Anyway so I’m having trouble sleeping.

Yessir, it's quite the ungodly hour.

As a kid, a radio would lull me to sleep. You hear the cheesiest stuff on the radio back in the early 90s. They’d play 80′s ballads like there’s no tomorrow. But that my friends, would guarantee my trip to lala-land.

Who knows why I turned out with such an eclectic taste in music?

In any case, I wondered if the same remedy still worked on me. I started with The Jets and their song “You got it all” and then followed by Billy Ocean’s “Suddenly”. Gee, these are actually the songs I think about singing in karaoke. Subconscious much?

I’m sure some of you who were born in the 80s must have gone through something similar to this experience. Ah, radio memories. For indulgence’s sake, I thought I’d post some songs I put on tonight. Oh, and watch out for the saxophone guy! Such an 80s staple.

For now, I’ll give you this rendition by Bill Evans Trio. Leave it up to you to look up on Chet.

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.

She was certainly the most talented solo soul act that came out since, dare I say, Aretha Franklin.  The reason I brought up the comparison is because of Franklin herself, who at one point refused to perform with Alicia Keys at a MusiCares event in Los Angeles because she had apprehensions at the prospect of being upstaged by Alicia Keys and co-performer Mary J. Blige.  Why the diva, Aretha should be worried is indeed a mystery, but she must have her reasons.  And they may seem evident to you once you’ve seen Alicia Keys perform.

Her latest single “Empire State of Mind” which features Jay-Z was used as an anthem for this year’s New York Yankees victory.  When stripped of all its mainstream hype, the song is actually a poignant recollection of Key’s domicile, New York, that makes one wonder what her memories must have been. Although it gets cheesy toward the end, the emotion is still there and is especially crystallized in this stripped down version of the song:

Alicia Keys - Empire State Of Mind Pt. 2 (Broken Down) [Download] [Lyrics]

The MTV Video Music Awards 2009 is probably the weirdest to date.  Supposedly, the highlight of the show was the much-awaited tribute to the late Micheal Jackson by his sister Janet and the queen Madonna herself.  But there have been numerous scores that really eclipsed the opening number in memory of Jackson. For one, you get a very interesting medieval rendering from Lady GaGa which shocked audiences (as usual) and then another asshole stunt from (the guy who I thought was scratched off the guest list after the last fiasco), Kanye West took place. Again, acting like a complete hillbilly, he grabs the mic from Taylor Swift as the 19-year-old accepts her Best Female video award to tell audiences that Beyonce’s video was the best of that year. Of course, Beyonce looks shellshocked by this unexpected turn of events and West is booed off the stage, the works.

Kanye the douche

Way to crush a teenager’s self-esteem. West was reportedly scolded by Swift’s mother to which he later apologized on his blog.

In other  news, the US Open semifinals concluded with an ugly unsportsmanlike display from Serena Williams, a disruption that caused her a crucial point to the game.

Here’s the report that ran on Yahoo Sports news:

Defending champion Serena Williams was charged with a point penalty on match point after yelling at a line judge for a calling a foot fault on her previous serve. The ruling gave Kim Clijsters a 6-4, 7-5 victory in their semifinal match, which had been delayed 32 hours because of rain.

After the line judge called the foot fault with Serena, the youngest Williams sister intimidatingly stared her down before screaming at the official with a jabbed finger. After a few seconds, Serena turned back around to serve, thought better of it and resumed the badgering. The chair umpire then called over the line judge to ask what Serena had said, rules officials were summoned, a brief summit occurred at the net and it was determined that Serena would be assessed a point penalty for a conduct violation. The point gave Clijsters the match.  Williams was quoted saying, “I’m going to shove this ball down your fucking throat”.

It got worse from there. There were multiple profanities, more threats and a lot of pointing. Serena was soon defending herself against accusations that she had threatened to kill the lines judge. Even John McEnroe said it was a bit much.

Even if the foot fault was a wrong call from the line judge, it should not have been enough excuse for the outburst.

Oh well, cheers for my namesake for bagging the US Open grandslam!  Clijsters is indeed the queen of come back.

Kim Clijsters with her daughter enjoying the award ceremony of the US Open

(L-R) Me, Jett Pangan, JB Leonor, Kenneth Ilagan (Truefaith), Ricci Gurango (Hungry Young Poets, Mojofly)

New wave has got to be my unconscious genre.  I was born in the late eighties, so most of the music I remember from my earliest living memory is a combination of new wave radio hits and clumsily spurned grunge.

Growing up, I never knew The Dawn but when I did my homework prior to my interview I immediately recognised their songs.  Most probably, the only reason I would ever get the chance to hear their music is if someone older than myself had been picking the tunes on the radio and I just happened to be in the same room at that time.  The night before the interview, I sent everyone on my phonebook ages 30 up to see if any of them knew the band.  I get an urgent reply from my lawyer, our veterenarian, an engineer, so on.  People of considerable stature.  This is the generation the band sung to.  And so as someone who was barely born at the cusp of their prime, my Filipino music history was enriched and had a brush up last friday with The Dawn.

Unfortunately, my record of the said interview was of such poor quality I wouldn’t dare upload it to grate your ears. Instead, I wrote a transcript of the higlights of the interview that fans might appreciate.  Viola.

I see we have a couple of powerhouse sessionists that’s Kenneth of True Faith and Ricci of Mojofly. How come Buddy and Francis couldn’t make it?

(Jett) It’s really a coincidence because Buddy’s wife is having her graduation from her Masters today and Francis is taking a leave from the band.  Really busy guy.

You’ve been a band for more than 20 years.  Five of those years you spent in hiatus, did you ever think at that point when you first disbanded that hey, this is it?

(Jett) I really did think that that was it for us.  We were just fatigued and picked up on the new trends where we really didn’t fit.

All of you did several side projects during that time and we’re doing well on your own, how did it occur to you to have a reunion?

(JB) I just wanted to play the drums again.  And I thought why should I be playing with anyone else when we had these guys here?  I called Jett, Caloy, Kiko and even Atsushi.  I just wanted to play music again, and you know it was a good thing to have a breather to have dealt with all the clutter we’ve accumulated, because after that it was just about the music.

I want to talk about your newest album The later half  of the day and noticed a number of new wave covers.  Some of your old songs have been “jazzed up”, I would say, to a point they are distinctively mellowed from the originals.  How did you come up with that?

(JB) We wanted to do something rock bands never do, at least in the Philippines.  Because normally, we want our music loud.  But we agreed to push through with the concept anyway, did a series of shows in Makati, in Greenbelt to be exact, and they proved very successful.  I thought people were going to thrash it. (Laughs) But people flocked it, they actually loved it.  We did five or six more shows and then we decided, it made sense to make an album out of it.  Surprisingly it was selling very well.  Basically putting old songs in a new way, that’s what new wave’s all about.

What was the idea behind the movie based on your band called Tulad ng dati?  Did Mike just approach you one day?

(Jett) Oh yes, definitely.  He’s a big fan of the band.  He worked for us shooting another video, but he wasn’t directing.  He was like just watching there.  Really anticipating the chance to talk us because he had this idea for a long time to come up with a film about our band.  One day, we borrowed a video camera and did it.  It was just refreshing working with Mike because he’s very passionate about film and the story.  He had been developing it for years, made us read the script and we talked about it, and we put in our input.  By the way, the film won Best Film in Cinemalaya 2008 and that was just an utter surprise.  Then it was a flurry of opportunities for the band.  We even had a musical based on our songs.

I posted a notice online to see if any of your fans would chime in with their questions for you.  I have one here that is a bit peculiar, it’s from Mickeyboy:  If you were stuck in an island, how did you get there?

(Laughs) (JB) That’s a really profound existential question! An island, huh.  It depends how I got there.  What’s my favorite mode of transportation?

(Jett) I know what’s your favorite mode…

(Laughs) (JB) Well, really I’m trying to come up with a wholesome image here.  Say, I got there on my imaginary yatch packed with hot chicks!  But there you go.

I have another one here from a fan named Cheska, she asks:  Do you guys have any openings?

(JB) Are we talking about a physiological opening? (Laughs)

But more to the point, I understand that you wanted a female vocals initially.  JB, you were there with Ted Diaz when you formed the band.  I know about this story but I want to hear it from you.

(JB) Actually, it was Ted’s idea to get a female vocalist, whereas I, you know, I’m good with anything.  And so this guy (points at Jett) shows up with a girl who he was helping out and she had a hard time singing.  So he was demonstratively helping her out and when he sung on the mic he just blew away the place into high heavens!  You Jett, you really broke those speakers.

(Jett) Which reminds me, I haven’t paid for their damaged goods. (Laughs)

I have here a question from Ria, how did you guys manage to stay together for a long time?

(Jett) Wow. It’s all about the music.  We never imagined getting this far.  Plus, we’re all in a way educated enough not to get in to physically hurting each other when we fight. Basta, music is always number one.

My friend Blogie wants to ask you guys, how did you get the strength to move on after Teddy passed away?

(Jett) That’s a very good question, because at that time, we felt there was no band without Teddy.  And so we were like, let’s not talk about it, let’s bury our friend first and talk about the band later.  We wanted time to mourn because we didn’t just lose a bandmate, we also lost a friend.

(JB) So we asked ourselves, if Teddy could speak to us now what would he say? Were we just going to let up? He’ll probably say, “You wimps!” if we didn’t let the band go on.

You said earlier that you’re currently recording a new album.  Tell us what’s new with The Dawn.

(Jett) We have a new one coming up this June or July, it’s a lot louder than the album we released in 2008.  We also have a new video that will be showing on MYX.  It’s called Love will set us free.

(JB) I want to talk about the video briefly, the director’s cut that is.  It’s set in a museum, and there is this statue in the middle of it of two beautiful women, naked, and are embraced.  As the video progresses, the mold on the statue gradually washes away.  And at the end of it, they walk away from the Museum. Love will set us free.

(Jett) We’re still getting it through MTRCB.  So it’s uncertain yet that it will actually be shown on public television.  They are seriously contemplating on giving it an X-rating!  I mean, can you imagine our band being x-rated?

(JB) Good luck to that.

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.

Here’s a video of Alanis Morisette‘s cover of The Black Eyed Peas‘ song “My humps”. I’m shunning comments about how much a lot of people dislike this song. I just think it’s ridiculously brilliant. It’s a parody of how insipid songs, videos and pop culture can get. And the touch that Alanis put in to it just underscored feminist undertones. ALAVET!