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.

Malapit Na Ang SONA (o di niyo pa nababalitaan?)

Kaya makinig muna tayo kina Budoy ng Jr Kilat, Bobby Balingit ng The WUDS, at Gabby ng AMPON. At ang pinakamahalaga sa lahat, kay Mrs. Burgos, ina ni Jonas na magpahanggang ngayon ay nawawala....

Ang larawan ni Budoy ay hango sa MySpace ng kanilang banda.

Trash Radio Manila Episode 16 Part 3: Bagong Bansa, Bagong Galak, Sa Bagong Lipunan

Boom Shalock Lock Boom!

Think you're lost? Don't be alarmed, you're in the right place. This is Trash Radio Manila Episode 16 Part 3.

My music programmer actually had fun doing this playlist, so much so that I'd often catch him bobbing his head even during sleep long after having completed the segment. ;) I, too, enjoyed doing the content. So here's the playlist:

1. CIBO MATTO - "Who's Got The Light?"
2. THE MOHAWKS - "Pepsi"
3. HOUSE OF PAIN - "Shamrocks and Shenanigans (Boom Shalock Lock Boom) [Butch Vig Remix]"
4. DEATH THREAT - "Intro...I'm Back(skit)/ Nationwide Stick-Up"
5. MARLOWE - "Sanctuario"

High bitrate version is right here.

New York based Cibo Matto was formed back in 1994 by two Japanese ladies, Miho Hatori and Yuka Honda. They then became a five-piece band, reinforced by Timo Ellis, Sean Lennon (yes, that Sean Lennon), and Duma Love, and together they produced songs that are a unique blend of hip-hop, jazz, funk, techno, and everything else that they listened to; the most memorable of these songs arguably come from their album Viva La Woman. More about Cibo Matto in their offical site and in their MySpace account.

The Mohawks, despite the name, are not the crusty kind. Their songs came out in the late 60s in the British Pama label, the same label that released songs from Laurel Aitken, Mood Reaction, and The Inner Mind. The Mohawks was formed by the young Hammond playing Alan Hawkshaw in the early 60s and is best known for their No. 4 hit in the R & B charts, "The Champ."

House of Pain was short-lived, breaking up in 1996 after 4 years, 3 albums, some collaborations (of interest was their collaboration with Helmet in the Judgment Night Movie Soundtrack) and numerous brushes with the law. They are best known for their hit "Jump Around". Its three members went on to pursue separate careers, with Danny Boy forming an art company, Everlast pursuing a solo career, and DJ Lethal becoming a member of Limp Bizkit.

I'm pretty sure you guys have heard of Death Threat. You know, the Pinoy Rap group who did that memorable hit in the 90s, "Gusto Kong Bumait (Pero Di Ko Magawa)?" Their song "Nationwide Stick-Up" is in the album Death Threat IV. Death Threat, originally composed of rappers Genezide, Beware and DJ Radical M.K., is the first local gangsta rap group to release a record and counts the presently popular rap artist Gloc 9 as one of its members.

From the Ampon collective comes Marlowe, the Boholano who, according to his bio, has recently "...traded his extensive Hip Hop CD collection for an extremely rare autographed copy of Nietzsche's Ecce Homo" and has once auctioned his soul in eBay upon realizing that waiting for Death is a boring pursuit, only to find out that his highest bidder has no credit card. Sounds impressive; so does his song, "Sanctuario", which caps our playlist.

So there. Here's to another week of fun and surprises. Keep it here.

Lastly, let me share this one relevant quote.

When, during an interview with Matt Hilburn, Cibo Matto's Miho Hatori was asked the question, "How do you think your style reflects you being Japanese?", she said:

"We look Japanese...We're Asians? I guess we do have some things in common. Japanese music listeners are pretty open-minded...It's not like 'I am black and I only listen to hip-hop'...People don't listen to just one kind of music in Japan. They're not like that. There's domestic music and foreign music. That's the only division. People in Japan don't understand English, so they just enjoy the sound of the music ... French pop ... American pop ... It's all foreign music. You can see them next to each other in the record store. You can see Stevie Wonder and Slayer in the same section because they begin with "s." That kind of thing creates an original view of music. I think genres exist just for marketing. I feel Japanese people are more open-minded because there's not different races and music is not about politics..."

Oh yeah. I perfectly hear you, Miho. :)

Photos come the artists' websites. You know the drill. Click away.

Trash Radio Manila Episode 3 Part 2: All-Pinoy. O, Di Ba?

Today's segment is testament to the often-neglected fact that the Filipino artist is as creative as he is socially and politically aware, and all he needs is the proper venue, sufficient logistics, and your support.

Coming from the self-released album Sampol, which is the acoustic precursor to the studio release Flipino, is "Tuyo," Dong Abay's ode to things we take for granted and more. The track is followed by "Satanas" by Plazma-Marlowe-Choc, from the indie-released Dekoding Rhythm compilation by the Ampon hip-hop collective.

The Mindrape track comes from several years back courtesy of Cebu's S.R.A. (Struggle for Radical Action) punk collective that has remained steadfast through the years. Fresh for 2008 is the Dirty Shoes Collective release called Know Your Enemy, from which comes "Oras Sa Kamay" by Suspeks. If you want a copy of this album, you can write Dirty Shoes Collective at dirty_shoes_records(at)yahoo(dot)com. Or, as the collective says, "Punta na lang silang tandem, marami doon."

Signal 3 is a defunct Fil-Am street-punk band, with the album Kingsley United featuring the anthemic "Kapit-Kamay." The segment ends with the band called Einstein Chakras and their contribution to the Rock Against The Round Compilation CD. "Hangga't Maaari (Ayokong Pumatay)" is a fitting finale to this inspiring set of songs.

Sana'y maibigan niyo at tangkilikin ang sariling atin. Mabuhay ang musikong Pinoy!

1. DONG ABAY - "Tuyo" (from Sampol CD)
2. PLAZMA-MARLOWE-CHOC - "Satanas" (from Dekoding Rhythm Compilation CD)
3. MINDRAPE -"Standards" (from Eight And Counting S.R.A. Compilation CD)
4. SUSPEKS - "Oras Sa Kamay" (from Know Your Enemy Compilation CD)
5. SIGNAL 3 - "Kapit-Kamay" (from the Kingsley United CD)
6. EINSTEIN CHAKRAS - "Hangga't Maaari (Ayokong Pumatay)" (from Rock Against The Round Compilation CD)

Playing at the defunct Kolumn bar last February 2006: Einstein Chakras