hi everybody!
if you haven't seen the music video for our debut album's title track, now would be a good time to review. pay close attention to the leading lady :D
now that you've finally seen the video, watch this garnier tvc.
hahaha big time na si leanne!
-owel
Showing posts with label owel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label owel. Show all posts
Sunday, 8 November 2009
Tuesday, 27 October 2009
of gigs, a doppelganger, so much excelsior and halloween
HELLOOOOOOO00000oooooooo everyone! Our multiply site is alive!
5 things in chronological order:
1. We've been giddly meeting shirley friends the past few gigs so shoutouts to Peso, Mimi (komikon 2009 gig @ megamall) and Meg (Stomp 6 gig @mag:net). Thanks guys!
3. Oh how time flies! last Oct 24 was the anniversary of our oh so memorable Scary Debut aka "Themesongs" album launch! Ang bilis ng panahon hehe. Our album is still available in digipack and enevelop versions --- such a nice idea for xmas gifts *wink* *wink* :) :) :)
4. Everyone in the band has always been a big fan of Owel's solo works and we're excited to annouce that he officially releases an ep titled "So Much Excelsior" and you can download it HERE for free!
manuel nicolas alvero - so much excelsior [ep]
1) grand finale (2005)
2) slow dance (2003)
3) so much excelsior (2009)
4) isobel (2005)
5) horoscopic (2004)
5 things in chronological order:
1. We've been giddly meeting shirley friends the past few gigs so shoutouts to Peso, Mimi (komikon 2009 gig @ megamall) and Meg (Stomp 6 gig @mag:net). Thanks guys!
2. The band had a fun gig na naging roadtrip na naging foodtrip in San Pablo, Laguna last saturday (thanks to Agee Linan of Legarda and Earth Decay for inviting us and The Alvero clan for feeding us hehe). Owel sang with the band after 5 months!!! Sayang though Heidi wasn't able to come with us but we saw billboards of her around haha (doppleganger sya nun congresswoman ng San Pablo hahahaha)
4. Everyone in the band has always been a big fan of Owel's solo works and we're excited to annouce that he officially releases an ep titled "So Much Excelsior" and you can download it HERE for free!
Most days, Manuel Nicolas Alvero sings, plays guitar, jumps around, fights crime, and generates Kirbyesque dots of pure cosmic radiation for Ang Bandang Shirley, Manila’s leading providers of hummable punk fun. Some nights, though, 10 minutes will pass w/ no crime happening. During those 10 minutes, Manuel will park his ship, focus on his breathing, plug into a smaller amp, and record a peaceful, minor-key ditty over a simple loop. After he’s done w/ one ditty, he moves unfussily on to another one. Mebbe this next one has more echo on it, and mebbe his synth’s setting is Water Droplet Into Cave Pool. Mebbe he’ll channel James McNew. Mebbe he’ll let Simon do th singing on this one. Pretty soon, more crimes will happen, and Manuel’s Shirleyphone will ring. “It’s all downhill from here,” he murmurs, which means life is getting harder and harder, or easier and easier. For 10 minutes, we focus on our breathing, prepared for good or evil. Galactus could come calling, but it could be just to say hello.
manuel nicolas alvero - so much excelsior [ep]
1) grand finale (2005)
2) slow dance (2003)
3) so much excelsior (2009)
4) isobel (2005)
5) horoscopic (2004)
lastly,
5. See you guys this coming halloween! Party with us at Malate Literary Folio's Lilt and the Verve party in Cubao X at 9PM then at Terno Inferno's Halloween Costume Ball in Mag:net Highstreet after!
love,
kathy
love,
kathy
Sunday, 22 March 2009
brewrats!
many many thanks to all the new contacts of the ang bandang shirley multiply! i cannot begin to express the gratitude welling up inside my heart for all of you, and especially to dj tado, dj angel, and dj ramon bautista of the fantastic radio talk show brewrats for helping make ang bandang shirley famous (haha)
non-chronological kwento in bullet points
- energizing walk from the boni mrt station to the paragon plaza building because of ricoa chocolate factory smells
- girlie kathy
- baby owel
- mahinhin joe
- "conflict kagad"
- "how many of your fans are jumping jologs?"
- novaliches -> baluarte of jumping jologs
- "sinong banda ang gusto nyong makaaway?"
- "papasikatin namin kayo; gusto nyo bang mag double platinum?"
- kathy learned how to use lights at a photoshoot
- owel learned basic use of macromedia flash
- joe learned to keep right near the manila city hall if you want to go to qc and not to sta. cruz
- "guangzhou!"
- "it's a lovely song" (pero hindi naman shirley haha)
- tado reminiscing about viva hot babe myles' "pagkababae" haha
- the jacq ruefner visit ("ikaw na yung pusher namin a")
- "idealistic ako e"
- the engineering connection.
- silent sanctuary and the right of reply
- "para kayong shoegaze na eraserheads"
haha baka may nakalimutan pa ako. next time ulet!
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
recording diary 3/13/09
photographic evidence of the band's latest recording sessions at love one another studios
Monday, 9 March 2009
Recording Diary - Tambol Version
I really intended to write this a couple of weeks ago but I...uhhh...forgot. Hehehe. But my bandmates are really good at this "documenting the recording process" thing so I guess that makes up for my laziness busy-ness.
But all's well that ends well, right? I finally managed to start working, which is the first big hurdle for any procrastinator. So here goes...
Late February, we started work on a handful of new tracks some of which, like Pauwi Na and Wealth of Nations, are already part of our song rotation at gigs. Owel mentioned to me that he wanted the drums to stand out a bit more on the new songs--news that I really liked, for obvious reasons--so I locked myself in a room with my drumkit and hammered out my parts so I could attack the recording session with confidence. During the Themesongs recording sessions (as well as the Rizal Day Sessions, er, sessions), most of my drum parts were not final yet. If you listen carefully to the playing on the album vs a gig, you'll notice a lot of changes.
Another thing I did was use a click track. We didn't use a click track for any of the songs on the first album, and sometimes you can hear portions where I got a little excited and rushed things a bit. For the new songs, I intend to use a click as often as I can. An early exception would be Jing's punk-infused Saan Na, which felt better without a click.
I'm also gunning for a more consistent sound this time around so I'm using the same set of gear for the songs. Here's a photo of the rig I used at my last recording session:
Cymbals (Zildjian)
13" A Custom Projection Hihats
18" A Custom Fast Crash
19" K Dark Crash Thin
20" K Custom Dark Ride
Drums
14" x 5.5" Ludwig Acrolyte Snare [Remo coated Ambassador on top, Evans reso on bottom]
Yamaha drumkit (13" and 16" toms, 22" bass drum) [Remo Pinstripes on everything]
Except for the Yamaha kit, which is the house kit at Love One Another Studios, the rest is the same equipment I lug around in my yellow gig bags (also in photo) at each and every gig. Yes, I bring a LOT of gear. It helps me play better knowing I'm playing gear I'm used to. (Btw, those two dashing icons of virile masculinity are LOA engineers, Pancho and Wacky.)
I guess that covers drums for now.
Ciao.
Zig
But all's well that ends well, right? I finally managed to start working, which is the first big hurdle for any procrastinator. So here goes...
Late February, we started work on a handful of new tracks some of which, like Pauwi Na and Wealth of Nations, are already part of our song rotation at gigs. Owel mentioned to me that he wanted the drums to stand out a bit more on the new songs--news that I really liked, for obvious reasons--so I locked myself in a room with my drumkit and hammered out my parts so I could attack the recording session with confidence. During the Themesongs recording sessions (as well as the Rizal Day Sessions, er, sessions), most of my drum parts were not final yet. If you listen carefully to the playing on the album vs a gig, you'll notice a lot of changes.
Another thing I did was use a click track. We didn't use a click track for any of the songs on the first album, and sometimes you can hear portions where I got a little excited and rushed things a bit. For the new songs, I intend to use a click as often as I can. An early exception would be Jing's punk-infused Saan Na, which felt better without a click.
I'm also gunning for a more consistent sound this time around so I'm using the same set of gear for the songs. Here's a photo of the rig I used at my last recording session:
Cymbals (Zildjian)13" A Custom Projection Hihats
18" A Custom Fast Crash
19" K Dark Crash Thin
20" K Custom Dark Ride
Drums
14" x 5.5" Ludwig Acrolyte Snare [Remo coated Ambassador on top, Evans reso on bottom]
Yamaha drumkit (13" and 16" toms, 22" bass drum) [Remo Pinstripes on everything]
Except for the Yamaha kit, which is the house kit at Love One Another Studios, the rest is the same equipment I lug around in my yellow gig bags (also in photo) at each and every gig. Yes, I bring a LOT of gear. It helps me play better knowing I'm playing gear I'm used to. (Btw, those two dashing icons of virile masculinity are LOA engineers, Pancho and Wacky.)
I guess that covers drums for now.
Ciao.
Zig
recording diary 03/07/09
we three shirley kids (read: me, joe, ean) spent the eraserheads evening recording new material at joey santos' famed love one another studio. aside from the early acoustic guitar jangle c/o the morris parlor guitar, it was a multi-drive pedal kind of night. we used (in no particular order): a zvex fuzz factory, a vox cooltron duel overdrive, a tech-21 gt-2, a proco you dirty rat, and the beautiful bluberri drive pedal. and instead of going back to the themesongs strat-dominated sound, we used our newly acquired maison lawsuit sg standard, and joe's neck-thru vantage. hooray for new gear hehe.
some interesting moments include:
1) pancho asking - "wala ba kayong mga kanta na may distortion?" leading to a bit of fuzz factory overkill haha
2) the new palm-muted chording in nakauwi na and the lessons learned by engineer joey from his boy elroy recording experience
3) pancho stating "you are such a mammal"
4) ean stating "nonsense yung b-string mo e" (band conflict! haha)
hahaha.
pics!
some interesting moments include:
1) pancho asking - "wala ba kayong mga kanta na may distortion?" leading to a bit of fuzz factory overkill haha
2) the new palm-muted chording in nakauwi na and the lessons learned by engineer joey from his boy elroy recording experience
3) pancho stating "you are such a mammal"
4) ean stating "nonsense yung b-string mo e" (band conflict! haha)
hahaha.
pics!
joey documenting the scene, ean tracking with the vantage, and joe chilling.
engineers pancho + wacky having a well earned panciteria san jacinto break. note pancho's penchant for calamansi.
-owel
-owel
Monday, 2 March 2009
recent history
pic by joey alvero
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)
Wednesday, 17 December 2008
ang bandang shirley on SOUNDTRIP!
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
Sunday, 23 November 2008
themesongs track 9
"Ang Pag-Ibig Alinsunod Sa Karanasan Ng Isang Pangkaraniwang Jeepney Driver A.K.A. Tsuper Duper"
this is probably the hardest song to write about: it was the first-born, the earliest song written for the band before the band ever took shape. and this first-born isn't a baby anymore, tsuper is a hyperactive 6 year old that knows how to read and asks you all these questions about self explanatory things ("but why?") haha.
sometimes i listen to this song and i feel like i've heard it TOO MUCH, there are a gazillion versions of this song (three lo-fi with love demo versions, an ean 8-track version that never saw the light of day, the rizal day session, and then the album version) and it has made appearances in scenes from ang pagdadalaga ni maximo oliveros, tv promos, songwriting competitions (haha) and assorted high school and college plays. i hate this song sometimes.
last night good friend and distant cousin to lourd (haha) ramon de veyra messaged me on ym, saying "u know what for someone who detests pop I actualy really enjoyed them," and i'm all "what do u mean lol" and he's all "[that's] my friend, after i sent 3 songs from your album hahahaha" and i'm all happy, thinking "yay my band is so cool" haha and then he continues, pasting another direct quote: "parang theyre not trying hard to be anything eh, i like the tsuper song the most"
and then i'm all wow, and then ok, and then fine, and then i decide to write this post about the song that started it all and i remember the time that i used to play the bassline (now the synth part) of this song between songs back when i used to play with paramita (haha old school) and norman and ria would laugh and it would be some carribean-flavored jam, then we'd stop. but i wanted to take it further and i thought it should be in tagalog, and it should be a love song, and "i dunno i wanna fall in love" haha. i was a kid.
anyway i ride this jeep, i sit in front near the driver, but between me and the driver there was another passenger, a pretty girl and she was paying her fare and the driver goes "hinde miss, sagot ko na pamasahe mo" and i'm all "omg basta driver sweet lover" and then the song writes itself and then the old cautionary tale of being careful for what you wish for happens, and the song has taken over my brain. i hate singing it cause after the song finishes my brain is still singing it and i've listened to a lot of stuff between the writing of tsuper and today, and tsuper feels amateur (hindi sya avant garde haha) and fun and it reminds me of being a kid and riding that jeep. i remember the rizal day session recording for this, me and mark v. at tracks 4am, both of us super sleepy and i'm closing my eyes playing the synth parts and while recording mark apparently has this supernatural encounter (he tells me on the drive home: "naramdaman mo ba yun?" and i'm all: "zzz") and then he dubs the song TSUPER DUPER, making this visual rhyme very difficult to say haha.
i guess the point is, if it weren't for this song, the band wouldn't be here. so yay. haha. watch out for the release of the joe fontanilla version of this song very soon. haha.
-owel
this is probably the hardest song to write about: it was the first-born, the earliest song written for the band before the band ever took shape. and this first-born isn't a baby anymore, tsuper is a hyperactive 6 year old that knows how to read and asks you all these questions about self explanatory things ("but why?") haha.
sometimes i listen to this song and i feel like i've heard it TOO MUCH, there are a gazillion versions of this song (three lo-fi with love demo versions, an ean 8-track version that never saw the light of day, the rizal day session, and then the album version) and it has made appearances in scenes from ang pagdadalaga ni maximo oliveros, tv promos, songwriting competitions (haha) and assorted high school and college plays. i hate this song sometimes.
last night good friend and distant cousin to lourd (haha) ramon de veyra messaged me on ym, saying "u know what for someone who detests pop I actualy really enjoyed them," and i'm all "what do u mean lol" and he's all "[that's] my friend, after i sent 3 songs from your album hahahaha" and i'm all happy, thinking "yay my band is so cool" haha and then he continues, pasting another direct quote: "parang theyre not trying hard to be anything eh, i like the tsuper song the most"
and then i'm all wow, and then ok, and then fine, and then i decide to write this post about the song that started it all and i remember the time that i used to play the bassline (now the synth part) of this song between songs back when i used to play with paramita (haha old school) and norman and ria would laugh and it would be some carribean-flavored jam, then we'd stop. but i wanted to take it further and i thought it should be in tagalog, and it should be a love song, and "i dunno i wanna fall in love" haha. i was a kid.
anyway i ride this jeep, i sit in front near the driver, but between me and the driver there was another passenger, a pretty girl and she was paying her fare and the driver goes "hinde miss, sagot ko na pamasahe mo" and i'm all "omg basta driver sweet lover" and then the song writes itself and then the old cautionary tale of being careful for what you wish for happens, and the song has taken over my brain. i hate singing it cause after the song finishes my brain is still singing it and i've listened to a lot of stuff between the writing of tsuper and today, and tsuper feels amateur (hindi sya avant garde haha) and fun and it reminds me of being a kid and riding that jeep. i remember the rizal day session recording for this, me and mark v. at tracks 4am, both of us super sleepy and i'm closing my eyes playing the synth parts and while recording mark apparently has this supernatural encounter (he tells me on the drive home: "naramdaman mo ba yun?" and i'm all: "zzz") and then he dubs the song TSUPER DUPER, making this visual rhyme very difficult to say haha.
i guess the point is, if it weren't for this song, the band wouldn't be here. so yay. haha. watch out for the release of the joe fontanilla version of this song very soon. haha.
-owel
Saturday, 22 November 2008
of baguio, owel, sarah g. & cosmo chicks, QLE awards and rico blanco
Hi! It's Kathy and am home on a saturday night and so i write hehe
5 Things:
1. Re SM Baguio: i wasn't able to go with the band (thank you Mei for helping out! we love you!) but according to Joe, there were lots of you who came and watched so THANK you guys!
2. Today is Owel's birthday! Happy Birthday, a! haha.
3. Ang Bandang Shirley "Themesongs" sighting inside Cosmopolitan November 2008 issue with Sarah Geronimo on the cover (haha oo bumibili ako nun minsan haha):
Get Lost In A Song. Don't you just love songs that give you the freedom to feel? When you can pin your emotions on a melody, the resulting comfort is remarkable. The debut album of Ang Bandang Shirley is aptly titled Themesongs. Their tunes can match a melancholic Cosmo chick's typical sentiments, like dreaming of true love ("Kagabi Nanaginip si Morrissey Na May Nagmamahal Sa Kanya"), being stupidly smitten ("Sasamahan Ka Pa Rin"), and evn dreading the upcoming cold, lonely Christmas ("Xmas Lights")
4. Ang Bandang Shirley is Best New Artist and "Themesongs" is Best Album Cover...at the QLE Awards that is! (Thank you Mr. Luis Katigbak! we are very honored )
The QLE Awards
By Quark Henares
Philippine Daily Inquirer
5. I love you Rico Blanco! haha. ang random.
love, Kathy
5 Things:
1. Re SM Baguio: i wasn't able to go with the band (thank you Mei for helping out! we love you!) but according to Joe, there were lots of you who came and watched so THANK you guys!
2. Today is Owel's birthday! Happy Birthday, a! haha.
3. Ang Bandang Shirley "Themesongs" sighting inside Cosmopolitan November 2008 issue with Sarah Geronimo on the cover (haha oo bumibili ako nun minsan haha):
Get Lost In A Song. Don't you just love songs that give you the freedom to feel? When you can pin your emotions on a melody, the resulting comfort is remarkable. The debut album of Ang Bandang Shirley is aptly titled Themesongs. Their tunes can match a melancholic Cosmo chick's typical sentiments, like dreaming of true love ("Kagabi Nanaginip si Morrissey Na May Nagmamahal Sa Kanya"), being stupidly smitten ("Sasamahan Ka Pa Rin"), and evn dreading the upcoming cold, lonely Christmas ("Xmas Lights")
4. Ang Bandang Shirley is Best New Artist and "Themesongs" is Best Album Cover...at the QLE Awards that is! (Thank you Mr. Luis Katigbak! we are very honored )
The QLE Awards
By Quark Henares
Philippine Daily Inquirer
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.
5. I love you Rico Blanco! haha. ang random.
love, Kathy
Tuesday, 21 October 2008
themesongs track 7
"sa madaling salita"
a less is more approach to words, with the simple G-C verse and the Em-D chorus, then the G-C-Am-C outro. i guess this song is a high point in my songwriting efforts, reactionary output to early comments to my work haha. the story goes like this..
vin dancel of twisted halo and now peryodiko is a great person, and when i was the excited little kid who first got to go watch gigs, twisted halo was one band that stood out, what with that intense drumming on brad, and the mindblowing outro part of hiram, and MAN THEY HAD THREE GUITARS and i was really amazed when vin went up to me after seeing deltajoy play and telling me that i could play bass well haha. then i auditioned to play bass for twisted halo (remember that day ean? hahaha memories) but then they picked some better guy (buddy zabala!!!) haha. and even though we really didn't become bandmates there was this sort of distant mentorship going on between me and manong vin, sort of, kind of. haha. i remember this gig at millenia and he was there and i was there and i was just telling him about how my studies were going (bad) and he was all finish that shit and i was all wow and anyway, when i gave him a copy of the rizal day sessions ep, he said it was good stuff, but it needed something anthemic.
so i went and thought wtf man these are anthemic but then i thought about things and i wrote sa madaling salita, exploring the duality of crippling love and incredible uplifting love in my brain, and realizing that there was no way to put it other than just really saying those words in the song and then that freed me up, anthemically speaking. the riff was a fun thing to play, and it's me studying a wolf parade song and magnificently failing, landing on some other totally different beautiful thing, and the chorus part where joe's guitar is all chicosci on top of everything, and man this song really wrote itself. i remember the practice when we were arranging this, and it was a pretty good time for shirley, getting things in place really fast.
zig's drumming (a lift from dcfc with minor revision haha) and the BASS + SYNTH W/ WHITE NOISE AND EBOW bridge part is what i think makes this anthemic, the outro just riding in like a cowboy and then the song ends with the same killer "chorus" riff except it's slow and jing's harmonizing on bass and that was perfect which was why recording this thing was such a bitch, cause it had to sound really good, and honestly the recording still doesn't sound as good as the song sounds in my head but that's okay cause we got it out. i remember doing the main guitar part and just being totally frustrated, breaking down in the middle of some takes saying "DISBAND NA TAYO GUYS DISBAND" and joe and ean and joey santos just reassuring me hahaha that was fun.
then endo came along and man endo that's a whole different story, crippling uplifting love and if you guys haven't seen it you gotta see it, and if you feel like it changed you afterwards then you're my kind of person, and if you haven't, then you gotta live a bit more i guess? that movie really killed me, i remember reading the script and crying in my room (the early drafts were a lot more hardcore emo haha) and well sa madaling salita just snowballed in meaning
cause i had this meaning X for the song, which is really hidden deep inside, and then since it's so simple and then because of endo meanings Y and Z and A-W also add up and then it's such a meaningful song because it's just about a feeling and therefore you can attach that to whatever makes you feel that feeling so the range of possible meaning only depends on the person listening so everybody can sing along to this and feel like the song is about something about them and i guess that was what vin was talking about when he was saying it was anthemic.
tayong dalawa ay dakila/alila
hehe
-owel
a less is more approach to words, with the simple G-C verse and the Em-D chorus, then the G-C-Am-C outro. i guess this song is a high point in my songwriting efforts, reactionary output to early comments to my work haha. the story goes like this..
vin dancel of twisted halo and now peryodiko is a great person, and when i was the excited little kid who first got to go watch gigs, twisted halo was one band that stood out, what with that intense drumming on brad, and the mindblowing outro part of hiram, and MAN THEY HAD THREE GUITARS and i was really amazed when vin went up to me after seeing deltajoy play and telling me that i could play bass well haha. then i auditioned to play bass for twisted halo (remember that day ean? hahaha memories) but then they picked some better guy (buddy zabala!!!) haha. and even though we really didn't become bandmates there was this sort of distant mentorship going on between me and manong vin, sort of, kind of. haha. i remember this gig at millenia and he was there and i was there and i was just telling him about how my studies were going (bad) and he was all finish that shit and i was all wow and anyway, when i gave him a copy of the rizal day sessions ep, he said it was good stuff, but it needed something anthemic.
so i went and thought wtf man these are anthemic but then i thought about things and i wrote sa madaling salita, exploring the duality of crippling love and incredible uplifting love in my brain, and realizing that there was no way to put it other than just really saying those words in the song and then that freed me up, anthemically speaking. the riff was a fun thing to play, and it's me studying a wolf parade song and magnificently failing, landing on some other totally different beautiful thing, and the chorus part where joe's guitar is all chicosci on top of everything, and man this song really wrote itself. i remember the practice when we were arranging this, and it was a pretty good time for shirley, getting things in place really fast.
zig's drumming (a lift from dcfc with minor revision haha) and the BASS + SYNTH W/ WHITE NOISE AND EBOW bridge part is what i think makes this anthemic, the outro just riding in like a cowboy and then the song ends with the same killer "chorus" riff except it's slow and jing's harmonizing on bass and that was perfect which was why recording this thing was such a bitch, cause it had to sound really good, and honestly the recording still doesn't sound as good as the song sounds in my head but that's okay cause we got it out. i remember doing the main guitar part and just being totally frustrated, breaking down in the middle of some takes saying "DISBAND NA TAYO GUYS DISBAND" and joe and ean and joey santos just reassuring me hahaha that was fun.
then endo came along and man endo that's a whole different story, crippling uplifting love and if you guys haven't seen it you gotta see it, and if you feel like it changed you afterwards then you're my kind of person, and if you haven't, then you gotta live a bit more i guess? that movie really killed me, i remember reading the script and crying in my room (the early drafts were a lot more hardcore emo haha) and well sa madaling salita just snowballed in meaning
cause i had this meaning X for the song, which is really hidden deep inside, and then since it's so simple and then because of endo meanings Y and Z and A-W also add up and then it's such a meaningful song because it's just about a feeling and therefore you can attach that to whatever makes you feel that feeling so the range of possible meaning only depends on the person listening so everybody can sing along to this and feel like the song is about something about them and i guess that was what vin was talking about when he was saying it was anthemic.
tayong dalawa ay dakila/alila
hehe
-owel
ang bandang shirley: where dreams come true
hi guys! remember this article that came out on supreme? where me and the guys had our influences and shoutouts broadcast? well funny things happen!
kathy wrote in "john lloyd cruz" as an influence and even threw in a (hi) so when i met up with my good friend JLC as i call him (haha) i showed him the copy of the article, and well, dreams come true!
(hope to meet you, kathy)
JLC with his copy of themesongs! get a copy now!
-owel
kathy wrote in "john lloyd cruz" as an influence and even threw in a (hi) so when i met up with my good friend JLC as i call him (haha) i showed him the copy of the article, and well, dreams come true!
(hope to meet you, kathy)
JLC with his copy of themesongs! get a copy now!
-owel
Sunday, 19 October 2008
theme songs track 6
"sasamahan ka pa rin"
the song opens with a very hetfield-ian RATATAHH, harkening back to that saguijo METALLICA tribute gig, where shirley did a weird set, haha playing our originals, back to back with a sick cover of FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS, sung by jing, and since joe and ean were both absent, i was playing guitar, and manix of gorgoro was subbing for the extra Em droning noises haha (we weren't able to practice with him, but it was still awesome) that was a great gig. and if memory serves me right, that was one of the last few gigs of HOPSCOTCH, where most of the loa engineers are from. hehe. anyway, back to the hetfield shouts, which i think provide that contrast between track 5 + track 6, cause they sort of flow into each other, and both sort of tackle the same idea, but you know how they're different too. Ean's song on the album (not counting our co-write on bato) is this amazing track, especially after the rhythm section did their thing, putting a very dark beatle shuffle into the thing. then the horns!!!
that was a very eye opening recording session, being at loa with the sago horns, finding out how brass really really really makes a difference to a song. sasamahan is probably just the beginning, expect more horny tracks from shirley haha. the supposed "fadeout" outro where everybody still played to an "ending" also worked, since it allowed the horns to pull off that great jam at the end, and letting jing do his talking head-y guitar riff. and the drawbar synth heidi has also shines on this track, and haha i dunno there's a lot to say and it's all circumstantial really, if you like this kind of stuff that i'm typing then it's great, but if you watch debut you'll see video of ean and me and kathy and joey and marc and wacky and that very controversial yeag-vah section of this song and that's all you need i think, haha.
track 7-11 writeups coming this week, tapos na yung album notes before the launch haha
-owel
the song opens with a very hetfield-ian RATATAHH, harkening back to that saguijo METALLICA tribute gig, where shirley did a weird set, haha playing our originals, back to back with a sick cover of FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS, sung by jing, and since joe and ean were both absent, i was playing guitar, and manix of gorgoro was subbing for the extra Em droning noises haha (we weren't able to practice with him, but it was still awesome) that was a great gig. and if memory serves me right, that was one of the last few gigs of HOPSCOTCH, where most of the loa engineers are from. hehe. anyway, back to the hetfield shouts, which i think provide that contrast between track 5 + track 6, cause they sort of flow into each other, and both sort of tackle the same idea, but you know how they're different too. Ean's song on the album (not counting our co-write on bato) is this amazing track, especially after the rhythm section did their thing, putting a very dark beatle shuffle into the thing. then the horns!!!
that was a very eye opening recording session, being at loa with the sago horns, finding out how brass really really really makes a difference to a song. sasamahan is probably just the beginning, expect more horny tracks from shirley haha. the supposed "fadeout" outro where everybody still played to an "ending" also worked, since it allowed the horns to pull off that great jam at the end, and letting jing do his talking head-y guitar riff. and the drawbar synth heidi has also shines on this track, and haha i dunno there's a lot to say and it's all circumstantial really, if you like this kind of stuff that i'm typing then it's great, but if you watch debut you'll see video of ean and me and kathy and joey and marc and wacky and that very controversial yeag-vah section of this song and that's all you need i think, haha.
track 7-11 writeups coming this week, tapos na yung album notes before the launch haha
-owel
themesongs track 5
"together forevers"
most noteworthy is the amazing snare sound that joey santos gets on this song, the release/decay of that 80's hit is really what makes the song! also, forevers is the selena solo track for this album, and the first of many selena oriented songs. the owel-sung demo version released on the today is tshirt day comp was a take-off point, but where that was a stalker-ish "sigurista" lovesong, this is an out and out guarantee of sorts. and and the outro, where selena and the synth duet into this papapa-fest is this suprise that came about while we were recording. the live version of forevers used to include a "time after time" outro, where we'd sing time after time haha. but the album version couldn't include that, of course, so we had to figure out something, and then amazing amazing amazing selena just pulls out of her indie-pop hat this papapa phrasing and papapa melody and then we were all "do that on the synth!" and then that ending comes out and then we were trying to mix it and then during the final mix of that joey has this miscue where only a few tracks were faded out and then what happened was a gradual fade, leaving selena's voice and the guitar chord, and then that was another OMG moment.
i remember the time when after recording most of the basic tracks for forevers, me and joey santos really considered it the least like-able of the shirley tracks so far, so we kept on figuring out ways to re-do it, but then the gang vocal recording day came along and i guess what we just needed were the "barkada" shouts and the voices of the whole band + melvene (sobrang lamig ng boses ni melvene!) on the sing-along chorus. also featuring the keys (as in susi) in tribute to a song on the rivermaya green album (plus points for whoever figures that out hehe)
i love you ang bandang shirley! see you at our fans' day and debut premiere!
-owel
most noteworthy is the amazing snare sound that joey santos gets on this song, the release/decay of that 80's hit is really what makes the song! also, forevers is the selena solo track for this album, and the first of many selena oriented songs. the owel-sung demo version released on the today is tshirt day comp was a take-off point, but where that was a stalker-ish "sigurista" lovesong, this is an out and out guarantee of sorts. and and the outro, where selena and the synth duet into this papapa-fest is this suprise that came about while we were recording. the live version of forevers used to include a "time after time" outro, where we'd sing time after time haha. but the album version couldn't include that, of course, so we had to figure out something, and then amazing amazing amazing selena just pulls out of her indie-pop hat this papapa phrasing and papapa melody and then we were all "do that on the synth!" and then that ending comes out and then we were trying to mix it and then during the final mix of that joey has this miscue where only a few tracks were faded out and then what happened was a gradual fade, leaving selena's voice and the guitar chord, and then that was another OMG moment.
i remember the time when after recording most of the basic tracks for forevers, me and joey santos really considered it the least like-able of the shirley tracks so far, so we kept on figuring out ways to re-do it, but then the gang vocal recording day came along and i guess what we just needed were the "barkada" shouts and the voices of the whole band + melvene (sobrang lamig ng boses ni melvene!) on the sing-along chorus. also featuring the keys (as in susi) in tribute to a song on the rivermaya green album (plus points for whoever figures that out hehe)
i love you ang bandang shirley! see you at our fans' day and debut premiere!
-owel
Thursday, 25 September 2008
themesongs track 3
"patintero/habulan/larong kalye"
the first of three "epic" tracks that absolutely had to go into the album. it's a sort of trilogy actually, anchoring the beginning middle and end of the whole concept of themesongs, actual theme songs for set occasions in the developments. p/h/lk is early yearning, sms is the middle intense section and bato is heavy endgame. pretty intense stuff to keep in your head, especially while you're recording the album, thinking about how the songs relate to each other and to you specifically and it's just great that it's out and i can stop thinking about it so much haha. it's a love-hate obsession with patintero/habulan/larong kalye.
it is a 3-segment song, during the writing of this thing i was heavily into brian wilson's smile and the fiery furnaces' blueberry boat and the unicorns' who will cut our hair when we're gone and these albums were all full of ADHD i was really into the whole idea of a multi-part song so i was writing with that in mind: first came the habulan section, which i was originally thought would be the opening part, written late 2004.
the patintero segment was written for fete de la musique 2005; i remember very vividly the practice where i was teaching the guys the song and the new segment. it was at the blue room studio along maginhawa, and janji of aizo was hanging out, and i remember being afraid of what he thought about the song and how we were arranging it as a band during the practice haha. i kind of cheated with the segue from patintero to habulan, nicking some manila sound areglos from vst haha.
the larong kalye segment happened naturally, we would just jam an informal outro, and i guess i just started singing on that. the album version of larong kalye was a pretty fun thing to record, all scratch takes and trial runs that joey santos recorded anyway, the relaxed feel owing to the "nah this isn't going onto the record yet.." and i guess that was pretty cool.
another cool thing about the album version are the SYNTH PARTS!!! i was absent when they recorded the synths, and loa engineer marc de vera did his thing, tweaking heidi's cs-10 and layering multiple tracks of the keyboard to give it this really really warm feel. i especially love the habulan chorus part, "kung ika'y aking mahuli.." with the 16 beat hihat, the palm-mute guitar and the surf rock bass, the synth really really really stands out and i love that part so much AAAAAAAAAAaa haha (self-sabunot moment)
the recording of the vocals for this song is also another conversation point. selena is a studio natural, if she's problematic with the harmonies, she'll just take some time to work them out in front of the mic, and usually most things are one-takes with her. but i am the brute force to her finesse, and this song was particularly amazing because joey and marc were engineering and everybody was playing with these ratatouille scratch and sniff cards, and i remember marc was playing with paper and scissors, trying to make paper dolls. so i was doing the vocal take, and usually when i hit a bad note joey or whoever's engineering at the time would stop me and we'll redo from there, and during this song we didn't have one redo (cause i thought i was singing so well haha) then i guess i just sang it all out. if i remember correctly, the whole segment in patintero where it goes "nais kong mahagip.." until the habulan part was kept as one single piece of breathless song-ery haha. only at love one another.
so many things about this song! jing's bass parts, especially in the larong kalye portion. the ROLAND JC-20 we were using to track all the guitar parts, guitar parts shimmery because of it. and all the history!
attached is the old lofiwithlove demo version circa 2005. that's me on everything, in front of a computer.
BILI NA KAYO NG THEMESONGS!!!!!!
-owel
the first of three "epic" tracks that absolutely had to go into the album. it's a sort of trilogy actually, anchoring the beginning middle and end of the whole concept of themesongs, actual theme songs for set occasions in the developments. p/h/lk is early yearning, sms is the middle intense section and bato is heavy endgame. pretty intense stuff to keep in your head, especially while you're recording the album, thinking about how the songs relate to each other and to you specifically and it's just great that it's out and i can stop thinking about it so much haha. it's a love-hate obsession with patintero/habulan/larong kalye.
it is a 3-segment song, during the writing of this thing i was heavily into brian wilson's smile and the fiery furnaces' blueberry boat and the unicorns' who will cut our hair when we're gone and these albums were all full of ADHD i was really into the whole idea of a multi-part song so i was writing with that in mind: first came the habulan section, which i was originally thought would be the opening part, written late 2004.
the patintero segment was written for fete de la musique 2005; i remember very vividly the practice where i was teaching the guys the song and the new segment. it was at the blue room studio along maginhawa, and janji of aizo was hanging out, and i remember being afraid of what he thought about the song and how we were arranging it as a band during the practice haha. i kind of cheated with the segue from patintero to habulan, nicking some manila sound areglos from vst haha.
the larong kalye segment happened naturally, we would just jam an informal outro, and i guess i just started singing on that. the album version of larong kalye was a pretty fun thing to record, all scratch takes and trial runs that joey santos recorded anyway, the relaxed feel owing to the "nah this isn't going onto the record yet.." and i guess that was pretty cool.
another cool thing about the album version are the SYNTH PARTS!!! i was absent when they recorded the synths, and loa engineer marc de vera did his thing, tweaking heidi's cs-10 and layering multiple tracks of the keyboard to give it this really really warm feel. i especially love the habulan chorus part, "kung ika'y aking mahuli.." with the 16 beat hihat, the palm-mute guitar and the surf rock bass, the synth really really really stands out and i love that part so much AAAAAAAAAAaa haha (self-sabunot moment)
the recording of the vocals for this song is also another conversation point. selena is a studio natural, if she's problematic with the harmonies, she'll just take some time to work them out in front of the mic, and usually most things are one-takes with her. but i am the brute force to her finesse, and this song was particularly amazing because joey and marc were engineering and everybody was playing with these ratatouille scratch and sniff cards, and i remember marc was playing with paper and scissors, trying to make paper dolls. so i was doing the vocal take, and usually when i hit a bad note joey or whoever's engineering at the time would stop me and we'll redo from there, and during this song we didn't have one redo (cause i thought i was singing so well haha) then i guess i just sang it all out. if i remember correctly, the whole segment in patintero where it goes "nais kong mahagip.." until the habulan part was kept as one single piece of breathless song-ery haha. only at love one another.
so many things about this song! jing's bass parts, especially in the larong kalye portion. the ROLAND JC-20 we were using to track all the guitar parts, guitar parts shimmery because of it. and all the history!
attached is the old lofiwithlove demo version circa 2005. that's me on everything, in front of a computer.
BILI NA KAYO NG THEMESONGS!!!!!!
-owel
Attachment: ang bandang shirley - habulan LOFIWITHLOVE.mp3
Wednesday, 24 September 2008
themesongs track 2
"masamang damo"
this gaddi-penned masterpiece is all at once the new wave-y post-punky song from the 80's showing jing's age (haha) and the funkiest cut on the album, c/o atty gaddi's groovin' bass parts. i remember playing this for the first time at the UP fair a couple of years back, jing just busting out the song at one of the shirley practices and all of us just falling in love with it. I remember it reminding me of the strokes' someday, i love that song. haha.
fun fact! i wasn't supposed to be the one singing this song, mr. gaddi was supposed to be the one on the mic, and we were maybe toying around with the idea of having joe sing the song. but then this opportunity came knocking, when we entered the world battle of the bands (upon the real christian bautista's suggestion) for the song to be on the radio. we hadn't finished the vocal recording yet, and i think jing couldn't make it, so it was me and selena doing all the singing. i think i did a good job though (hahaha)
the last verse (without lyric) was supposed to contain a jing monologue, some diatribe about how it isn't cool to steal other people's things or some other "crime doesn't pay" thing haha. but again, we were rushing the song, so in place of that i just started grunting, and i remember the loa guys enjoying that. it was a fun bit of cathartic screaming. i was going for a homer simpson on one of the screams haha. fun stuff. and then i dunno, we just decided that the screaming would be a better fit for the song, making it more of a universal "ANGST" song instead of a specific "DO NOT STEAL MY IPOD - jing" song haha.
i super super super love jing's lyric here, the wording is brilliant, and the song is APT haha.
the synths are bastardized from depeche mode (HAHA) for the verses and then we tried to put in some beatlesque organ to cover up jing's rip-off of another shirley song ("i can name that tune in 2 notes..") hahaha. but i swear i swear, the pièce de résistance for masamang damo has to be that killer drum + bass break into the harmonized guitar solo i love that i love that whole thing, i mean wow, we recorded that! it was perfect! haha
starting off with the decay of the chorus organ part, leaving zig and jing and then the "scary keyboard sound" and the big muffed solo guitar, then the "supot" harmony guitar, and it's over like that, and man i wanna hear the song again so i can get to that part again hahaha
sorry that i'm raving about a song on the album we just released but i didn't write it so it's not being boastful, i guess. haha.
BILI NA KAYO NG THEMESONGS!!!!
-owel
this gaddi-penned masterpiece is all at once the new wave-y post-punky song from the 80's showing jing's age (haha) and the funkiest cut on the album, c/o atty gaddi's groovin' bass parts. i remember playing this for the first time at the UP fair a couple of years back, jing just busting out the song at one of the shirley practices and all of us just falling in love with it. I remember it reminding me of the strokes' someday, i love that song. haha.
fun fact! i wasn't supposed to be the one singing this song, mr. gaddi was supposed to be the one on the mic, and we were maybe toying around with the idea of having joe sing the song. but then this opportunity came knocking, when we entered the world battle of the bands (upon the real christian bautista's suggestion) for the song to be on the radio. we hadn't finished the vocal recording yet, and i think jing couldn't make it, so it was me and selena doing all the singing. i think i did a good job though (hahaha)
the last verse (without lyric) was supposed to contain a jing monologue, some diatribe about how it isn't cool to steal other people's things or some other "crime doesn't pay" thing haha. but again, we were rushing the song, so in place of that i just started grunting, and i remember the loa guys enjoying that. it was a fun bit of cathartic screaming. i was going for a homer simpson on one of the screams haha. fun stuff. and then i dunno, we just decided that the screaming would be a better fit for the song, making it more of a universal "ANGST" song instead of a specific "DO NOT STEAL MY IPOD - jing" song haha.
i super super super love jing's lyric here, the wording is brilliant, and the song is APT haha.
the synths are bastardized from depeche mode (HAHA) for the verses and then we tried to put in some beatlesque organ to cover up jing's rip-off of another shirley song ("i can name that tune in 2 notes..") hahaha. but i swear i swear, the pièce de résistance for masamang damo has to be that killer drum + bass break into the harmonized guitar solo i love that i love that whole thing, i mean wow, we recorded that! it was perfect! haha
starting off with the decay of the chorus organ part, leaving zig and jing and then the "scary keyboard sound" and the big muffed solo guitar, then the "supot" harmony guitar, and it's over like that, and man i wanna hear the song again so i can get to that part again hahaha
sorry that i'm raving about a song on the album we just released but i didn't write it so it's not being boastful, i guess. haha.
BILI NA KAYO NG THEMESONGS!!!!
-owel
Monday, 22 September 2008
themesongs track 1
"kagabi nanaginip si morrissey na may nagmamahal sa kanya"
xmaslights was recorded first, around november of 2006, with this coming a close second. we were going for a "rivermaya covers goldenboy" vibe, with the prominent acoustic guitar and heidi's analog yamaha doing the bleeps in the background. i remember being really unhappy about how it sounded in the early mixes, so we replaced some of the acoustic guitars with electric guitar overdubs. another curious thing about the recording is the chorus guitar part, where the harmony riff is actually more prominent, the live version sounds nothing like it and i love that.
my favorite part in the song though (aside from the alarm clock intro, which totally makes this song work) is the solo in the middle, 1:30 or so into the song. the guitar doing the solo is actually just a scratch track, to be replaced by another electric guitar overdub (possibly with one of our stratocasters, this album was very stratty, featuring my green squier strat and joe's maya and pacifica strats) but then during the mixing, me and joey santos (i love you joey!) couldn't find the actual solo take. i remember him shrugging and saying "ok na naman yung scratch a.." hahahaha i love loa. anyway the super thing about the scratch take that i recorded is that i make a mistake on the second pass, but it sounds like a deliberate variation on the guitar line haha. as mark villena would say: "that's a very human element!"
if you listen closely, there's also a new synth part that comes into the solo, that's from marco harder's roland jx3p, i love how it just blankets the whole thing without being totally overpowering. i really love the sine wave square wave saw wave synth sounds and cheapo drum machine loops, so this song is an exercise in those things, hehe. plus! the early days of ang bandang shirley saw songs written specifically for loops, we just used my old casio tonebank keyboard for all percussive purposes hehe.
the words came after the riff, like most of the songs i write. inspired by the smiths' (duh haha) song of the same title, but i was going for more of a hopeful pov. wrote this around 2003, so this is 18 year old owel talking hahaha.
yehey
-owel
xmaslights was recorded first, around november of 2006, with this coming a close second. we were going for a "rivermaya covers goldenboy" vibe, with the prominent acoustic guitar and heidi's analog yamaha doing the bleeps in the background. i remember being really unhappy about how it sounded in the early mixes, so we replaced some of the acoustic guitars with electric guitar overdubs. another curious thing about the recording is the chorus guitar part, where the harmony riff is actually more prominent, the live version sounds nothing like it and i love that.
my favorite part in the song though (aside from the alarm clock intro, which totally makes this song work) is the solo in the middle, 1:30 or so into the song. the guitar doing the solo is actually just a scratch track, to be replaced by another electric guitar overdub (possibly with one of our stratocasters, this album was very stratty, featuring my green squier strat and joe's maya and pacifica strats) but then during the mixing, me and joey santos (i love you joey!) couldn't find the actual solo take. i remember him shrugging and saying "ok na naman yung scratch a.." hahahaha i love loa. anyway the super thing about the scratch take that i recorded is that i make a mistake on the second pass, but it sounds like a deliberate variation on the guitar line haha. as mark villena would say: "that's a very human element!"
if you listen closely, there's also a new synth part that comes into the solo, that's from marco harder's roland jx3p, i love how it just blankets the whole thing without being totally overpowering. i really love the sine wave square wave saw wave synth sounds and cheapo drum machine loops, so this song is an exercise in those things, hehe. plus! the early days of ang bandang shirley saw songs written specifically for loops, we just used my old casio tonebank keyboard for all percussive purposes hehe.
the words came after the riff, like most of the songs i write. inspired by the smiths' (duh haha) song of the same title, but i was going for more of a hopeful pov. wrote this around 2003, so this is 18 year old owel talking hahaha.
yehey
-owel
Thursday, 18 September 2008
FOR SALE: pawis at dugo at maraming alkansya na binasag para pambayad ng gastusin (in CD format)
saw three copies at the astrovision at festival mall alabang, get em while they're hot
-owel
Wednesday, 27 August 2008
back to the future
there's this memory of being in baguio, december 2005. a post-christmas trip with the alvero family, i was on a couch under a blanket thinking about the band and how we ended up doing a white stripes (eg: me on guitar and zig on the drums) set cause of unforeseen circumstances, and i was using marco harder's roadtone 335, split to two amps w/ the stereo out of a dd3 that i borrowed, so at least i had some of that going on. i remember playing grand finale, habulan, and a really fast tsuper, it was one of those crash and burn gigs that you remember cause it was horrible and exhilarating at once. anyway i was thinking how "i really thought that was the band," something along the lines of "what do i do now" or "where do all the songs go" and under the blanket on the couch up in baguio i get a text message from mark villena, asking if i would be interested in recording with him, as he needed a band to demo @ his tracks job. i go "that would've been great, but i think we disbanded" or something to that effect, and he goes "e tangina sayang yung mga kanta nyo" which was what i was thinking, and i guess the idea of preserving the songs led to the rizal day sessions, recorded dec 30 of 05.
joe was graveyard shift-ing at a computer zombie job, ean was between a rock and a hard place in terms of band membership + friendships, i was having trouble with school (what's new haha), and zig had other bands and i guess i didn't want to burden him with the idea of finding stability in a lineup when he had a lot of other things on his plate. rizal day was supposed to be a graduation picture of sorts, a "hey we had great songs and a good time," postscript. mark was talking about giving labels a copy cause the material was ace and he believed in it, and that was great, but even getting a skeleton of the band together to record at tracks was difficult, so all the "getting signed" talk felt like delusions of grandeur haha.
things changed with the friendster message exchange with selena, cause i was a fan of her old band and her singing, and i wondered if it could be possible to have her on the ep, singing on habulan. she got to the studio and i was all worried about how our music sounded, cause we weren't that "indie" haha and she came from a scene with well-documented snobbery (not that that's a bad thing) but she sang and it was great, and then the proverbial snowball snowballed when we (mr rabara and mr harder) went to eat at the tapa king near the studio, and upon returning we found attorney gaddi playing bass to the early backing tracks of do you videoke, explaining himself with: "may naisip akong bassline eh.."
2005 saw the release of the fearless freaks documentary on the flaming lips. i was really deep into the yoshimi album then, and i was starting to go through their discography in reverse, liking the soft bulletin, falling in love with transmissions from the satellite heart. and i downloaded this thing, and i was all "yeah that's what i want." there was this chaos to their live sets, like there was early video of them having a motorcycle onstage at a bar, using it as a noise/smoke machine, and then some drunken mistake involving the brake and the throttle in some wrong order got the motorcycle flying off the stage. intense.
flashback to early shirley, keyboard + guitar + vocal shirley, with the first gig at the now defunct fox square club, last song was sampung buwan and ean was on guitar and i left the keyboard loop on and i went to the drums and i was floor tom and crash cymbal machine and i was really really really drunk (red horse was the new water) and i jumped from the drum stool to in front of the drums and i didn't really stick the landing, my shin hit the high tom i think, it's a vague memory. anyway the shin still hurts, haha. i wrote songs as skeletons, excuses for jumping around and being noisy and looking stupid.
somewhere down the line we started getting tight, and the songs got a lot more riffy, and gigs like the one we had last tuesday at guijo are reminders of the old days, back when i used to talk back to the audience (ean naalala mo yung bastos na host sa che dati tas nag-sasakyan kita outro for tsuper haha) and when i could jump like this
or when we were thin like this
man that picture tells so much, joe still had his pacifica, ean still had his butterscotch tele, that was the gig before star wars: episode iii came out, and we had this song written to perform for just that night, dv (darth vader) where there's this pseudo rap thing (i was trying to approximate lcd soundsystem's daft punk is playing at my house) and there's this METAL imperial march interlude haha. that was a fun gig, and we've had a lot of those.
the album's still on it's way (after a couple of years of being on it's way) and there are new hitches (letters of consent and film alignments and size discrepancies and whatever else) and i don't know what to think anymore about that album cause i've been living with those songs for quite a while now, the oldest songs on themesongs come from 2002, the newest one (bato) came from 2006, and between the time of writing and the time of release we've written a ton of stuff. my bandmates are fucking intense songwriters and musicians and COOL people and i feel like that's been a secret for the longest time, and when themesongs finally does come out it'll be like, letting other people in on that secret.
and i miss love one another already, and i can't wait to get into the studio again, and i can't wait to start playing new songs, and i can't wait for everybody to hear the album and attach meanings and feelings to songs that i've attached meanings and feelings to and i can't wait to write about the things on that album and show the documentary to people so that when you have your copy and you're listening to it and you're wondering what that weird sound was or why that happened on that song or how cool this band is, then you can refer to the future post about the music or the documentary so you get your question answered.
-owel
joe was graveyard shift-ing at a computer zombie job, ean was between a rock and a hard place in terms of band membership + friendships, i was having trouble with school (what's new haha), and zig had other bands and i guess i didn't want to burden him with the idea of finding stability in a lineup when he had a lot of other things on his plate. rizal day was supposed to be a graduation picture of sorts, a "hey we had great songs and a good time," postscript. mark was talking about giving labels a copy cause the material was ace and he believed in it, and that was great, but even getting a skeleton of the band together to record at tracks was difficult, so all the "getting signed" talk felt like delusions of grandeur haha.
things changed with the friendster message exchange with selena, cause i was a fan of her old band and her singing, and i wondered if it could be possible to have her on the ep, singing on habulan. she got to the studio and i was all worried about how our music sounded, cause we weren't that "indie" haha and she came from a scene with well-documented snobbery (not that that's a bad thing) but she sang and it was great, and then the proverbial snowball snowballed when we (mr rabara and mr harder) went to eat at the tapa king near the studio, and upon returning we found attorney gaddi playing bass to the early backing tracks of do you videoke, explaining himself with: "may naisip akong bassline eh.."
2005 saw the release of the fearless freaks documentary on the flaming lips. i was really deep into the yoshimi album then, and i was starting to go through their discography in reverse, liking the soft bulletin, falling in love with transmissions from the satellite heart. and i downloaded this thing, and i was all "yeah that's what i want." there was this chaos to their live sets, like there was early video of them having a motorcycle onstage at a bar, using it as a noise/smoke machine, and then some drunken mistake involving the brake and the throttle in some wrong order got the motorcycle flying off the stage. intense.
flashback to early shirley, keyboard + guitar + vocal shirley, with the first gig at the now defunct fox square club, last song was sampung buwan and ean was on guitar and i left the keyboard loop on and i went to the drums and i was floor tom and crash cymbal machine and i was really really really drunk (red horse was the new water) and i jumped from the drum stool to in front of the drums and i didn't really stick the landing, my shin hit the high tom i think, it's a vague memory. anyway the shin still hurts, haha. i wrote songs as skeletons, excuses for jumping around and being noisy and looking stupid.
somewhere down the line we started getting tight, and the songs got a lot more riffy, and gigs like the one we had last tuesday at guijo are reminders of the old days, back when i used to talk back to the audience (ean naalala mo yung bastos na host sa che dati tas nag-sasakyan kita outro for tsuper haha) and when i could jump like this
or when we were thin like this
man that picture tells so much, joe still had his pacifica, ean still had his butterscotch tele, that was the gig before star wars: episode iii came out, and we had this song written to perform for just that night, dv (darth vader) where there's this pseudo rap thing (i was trying to approximate lcd soundsystem's daft punk is playing at my house) and there's this METAL imperial march interlude haha. that was a fun gig, and we've had a lot of those.
the album's still on it's way (after a couple of years of being on it's way) and there are new hitches (letters of consent and film alignments and size discrepancies and whatever else) and i don't know what to think anymore about that album cause i've been living with those songs for quite a while now, the oldest songs on themesongs come from 2002, the newest one (bato) came from 2006, and between the time of writing and the time of release we've written a ton of stuff. my bandmates are fucking intense songwriters and musicians and COOL people and i feel like that's been a secret for the longest time, and when themesongs finally does come out it'll be like, letting other people in on that secret.
and i miss love one another already, and i can't wait to get into the studio again, and i can't wait to start playing new songs, and i can't wait for everybody to hear the album and attach meanings and feelings to songs that i've attached meanings and feelings to and i can't wait to write about the things on that album and show the documentary to people so that when you have your copy and you're listening to it and you're wondering what that weird sound was or why that happened on that song or how cool this band is, then you can refer to the future post about the music or the documentary so you get your question answered.
-owel
Tuesday, 29 July 2008
the band which is
peace to everyone!
when mr. alvero and i played at our first gig 5 yrs ago at the legendary austrialian-owned bar along anonas extension (fox square bar), we only called ourselves "shirley". (without the phrase "ang bandang"). if you read our blog or attend our gigs, you should already know why we chose this name.
we only introduced our band as "ang bandang shirley" near the time mr. rabara was invited to become our permanent drummer back in June 2005.
i wrote this entry so that all of us will use these words correctly. probably, the best way to introduce our band is in filipino because "ang" and "bandang" (which in english are equivalent to "the" and "band which is" respectively) are in filipino.
"palakpakan po natin ang bandang shirley" (clap your hands for the band which is shirley)
please refrain from saying "sila po ang ang bandang shirley". i am quite irritated by the duplication of the word "ang". ("ang-ang" is not really pleasant to the ears).
although it's ok with me if you use "the band which is shirley". i don't know about my other bandmates but mr. alvero and i discussed this already and we both agreed that this should be the correct way of calling our band.
sorry to taglish haters. shirley is an english name and "ang bandang" is in filipino, specifically from the tagalog dialect. so i guess introducing us in taglish would be just fine.
"please clap for ang bandang shirley. mahilig sila mag-eat"
yes boys and girls. i'm bored and irritable. i need a hug. hahaha
peace again to everyone. mwah mwah xoxo hugs hugs
ean
when mr. alvero and i played at our first gig 5 yrs ago at the legendary austrialian-owned bar along anonas extension (fox square bar), we only called ourselves "shirley". (without the phrase "ang bandang"). if you read our blog or attend our gigs, you should already know why we chose this name.
we only introduced our band as "ang bandang shirley" near the time mr. rabara was invited to become our permanent drummer back in June 2005.
i wrote this entry so that all of us will use these words correctly. probably, the best way to introduce our band is in filipino because "ang" and "bandang" (which in english are equivalent to "the" and "band which is" respectively) are in filipino.
"palakpakan po natin ang bandang shirley" (clap your hands for the band which is shirley)
please refrain from saying "sila po ang ang bandang shirley". i am quite irritated by the duplication of the word "ang". ("ang-ang" is not really pleasant to the ears).
although it's ok with me if you use "the band which is shirley". i don't know about my other bandmates but mr. alvero and i discussed this already and we both agreed that this should be the correct way of calling our band.
sorry to taglish haters. shirley is an english name and "ang bandang" is in filipino, specifically from the tagalog dialect. so i guess introducing us in taglish would be just fine.
"please clap for ang bandang shirley. mahilig sila mag-eat"
yes boys and girls. i'm bored and irritable. i need a hug. hahaha
peace again to everyone. mwah mwah xoxo hugs hugs
ean
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