From The Gathering Of Friends

June 27. Saturday. Leprechaun Bar. A Gathering Of Friends. Below is a gathering of (my) thoughts. Want Guinness? Heard one say. Yes, get me one, says another. Oh, hi! Hey! Haven't seen you in ages! Uy, pare. Coffee Break Island came first. Good set as usual. Gotta rush to Xavierville. Francis in Samar. Pink Cow just as jolly and quirky. A lot of personality. Loads of nice T-shirts. I like Spyk's. "The Loudest and Fastest Hour On Radio." Blast from the past, nearly made me cry...(old school, new school, out-of-school punk, and everything in between...aawww!) Bad Omen next. Veteran punks. Very much deserving of a place in the Pinoy Punk firmament. Segued into two Music Front songs, then segued further into Tsunami Tsunami set. Was distracted, a very very good friend was downstairs. (He said Dave Dictor is a good man, and I believed him, because I know that for a fact, and I am not effing kidding. My friend's stories very much worth my attention.) AMPON next. Almost missed them and almost bashed my head for this. Pity that someone had to say "We've been invaded by hiphop"... as far as I know, AMPON is fantastic! [Sorry dude-who-said-we've-been-invaded, we're into this for the music above everything else, so eff it.] Shuffle Union. Buy their cool CD. Seriously, and objectively. You know how, yes? The Mighty Contras. Adorable Ahmad. Want to see more of them. Drove home and nearly ran over a cat. Driving = steep learning curve. Sunday, past 3 o'clock in the morning. Good morning world ... tell it to me once again what Antoine de St Exupery said.

"On ne voit bien qu'avec le coeur, l'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux."

Mr. Antoine, you are very dear to me ... situated beside this beautiful quote of yours, all other words are empty bullet shells .... Thank you friends for your presence, and for remembering a very good man.

Thank you Jan for the Tsunami photo.

Trash Radio Manila Episode 15 Part 1: Trashradio Undercover

Howdy, mateys, and welcome to Part 1 of Episode 15.

There are good covers, and there are great covers. I would say that a cover is great when the band doing it give the song a whole new personality, as if that band have actually written the song. Thus, we chose a handful of considerably popular songs whose original “personalities” have been given a makeover of sorts. Think these bands did a good job? Check it out.

1. 59 TIMES THE PAIN - "Sweet and Tender Hooligan"
2. SLAYER - "Filler/I Don't Wanna Hear It"
3. THE TOY DOLLS - "Nellie The Elephant"
4. THE BUSINESS - "When I Come Around"
5. DROPKICK MURPHYS - "Nobody’s Hero"
6. THE DICKIES - "Communication Breakdown"
7. BREAK THE SILENCE - "Slaughter of the Soul"

The song “Sweet and Tender Hooligan” was originally by The Smiths. The one that appears in this playlist is by the Swedish band 59 Times The Pain, who lent their version to the The World Still Won't Listen: A Tribute to the Smiths compilation. Another version appeared in one of our previous segments courtesy of Nouvelle Vague.

Slayer doing a Minor Threat? Not just one, but two riveting back-to-back covers! Could it be the result of having tasted Minor Threat Hot Sauce that Ian Mackaye was said to have endorsed just recently? Read about it here.

This one does not come as a surprise. Nellie The Elephant is a well-loved character in the UK; the theme song was sang by a child actress named Mandy Miller in 1956, and was played for many years over at the BBC. Some decades later, the wacky, irreverent band The Toy Dolls recorded their equally wacky, oi-flavored interpretation.

And speaking of oi, some bands identified with the movement are included in the playlist. The Business is in the list, doing a cover of Green Day’s “When I Come Around.” So is Dropkick Murphys with Stiff Little Fingers’ “Nobody’s Hero.” The Dickies are here too, doing Led Zeppelin’s “Communication Breakdown". Pretty interesting if you ask me.

The last song goes out to Dave, the man behind the now-famous My Fate To Hate! blog site. His latest entry is about how Break The Silence vocals sounded so similar to that of At The Gates; how uncanny then that BTS covered “Slaughter Of The Soul” which is an At The Gates original. ;) Read about Dave’s candid thoughts here. And lest I forget. Thank you Dave, for alluding to Timebomb. Those were great times. I know you’ll agree with me. :)

Download high bitrate version of playlist here.

Photos of 59 Times The Pain and Break The Silence courtesy of the bands' respective websites. Minor Threat hot sauce image comes from the website indicated above.

Postscript: Sorry for the font screw-ups. Somehow I could not get 'em fixed. Odd.