I haven’t written anything like this in a loooooooooooooooooooooong time.

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Hey Dennis,

Nice to hear from you again. Haha, I’m guilty of not revisiting you on the music marketing for your bar, I’ve been unreasonably busy. But when I talked to Rocky I actually appreciated some of his choices, and I’ve discovered something new from him too (which is something vintage i.e. 80’s German/Euro Electro-clash-pop). And speaking of Electro-clash-pop and depending genres, I’m really in to it since two or three years ago when I discovered my most favorite Swede-band, who was on the rise then (The Knife) along with them guys from LCD Soundsystem who released their first album in 2005. Plus there’s Thom Yorke, who finally (as expected) made an all electro-album. (a) By the way on Thom Yorke going electro, he just had to go out of control SOLO because people were starting to blame him for Radiohead’s inadvertent shift from their trademark electric guitar rock band to the synthetic but very bop not-everyone-buys-it sound, (b) Radiohead’s new album is a personal favorite because they noticeably LESSENED Thom Yorke’s electronic ambitions in their band by letting him vent it all out on his own & (c) Best part about it, they haven’t broken up. ANYWAY, you don’t want to hear me wax poetic about it but they’re my staple tips to people lately.

Last year, I had PJ Harvey on my playlist - 2007 was her most melancholic album among ALL her melancholic albums. Also listened to some Bjork (2007 - Volta) because I like how she makes an effort to be avante garde all the time, which is always good for innovation. New discoveries: this band called Spiritualized. They claim to be Space Rock but they basically sound like a mild version of Red Sparowes cross-bred with Film School’s deadpan vocals. You might like “Ladies and Gentlemen we’re floating in space”, or their collaboration with Yoko Ono, “Walking on thin ice”. The latter was once Ono’s electronic single which has Lennon legacy all over it. Sigur Ros released their album last year, very good…Wait, I’m giving you a really melancholic lineup. They’re all worth checking out anyway. What genre did you have in mind? If you like Rock, basic(ally), I liked Deerhunter’s new album, it’s very fresh and very Indie(gnified). The New Pornographers are getting more overrated by every album but they’re still worth a shot in small doses… If you listened to Sonic Youth at one point in your life, they released an album last 2006 which I still listen to. And according to a lot of hipsters (who probably heard of them just recently because of Juno), their old track Carpenters rendition of the song “Superstar” is a winner. If you haven’t heard of it, you’ll probably like it. I liked it at first, really, but my ears would bleed if I hear it one more time from some hipster who just watched the movie Juno and came back liking SY and then The Moldy Peaches. Also check out Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible, if you haven’t already and tell me what you think because I’m running a random poll about it.

Sorry I got carried away with the nerd talk there. One last thing: Last year was a great year for Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene. He collaborated with the same bunch of guys for his solo project, “Spirit if…” Very charged rock and still the same Indie sentimentality you get when artists really want to be profound, lol. It’s scary, it’s been the goal of a lot of these artists lately that I don’t know what to make of it - whether or not it’s still as deviant as Indie. Or maybe I’m getting tired of it. This week, I’m listening to instrumental music again. Post-rock, i.e. Mogwai and The Album Leaf. I don’t know if you’ll be into that since you like Kings of Leon who are unpretentiously rock. I liked half of last year’s album because I haven’t gotten around to listening to everything since I’m in this sort of phase. So far, so good. No dramatic changes really. But for some reason, the Europeans really liked it. It’s one of those albums you listen to over and over again and never get tired.

Oh and yes! Keep me posted about the Cerveza Negra. As it is, there are only two places in Davao City who sell the local Dark Lager: that’s at MTS and this place called “Some place else” at Rizal. I’m really puzzled why not too many people have heard of it when it’s actually San Miguel’s best brew out there. Hola Espana, your bar’s competitor at Damosa, sells Guinness Stout and Murphy’s but they eat through people’s pockets. I seriously hope that people here would open up to the world of great tasting beer. Cerveza’s like a poor man’s alternative haha.

Ciao,
Kim

Hey just want to make a quick update in case any of you are interested. The independent gig schedules are as follows:

March 13-16, 2008
KONSYERTOS ‘08 @ Madrazo Compound (Durian Bar)
Night time (Depends on you)

March 15, 2008
Mix-a-tune Gig @ Juan Luna St. (Next to Better Components)
8:00 PM

That’s all for now. I think I’ll be showing up for the Mix-a-tune gig as well as the March 16 gig, since it’s like a yearly thing for me. Wow, I remember a couple of years ago I was just behind the scenes and now (since I pretend to have a life) I haven’t been to a single gig since this year began. Hmm… I must admit that I’ve had a very dramatic change in lifestyle…

In other news, Muzika del Sur has already made a courtesy call to all Mindanao Bands about the sophomore year of Muzika del Sur Music Awards. If you’re up for grabs, just contact the Alchemy of Vision and Light Office through 225-FILM.

A couple of nights ago I caught on to the 50th anniversary of the Grammy Awards, and amidst jeers on Kanye West who is, as usual, perpetually pompous (sneered at the organizers for playing the music on him while he was still making his speech), it was meant to be a respectable event. The Grammy Awards made an effort to recognize just about everyone worth mentioning from over the 50 years it has been going on. But the formalities got a little off-set when you have the guy from Arrested Development hosting and making awkward jokes at the same time, and…wait, did I mention Kanye West?

And there’s the fact that Amy Winehouse, already snagging 5 Grammys and rightfully doing so, didn’t even get the Album of the year. The strange controversy all about her losing, has much to do with her losing to Herbie Hancock for an album I have yet to check because curiously enough, I’ve never heard of it prelude to all the acclaim. You know I ought to don that Indie snob hat I usually wear for this kind of occasion but I can’t. Is he that obscure these days? Did the pop jazz guy topple the breakthrough anorexic weirdo from London? And speaking of the latter, I feel bad that the oh-so-powerful Grammys couldn’t get her in the US because the embassy refused entry for Winehouse on crack. She looked so anxious on that last award, because album of the year would be such a slap to everyone’s face, but no: Herbie Hancock won, which just threw ice cold water on everyone. Never mind that Kanye West, doing his speech for Song of the year, singled out himself and Amy Winehouse as the only “deserving” winners for Album of the year and that he would not be surprised if it happened. The point is, Kanye, Herbie Hancock won, and some people are too SURPRISED to even bother asking the question why.

The Grammys have made some surprising upset over the years. In 2001, the 1970’s rock band Steely Dan won over then sweeping rap artist Eminem, and pundits nod their heads in agreement because, we’re talking about Steely Dan here. But some argue that Grammy award winners are supposed to represent the anthems of that particular year, which means that, the only way anyone gets a Grammy status is if he or she does have that critical mastery down pat, which meant sometimes, commercial success. Hancock made waves in the adult contemporary radio streams ONLY but produced, what was decidedly a musically and politically justified album, “River: Letters to Joni” was a tribute. People wonder why the choice this year was made on an artist the listening public’s barely heard of. We have to admit though that the listening public has transformed dramatically over the years. So is the Grammy trying to go back to the criterions upheld in the late 60’s up? Like it was some lost golden era music? What is it that the Grammy is trying to preserve?

It must be musical dignity. What the major upsets taught us really, is that both Eminem and Winehouse were white people who basked in success by hybridizing if not, capitalizing on music created by black people. The inter-racial concern is particularly too political to openly discuss without stirring an ample amount of confusion and outrage. But the point is, how many people can pull of writing and performing music white people have created without garbing on the gangsta’ high society tripe that has riddled the images of artists today? Hancock is a slap on West’s face but at the same time a snide remark on the hoards of artists who have lost their musical integrity in the midst of their gimmicks.

Towards the end of the event, some guy made this speech about how the next 50 years will be, inevitably governed by this transformed body of musical taste, and that the artists which will emerge then will be playing the music of their time. Possibly, the next wave artists to come will be tasteless and if anything, just a bunch of copycats. But I’d like to think that we’re not all that tasteless, and sometimes I’d like to think that some are improvisers instead of copycats. So the music snobs behind letting Hancock win over Winehouse might be fearing the day that the kids have to learn to appreciate music beyond the music ascribed to their time and that there are essentially more elements to it that go beyond the mainstream. This move can teach us a lot about being open-minded but I still feel that Winehouse could have and should have won. She could have won if the political comment was unnecessary for this time — but it was. To me, she should have won because of the musical merit that is thought to be possessed by the Grammy’s Album of the year: musical charisma.

I have a new laptop! And that means that a very arduous migration of gigabytes worth of Music was in order. Unfortunately, my brother had no plans of keeping any of my music in the old laptop (enacting turnover rights, etc). And more unfortunately, when I descended upon him to collect my files, he claims to have “accidentally” deleted some of my songs already. One of them including this very serious collection of Rock anthologies and The Knife! Gah. Ate must grab everything all over again. I figured, since people do check out my music every time they get my hands on my laptop, I might as well have the satisfaction of not letting them listen to what they want to hear but instead let them listen to a more selective collection of music. Nya-ha-ha!

For priority’s sake, I had to get the full discography of The Knife. And while looking up the albums, I serendipitously stumbled upon several projects the Dreijer siblings signed themselves up for, prelude to The Knife. I’m particularly enjoying Karin’s former band Honey is cool which sounds so Sweden just because I think that anything resembling The Cardigans ought to be from Sweden. But seriously. The reason why the Dreijer music motor is so darn good, their melodies are so infectious and their words are sing-in-the-shower material whilst being politically sensitive, anti-corporate, socialist feminist, and just about anything intelligent you can think of.

So as tribute to my most favorite band in the world, here’s a music video I’ve posted for you guys that you’ll hopefully like.

Speaking of dead, believe it or not this is the second time I’ve been online since MBS1, and the first was like a couple of days before yesterday. Clearly, if you’re in the kind of practice I’m in, being offline that long should be a crime. If you checked my last post BEFORE the last one, you can tell that I can go for more than two days and I know you should all get my head for that…

But really, last night I had some really shocking news about someone who died. You see, few months ago, Kaye rescued a kitten when she was on her way home. We learned later that the kitten’s mother was just around the village and whenever we see her sauntering the streets by herself, I tell Kaye that one of these days we ought to reunite the kitten (now a cat), jokingly named “Pipao” with her maternal unit. Last night, on her way home, Kaye found Pipao’s mom lying DEAD on the street: as in Road Kill dead. I was devastated too since I’ve grown endeared to Pipao. You know, I feel strangely relieved that no human can cat-talk their way into explaining to Pipao that her mother had died.

If I may digress, again, a few years ago, my friend told me about this Hungarian song that had some really morbid themes surrounding it. The legend goes that the composer wrote a song for his former lover who after the release of the song killed herself. The composer later killed himself as well. Hmm…
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Why me? Hah, aside from being almost tongue-tied, in hind sight, I tend to think that there were several things I never got to say on my talk today because, you know, I really didn’t know what to say to begin with. Anyway, I thought my task was to identify the difference between being being an emo blogger from a niche blogger. But I guess I failed to mentioned, if I hadn’t implicitly said so already, that you can be an “emo blogger” without betraying your niche.

I used to go through the trouble of writing about my purely indulgent life - if that’s not redundant or what. I guess, part of why I deleted my “too personal” blog accounts, I figured out one day that I’m not so interested in myself anymore. If I want to talk about myself, it’s because I’m really interested in something.

And Jayvee called my attention that, HEY! I HAVEN’T UPDATED SINCE SEPTEMBER. So yeah, you caught me. I write for pleasure, but I think that I’ve been too busy to write and actually find it too cumbersome to find the time to write. You wanna write to have a life but you’re too busy having a life to have time to write… So I guess, part of the little things we have to think about as bloggers is finding a balance between these things. I actually get e-mails and comments time and again from online connections asking me where I am. But what really snapped me back into the blogging thing, I guess, apart from the summit, is this e-mail from the owner of a local bar asking me to come up with a playlist for a Rock party for his establishment. He actually knows Kings of Leons. And that brings joy to my heart whenever I encounter someone who can actually relate to my music. I’ve been so absorbed with feeling as if THERE’S NO HOPE of anyone ever being interested in the kind of music I listen to. And then finally, this. Wow.

I’m back on board baby.

Okay, Kanye West rants publicly, and unabashedly “WHY DID I LOSE?!” at the recently held MTV Video Music Awards. I’m sure some of you have heard of it. He rats about why a black guy can’t win (And offhandedly mentions indignantly that Black Eyed Peas - which includes a black guy - won over him the previous year). And why did you let Britney Spears do that horrendous performance? Let me (Kanye) do the opening for once! Why let an awkward post-pregnancy physique show on TV? I topped the charts, yo!
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God the apologies are really getting tired so let’s head right on to a quick update.

The DJ Thing
I’ve recently found a new home in a new radio station. Migrated from U.R. to Killerbee - things are so different, you know. I’m technically still a trainee, as it is, I’m not getting paid for it. But hey, I’m getting my 4-hours already so that’s all that matters to me right now and I guess I don’t mind doing it pro-bono till further notice. I don’t want to seem like I’m taking advantage of the fact that one of the most prominent DJ’s of the station just left and that supposedly the station misses one jock, but you know, the way Killerbee runs their thing, I feel like that I have so much more to learn.
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I have been going around Mindanao and have had little time to be in front of the computer in the most comfortable blogging position (which I argue is absolutely necessary, as I’m sure some of you might agree)! Moreover, I have been struggling to get some music back into my system at late since the climate of my career has not been very flexible on that extent. Seriously, I make an effort! I try to steal time to listen to Smashing Pumpkin’s newest album entitled, Zeitgeist, their come-back album with a sound reminiscent of old goddamn school 90’s rock. If you’re a purist and you’re about to start dissing grunge, close this window right this instant!

Anyway.

It’s been an interesting month, thus far. And I can say the same thing about the previous month. I went to Cagayan to check out the music scene there and quite frankly, I was impressed. My heart bled over the fact that the Cagayan music scene seems more enthusiastic and more, shall I say, formidable compared to Davao’s. Not that I’m dissing our locals, no no. My point is, I wish the scene here would grow in terms of musical taste, and maybe even music support.
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I’m currently under Rock Rehab - kind of my made up term for this period of time I’ve decided to lock myself away from all other types of music except of course, Rock. This involves hours worth of listening to Rock-only playlists with artists like Radiohead, The New Pornographers, The Decemberists, Wolfmother, Deftones, The Metric, Frank Zappa and the inescapable 70’s jangle rock of Steely Dan (mind you, this is just to name a few). I’ve come up with a pretty eclectic array of artist to be listened to probably up until the end of this month.

I guess at this point, you might be asking why?

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