many thanks to lawrence and the other very cool people at inquirer.net for having us on their webcast show called soundtrip!
http://www.inquirer.net/vdo/player.php?vid=2052
see how awkward it is to sing in front of a camera without a mic haha. happy holidays!
-owel
| Start: | Dec 10, '08 6:00p |
| Location: | Route 196, Katipunan Ave, QC |
HERE come the cranky old men, sourgraping about how the under-appreciated geniuses of our time aren’t paid any attention.
You know what I’m talking about—people who blog about how blablabla should’ve won and how blearghiebleargh got the nom simply because they ladidad. But let’s face it—awards based on numbers aren’t exactly the most reliable ones; and I know for a fact that 90 percent of text votes for a certain band in this year’s Rock Awards came from only two cell phone numbers.
It just so happened that during one party Erwin Romulo, Luis Katigbak and I were sitting around and pointing out people who were really talented yet never seemed to get any loving from the RA. In other words, we were old man sourgraping. We decided to do something about it, and agreed to collectively write small tributes to our favorites this year.
Hence, the QLE Awards.
Before I begin, I’d just like to clarify that I love the NU Rock Awards. I’ve even written two and directed one. But controversy is always great, so why not use that to highlight and point towards some of the artists who have truly touched us this year?
Best new artist
[Erwin] Intolerant AND Loss Of Control
Just because they’re metal and they don’t give a f**k.
[Luis] Ang Bandang Shirley
They’re not rock gods or avant-garde experimentalists—they’re the people that you meet, when you’re walking down the street, each day. Except that they have an enormous talent for impeccable pop tunes and quirky-heartfelt lyrics. And enormous appetites as well.
[Quark] Taken by Cars
A lot of people accuse Taken by Cars of ripping Bloc Party off. I say they’re better than Bloc Party. “Endings of A New Kind” is the kind of debut that feels like it was made after years of meshing and collaborating as artists, and individually the instrumentalists have that perfect balance of standing out yet sounding completely organic.
Album covers
[Erwin] Up Dharma Down - Bipolar
Not as genuinely complex and dazzling as the band’s music contained within, but it sure does a neat job of inviting us into it.
[Luis] Ang Bandang Shirley - Themesongs
C’mon. That Pepper Roxas cover is all sorts of adorable.
[Quark] Up Dharma Down - Bipolar
....
P.S. It should also be noted that some of our choices, including Ang Bandang Shirley and Up Dharma Down, were not eligible for the Rock Awards this year.
i'm sure you've always wondered why there are eight of us in ang bandang shirley, and some of you may have come across the explanation that we'd like to play at gigs even with one or two less band members present and be able to maintain our sound. throughout our stint together, we've had various experiences with shirley permutations. some of them worked, some of them were enough for a certain gig's purposes, and quite a few of them were failed experiments in bravado that just ended in us retreating to our band corner in shame. these attempts have been necessary since our members' lifestyles are so varied, and thus we have different resources to draw from for shirley commitment: jing, kathy and zig have respectable office day jobs, heidi owns her own company, ean and owel are/were/etc.(?) in school, joe is "on sabbatical", and i'm leveraging my personal talents to scrape away a living as an editing whore. eventually, there's going to be a scheduling disaster somewhere along the way.
so we've been trying to figure out ways to make do. there were times when kathy and i would talk of never again accepting an owel-less gig because the boy-girl harmonies have become such an important element in the shirley sound. i believe, though, that we're finally getting into a stripped-down groove when it comes to playing with less members. owel can always sing without me because he wrote the first few songs with just his own voice in mind, and those Rizal Day Session versions were quite lovely, too. joe and ean are starting to own the "boy" parts when they're absolutely necessary, and hey, OH YEAH, we have ean and jing songs, too, that we can play live to serve as a rare treat for our lucky audience. haha.
shirley stripped has never been more severely tested than at our last two gigs. we were supposed to play at terno inferno with an already-pared-down lineup of me, ean, joe, zig and jing because owel and heidi had family matters to attend to. imagine our panic when jing called us up to say he had to cancel because of an emergency. but for some reason, the other boys said, "let's go," so we pushed through with the set with just zig on drums, ean on bass, joe on guitar and me on vox. it was very unnerving because we hadn't practiced some of the songs, but saguijo's patrons were kind to us, and some even bought our albums, which terno was selling outside, after our set. YAY. kathy was so proud of our professionalism, and i think we all felt elated by the fact that we pulled it off and had fun in the process.
also, for the very first time in history, that night's entire shirley entourage fit into zig's tiny little sedan on our way home. INTENSE!!!
the most recent shirley stripped set was held at last night's happy mondays event at mag:net katipunan. jing was part of the poetry reading segment of the program, performing a bass solo to his poem and future-shirley-song "pulso". after that, we set up onstage with just owel, me, ean on guitar and jing on bass. heidi and kathy were there that night, too, but only for moral support (which we greatly appreciated, of course). because we hadn't been able to practice our songs with that setup, we had to do on-the-spot rearrangements that resulted in fun, distorted, quirky versions that made us laugh onstage. however, mag:net denizens seemed impressed with and appreciative of our earnestness, so the set was a success.
anyway... ang galing ng mga kabanda ko! hahaha. i LOVE them. that's not to say that we can always play with less members, nor that we've got the stripped setup down pat already. many factors come into play when we accept or decline gigs. but i promise that the desire to play is always there, and i'm just happy that at least for some gigs, becoming a less-large band isn't that much of a hindrance anymore.
- selena
| Tuesday, November 11, 2008 |
| ALBUM REVIEW |
| Giving you your very own theme song |
| By Angelique P. Manalad, Contributor Influenced by local bands and other artists they describe their music as that of Broken Social Scene if they listened to the Eraserheads, a happier Jeff Buckley with Dong Abay’s street smarts, Sugarfree’s heart inside the baby of Radiohead and Feist. But they were able to imbibe their own flavor making it uniquely their own. Owel Alvero, Selena Salang, Ean Aguila, Joe Fontanilla, Jing Gaddi, Heidi Pascual, Zig Rabara and Kathy Gener makes up the band with Alvero being the chief lyricist together with Gaddi and Aguila. Composed of 11 tracks sure to give you a dose of feel-good vibe, the eight-member band opens the album with the infectious “Kagabi Natulog Si Morrisey Na May Nagmamahal Sa Kanya.” It talks about a common dream for all the loveless out there, making you feel that Morrisey is your real name. Even the not-so-happy song “Masamang Damo” is delivered in an up-beat manner that will surely make you keep your cool even faced with that person you both hate and love. Bringing that Oh-so-OPM feel are their tracks such as “Patintero/Habulan/Larong Kalye” which transports everyone back to those afternoons playing in the streets with that kababata you secretly had a crush on. “Ang Pag-Ibig Alinsunod Sa Karanasan Ng Isang Pangkaraniwang Jeepney Driver A.K.A Tsuper Duper” is a catchy song where you’ll find yourself singing along with that repetitive line, “Basta driver sweet lover yeah,” there’s definitely a song for everyone. ”Maari ba kitang makasayaw? O di kaya kahit upo lang muna tayo habang inaantay yung ating magiging themesong?”—lines from the title track “Themesong” makes you reminisce that awkward moment of the most awaited night of JS prom or other dances that you’ve been to. Summing up the emotions of uncertainty and the beauty of young innocent love was captured by Alvero. The comic “Sasamahan Ka Pa Rin” describes the foolish side of love that most people are guiltily of. Most of us experienced those cold Yuletide seasons that Bandang Shirley sympathize with their song “Xmas lights” to expertly describe that longing feeling during those twinkly nights of December. “Sa Madaling Salita” which was used as the soundtrack of the independent film Endo, a love song that’ll make you swoon with the sincerity overload with the vocal arrangement given by the band. Salang and Alvero were able to blend the contrast of their voices resulting to that harmonious end that love can definitely bring. “Bato” is a song that talks of that last moment where the clock is ticking towards the end of the relationship making it the perfect selection as the parting track of the album. Themesongs is made for every Filipino out there who has experienced the joys and sorrows of love, a must-have for anyone searching for that perfect theme song to accompany you at that certain moment of luck or mishap in the game of love. |
hi guys! long time no post, i've been sick and the band's been busy. i just wanted to share this pic of last night's performance with you. way to go selena! (pic by joey alvero)
our good friend jaton zulueta who's in new york right now because it's a lot cooler to be a struggling writer in new york than a struggling writer in the philippines (haha i love you jaton sorry about this picture) is making up for his inability to attend saturday's party with an incredible post about running around central park and loving fried food and getting onto TFC, with the incredibly compelling title "why you should get an ang bandang shirley album" haha. | Start: | Oct 25, '08 7:00p |
| End: | Oct 26, '08 |
| Location: | Kolektib, Cubao Expo, QC |
"Di Ko Ma-take"
many many thanks to the very tall marian hernandez for the kind words and the needed exposure!
Hello guys! 
Anyway while most of you are still waiting for the chance to hear the album in its entirety...here's something to quench your excitement haha our first single off the album titled: "Themesong" should be playing on your favorite radio stations this week so please please please help us spread the love that is ang bandang shirley music by requesting for it. The video will also be soon debuting on MYX and MTV.
binigyan ko si chris walla ng copy ng themesongs last night. haha. ang surreal mag-sing-a-long to death cab for cutie for real. si ben gibbard hindi na mukhang indieboy! naalala ko si jing kay nick harmer haha.
love, kathy g.
at around 1pm yesterday, wifey ava&i drove to sm north to pick up kathy so we could get the newly printed and folded shirley digipaks. upon picking up kathy at the rendezvous point, we immediately proceeded to the printing press somewhere in bago bantay behind sm north. after glossing over the finished product, our excitement levels had tipped off for we knew it wouldn't be long until themesongs will finally be released. after picking up the precious cargo, we drove on down to salcedo village in "where-the-heck-are-we?" makati to deliver the goods to toti d's condo. he'll then bring it to the cd pressers for replication and packaging, and in a couple of weeks, it will really be out.
The past few months had me learning a lot of stuff about printing i never knew that one day i will be forced to learn about haha. Masarap na pakiramdam ang sense of fulfillment from doing things on your own even if it's taxing. haha. Eto yan kase kanina i went to the printing company that will print the band's album packaging (design by ms. Pepper Roxas yo!) Explained that we wanted a "back printing" meaning printing ng uncoated side ng foldcote paper for a rough texture so without lamination and then i paid the downpayment. Tas habang sinusulat nun girl yung receipt nangingiti ako mag-isa kase wow ang dami kong natutunan ngayon. haha. Ang weird ko. haha
Anyway what i really wanted to say is this: After i get the digital proof next week tas 10 days tas pressing na tas konting tiis na lang talaga malapit na lumabas yung Themesongs! haha nakakatakot :)
love, kathy g.
this morning, i turned on the tv after a round of pilates, resting before breakfast. i was flipping channels lazily when i landed on MTV and saw a very familiar face in profile -- owel! our video, "sa madaling salita" was playing on MTV... and not in the wee hours of the morning, but at prime-time 9AM! woohoo!
so our helpers and edwina and i crowded around the tv, laughing at how fat i was at the beginning of the year (hehehe). there i was, huffing and puffing in earnest, there went heidi with her hands and fingers splayed out like chicken wings, there was ean's "L for love" hand pose at the second chorus...
when the video is finished, mom comes down from upstairs and says, "you looked nice in that video." hahaha i love you, mom.
anyway, just wanted to share how pleasantly surprised i was to see that video on MTV months after we stopped promoting it for Endo. i hope it picks up again, though, cuz our album is almost almost ALMOST there. we have about 10 meters left to the finish line. i think it would help very much if all our friends could take a few minutes out of their schedules to do this simple little ritual i made up and help us visualize our way to an expedited album release:
1. find a quiet corner. sit in it. if you can't find one, imagine a quiet corner inside your mind where you will be able to shut out all unnecessary stimuli. find that corner and sit in it (figuratively speaking).
2. take a few deep breaths until you are very, very, very relaxed. do this until your mind begins to empty itself of all irrelevant thoughts.
3. picture in your mind the faces of each member of ang bandang shirley. allot about 3 seconds for each (making sure to silently add "mississippi" after each number to ensure the correct passage of time). sequence is of no consequence. if you're not sure what the members of ang bandang shirley look like, please refer to the pictures at the top of our multiply site. also, if you'd like, feel free to interchange someone's face with the appropriate approximation (e.g. jing gaddi may be replaced with the image of the bearded viking hat-wearing man on dragonball z; heidi may be replaced with catherine zeta-jones; i may be replaced with tyra banks; and so on...).
4. picture a 5x5.75inch "square" of white light dancing before you and slowly repeat the word "themesongs" over and over again.
5. when you have found this mantra fading away, replace it with "august 2008", again saying it until it fades away.
6. open your eyes. you're done! thanks! we're *this* much closer to getting our album out because of you! :)
- selena
Ciudad is coming out with their fourth studio album, "Bring Your Friends". We've loved their live renditions for the past year or so, so we can't wait to hear them over our headphones this month! Copies will be available at this month's Attraction! Reaction! at Route 196, Katipunan, Q.C. The band will also be playing that night. Yay!
themesongs (one word haha)