The Secret of Happy Bands

I just read an interview with TC of Stars and I loved his views on art and politics. But the effect on me is some internal thing that can’t really be expressed in words so never mind that…

 

What struck me most (and is relevant to this blog) is how he described their songwriting process. He said what works for them is having a Taste Leader who, after everyone has banged everything out of his or her instrument (ooo), says “I’m satisfied” and that will be that, since everyone generally trusts his judgment.

 

I agree. I think different flavors/influences within a band is healthy and makes for some intersting nights out with alcohol (haha), but it helps to believe in someone who can take everyone in a direction that satisfies everyone simply because they all have faith in that person’s musical taste. It’s just simpler that way.

 

Which is one of the reasons why we are happy.

- selena

extracurriculars

In the philippines, it is rare (though not impossible) to be in a band and just "be" in a band. That is, to be in a band all the time, as opposed to being in a band and having work and school and other things to do - and more often than not, even if you want to "be" in a band those other things come first and being in the band has to wait.

We here at ang bandang shirley all want to be in the band all the time, but of course things happen and tonight i'm at home typing this post instead of destroying cafe saguijo haha.

Atty. gaddi is out of town because of work, emmanuel david "emong" cabrera aguila has his hands full because of his musical directorship of the upcoming damas de noche musical this weekend (watch watch!). joe and zig are zapped because of work. selena probably needs the rest more than a sessionist-laden shirley performance, and a lineup of me, heidi and kathy g. probably won't do much destroying.

I wanna gig na ulet.

As per the last post, yeah we were on the radio and it was a lot of fun! I got to wake up at 4:45 in the morning to hitch a ride with Memphis of RJUR to the station and there i spent most of the show "wooooo" -ing into the mic. That was fun. I can't wait for the time when the whole band can afford to just shirley all the time, so that all 8 of us could be "wooooo" -ing into the mic.

inaantok na ako pero walang nagpopost

-owel

09:11 am - "the smart band" hahahahahaha

 

shirley was on rj underground this morning. owel woke up really early and he called me at about 545am to ask me what i wanted from burger machine. i said i needed to take a bath hahaha.

i was out of the house by 610 and got a cab despite morning rush. the atmosphere in the booth was really relaxed and we were just talking and laughing and teasing and i don't really know if it made entertaining radio, but WE were certainly having fun.

when ean arrived, i could only stay a few minutes, and i really didn't want to go because there was another whole hour to waste away but the boss expected me at work by 830 so...

... tore myself away at 815 for a sprint to citibank center and i barely made it to grace period! continued listening to bandmates on my player and shocked officemates several times by lauging out LOUD suddenly hahaha. this only confirmed what they've suspected for a really long time....

now it's back to the real world.

+++

rewind to staurday. had lunch with the joyluck club at mom and tina's. things will be ok.

kathy invited me to a screening of cinemanila that night. they changed the schedule! we ended up watching waitress, which was ok. it touched me in some ways. quietly. then i became depressed for the rest of the weekend (but part of that was the hormone pills).

+++

but the point of this whole story is: thank god for my support group.

+++

"i love you all. i love the world--- despite what it's done to me!!!"

haha.

 

- selena

Ang Bandang Shirley - Bato

ang bandang shirley. terno inferno @ saguijo. may 30, 2007.

debut ni versus. haha.

10:03 Friday Night

was able to tune in to NU last night to catch the first slew of wbob bands. although shirley's "masamang damo" didn't get played, the dj said they'll be airing more songs from the other bands in the coming wbob segments on NU. guests on the wbob show were pulp head honcho vernon go and wbob founder new zealand guy who was simply introduced as "andrew". in between playing wbob entries (which vernon and andrew picked randomly), they explained the rudiments of wbob. who will get to play in the face-off in november will be those who wil garner the most number of text votes. i think they will narrow it down to 3 or 4 bands.

vernon also said that, they will periodically drop bands who get the least number of text votes. like every two weeks or so they'll check the voting tally and the band/s with the least votes get eliminated. if my memory serves me right, the songs/bands they played last night were (in order): The Best Mistake - Angulo, Time of My Life - Alibata, The Test - Imbue No Kudos, Labistori - Spinach (a late entry, hence wala sa initial list of bands), I Am - Lucille. they capped the night with a song by last year's wbob winner Jaggedy Ann, which i didn't bother to listen to anymore because i was so damn sleepy already.

the morning after (that's today), i did some research and discovered that Jaggedy Ann is a las vegas based all-girl quartet who plays AC/DC-influenced rock. in fact their debut album Boiling Point was produced by AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd. here's their myspace if you want to check them out: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=2159344

=jing=

mass text, wbob

kagabi (last night)

i sent a mass text to people in my phonebook who i thought would most probably go through the trouble of listening to the radio to hear one of shirley's songs

mali pala yung alam ko na oras (apparently the time that i thought was right was wrong)

so bandmate jing texted NU107 and the reply was that the wbob songs would be played at 10pm and not 8pm as i had originally texted and i was contemplating whether i should send another mass text saying "10pm pala" or something of the sort

pero nakatulog na ako (but i fell asleep already)

- owel

territorial

dear diary,

it was was another nice shirley weekend! friday night was lagare night meaning we were scheduled to play 2 gigs in 2 diff venues. heidi coundn't make it so both sets were keyboard-less. we played first at route 196 for weng weng nite and the the setlist was: themesong, tsuper...they were about to play sa madaling salita when our favorite band taken by cars requested for christmas lights! got awestruck that the guys played it right away even if it wasn't on the setlist. haha. played sa madaling salita after, then our wbob entry masamang damo, and bato for encore.

but a weird thing happened right after the set: a woman which i think was drunk w/ long bleach streaked hair went up to me introduced herself asked for my name held my hands and told me: "you're beautiful!" i almost fell off my seat and got dumbstruck (for no one has ever told me i'm beautiful and that she was a woman like me haha) but i said thank you and was shaken the whole night. haha.

anyway the 2nd gig was at bigskymind for yey friday. played last and the setlist was:  madaling salita, themesong, tsuper duper, masamang damo, sasamahan ka parin! and bato should have been the last song because hank from bigskymind was signaling for it to be the last song (it was already 3am!) but owel didn't get to hear him right and so they continued and played noodles which i think captured everyone's heart. haha.

the other shirleys went home after, while owel and i stayed. we saw JP (mr. route 196 hehe) and he graciously treated us to a round of beer. a bit more drunker, we bonded w/ our engineer joey and his lady love maite and listened intently as he told us their magical love story. haha. we rode w/ them to edsa and along the way joey thought of burger machine and again was treated to free a meal. owel unashamedly asked for double bart burger while i only ordered sansrival. haha.

owel and i got off at edsa and rode the bus home but caught traffic in south super highway. the traffic was awful and heard stories of a car flying. we even changed seats inside the bus beside the windows to see the catastrophe but none of us got to see it because i think we slept through it. haha.

the next day, saturday was the pulp photoshoot for the wbob competition: the band waited along the corridors of grey area studios and bonded over wigs (which joe brought!) while video shooting and picture taking w/ raymond gutierrez and oogling at georgina wilson.

the shoot was fast and we think ours was the most innovative and stupid looking of all the other band photos haha. we can't wait to see it on pulp magazine.  

and as per ang bandang shirley's most favorite activity: we ate at sango after the shoot (2nd time that day for me and owel) and feasted on their delicious burgers, amusingly watched the japanese version of david blaine on tv and made beautiful origamis and tear-a-gamis haha and scheduled our own band photoshoot.

after eating we decided to call it a day went on our separate lakads--the others to katipunan, heidi and melvene i think went home, selena to landmark and zig and i tagged along w/ the gaddis to fully booked the fort and ate at mr. kebab after.

at 9pm i finally got home, saw my parents eating dinner (they were in a good mood i think) because they didn't even questioned my sudden reappearance a day after haha so it was indeed a nice weekend!

that is all.

but sunday is depressing me.

love,
kath-g!

wbob photoshoot

8-3-07. grey areas studios for the photoshoot then to sango for lunch.

stage frustration, kg

i don't mean to be the bad guy but often there are things that happen during a gig where i lose control of my temper momentarily and want to reprimand people haha. i know last night was not an isolated thing because i've made bandmates cry before (upfair 2004? 05? i'm not sure) and i've been confronted more than once about it and i know i really should be a lot calmer onstage and they're just songs and mistakes don't really mean the end of the world haha, but i dunno it's not me doing the reprimanding hahaha

i know it's just not me, either. i haven't seen it personally but ean keeps telling these stories of some bandmember having these spats of just kicking bandmates, or giving evil stares cause of mistakes or being off time or out of tune or something. and i don't think ean and i can forget that rivermaya gig where rico was just kicking his pedalboard and then kicking the roadie who was trying to fix the problem with the pedalboard hahaha (i remember thinking "wow idol ko sya" hahahaha)

and i don't know usually i'm a pretty stubborn person but i feel guilty when i lose it with shirley haha awww cue sappy music.  sorry bandmates you know who you are hahaha

and in other news kevin garnett is now a celtic. boston now has paul pierce, ray allen, and kevin garnett. wow. that's the sound of the balance of power shifting. hahahaha ang weird ng english.

nasa akin ang kapangyarihang sakupin ang buong mundo pero di ko kayang sakupin ang puso mo,

-owel