Trainspottting

Hey Hifny, the train has already left...

Depending on your point of view, trainspotting can be one of several things:

the act of mainlining heroin,
the act of looking over a DJ's shoulder to find out what record is being played,
the act of standing near railroad tracks to actually wait for trains pass by so one could log engine numbers and other stuff,
the act of creating a playlist out of train-related songs.
Or more sublimely, it's about trying to find out what we're actually trying to say with the song choices we have made.

Yeah... The Clash's "Train In Vain (Stand By Me)" would have been an obvious choice, which is probably why we left it out. And of course, there's no real mention of any train in the song, but Mick Jones reportedly once offered an explanation that the tune was akin to the rhythm that a train makes while running on railroad tracks. Your guess is as good as ours if that is just a load of BS. We're only sure that this is one of the best love songs ever recorded, bar Avril's "Girlfriend", the version of which by the Pigeon Detectives is much better ("Hell yeah, I'm a motherf**kin' princess!" sings Matt Bowman, the reluctant new Roger Daltrey).

OK! We're kidding! Here's the playlist, and some cuttings from the lyric sheets...

OCEAN COLOUR SCENE - "The Day We Caught The Train" (Acoustic)
"When you find that things are getting wilder...
Don't you want days like these...
Don't you NEED days like these..."

THE VAPORS - "Trains"
"Everybody I know has to face the trains
Everybody I know makes the same mistakes"

THE MOVEMENT - "Watching All Trains Leave The Station"
"Watching all trains leave the station
The world is passing by my window
Sick of all this repetition"

FISCHER Z - "The Worker"
"The hated journey on the train,
Always been the same,
Looking out windows,
Second class and second best,
What a waste of time..."

BYRON LEE and the DRAGONAIRES - "Night Train Ska"
Lyrics? Haha!

PRINCE BUSTER - "Train To Girls' Town"
“Now just for a second, take a look out the window
Look upon the hill
See that pretty house?
That's the house of the famous Judge Dread
Better known as Judge Four Hundred Years,
Y'know that man?
That's the man who cool the heat
With a rock steady beat”

Shoegazing

This personal preoccupation is not to be mistaken with the musical genre, also called shoegazing, which emerged towards the turn of the 1990s and spearheaded by bands like My Bloody Valentine and Ride. This is - literally - checking out the footwear of the scenesters, musicians, and bystanders in a gig. A ska gig is almost always the best time to shoegaze. All photos were taken during the Skalloween gig, where I saw a multitude of shoes, all shapes, colors, and sizes. Imelda, eat your heart out!

Let's Talk About Friends...

Mid-week last week we bumped into a friend from way back. As in real way back. Needless to say, and in a manner of speaking, the encounter opened a floodgate of thoughts and ideas both past and present, of friends still around, of friends that have been left behind, and friends who have gone ahead... We learned some have fallen by the wayside, unable to pick up from where they have fallen... some landing into the quagmire of drugs, some losing themselves in the oblivion of self-centeredness (haha!), and some just being gone... Friends come and go... the older you get, the more you know who to keep... and as The Clash once sang,

Years have passed and things have changed
And I've moved anyway I wanna go
But I'll never forget the feeling I got
When I heard that you'd gone home
And I'll never forget the smile on my face
since I knew where you would be
And if you're in the crown tonight
Have a drink on me
But go easy...
step lightly...
stay free...

Yup, this offer is for you... you know who you are... and the offer is as real as the sunshine pouring like wine through your window in the morning. Gimme a call.

In keeping with the seeming tone of the post, we've put together a dance, hip-hop, reggae, and (sort of) funk-soul playlist.

Here it is:
BIG AUDIO DYNAMITE II - "Rush (UK White Label Remix-Long Island Edit)"
DE LA SOUL (with Jungle Brothers and Q-Tip) - "Buddy"
LOOPTROOP - "Self-Biography"
LADY SOVEREIGN - "Love Me or Hate Me (Fuck You)"
LINTON KWESI JOHNSON - "Sonny's Lettah (Anti-Sus Poem)"
GIL SCOTT-HERON - "Give Her A Call"

By the way, it's the Friend half (again :) ) of Marika and Friends who wrote this piece. Getting more frequent now, yes?

...And Let Me Just Say...

Our post last November 13 titled "What If Punk Never Happened?" is linked to this site. King Blues Press contains bits of news on the band The King Blues. Do check out their blog site, will you? :) Cheers to The King Blues!

At Last! Seen Scene Sin At Skalloween!

This post is, finally, ultimately, excruciatingly, up!Three weeks have passed since Bisikleta Productions' Skalloween, held last October 31 at Ten-02. (I still owe Bisikleta those photos.) Finally, Trash Radio Manila got to spin. What can I say? I had a whole lot of fun: the crowd was rowdy but generally well-behaved (emphasis on generally), the bands awesome, the food is good. (You guys ought to try Ten-02's cheese and garlic pizza and their classic spaghetti. Delicious!) Endless supply of beer and great music playing non-stop! Friendly faces showed up unexpectedly - what more can I ask.

The line-up was made up of the following: Dreadnot Used, Umble Uno, G2 and The Bundocks, Pink Cow (who did a rousing number with the Tolonguez Death Squad vox - amazing!), Beatdown Boombox, Nevertheless, The Wayfarers, Eastern Vibration, Steady Movin' Beat, and Earthlings. All the bands stood out, in more ways than one. But, as always, I have my own observations:

1. Pink Cow is a rising star. Francis undeniably has the voice and the stage presence.

2. You may say I'm biased, but Beatdown Boombox is one band that commands attention, and rightfully so.

3. But the best band of the night for me is The Wayfarers. The band was a joy to watch, even covering a Dolphy and Panchito spoof.

4. Bing Austria (of Juan Pablo Dream), the affair's host, was, as always, witty, glib, and nerdy, all at once. One of his most memorable lines: Lahat tayo, unique!!!

Here are some photos and a slideshow. Bisikleta Productions, for pulling this off, once again gets another tick in its scoreboard. Till next time, hunnies.

Photos: Edwin Aguilar of The Wayfarers, Ten-02 crowd, Dreadnot Used, Umble Uno, G2 and the Bundocks, Bing Austria, Pink Cow with Tolonguez Death Squad vox, the maddening crowd, Pink Cow's Francis, Beatdown Boombox, Nevertheless, Eastern Vibration, Steady Movin' Beat. Some shots courtesy of Trash Radio Manila's good friend Ish.

What If Punk Never Happened?

Hi all, the post you are to read below is written by the "friend" half of the Marika and Friends signature that I affix every time I write an entry in Trash Radio Manila. You see, Je should be doing this more often, being the far more talented writer that he is than I am. But you know how precious things are....

Je writes about a part of The King Blues' latest release, which contains "What If Punk Never Happened?", and how this piece struck him and inspired him to produce the mix that you are hearing on our player. Here goes.

(Photo credits: The King Blues from their MySpace site, Music Front from their MySpace site.)

Hello All,

I do not usually write for blogs. Editing and writing for other people being my main source of livelihood, I somehow find it difficult to write what’s in my own mind. However, things sometimes come from way out left field that they almost knock you down.

Special thanks are due Bisikleta Productions for knocking me down and bowling me over today. The guy behind the production outfit sent me an MP3 late this afternoon. It was a copy of The King Blues’ “What If Punk Never Happened” off of their latest release “Save The World. Get The Girl”. (Please get the album if you can.) To say my life has been changed again is an understatement. But the email made me remember many things. Many many things.

My first reaction to the song was that I had to get the lyrics. In the process of looking for them across the Net, I also stumbled upon a general invite from the band to remix the song.

It is past midnight now, and I have just come out from the studio. (Ok, it’s just the other room in my flat where I have my stereo. I merely hooked up my laptop to an interface in the stereo so that I can “remix” the song.) My bandmates do not know it yet, but I have mixed in one of our songs, “Let’s Dance”, to the spoken word version of “What If Punk Never Happened” and we now have “What If Punk Never Happened? Let’s Dance”, a cross-continental unauthorized collaboration between The King Blues and Music Front.

If The King Blues ask me to take it down, I will ask Marika to take it down. If my bandmates ask me to take it down, I will ask Marika to take it down. If they don’t, then well and good for all of us. We will keep the remix uploaded here on Trash Radio Manila for a week so download as you may.

“So shine your light so bright that all can see,

Take pride in being whoever the fuck you want to be,

Throw your fist in the air in solidarity,

And shout, ‘Viva la punk, just one life, anarchy’”

Be brave and wise,

Keep the faith,

Je

(Download mix here.)

We Destroy Rock N Roll

Because I am not done sorting my photographs of the Skalloween gig yet, and because the account on Conquest Of Death's gig at Cainta last Friday has yet to arrive in my mailbox (paging correspondent from the new group The Tulisans), let me amuse you first with a little tale.

Grunge made it big here in the 1990s; but the same thing cannot be said though about the so-called Britpop sound which is said to have been a reaction to the massive grunge phenomenon originating from the US. I know for a fact that the likes of Oasis and Blur enjoyed considerable airplay then, but the airplay devoted to rest of the Britpop bands (Menswear, Pulp, Sleeper, Lush, Echobelly, etc.) were no match to the amount of time spent on the likes of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden.

It is a pity that these British bands did not become so popular here. They would have provided a very interesting counterpoint to the grunge sound that was dominating the local radio. A good summary on the history of Britpop can be found here.

I like the aesthetics and the quaintness evoked by these Britpop tunes. Aside from this, Echobelly's "Insomniac" keeps on playing in my mind, and my musical programmer would give anything to score a date with Louis Wener of Sleeper (a very interesting article discussing her take on motherhood appears here). These should be sufficient reasons for us to give you this playlist. Enjoy while you wait, hunnies.

MANIC STREET PREACHERS - Motown Junk
SUEDE - Animal Nitrate
MENSWEAR - I'll Manage Somehow
PIGEON DETECTIVES - Mislead
SLEEPER - Vegas
ECHOBELLY - Insomniac

(Ok, so why does the younger, more contemporary band Pigeon Detectives appear in the list? We'd like to believe that, contrary to the belief that Britpop died in the late 90s, it is definitely still up and about albeit in another form maybe. That pretty 7" you see at the left comes from our Belgian radar, the inimitable Alain Caby who wouldn't miss trading a slab of colored vinyl for a bottle of his favorite "kabayo" with a dash of "tagay" by the side. Cheers Amigo! You'll see more of him soon enough. *wink)

Photo of Brett from this site.

We're Taking Our Time

Haaay sarap. Light and easy Sunday morning after a gruelling week. Lazing around while watching those full-length dubbed Chinese movies. Sitting by the bed where Dad is sleeping, trying to guess if he'd spring up anytime soon. Mom cooking nilagang baka downstairs, the enticing smell of delicately cooked meat drifting to our noses. Playing 12" Frank Sinatra alternately with 7" Voltes Five theme on the phonograph. But wait, am I talking about memories of Sunday many many years ago, all tucked safely in some secure and stable gyri of my brain? Poignant....

This is how Sunday of yore sounds to us. What is it like to you? Tell us.

GOJIMMYGO - Sunday Morning
ORANGE STREET - Awake
BAMBOO - Rootical Boom
THE PIETASTERS - Mellow Mood
THE SELECTER - Let Your Yeah Be Yeah
TOKYO SKA PARADISE ORCHESTRA - Hole In One

Updates? Yes, they're coming sooner than you think. Here are some pictures while you wait. First photo shows MV the She-devil and her pal Ron; second photo shows Aji Adriano (WUDS, Beatdown Boombox) in his pose that has long guaranteed him Pinoy Punk immortality, courtesy of Trash Radio Manila's good friend, Ish. All taken during last week's Skalloween.

On My Way To Catalina

Descendents' Frank Navetta ... is not in this pic! Thanks to QR. Photo from this site.


Frank Navetta at far left

R.I.P. Frank Navetta

Hey Hey

I Like Food
Myage
Suburban Home
Jean is Dead

Something Special

Happy Halloween! Being the sweet people that we are, we thought about uploading a playlist to keep you company throughout the holiday, however bleak the mood of this mix is.

The playlist:

NICK HARRISON - "Something Special (Remix)"
BEATS INTERNATIONAL - "Dub Be Good To Me"
LILY ALLEN - "Everybody's Changing"
MARINE GIRLS - "Times We Used To Spend"
NICK DRAKE - "One of These Things First"

Check out Nick Harrison, whose song "Something Special" is remixed to accommodate The Specials' "Ghost Town". Intense songwriting, with lyrics that go like this: "Tragically dressed she arrives/Holding her head off the dance floor/There's few with better taste/And clothes that cover life's mistakes". More of Nick Harrison at MySpace.

The next song reportedly got Norman Cook (aka Fatboy Slim) into legal trouble. The bass lines of "Dub Be Good To Me" are actually sampled from The Clash's "Guns Of Brixton". Towards the end of the song, horns akin to those played in "Ghost Town" can be heard. Listen closely, and you be the judge.

Originally by Keane, "Everybody's Changing" is given a whole fresh flavour by wonder girl Lily Allen. In all honesty, we like this cover better than the original.

If you are a fan of Tracey Thorn and Everything But The Girl, you must have known by now that Tracey comes from an equally delightful all-girl group called Marine Girls. Their song "Times We Used To Spend" appears in the list.

Capping off is my personal favorite, Nick Drake, a singer-songwriter who brought the meaning of the word melancholia to unprecedented crevices.

Hope you like our mix, and we're leaving you with the lyrics of "Everybody's Changing". Just sing along and let go of the knife in your hands ... yes you, Freddie.

(Up next: Scenes from Skalloween!, and shoe-gazing as a new form of sport)

Everybody's Changing
Originally by Keane
Lily Allen

You say you wander your own land
But when I think about it
I don't see how you can

You're aching, you're breaking
And I can see the pain in your eyes
Since everybody's changing
And I don't know why.

So little time
Try to understand that I'm
Trying to make a move just to stay in the game
I try to stay awake and remember my name
But everybody's changing
And I don't feel the same.

You're gone from here
Soon you will disappear
Fading into beautiful light
'cause everybody's changing
And I don't feel right.

So little time
Try to understand that I'm
Trying to make a move just to stay in the game
I try to stay awake and remember my name
But everybody's changing
And I don't feel the same.

Everybody's changing
And I don't feel the same.