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January 6th, 2009

05:08 pm - the top ten musical long-playing recordings of 2008 2008 was mostly a crap year for music. I find it incredibly frustrating that nothing really new or exciting has come out since 2004, and most of the "new, exciting" bands are just rehashing old styles. That having been said, there ARE still a number of gems, and you will find most of them on this list. There is one good thing about this year, though, and that's the fact that this is the best year OPM has heard in a long time. A multitude of great new bands released records, including Taken by Cars, Ang Bandang Shirley, The Dorques, The Rinka Collective, Yosha, the Out of Body Special and The Vince Noir Project. A lot of promising stars defied the sophomore slump and came out with really good follow-ups like Drip, Up dharma Down and Pedicab. Lastly, old favorites like the Itchyworms, Sandwich and Ciudad came out with some of their best material for 08. This year in Pinoy rock for me was more exciting than the last five years combined, to tell you the truth. Right. On to the music! 10. Beck - Modern GuiltThis may sound a bit off, but I'm not a big fan of Beck when he's being Beck. Classics like Odelay and The Information don't really appeal to me, but I do adore the records he centers around certain styles or themes. For example:Midnite Vultures, with its Prince-ish, cheesy disco sound; or his folk masterpiece Sea Change, which has become one of my all-time favorite breakup records. His latest album belongs to that vein of Beck album, checking 60s psychedelic rock and 70s folk rock for inspiration and brilliantly combining the songs with his signature beats and beeps. As if that weren't enough, Beck brings in Danger Mouse and Cat Power to collaborate, resulting in my personal favorite release from a major artist in 08. recommended tracks: Orphans, Gamma Ray, Youthless 9. Black Kids - Partie Traumatic Listening to Black Kids' dance masterpiece Partie Traumatic, the following are the first lyrics you will hear: Knock, knock Who's There? Call the ghost in your underwear Call the ghost in your underwear who? Call the ghost in your undearwear "boo!" how can you not love these morons? recommended tracks : Hit the Heartbrakes, Listen To Your Body Tonight, I'm Not Gonna Tech Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You 8. Up dharma Down - Bipolar I am a bit ashamed to admit that "Oo" is the number one most listened-to song on my iPod; not because of the song itself, but more because it exposes me as a weepy sap who listens to songs on repeat when in love. Much has happened to UDD since that gem was released two years ago -- relationships were formed, some were destroyed; bonds were strengthened, crimes were committed. Bipolar shows how much we can all change in such a short time, and it's painfully evident in everything from the chaos of its opener "Blessed" to the solemn resignation of its closing bonus track "A Purse of Stories". There's a line from the quiet break-up song "Unspoken Definites" that could sum up what Bipolar is all about -- "I've got everything to lose, so why not lose it anyway?" It would be too presumptuous and amateurish of me to say that I feel I've matured along with the band as well, but isn't that what good music does when all is said and done? recommended tracks: Taya, Unspoken Definites, and my sentimental fave Sana, which is a tribute to one of my childhood heroes Odette Quesada 7. Death Cab for Cutie - Narrrow Stairs A lot of people have been complaining about Death Cab for Cutie's new record. "It's mediocre," they'd say, often following it up with the question "why couldn't they have done something as good as the other albums?" Can't say I didn't see it coming, though. DCFC has finally reached that point in their career where they really don't have anything else to say, and instead are focusing on expanding their musical horizons. It happens to the best of them -- R.E.M. and "Monster", U2 and "Zooropa", even The Beatles and the white album. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, it just means that most of the time what you'll hear will be art for art's sake. Besides, there are a lot of gems in Narrow Stairs, like the powerful opening track "Bixby Canyon Bridge", the depressingly poignant "Grapevine Fires" and the masterfully-written "Cath" (how could you not be in awe of lyrics like "she holds a smile like someone would hold a crying child"). Alas, there are songs like "Talking Bird" and "You Can Do Better than Me" that feel like Ben Gibbard took a shit on his hand and hurled it at his fanclub. So what do I say when I hear people complain about Narrow Stairs? "It's still pretty good. You know-- it's like all their other albums were my number 1 or 2 of the year and this is just like... a 7." recommended songs : Cath, Grapevine Fires, Bixby Canyon Bridge 6. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend On the initial listen, Vampire Weekend's debut album is a bit of a disappointment. Then again that's probably because all year long every blogger and their sister has been praising this band to high heavens. After giving it a few more chances, however, I've found that "Vampire Weekend" is, at its very heart, a good-natured, friendly pop album that just happens to use esoteric, rich people instruments. The album already feels like an instant classic, and I predict that every track on this record, much like the songs on Moby's Play , will be used in every possible commercial. They'd also get a lot of airplay on Wes Anderson films if it didn't feel like Wes Anderson films were the primary musical influence for the band. recommended downloads: A-Punk, Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa, Oxford Comma 5. +/- - Xs on Your Eyes Back in 2006 +/- made their debut on this list with Let's Build a Fire, which I still consider to be their best album, . Their latest record is a totally different animal -- something more mature and, well, subdued. This is the first album where they really wrote and recorded together as a band, and it shows. Much of the electronics have been replaced with a fuller, more organic sound; which is great because Chris Deaner, one of the greatest drummers alive, really gets to shine in this record. It must also be said that Patrick Ramos's material on this record is his best yet, and I've always been a big James Baluyut fan and the man's just the gift who keeps on giving. I won't lie -- a big part of why they're on this list is because they came over here and gave one of the most memorable concert experiences I've ever had in my life. recommended tracks : Snowblind, Subdued, Unsung 4.Tokyo Police Club – Elephant Shell Two years ago, Tokyo Police Club's EP "A Lesson in Crime" was my EP of the year. It had an effect akin to getting punched in the face, except after you're riled and ready to get into a fight you find that your opponent has run away. Their debut LP, Elephant Shell, hardly packs as much punch as the first release did, but it's still the sort of rare rock n' roll record where you're not afraid to smile and actually have fun while you're dancing. Just take a listen to the "Your English is Good" anthemic catchphrase "Oh! Give us your vote! If you know what's good for you!" and Tessellate's addicting bassline, and you'll find that its unpretentiousness and powwow attitude will make you want to stay in the ring longer than you have to. recommended songs: Tessellate, Your English is Good, Listen to The Math 3. Ciudad - Bring Your Friends A lot of people criticize me for putting Ciudad on my top of the year lists because they think I'm tooting my own horn. Nothing could be further from the truth -- I haven't been Ciudad's manager for more than two years now and Bring Your Friends is their first album that I didn't name, have a song in or even have anything to do with. If I am at all still connected to Ciudad, then it's as their biggest fan for 14 years now. Their latest album is a triumph, exhibiting a certain sense of depth that can only be gained through pain. From the moment frontman Mikey Amistoso sings “don’t be certain, I’m not hoping, I can’t see the sky” in the opening track "Vanessa, Wait for Him" to his final words of resignation, “this is the last thing I want to do… I can’t imagine life beyond this” in the closer "The Last Thing I Want to Do", it feels like reality has finally caught up with them. Listening to Bring Your Friends f is heartbreaking. It’s also comforting, and strangely enough, elevating. recommended tracks: Underwater, My Emptiness, You Should, The Last Thing I Want to Do 2. Mates of State - Re-Arrange Us If there is a band I feel closest to in the United States, it is Mates of State. Not only because they give great intimate live shows, or because their albums are so delightful, but mostly because as a fan I was able to see them blossom from cutesy indiepop boyfriend/girlfriend to troubled husband and wife and then further on into grown-up parents. All their albums seem to mirror the stages in their lives as a couple, and I find myself rooting for these two not only as artists, but as people. Their fifth album Re-Arrange Us is their best album since their 1999 debut My Solo Project, mostly because it's the one that sounds most different from that. The sound is fuller, more ethereal, utilizing everything from grand pianos to strings and horns. The beauty is, even re-imagining these lush pieces in the Mates of State signature drums+keyboard arrangement, these songs are more significantly evolved. recommended tracks: My Only Offer, The Re-Arranger, Jigsaw 1, Taken by Cars - Endings of A New Kind A milestone in my history of music list-making, since this is the first time a Filipino album has made it to the top. I'm not saying that this is a classic like the Eraserheads' Cutterpillow or Cynthia Alexander's Rippingyarns, but it definitely has the makings of one. At first listen Taken by Cars feels like another generic dancepunk act, and they're good at what they do. One of my favorite singles this year, "Weeknight Memoir in High Definition", is irresistibly head shaking, as are songs like "The Blackout", "Uh Oh" and "Neon Brights". Tracks like the quiet "The Afterhours" and the elegant "Shapeshifter", however, are what shot this album to the top of my list. They show vocalist Sarah Marco's soulfulness and solace, and perfectly fit her cool, distant voice. The pundits can hate all they want and say things like "Taken by Cars just rips off bloc party", but I'm really proud and in love with this band, and for my money they can kick Bloc Party's ass any day of the week. recommended tracks: Weeknight Memoir in High Definition, Neon Brights, The Afterhours, Shapeshifter HONORABLE MENTION: Kaki King's Dreaming of Revenge, and those dreams are beautiful. CSS's Donkey has arguably more solid songs than their initial outing, but lacks the wit and tongue-in-cheek appeal the first one so brilliantly displayed. Ben Folds' Way to Normal is nice, but way too normal. Juliana Hatfield teaches us How To Walk Away, and it's solid, but it just didn't make the list. I love Flight of The Conchords, but I'm not sure if I'd feel the same way without the TV show. Portishead have outdone themselves again, shedding off their trip hop skin and once again making new roads of music with a sound that is both retro yet uber-experimental. Hot Chip's Made in The Dark, TV on The Radio's Dear Science, Cut Copy's In Ghost Colours and Foals' Antidotes are excellent dance albums. I'm especially proud of The Dorques, because their album is a hell of a lot of fun (though honestly Alessandra Tinio is sorely missed in the record). BEST EP: Strangely enough this wasn't a good year for EP's, but following the local theme of this article Eggboy's Dragzbanny EP is a great electronica record. Diego Mapa is one of my top three Filipino songwriters ever, and even though his songwriting genius only shines in the more oldskool Eggboy track "Suko Na Ako", the rest of the EP is a good testament to Mapa's evolving SINGLES FROM ALBUMS NOT ON THE LIST: Alphabeat's "Fascination" and MGMT's "Electric Feel" are my favorite singles of the year, though if we count singles from albums not released this year then Paramore's "That's What You Get" is the hands-down winner. Oh, and I really do love Juliana Hatfield's "My Baby..." and "This Lonely Love". VIDEOS OF THE YEAR: Spike Jonze is my lord and saviour. Kanye West's video for "Flashing Lights" is another reason why. Jorma Taccone will be a great man, just you wait. And if it's not for Lonely Island's addicting and hilarious "Jizz in My Pants", then it's for his portrayal as a heartbroken sap in Gnarls Barkley's "Who's Gonna Save My Soul"? Encyclopedia Pictura's video of Bjork's "Wanderlust" is a bit overrated, but nonetheless a wonderful testament to vision and originality. And if you don't love it yet, you will when you see it on 3D. Kieth Schofield's video of Supergrass's "Bad Blood" is the best performance vid of the year, and I suspect we'll see some local band ripping of the video sometime soon. Funnily enough, when all is said and done, i still go home to Patrick Daughters' brilliant video of Leslie Feist's "I Feel It All", His promos for "1 2 3 4" and "My Moon, My Man" were the best of 2007, and now we have this. Feist's videos always make me smile, and remind me of how lovely life is. 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 Tags: lists, muzak

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January 1st, 2009

09:01 pm - 2008 after the hell that was Super Noypi, Mihk and I decided to make a pact for "Drama-Free 2007". of course, because fate is such a douchebag, 2007 ended up being one of the most dramaful years of my life. so for last year we both decided to trick fate and go for "Penniless 2008", and it worked! take that, you dumb bastard! 2008 was by far one of the best years of my life. i went to great places for the first time, i saw two concerts that will forever be scorched in my mind as not only great gigs but great life experiences, i was able to actually hang out with personal heroes (and one of the hottest women alive), and i did so many things creatively that i was really happy about. what really made the year, though, was you guys. so, to the lovely new friends who i feel like i've known my whole life and the kids i've been proud to call friends for a while now: thank you from the bottom of my heart and the marrow in my bones. there's no other way to put it :) I usually make a list of my top 10 favorite things about the year. however, there are just too many for 2008, so forgive me if i cheat and expand to 15 :) 15. Prisoner of ABSCBaN! Last year was the first time I really dipped my feet into mainstream television, and it was quite... educating, to say the least. We did a pilot called "Petiks" which might not see the light of day and another show called "Parekoy", premiering Jan 8. The work was hard, but the moments between takes were a blast. 14. The Rock Awards and The QLE. People misunderstand the QLE as being a reaction against the Rock Awards, but I think they perfectly complement each other. The Rock Awards is more about the scene -- it's all these lovely people who make the same kind of music getting together and celebrating , while QLE is really more about celebrating everyone's personal preferences and sharing music you may have missed out on. I never got to thank everyone for the fun, small, intimate party that was the QLE, and it's gotta be said that this year's Rock Awards was one of my favorites. 13. Hello Commercials! this year was my favorite in terms of advertising output! did a lot of spots i was really happy about like PNB, the Belo ads and a hilariously insane insecticide ad. I also got to work with Pilita Corrales for Anlene. that chick is so fine. 12. Us-2 Evil-0: the band that i have to thank for a lot of the Rakista ideas. you have Boga the pickup guru, Mich the mental case (only when it comes to being replaced, Michelle!), Nix the reluctant heartthrob and of course, Wincy, my muse who unbeknownst to him is providing me with enough material for a novel. 11. Rakenrol will have been gestating for 4 years by February, and when it gets released I fear it may be a bit dated. But it's our baby anyway, and we'll always be very proud of it. 10. Asian Hotshots Berlin! the crazy parties. the food. the lovely people. the art. the graffiti. the really hot festival organizers. the kickass tour guides. the sunlight through the hostel window on cold mornings. the food. HAVING THE DIRECTOR OF NEKROMANTIK BUY ME BEER. it does not get any better than that. Ich bin ein Berliner! 9. Death Cab for Ciudad going to watch my favorite foreign band with my favorite local band : priceless. i wasn't a big fan of the last album so i thought i'd just be steady the whole time, then they started playing songs from The Photo Album and We Have The Facts And We're Voting Yes and I started screaming like a girl, hahaha. having mikey being screamed at in Chinese in the middle of a hawker center was lots of fun too. here: my New Year's gift to you. Death Cab doing "Title and Registration" 8. Goodbye Music Videos! so yeah, after an eye-opening music video project in the middle of the year i've decided to keep my dignity and semi-retire from making music videos. having said that, though, (and because you're all friends so i can say this without being too self-conscious) most of my favorite videos i've ever made were done this year, including Sandwich's "Procrastinator", Pupil's "Disconnection Notice", Urbandub's "Evidence", Sponge Cola's "Pasubali" and especially Taken by Cars' "Shapeshifter". Not a bad way to say goodbye :) 7. Rockeoke, as always, was the ultimate social networking tool. It's better than Facebook, I swear! Lots of lovely performances from you this year guys, and everything from Rockeoke Idol to MOMOL Night is a bit of a blur, but a good blur. Even better than the band Blur. 6. The Eraserheads Reunion just made me very happy to be Filipino. Eraserheads is unquestionably the greatest local band ever, and seeing tens of thousands sing along to their music just proved that. I consider myself immeasurably fortunate to have these people as my friends, but even these days I sometimes freeze up and get starstruck in the middle of conversations with Buddy, Ely or Raimund. 5. Dita Na Me, Wr Na U? From that awkward first dinner in the Japanese resto to the final moments hanging at the house, Dita Von Teese was a hurricane that went by quickly but left us all dazed in the aftermath. Her show was amazing, but hanging with her one realizes that she's also one of those people who are so nice that you start not getting sexually aroused by them. Yeah, she's THAT NICE. Love goes to her manager Melissa (since i am president of Melissa Fan Club Philippine chapter) and her main man Albert, who all my friends say is the most insane party animal they've encountered in their life. 4. Rockband. How can a videogame be better than all the things mentioned above? If you play "That's What You Get", "Monkey Gone to Heaven", "You're No Rock n' Roll Fun", "Kool Thing", "Maps" and "Brass in Pocket" on the Activision game, you just might understand. If you play it with the friends I have, drinking and cheering and tsismising between songs, you WILL understand. ya see that? two of my favorite things from 2008 come together. 3. I Heart NewYorckelodeon. It should be cool enough driving and bonding with my long lost cousins along the Los Angeles Highways. But then I get to go to the Nickelodeon Kids Choice awards. And then in the middle of the burger, pizza and Sundae buffet I run into Emile Hirsch, Jack Black, Ice T, Jodie Foster, Abigail Breslin and Cameron Diaz. Going to New York to visit my best friend would be enough to put this on the list as well. But then I go to a Wong Kar Wai and Ang Lee talk. And the next day I run into Tiffany Limos and Michel Gondry, and he loans 20 dollars off of me. Then I get to go to his house and stalk his DVD collection. In the middle of all this I get to watch Anathallo, Minus the Bear, Wolf Eyes, Kimya Dawson and Spoon. Dayum. 2. +/- Versus Manila Versus was one of those bands that changed the way I looked at music, and their single "Double Suicide" is one of my favorite songs ever. +/-, on the other hand, is a current fave, and the last two albums have ranked in my yearly top 5. Knowing that, if you ever told me that one day I would be treating them to Sizzling Bulalo and Pares somewhere in Anonas I wouldn't have believed you. They were such wonderful people, with killer senses of humor to boot. If that weren't enough their sets were so tight and heartfelt that they immediately became one of my most memorable concert experiences. This is +/- ending their set with my favorite song of theirs, Queen of Detroit. They asked us to start dancing onstage, which resulted in either hilarity or a showstopping, poignant moment in rock n' roll history. 1. Rakista was originally meant to be an indirect spinoff of our movie Rakenrol, instead it became an animal all its own. I was always aware that it was a very special thing and a fulfillment of a lifelong dream to a) create my own TV show with one of my best friends (diego), b)do whatever the hell i want with almost no intrusion whatsoever, c)get everyone from my beloved students (like king, zig and mihk) to my personal idols (RA and yvette) to some of my longtime best friends (like erwin, ramon and mikey) to write and direct, d) get two of my favorite songwriters of all time (mikey and diego mapa) to write the music, e)discover my own ramon bautista in wincy, f)work with such a great production team, g)make stories on national TV about very personal things like English teachers i fell in love with and the Eraserheads reunion and most especially h)manage to put in a murder mystery, ninjas and zombies (and cast good friends like JC, Wanggo and Audrey as them as well) into the plot as we went along. I remember telling Sharon and Pong at one point that I was really fulfilled with Rakista, and that I was just relishing every moment because I knew it would be too good to last. Just like Penniless 2008. Happy New Year, y'all. Current Music: MGMT - Electric Feel Tags: lists, personal, yearend

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October 18th, 2008

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August 13th, 2008

12:19 pm - quick plug again! so sad, i'm just using this elchay to plug shit. alas... this is wincy ong. he is just one of the many talented stars of RAKISTA, our new TV show airing this Thursday on TV5 at 7pm. The show was created by Diego Castillo and me, with the lovely Mads Adrias as executive producer. Directors for the program are me, drywall, edsel abesames, RA Rivera, hoykingcoy, and of course, the supahstah x_boyfriend. with writing by me, diego, erwin romulo, king, zig, yvette tan and sleepless this is dita von teese, lying on my bed. just sharing :) edit: oh and wow we appeared on perez! double yoo tee eff! Current Music: mikey singing the instrumental of pity and fear

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May 6th, 2008

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