we've been gigging a lot recently and our set has been mutating, featuring different permutations of old vs new songs. also, sickness and wealth issues have caused some of members to miss a few gigs. this post is dedicated to the ang bandang shirley extended family members: mikko quizon of abs combo, as well as mikey amistoso and justin sunico of ciudad.
more gigs to come, more new songs to learn, more family haha labo
-owel
(pictures by joey alvero, brendan goco, and luis buenaventura II)
the track opens with a very frustrated zig drumming the ending of the song and then making a mistake and throwing his sticks angrily hahaha. see, themesongs was made differently from most albums (im guessing normal bands use metronomes hehe) because we didn't use any metronomes for the album, all the drums were recorded from zig's memory. honestly that was an amazing two sessions of recording, just watching zig pound away at the drums, with no other instruments. sometimes i'd play along on a guitar, but the early love one another studio setup did not allow for comfortable headphone placement for the drummer, so we had to make do. and then the whole idea stuck, no more metronomes, and we'd use zig's natural tempo for each song, so that if he lags a bit then the whole song would lag, and if he reaches back to his thrash metal roots and then the whole song would feel a bit faster. that and zig + joey's decision to keep the drum level lower than most albums really makes it sound different. early listening sessions with some friends would often result in a few comments along the lines of "pare ang hina ng drums.." or some variation of that. i didn't get it at first either, but then you get it, and then it's a wow thing. haha.
anyway all the drum parts were done in one take ( ASTIG NO? imagine the monster drumming zig did on patintero/habulan/larong kalye, or the triplet break in the bato outro), and theme song was a particularly difficult one for zig, resulting in the gorgeous AAAAAAAARGH growl at the start of the song. haha. mikey amistoso commented on the not so polished cut of that take, leaving an abrupt end to the growl before the song starts. he kept on saying that that moment was a work of genius, or something like that, like "other bands would have wanted to keep that a clean fade or something" but we just left it like that. haha love one another magic.
the song is full of the kind of recording techniques you google and then decide to try and then i dunno something happens. we used a pignose amplifier, the one with the latch that opens and closes the thing, and we close-miked it with one mic in front and one mic at the back of the speaker (phase inverted) and we had a room mic, and then there was this wide open sounding guitar that we got. i love the sound of the guitar parts in theme song, and the pignose amplifier was one of those important bits that just made everything work (i miss you!)
marco's roland jx3p also played a huge part in this song, adding the disco pad at the ending, the vibe at the disco outro, and the arpeggios in the main song, with that wonderful filter just opening up at the end of every phrase. i dunno why i'm rambling on about how we recorded this song, but i really feel happy when i remember how this song just fell into place. hehe.
at 0:17 into the song, i do a wrong harmony part into the right speaker, and then i laugh, and that bit just whizzed by during all the mixing, we really didn't notice that. and then listening to the mastered tracks on headphones it was all like "OMG WHAT A HAPPY ACCIDENT!" haha i love that part.
the video is also very cool, haha. it features marc inting of twin lobster, doing his best to win the hearts of music video channel viewers everywhere. vote for his band twin lobster in the nu rock awards this year! hehe.
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jugs of the itchyworms texted me the other day, congratulating us on the cool video, and thanking us for placing their "self-titled" album poster on the wall of our earnest manliligaw protagonist hehe. if you haven't gotten yourself a copy of that album, buy one now, for your own good hehe.
my mom bought a copy of themesongs! she found it at the odyssey branch in alabang town center, and as she was bringing it to the cashier, the saleslady remarks "bakit ang daming bumibili nyan, sino ba sila?" hahaha
AND AND FINALLY, THINGS ARE GETTING EXCITING FOR THE SCARY DEBUT + FANS' DAY ON THE 25TH! LOTS OF SURPRISES TO COME! (pero secret muna para ma-surprise kayo para pati hindi malaos hehehe)
hi guys, things have been quiet but a lot of happenings have happened without much updating here.
jing went to singapore and came back, we played our first out of town gig, don laudencia of aizo jammed with us, we've been writing songs and demoing like crazy. a lesson learned: if the album takes this long to come out, better get started on the next one early, i think. haha.
i think i've been a bit too bratty, i wanna apologize to my bandmates and the other people who we (mostly i) inconvenienced at subic because i was too demanding haha. you have no idea how often a phenomenon hunger tantrums are to this band. we want food now haha. also, there's this common joke people say when they find out that i'm part of shirley, it's always "wag mo kami kakalimutan pag sikat ka na a" and i never liked that, although it seems like there's this little distance that inserts itself when you're gonna play a gig and you wanna get in the zone and you wanna be the singer of the song and the song makes you feel all these feelings because you wrote the songs about something and i guess im still getting used to the idea that im sharing these feelings to other people i don't know
haha what a problem, drama queen band person kind of monologue. it's something sort of like kevin garnett, being intense all the time. i wanna be kevin garnett. intense all the time.
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i've been talking with mikey of the great ciudad, and jason of the superb pedicab, and we had this conversation about how when our albums come out it'll be the big thing, the sophomore pedicab album (it's amazing), ciudad's bring your friends (their best album to date), and even the third itchyworms lp (i haven't heard anything from it though) is probably coming out at the same time that themesongs is slated to (finally) come out. exciting times. it makes me reminisce about the days when i got excited about new albums coming out. i'm not as up to date these days because of school and the radio show and the band and real life, but i love how we're part of something like this. ang bandang shirley has come a long way. haha. yes.
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another thing, i've been really into the old dear catastrophe waitress album by belle and sebastian. i love how i'm not this super big fan of the band all the time, but there are flashes of intense love for the gospel according to stuart murdoch and co. i think that's the proper fandom, detached intense periodic fandom. like one day you'll start craving to hear patintero/habulan/larong kalye and you go crazy trying to find your copy of the rizal day sessions version, wondering what the themesongs version sounds like. sana may shirley fandom na ganun. haha. anyway i'm listening to dear catastrophe waitress right, and im singing along to the songs, and then i hear stay loose, the last track on the album. i think i never listened to it this much before, and it just reminds me of a lot of good feelings. i'm gonna be playing guitar for next week's gigs, cause the attorney and donald are both busy, so i'm gonna be channeling stay loose.
catch us tonight at magnet katipunan, tuesday the 29th there also, and the 30th at cafe saguijo for chubibo's rawr album launch :)
long rambly post. i miss you band! jam na tayo gusto ko na tugtugin live yung taksil haha
