues and happenings in the Malaysian music industry. The fourth track entitled Kasih is a remake of the song made popular by the late Allahyarham Sudirman and also Broery Marantika in 1980s. The remaining two tracks are the acoustic versions of Diari Seorang Lelaki and Jika Diberikanku Satu Peluang.

As usual all tracks in this album are produced and composed by PrettyUgly themselves with the exception of Kasih as it was composed by Datuk Ahmad Nawab.

With PrettyUgly's distinctive, if not peculiar, music and image - they are definitely here to stay.