\m/

This just makes me so happy that I have to share it. Okay, you guys do know that I'm into rediscovering and searching bands that have not gone mainstream or have not been heard of especially in the Philippines, right? Well, thanks to Myspace, my job has been easier. Lately, foreign bands have been inviting me to be their friends and asking me to check them out. Their mostly rock bands, maybe because of the groups I joined in Myspace. But don't worry, not all are hard rock and screamo freaks. A lot are more of pop/punk/alternative. Some have really cool sounds. There's Charetta, Oh, Hush!, Classified and just recently (meaning, March 10, 2008), Sex & Missiles, Awaken, Patience, Honeyglass, Thestockmarketcrash, Goodbye Elliot, and Forever Always. That's a lot. Overwhelming. So far, the only bands I listened to are Charetta, Oh, Hush!, Classified, Sex & Missiles, Awaken, and Thestockmarketcrash. I can't listen to all of them at once, can I? So far, I really liked Oh, Hush!, but I found put about them through Myspace Events. Charetta, Sex & Missiles, and one other band (oops) gave me a personal message together with the invite (wee!). So far, I liked Charetta, Sex & Missiles (they're good), Thestockmarketcrash, and Goodbye Elliot. I'm currently listening while typing. Haha! (Ticket to Love by Goodbye Elliot in my ears. No screamos. They sound good.ü)

By the way, there's this Filipino band named Hungry Minds. Do you guys know about them (oops again)? I'll check them out later.

This is fun, maybe by the time these bands hit Pinoy mainstream (if they do), I'd be over them. Haha! That's gonna suck for me but I don't mind. I like the idea of knowing about a band when they just started, or are still underground. By the time, their mainstream, it'll be a year or two after they released their albums. ü (Feeling the punk rock-ness of Forever Always in Never Say Goodbye. Beautiful.ü)

Music is forever being updated. Thanks to Myspace, and to the bands who found me there. I know, there's a slim chance you'd read this but, hell. I just want to give you the recognition I believe you deserve. :) My music, my blithe.

(Sound So Clear in my ears... "Doing what feels right, what others say is wrong, but all you hear in your head is that same old song! I see the way i used to be...before the sound came out so clear..." by Sex & Missiles)

Not Local Mainstream Ear Candy

Due to this addiction, I've decided to make a list (this is getting boring, ya think?) of the bands that deserve recognition. As far as I know, they aren't mainstream yet here in the Philippines but the States and other countries know and love them. I grew to like these artists. Most are rock bands and some have the screamo effect (I'm sorry) but they have good lyrics. :) They're worth your time. Beside some are examples of their masterpieces/the songs I appreciated. :)

A.F.I. - The Last Kiss, Last Caress
All Time Low
Aly and AJ Michalka
Anberlin (c/o KimL) - Amsterdam
Butterfly Boucher - Life is Short
Dead Kennedys - Too Drunk to Fuck
Everclear - Volvo Driving Soccer Mom
Five Times August
Foo Fighters
Hole - Celebrity Skin
Hyde (c/o Lian. lol) - Cape of Storms
Lady Sovereign - Love Me or Hate Me
Meg & Dia (c/o KimL...ü)
Modest Mouse - Dashboard
Nirvana (Kurt Cobain!) - Penny Royal Tea
Oh, Hush! - Going Down in Style, My Neighbor Thinks I'm Famous, etc. **
Starting Line - Playing Favorites
Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars
Sublime - What Happened, Date Rape
Sunny Day Real Estate - 48
Sugarcult - Pretty Girl (It's the Way)
The Blood Brothers - Mutiny on the Ark of the Blood Brothers
The Doors (Isn't this Jim Morrison's?ü) - Touch Me
The Sex Pistols - Bodies
The Moldy Peaches
The Vines - Don't Listen to the Radio
Weird Al - Confessions Part III

I might add more when I get hold of new ones. :)

**from Myspace Events
Oh, Hush!
They're GREAT! Swear!ü

Why We Have THEM Now

Due to my music obsession and due to my sole copy of Spin (April 2003), I decided to make this entry. Spin is a hardcore music magazine ("Music for Life") and I have to thank them for they are the reason I'm discovering and rediscovering bands and music (I read it again for the fun of it since I was bored). Anyway, what I'm going to post are the list of bands who influenced the bands we know today. These albums are part of the "15 Most Influential Albums (... not recorded by the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Elvis, or the Rolling Stones)" from Spin magazine. I found this 2-page article very interesting. I'd just post a few since not every influenced band/musician is known to you. I'll just post the bands/musicians that most know.
**the ones in the parentheses are the record labels & the year they released that album. :)

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND & NICO , the Velvet Underground (Verve, 1967)
Influenced: The Strokes

FUN HOUSE, the Stooges (Elektra, 1970)
Influenced: Ramones, the Sex Pistols, Black Flag, the White Stripes, the Vines

BLACK SABBATH, Black Sabbath (Warner Bros., 1970)
Influenced: Metallica, Nirvana

WHAT'S GOING ON, Marvin Gaye (Motown, 1971)
Influenced: Earth, Wind, & Fire, OutKast

AUTOBAHN, Kraftwerk (Philips/Vertigo, 1974)
Influenced: Daft Punk, Radiohead

RAMONES, Ramones (Sire, 1976)
Influenced: the Sex Pistols, Green Day, Sum 41, anyone who lacked the patience to learn more than three chords

QUEENS OF NOISE, the Runaways (Mercury, 1977)
Influenced: Hole

DAMAGED, Black Flag (SST, 1981)
Influenced: Nirvana, Blink-182

RUN-D.M.C., Run-D.M.C. (Profile, 1984)
Influenced: Beastie Boys, Limp Bizkit, everyone else who picked up a microphone after them

STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON , N.W.A. (Ruthless/Priority, 1988)
Influenced: Snoop Dogg, Tupac Shakur, Eminem, white people who used the term "beeatch"

ENERGY, Operation Ivy (Lookout!, 1989)
Influenced: Green Day, No Doubt, Sublime, Blink-182

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE, Rage Against the Machine (Epic, 1992) --influenced by Operation Ivy's ENERGY
Influenced: Korn, Limp Bizkit, Deftones, P.O.D.

DIARY, Sunny Day Real Estate (Sub Pop, 1994)
Influenced: Modest Mouse, Jimmy Eat World, Dashboard Confessional, Silverstein**

Those are the ones with the familiar influenced bands so far. :)
Obviously Run-D.M.C. and N.W.A.'s albums became the influences for present-time hip-hop artists. Most of the others inspired rock bands like Nirvana, Sublime, Hole, Green Day, the White Stripes, and the Vines.

By the way, the Runaways are female. :) It was said, "they weren't the first female rock band, but they were the first female rawk band."

And to all people who listen to today's emo music, Sunny Day Real Estate is a band to thank.ü Bands like Embrace and Rites of Spring may have begun "Emo" during the late 1980's, it's Sunny Day Real Estate that emo bands of today sound more like. Their songs "48" and "Killed by an Angel" are good.ü (As far as I know, only Gerdo and I know about Sunny Day Real Estate).

Tim "Lint" Armstrong Matt Freeman of Rancid were the guitarist and bassist respectively of Operation Ivy.

Tupac Shakur, R.I.P.

**Silverstein was not featured in Spin they claimed that Sunny Day Real Estate as one of their influences, together with Metallica, etc. (http://silverstein.imeem.com/)

Raise your glasses high for the "forefathers" of the artists you love today! :)

Ugh.

I have this particular frustration which I share with a common few. But in order for you to understand this frustration, I have to narrate the situation to you.

Let's say you landed on a really great song from a great or even an unknown musician. But you got hooked, so you tell people about it. You say it in a rather enthusiastic way. Unfortunate for you, they wouldn't care because they don't know the band/artist and sure as hell don't know the song! So, fine, you go along your merry way listening to that song that you learned to love while they go back to listening to what's currently IN. You see, here in the Philippines, it takes a year or two for songs to actually become popular and hit mainstream. So, let's say that after a year, that song you loved did hit mainstream. What a shame to hear the people who didn't give a damn about that song last year when you introduced actually love the song. Excuse me, but didn't I introduce that song last year and didn't you people just brush it off because you didn't know it? Annoying or what?

I guess people don't appreciate a song or band unless they hit mainstream. Personally, I like falling in love with a song or band when no one knows about them yet. When they hit mainstream and people go gaga over them, to me, they lose that spark or ear candy charm that I used to love back when only I or a few loved them. It sounds selfish but I don't like the feeling of listening to people go crazy over a band or song that you went crazy for last year. I could personally say, "Please, that was so last year. How late can you get?" o.0
Okay, this is getting mean. Or rather, I'm getting mean. Sorry. It's just a musical frustration since not everyone knows how to appreciate a band by looking for them. Lately, I don't wait for a new hit to be aired on Killerbee or Monster Radio, I fish around. I tell you, there are many fish in the sea worthy of your time. :)

My Love

Everyone has had really awful days. Every person has experienced frustrations and depression somehow, right? What picks you guys up? Food? A person? Spending? Different people have different and unique pick-me-uppers. They could be as mundane or as extravagant. Well, mine is very simple and yet very effective. I turn to my Love. Nooo, it's not a person. No dork can make me feel good forever. I turn to MUSIC. Yes, I go through my music stream.

There something very therapeutic about listening to music and banging your head to the beat. My usual pick-me-uppers are rock. These are a few of my loves:

-My Chemical Romance
-Fall Out Boy
-Good Charlotte
-Paramore
-The Used
-30 Seconds to Mars
-Evanescence
-Eraserheads
-Parokya ni Edgar
-Kamikazee
-Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
-Sublime

Of course, there's the popular and "in" music now. I can't deny that I like listening to those songs about booze, partying, and naughty hooking-up, or simply Black music. The beat is just so catchy. There's Akon (He rules the airwaves!), Sean Kingston, Rihanna, Yin Yang Twins and many more. I love Low, Me Love, Shake, Dangerous, Crank That Soulja Boy, Smack That, Hypnotized, Bananza (Belly Dancer), etc.
They just make me so happy!ü I don't need a guy, a sister, or even chocolate and coffee. I just need a room, myself, and my music. Turn it up loud!ü It's the beat, the lyrics, the way these artists express themselves and reach out to the people who listen. We are all bound by the beat (I don't care if that's a line ravers say on drugs*)

I'm listening to music while writing this entry (currently Paramore, a few minutes ago, Good Charlotte).
"It just feels so good..."
"Everybody sing!"
"Feel the beat now! If you got nothing left, say I don’t wanna be in love..."

My music. More than my blithe. My bliss. My love.


*According to Spin Magazine (April 2003)