Window seats are the best! (Source: Click-through)

So I admit: I have been stalling lingering but I’m slowly being coaxed to the thought of being on a plane to a lalaland. The best part of my mental picture of this trip is the actual plane ride. I love riding planes despite the crappy airplane food in some trips I’ve been on and the even crappier music they have on-flight. But for now, let me emphasize on the latter. SERIOUSLY. If you are a point person from any particular airline – especially a certain flag carrier I’m quite familiar with – please, please, PLEASE consult someone on the music you play on board. Including but not limited to the choice of channels for your in-flight music “radio”, I’m not sure what you call it. What is up with all the eighties jazz music? I don’t mean to be an elitist, but honestly, have y’all not heard of music from at least the likes of Buddha Bar? Come on. Or even more tasteful post-rock alternative music NOT adult radio for the young and hip like moi. Consider that in-flight you are not allowed to use your ipod or any electronic device which carries one’s music of choice. That could be 13 hours on the plane in my case. Acceptable. But please, please, PLEASE care to accommodate different demographics when it comes to music and films.

Okay, so now I’m done with my rant.

What kind of music would I want to hear on a plane anyway? Naturally the kind of music that convinces me I’m going to live through the flight!

Anyway, this playlist is in no way my recommendation on what constitutes I’m-gonna-live-after-this-flight music. But I sure would be pleasantly surprised if I hear this music on the plane.

MGMT – Time to pretend [ Download ]

La Roux – In for the kill [ Download ]

Hooverphonic – Mad about you [ Download ]

Jonsi – Tornado [ Download ]

Hey Ocean – California [ Download ]

If you want to search yourself look for inspiration. Simply, travel.

On the road. Where the heck am I?

On the road I’ve been listening to some tunes that are completely off-tangent from what people usually find me listening to. It’s a mix of post-punk with classic bass licks, dubstep, electro-pop, post-punk, and a few…chipmunks?! No, seriously. It has upped my mood tremendously so have a listen if you want some cheer. Traveling is supposed to refresh your perspective…revitalize you. Today’s playlist sort of represents that.

Recommendation: For ideal listening, grab all the songs by right clicking and save target/link as an mp3 file. Play in the order suggested here and if you know how to set up crossfade on your music player, set it at 8. Enjoy!

Starfucker – Girls just want to have fun (cover) [ Download ]

League – Golden Maps [ Download ]

Get People – Away [ Download ]

Kastle – I know [ Download ]

Cassius – I love you so [ Download ]

I love the rain and it always puts me in a pensive if not sedate mood. It never fails to relax me. Unfortunately, for some of us it doesn’t. I realized this when I was talking to a friend who was one of the survivors of the flash floods that occured last month in Northern Mindanao. The sound of rain makes her nervous and keeps her from getting any shut eye. What more now that the rainy season kicked off early this year?

Our environment will always have a hand in activating emotions in our brain. It varies in each person, depending on their experience of such stimulus. Sometimes we just can’t help it. Memories make fleeting moments permanent. We often find ourselves slaves to our good and bad memories of things.

Everything is perspective. This is how we become resilient. There is hope. Donate NOW.

Walking in the rain will never be the same again for the survivors of Typhoon Sendong. (Photo by: REUTERS)

Giselle Rosselli – Small People [ Download ]

The Honey Trees – To be with you [ Download ]

Blondfire – Oceans [ Download ]

Ashley Chambliss – A little more of you [ Download ]

Gnarls Barkley – Crazy (Basement Jam) [ Download ]

Sweden is my music mecca, I know it.

The Knife – Pass this on (Live)

The Knife – Pass this on

I absolutely dig their album “Declaration of Dependence”. Full of feel good song, healthy for the heart. Thanks to Kaye for bringing my attention this music.

My Brightest Diamond

Okay, what just happened there in 2009?  It went by like a blur.  All snide comments aside about my utter lack of indie juice for that year, I could say that my personal evolution has tremendously affected the course of this website’s content.  As I review all my entries it’s been so issue-oriented and later on, I tried to experiment on describing sensations evoked by music and vice-versa.  The latter is a somewhat out-of-body experience, if you will, which might require a slight intoxication on my part (again, real or imagined).

But enough of my self-indulgent musings.  This year, I wish to introduce a new dimension to this blog which is to feature guest writers.  That’s right.  Other voices writing on this blog aside from moi. I’m sure by now you’re tired of this highly cynical and weird eccentric behind the keyboard.  Fine.  We’ll drag in another highly cynical and weird eccentric behind the keyboard! Hah.

So yes, expect some guy named Francis to pop into this scene once in a while.  By the way, Francis is a guy I can easily monitor.  By that, I don’t mean in the Foucauldian sense of the word nor at a predatory sense whereby I am the stalker and he is the stalkee.  No.  It is like the kind of monitor where I can see him sitting in front of class and slap his back startling enough that will remind him to write some more.  Take not that Francis is in no way being remunerated for his efforts yet (at least as far as cash is concerned because I will probably be subject to some ‘homework collaboration’ in the future should he ask for assistance in the event that I will be guilt-tripped to oblige).  But you know!  You get the point. He is also a ‘prolific’ indie artist.  By that I mean he has his own myspace! (Okay, up to you if you get my sick and twisted humor).  Kidding.  Again, let’s get that out of the way and just anticipate his words because you can probably pick up a thing or two from this extremely tenacious music geek.

I am also dragging some of my other friends into this salad of music geekery.  When they are no longer pretending to be busy – like I used to do.  Of course, in case they are telling me matter-of-factly that they have work this blah blah blah, I’m sure I’ll find a way to squeeze out a little piece of their wonderful minds once I’ve found their bargain weakness.  So there.  That’s what you’ll be expecting this 2010 in Southisms.  Shove Kim to the sides with her boring commentaries at late and in with the new fabulous music critics who’ve got some fresh insights in to the musical esse.

Now, time for a playlist. Maestro! Music!

My Brightest Diamond - Something of an end [Download]

Moby - Shot in the back of the head [Download]

The Books and Jose Gonzales - Cello Song [Download]

1969

1969 was such a great year for music regardless of the historic Woodstock which took place at the outskirts of New York state.  1969′s music glory owes itself to the culture surrounding it at that time. The restlessness of Vietnam protests.  The counter-culture youth in face with the highly conservative and blindly patriotic generation that had lived through the traumatic World War II.  1969 was the height of hallucinogenic substances which inspired new ways of recognizing the world.  It was also a time of repression and therefore resistance.

1969 also inspired indie.  That music celebrates loving the street musician or playing the record on mono.  Indie was also about Bob Dylan rejecting to play at Woodstock.  Indie was making music for the sake of music. Or music to save lives. And that there was something hateful about record companies, especially after what they have done to The Beatles.  And speaking of The Beatles, 1969 was the last time The Beatles were seen in live performance at the rooftop of Apple Records.  It was also the year when John Lennon performs as a solo artist and cries, “Give Peace a Chance”.  There was something so distinctly resounding about those words at that time, which now is just a song that we happen to know and have heard on the radio before.

1969 was when Bob Marley and the Wailers emerged from obscurity and began to popularize Reggae.  It was also Elvis Presley’s most monumental and critically-acclaimed comeback.  Simon and Garfunkel and Jackson 5 debuts –  a mark of the beginning of another era in music which is the 70′s folk or pop ballad.

When I close my eyes and think about the alternative lifestyles and the music and the pleasures so prolific in 1969, I kind of wish I lived at least a day in that year and just have a look-see of what was going on.  Just as though the Times they are a ‘changin. Just to feel that sense of wonder as one watches the first man land on the moon.

Gig logos courtesy of tunogtimog.tk

At late, I’ve been sort of a drifter in the so-called local  music “scene”, partly because having to go to all the gigs and listening to the same people and the same songs over and over can eventually grow tiring, (not to mention being coaxed in to yet another drinking session, which I have already outgrown) even though it’s totally hip to support the local music scene. A part of me still thinks that showing up to these things is helpful in mobilizing gigs, and as a result you’ve got a healthy music sub/culture. (Note: In fact, this was exactly what Paolo Castillo and the early Kaibans have envisioned. Making music gigs a habit in order for musicians to habitually create and play music.)

Years later I realized that in Davao, the music culture has met some difficulty in departing from the “gig” machinery.  On one hand, you have got to admire how the locals have finally warmed up to the idea of recording their original music, also home recording at that.  However, recording became an alibi to go out and support yet another gig.   I know I’ll divide the discussion on this but I daresay that music distribution hasn’t outgrown selling CDs to friends (even giving them away for free – as alternative interpretations of “indie” permit).   And so it comes as no surprise that you have a handful of very talented musicians and even music producers that have a day job. Unless you’re the likes of Noel Cabangon, Gauss Obenza, Bayang Barrios, Popong Landero…you know…the MTS people.

In a “scene” where music is appreciated but not necessarily “sold” (not to be confused with “sold out” as that requires a more complex qualification), being a musician  is just not a career option around these parts.  And so Davao has made it possible to have a music scene without a music industry.  Because the latter for me is manifested by the proliferation of artists who have records people go out of their way to buy in order to listen to.  When artists have a listener-ship with demand high enough to “inspire” more music, then tautologically, you’ve got yourself a market.  But unlike this ideal scenario you notice that in Mindanao, the artist is lax on the business side of music.  Which is fine but it’s symptomatic of obscurantism and a low appreciation of independent music.  Independent music is a musical process or genre that is, more often than not, commercially relaxed or devoid of formulaic musicality that the only way to give it artistic justice is for it to be appreciated by as wide an audience as possible.

This is the predominant trend in Mindanao.  We could make an exception of this period in time in Cagayan de Oro, when they were at their most abundant musical days thanks to the emergence of music powerhouses from the city, like Nuncyspungen.   Before even knowing that the band was from CDO, I was able to acquire a copy of their music off Manila racks.  It’s just an example of the potential for artists to enjoy wider circulation than most Mindanaoans.  Although in this case, they had a little help coming from the “South” music industry, which is actually Cebu (it’s strange that they call it South when Mindanao is a lot more…southern).  But I digress.

Digression #2: Wait a minute, what about Myxtreme?  Or Sidecrash?  Aren’t they widely proliferated? Well, I’m only talking about Indie here, get with the program.

Digression #3: What’s Indie by the way? Let’s keep these ideas at bay for now.

I categorically exclude mainstream artists from Mindanao who’ve been absorbed by “big” recording companies because there’s really no point in calling them independent.  And recording companies tend to hegemonize sound such that they become commercial and formulaic – creative impositions that Indie culture resists.  I’d like to think that aside from independence from companies, it can also be said that it’s a culture that resist creative conformity.

And so the point of this article is: Yes, Davao has an existing independent music culture but with some internal issues that need to be addressed in order to grow.  Your thoughts?

Feist Live

I don’t like to admit that I like The Carpenters, because in my mind I wouldn’t count them as a personal favorite but as it turns out I do like how their songs sound like without necessarily subscribing to The Carpenters shrine ring. I sometimes find myself bopping my head to the kind of song that reminds me how The Carpenters write their songs.  I’m not saying that, the song that I hear which then remind of another, lacks originality.  My guess is that people who write these somewhat parallel songs simply share outbursts of sensation, whether melancholy or joy, and share sensibilities that cut across age gaps.

I also say music is always inspired by another music or the sounds of nature, which sounds just the same for everyone if they just listen carefully.

For that matter, I truly admire Feist‘s latest ruminations. Her album The Reminder interestingly evokes that kind of musical fervor in me.  Her song reverberates in the room in your brain where they keep memories and nostalgia, real or imagined.  And washes you with body tingles with each deep instrumental vibration.

It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I’m writing to you now as I listen through this beautiful album…

A cold heart will burst / if mistrusted first
A calm heart will break / when given a shake