Music + Film

Music and film are what I love the most (aside from culinary).  And because of music, I was able to meet budding filmmakers.  How rad is that?  I strongly encourage them to pursue their dreams since they're just starting.  Upon seeing some of their works, I'm astonished!  See it for yourself.  Great job, Joel and JR!

And, oh, I really love Monochrome's music.  It zones you out and brings you to your world of imagination.

Artist: Monochrome

Live performance for Buzz Night prod at Freedom Bar

Video by Joel Trinidad 

Artist: ACiDiCE
Song: Scalawag
Director/PD: Ace Castillo
DOP: JR Dalisay
CAMOP: Gian Carlo Maglasang
Post: Cheeno Orbida
PM: Katrina Saurin

Wanderland 2013!

Karpos Multimedia Inc. will be bringing in some great acts this May 18th at the Globe Circuit Event Grounds (formerly known as Sta. Ana Race Track) in Makati.  That would be a great chance to hear and see The Temper Trap, Neon Trees, Nada Surf, Avalanche City, Colour Coding, Tully On Tully play live as well as local acts such as Up Dharma Down, Yolanda Moon, Pulso, Taken By Cars and She's Only Sixteen !  How cool is that?  This is one heck of a day-long music festival in the city.

Gates open by 11AM and I'm going to be there, pronto!  How I wish I could avail a ticket at this time.  A ticket costs Php 4,800.  Need to do some more work to earn some more cash for this event.  I'm skipping Aerosmith's concert over this one.  This is much more worth seeing.  :)

Tickets are available in SM Tickets, TicketNet and TicketWorld.  They say tickets are limited.  I wish I could afford to purchase one now!  I'm on a budget for an upcoming trip next week, so I'm hoping there are still tickets available the week after next (or so).  Fingers crossed!  

I'm Currently Listening To...

...Mumford and Sons "I Will Wait" that played live on SNL where Joseph Gordon-Levitt recently hosted.  The song reached number two on Jam 88.3's chart.  Great song! :)  I just learned how to play this on guitar last night and it's so fulfilling.

Because I find Marcus Mumford cool and cute (and huggable hihi), I was totally surprised that he's two years younger than I am!  He's just 25.  Born on January 31, 1987.  I thought he's around 35 up.  And, wait, what?!  He's married to Carey Mulligan (ex-girlfriend of my dear Shia LaBeouf) after five months of dating!  I really don't believe on long engagements or years of dating.  They really look good together.  Bless their hearts :D

Okay, enough of the cheesy part..

Here's another band that I really love and their "Breathing Underwater" is currently on number 5 at Jam 88.3's chart.  Metric is a new wave-indie rock formed back in 1998.  Some of their hits include Dead Disco and Sick Muse among others.  The sweet voice of Emily Haines along with the moving beats (that really reminds me of '80s music..i'm a sucker for '80s music and films) and synthesizer is way cool.

How I wish I could write and play this kind of music.  Some day.  Some day.  :)

Gigs This Week

It's been a while since I last went to a gig.  I badly need to hear new music and see great bands play these days.  Gladly there are two events that will make me feel right.  Hope to see you there! :)

Poster by Team Manila starring Jun Sabayton

Hand lettering: Wiji Lacsamana

Creative Guild of the Philippines

presents

LAKIHAN MO LOGO 20

September 13, Thursday the 13th. 

Bawal ang 'di magrelax. 8pm 

sa Craft Pub & Grill sa FORT STRIP. 

featuring 

Franco

itchyworms 

Moonstar88

Billy GaGa

Talata 

Pasok mga Bwitre

The Discoball

Halik ni Gringo

Marty Mcfly 

Peso Movement

Ultra Marine Weather

Kelvin and co.

Poster and Photo by: APueblo

GBOM Prod presents

REMEMBER SEPTEMBER

featuring independent bands from the metro:
Peace Pill

ACW

Laya

Spoonbender

Chimera

Tabass

ProxyPrexy

The Roxymorrons

September 15, 2012, Saturday

Php 120

8pm

Amos Cafe, Kamias Road, Quezon City

This Week's Playlist

Just thought of sharing you guys my recent playlist for a week now.  Love these artists.  Their music is so real and pure which what it should be all about.

Emiliana Torrini tops my playlist and the song above is entitled "Gun" (one of my favorite songs that I can dance to).  There's no official video up to date, so I embedded the best one I saw online.  She's from Iceland but now based in London.  Her voice captivated me as well as her musical style.  It's like she's bringing you closer to nature at the same time drawing you near her thoughts.  I somewhat see Bjork in her.  (BTW, it's not her on the video).

I've been playing and singing this song on my guitar especially when I'm feeling down.  As I interpreted this song, I'm asking for His guidance and for strength to pass through this phase.  Lissie's voice is so strong that you can definitely feel right through you every single word that she sings.  Her country/folk/rock genre really gives me that euphoric glow.

This Norwegian singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist definitely brings sexy back.  Bernhoft (Jarle Bernhoft)  caught my attention because of his mad music skills!  One-man band?  Yeah!  He's one of the greatest musicians (multi-instrumentalists) today.  He sounds so perfect!

And finally, Lenny Kravitz sums up my list today.  "I'll Be Waiting" is one of my favorite songs aside from "Are You Gonna Go My Way?" "American Woman,"Fly Away," "Again" among others.  Need to say more about this guy?  He's one of the hottest and talented musicians around! :)

I Love Gossip

Been battling insomnia for weeks now and I thought that listening (yep, not watching) to my YouTube playlist will put me into sleep, but no, it just fired up my wits.  One of the videos/music that caught my attention (after a long time of not playing those that I compiled under this playlist) was from Gossip entitled "Standing In The Way Of Control".  Gawd.  How I miss this band.  I haven't played their music for a while.

"Standing in the way of control
Yeah live your lives
By the only way that you know, know"

Beth Ditto is hot and she rocks!  I thought of sharing this video with The Plump Pinay since I strongly believe on their advocacy that beauty is in all shapes and sizes.  I hope they, and their followers, would love Gossip's music and Beth Ditto.  She exudes confidence, beauty and talent.

Photo by Lee Broomfieldhttp://www.gossipyouth.com/us/official-photos/43

"Just Like The Sky" on "Flat Whites"

It was nice of Max (director) for including our band's song on his latest Flat Whites episode.  That just gave me chills!  I blame myself for confusing him on who to put on the credits because of the way I filled up the form he sent me.  But anyway, it's fine with us since Siegfried is our bandmate and he composed the song anyway.  :)

I've shared this episode on my wall though all links referring to this video mysteriously disappeared!  We were frantic and thought that the episode was banned by Facebook.  We thought that having ***** on titles will automatically ban your from the site.  But my blog's page on the said social media site was having glitches where all my links for the month of June were gone as well, so, maybe that wasn't the case. Everything went back several minutes after, and we all had a good laugh after watching this episode.

Does Phil's dad remind you of someone?  LOL.  Go watch.  I might spoil the rest of this episode if I go on.

Phil meets his father and discovers an awful family secret! 

Feat. Christian Heath, Tom Bonington & Catherine Nathalie Delaloye. Director: Max De Bowen. Music composed by Siegfried Torres Montero & performed by his band Soft Pillow Kisses. MaxFilm 2012.

Farewell, Mr. Richard Y. Tan

Tears are welling on my eyes right now, thinking of last night's visit at Boss Chard's wake, having read the articles about his untimely passing, and me looking back on my good ol' Backbeat days.

--

June 3, Sunday, I forced myself to get off the bed since I want to head home before lunch time even if I only had 3-hour sleep .  I grabbed my phone to check the time, but there was a text message from an unknown number asking if Richard Tan's dead.  I was shocked.  Knowing that he was rushed to the hospital five days ago, I was scared of the news.  Allan (former boss: subordinate to Richard, and bandmate: Soft Pillow Kisses) confirmed it to me when I called right after reading the text, and so I rushed to Cardinal Santos Hospital where they're at.  It was 8AM, three hours after Boss Chard had left us all.

Boss Chard lost his battle against meningitis, but the cause of his untimely passing was cardiac arrest.

photo by Nina Sandejas
Richard Y. Tan
Nov. 24, 1964 - June 3, 2012

It was just yesterday afternoon, in the middle of a meeting, when suddenly I felt so bad that I just wanted to cry.  It's just then when I realized that I'm deeply affected by Boss Chard's passing.  I wasn't able to visit Sunday night since I was tied with my family, so I was thankful that all my scheduled work for this week was moved to other dates.  I then headed straight to Sanctuarium knowing that I could stay up late.

Familiar faces were at the wake: artists/bands, colleagues and boss Richard's family.  Gladly, I have John who was more than willing to accompany me at Sanctuarium.  We went straight to Allan the moment we arrived who was then attending to some guests.  He then ushered us inside to see Richard.  I remembered Allan asking me if I was strong enough to see Richard.  I told him yes but as soon as I saw Boss Chard lying peacefully in his coffin, tears started to flow uncontrollably down my cheeks and I tried to keep my composure as I walked away.  It's pretty difficult seeing the person that you respect and look up to in that state.

As I was seated right beside Allan, I remember telling him that Richard is a well-respected man, after having read several articles and blog posts about him.  Then he asked me if I've blogged about boss Chard.  I shrugged.  I told him "hindi ko pa yata kaya" (I think I still can't do it).  But here I am, blogging about one of the greatest bosses I've ever had, Richard Y. Tan.

We were never close.  But I can definitely attest to the fact that he had helped a lot of people in one way or another.  He, along with Allan, helped me a lot too.  Aside from shoots and gigs or anything about the business, Boss Chard and I talked about food and music.  He even wanted to put up his own restaurant and even invited me over to cook for them, but, unfortunately, I wasn't able to do so since I'm only available during weekends.  He may be under the radar on concerts or gigs, but his presence was important.  He'll be missed, definitely, especially by his nephews that he loves so much.

Thank you, boss Chard, for trusting me.  That means a lot to this day.  Rock the heaven for us!  You will forever be remembered.


--

For those who wanted to pay respect to the late Richard Y. Tan, his wake is at Sanctuarium Q.Ave corner Araneta Ave., Hyacinth 212.  Interment will be this Sunday, June 10, 2012.

And so, I'm back!

Music has always been my remedy, whether I'm sad, depressed, or when in a bad mood.  Since I'm now free from all the hassles in life (aka 8-hour desk job), I went back to my old self--surrounding myself with art as it defines me.  I recently went back on doodling, then tried sketching, now painting, which later led me to make-up; then went to auditions to try acting once more; focused on my culinary and baking skills, and fortunately, I was destined to be back in my loved band Soft Pillow Kisses.

Funny thing is, whenever people find out that I'm in a band, they connect it to being in a "rock" band, you know, all the attitude, beats, and all that.  Nothing against with rock bands (I'm a big rock music enthusiast, mind you), but they should bear in mind that being in a band doesn't equate to being a rockstar.  It's totally different.  We're totally different.

Soft Pillow Kisses is an indie pop-shoegaze band.  Never heard of it, I assume.  Honestly, I have no idea about the said genre prior to joining the band.  I was just tapped by my former boss (now bandmate) to try it out, and I instantly fell in love.  The lyrics, the music were so divine and so beautifully made.

We recently played at Sazi's to jumpstart Buzz Night on 2012, and at '70s Bistro along with Sandwich, Kamikazee, Franco, Alex in Wonderland, and Talata.  Hoping for more gigs to come.

Below are some videos taken years ago..

Pomplamoose

A friend of mine shared this video to me last year, and I was completely hooked.  I love their music so much, I instantly turned to be one of their biggest fans.  Whenever I get to like or love something, I can't keep my mouth shut and kept talking about it whenever I get the chance, that's why I'm blogging it now!  I, seriously, should work in advertising or marketing companies because I can effectively pursuade people to check out stuff.  Ha! 

The geniuses behind Pomplamoose are Nataly Dawn and Jack Conte.  They are a real-life couple too, just so you know, which I think is cute. They came up with their band name through a wordplay of grapefruit's French term pamplemousse.  Band name is very important as it describes the type of music the artists makes.  And they have a nice name for their type of music..I so love it.  Very catchy, worth remembering.  :)

Pomplamoose's music is dainty, simple yet catchy, and nostalgic in a sense that it kind of gives me this feeling of living in the '50s even if I was born in the mid-'80s that, at the same time, gives a modern feel to it.  I was completely drawn on Nataly's voice.  It's so suave and pleasant.  Oh, and she plays guitar and bass too!  Jack's musical chops definitely puts an edge to their music.  He's so skilled and talented that's why I envy him for playing almost all instruments that I know of!  Crazy!  Crazy good!  His edginess puts the groove onto their music.  The lyrics were well written--witty yet deep.  Very realistic approach on the lyrics that anyone could easily relate to.  And their videosong?  Gawd, those are awesome!  I don't know if Jack created 'videosong' where what you see is what you hear.  Genius.  Hands down.

What I like most on this indie band is their humility.  Imagine having 303,161 YouTube subscribers, 87,256 likes on Facebook and 30,459 followers on Twitter, they still manage to keep grounded. 

Early this year, Nataly and Jack created an online show where they get to play acoustic versions of their songs live and answered questions from thousands of fans that gathered on their site.  They even had polls so that the fans get to have a say on what song should they be playing at the end of each show, and even had small contests like having a fan call their mobile phone (where Jack gave out his number or whoever owns that phone) to personally ask a question.  Surprisingly, they have haters!  Pomplamoose is way too adorable to hate.  Geesh.  I guess those haters are bored and annoying people is their way of fun.  Anyway, their show was like a stand-up comedy and live music rolled into one--more like of a late night show kind of thing.  It was fun but they had to put an end to it so that they could focus more on recording their upcoming album.

This is one of the artists that I really listen and look up to.  Go spread their music.  <3