TRASH RADIO MANILA: December 2009

Monday, December 21, 2009

Remembering Joe Strummer On His 7th Death Anniversary

On the occasion of the seventh death anniversary of John Graham Mellor, better known to the world as Joe Strummer, Don Letts hosted a tribute over at the BBC 6 Music Radio Last Sunday, December 20. It featured, aside from tunes from Strummer and The Clash, a dub version of London Calling which is part of the called Shatter The Hotel: A Dub Inspired Tribute To Joe Strummer. (You can check out the article and the sound clip here.) Don Letts, as you know by know, is the man who is arguably responsible for the marriage of punk and dub in the London scene.

All over the world, Strummer tributes were being staged, such as in Bologna, Italy last December 12, in Phoenix, Arizona last December 19, and of course over at London, England. It would be virtually futile to enumerate all tribute gigs here.

It seems the world has not yet completely gotten over the fact that Strummer, musical visionary and mover who virtually broke the walls that contained punk music, is gone. Understandably so.

Trash Radio Manila will never cease to put out blog posts about Strummer, which is an unabashed personal favorite. For this year, I have collected some songs both from his works with The Clash and later on with The Mescaleros, highlighting the breadth of Joe's vision and passion.

The tracklist:

1. Armagideon Time (The Clash)
2. Joe Strummer on the political nature of The Clash as lifted from Rockers Galore album
3. London's Burning (The Clash)
4. Safe European Home (The Clash)
5. Police On My Back (The Clash)
6. Capitol Radio Two (The Clash)
7. Bhindi Bhagee (Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros)
8. Joe Strummer ("Without people, we're nothing), lifted from The Future Is Unwritten
9. The Sound Of The Sinners (The Clash)
10. Train In Vain (The Clash)
11. The Road To Rock 'n' Roll (Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros)
12. Redemption Song (Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros)

I will probably put up one more post that will feature new All-Pinoy stuff next week, the last for this tumultuous year. Did you guys find time to go to the gigs this weekend? A late addition to the gig round-up was the farewell tribute gig to Juandokito, horn sessionist for Pinkcow. Christmas is coming in three days ... does it feel like it for you? Be safe everyone, and remember the true reason for this season. Merry Christmas!

[A related post also appears at The Last Song Syndrome.]

Sunday, December 6, 2009

And Again, And Again (Upcoming December Gigs, Including A Tribute Gig For AAW's Peter Bautista)

With this short announcement of upcoming gigs come sad tidings, as if the multitude of tragedies that have hit people individually and collectively is not enough.

Asawhole's Peter Bautista died, and a tribute gig called Beat The Count will be held at Santa Rosa, Laguna on December 12. Please refer to the siderail for the poster and the details of the gig. Rest In Peace, Peter.

Other gigs posters are up at the siderail, like the December edition of The Bing Austria Show, Rockers and Mods, MAIM's Silent Night NOT, and the Krupskaya gig. More announcements to come as we go along.

Hang in there folks ... we'll get through this year alive and in one piece. Cheers to you all.

Photo of AAW from their MySpace site, as captured by Jim Tan Nuevo.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Days Like These (The Horse Of Yokaba's Metal & Hardcore/Punk Nite!, November 28, 2009, Saturday, Leprechaun Bar, QC)

The year 2009 is above to come to a close, consequentially ending what Time Magazine calls "The Decade From Hell". Of course, this is relative, with the article citing disasters of various forms that had hit mainly America and, eventually, most part of the world. The Philippines, for one, did not fare any better, and for a time the running joke within many circles was that our poor country cannot be hard hit by global recession, simply because our economy has long been in recession in the first place.

[Photo at right is from the TIME website; please click here.]

So when someone from another dimension said in a good friend's dream that "Hell is overrated", I can almost believe that this statement was actually uttered and was not just a figment of a grieving person's imagination. Hell is overrated, indeed: this probably is the closest thing to hell for the majority who live far beyond their means.

However, it cannot be all that bad.

Sometimes all we need is just to sharpen our vision. When we do not see anything, we sharpen our reflexes. And then rely on something we call faith.

The music scene, too, went through really hard times, no thanks to information overload and lack of inspiration. (For instance, many of these bands on mainstream sound alike. Worse, I just do not dig the uninspired covers of songs being done left and right.) The scene is starting to lose the stalwarts, and definitely it needs more than just faith to keep the candle burning....

Gigs like Yokaba's Metal & Hardcore/Punk Nite and proponents like Boyet Miguel continue to keep the scene alive, and we need more...

More inspiration, more movers, more sustenance, more involvement....and the list goes on.

Anyway, enough with the rant. Some of the bands that played last Saturday at the Leprechaun Bar were West (which I did not get to see), Mihara (I swear these guys are really better heard live: they are solid.), DOA, Bad Omen, Piledriver, Tame The Tikbalang, and End Of Man. Below are some photos. It was a well-attended affair, and food and beer at my side of the table was, well, near overflowing. (Salamat, Romel!)