The Guardian
Iloilo City

OFTENTIMES DISTURBING
Write-ups from the column of Reymundo Salao
MARCH 2003

REMINISCING GRUNGE
(A Pan PM)

        7 or 8 years ago, the influence of Rock music dominated the culture of the youth. It was then called the Grunge Era or Alternative Era, and the youth that was screaming the angst of the culture was called "Generation X". A prolific culture which despised the mediocrity and the materialism of a commercial, capitalistic life. Instead, it embraced subliminal ideas valuing art over money, wisdom, over vanity, and orderly noise over disco. That was the reason why many of the gen-x kids back then were smart-asses who wore cheap shirts and torn out jeans, in contrast to idiotic party-going, fancy-shmansy rich yuppies. The creepy ones with long hairs were the heroes, and the shiny beautiful ones were the ridiculed wussies. In the US, bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Alice In Chains ruled the charts, while on our local scene, it was the Eraserheads, The Youth, RiverMaya, and Yano. 
        Among the local bands, my personal favorite was Yano. The Eraserheads were a bit too pa-cute (nontheless cool in their beatlesque ways), and RiverMaya's songs were just too pop-ish ("Awit Ng Kabataan" sounds like a deodorant jingle). While Yano was the perfect pinoy angst band. It was rebellious, honest, and it was satirical. Instead of being full of anger while crying out their protests (like the protests of Rage Against The Machine), Yano on the otherhand pokes fun at it's victims, like a big giant clown hand that is ready to point its fingers upon the bad guys, embarrassing them to death. Even though Eric Gancio also had the spotlight as the guitarist of Yano, Dong Abay, who was the vocalist, became the main man, with his peculiar personality on stage which was just crazy and outright odd, but very funny. Like Rock vocalists Mick Jagger and Steven Tyler who were known for their mannerisms and personality onstage, Dong Abay is worthy of praises and even mocks, both positive and negative, he can even surpass those other vocalists. 
        But after three albums, Yano vanished, the angst was over. Dong Abay fell on his darkest days, his depression led him to seclusion. Eric Gancio tried to continue Yano by himself, but eventually, without its enigmatic front man, this great band had to peacefully rest on its laurels. 
        Not until Dong Abay woke up from his darkness and began to grow back his smile. Now, he is happier, he is now full of life. One reason why he broke free from his darkness was because of his music. And create his music, he did. 
        Hooking up with former Yano bassist, Onie Badiang (who became guitarist), they created PAN (and later added Melvin Leyson on drums, and Milo Duane Cruz on bass). Although they are better known as "Dong Abay's new band" or "formerly Yano", and although the style is somewhat similar to Yano, PAN's music is happier and far more melodic. It may have the same impact of Yano, but this one is indeed a new chapter to the sound that I would describe as how an original Pilipino music should sound like. 
        Last Friday, I had to make preparations because I wanted to, so badly, meet the new band of Dong Abay. Many of the bands of the Grunge Era had also gone through an evolution which involves integration and reinvention. Ely left Eraserheads and was replaced by a member of the band Fatal Phosphorous (yes, the E-heads now have a female vocalist), while Ely's new band is called the Mongols. E_heads' Raimund Marasigan sidelines as vocalist/guitarist of the band Sandwich. When Zack De la Rocha left the band Rage Against the Machine, he was replaced by former Soundgarden vocalist Chris Cornell, thus the band became AudioSlave. Vocalist Billy Corgan and drummer Jimmy Chamberlain, both of the disbanded Smashing Pumpkins, have continued their noise through new band Zwan. One way or another, grunge and alternative is waking up from its coma. For me, it also made me feel young again, excited to go see a fine band perform its fine brand of melodic chaos and angst. 
        As I waited at the SM City marketing office (my most heartfelt thanks to the warm hospitality of the SM City Marketing department for helping me get my interview with the band), eagerly (but silently) awaiting the arrival of the band, I imagined what idiotic questions the Pop FM station DJs might have asked. It amuses me sometimes when these DJs who are not familiar with the brand of music that these artists express, begin to feel like Mini-Me versions of Larry King or Jay Leno when they do their on-air interviews. When they don't even play the music of Pan, not until hours ago, when they have been given notice that they are scheduled to interview the band, that's the only time they put in the CD to be played on air. Sheesh! Sabagay, it's their job, they really don't deserve the blame that I'm ranting about. I just hope now that they have a copy of the band's album, they would give it regular airplay. 
        When Pan began to play onstage, I could remember years ago when Yano first performed in Iloilo City, that was a gig on the USA Gym back then, along with Pepe Smith, Dong's persona onstage was peculiar that people mistake him for some crazy sick dude. Dong later revealed that it was something that he was proud about, for showmanship was indeed important for a band which had an identity and a message to tell. Dong was very flattered when I told him that over the span of time, and over the history of pinoy rock, he has already become an icon. In one way or another, he felt he had to be someone his fans should be proud of. He may not be perfect, but as much as possible, whatever dark things that he has gone through shouldn't be something that his fans would follow. Take it this way, if Kurt Cobain was like Dong Abay, he wouldn't have ended with a self-inflicted bullet up his head, and sleep six feet underground. Dong Abay survived his darkness. He is alive, and is back to give us his music. 

PS: After the free gig of Pan last Friday at SM City, there was this Pan gig at this bar let's call "T". Waw! Ngaa daw ka sobra gid ya ka-mahal ticket nyo da ya haw? SYEN??? 100 PESOS?!!! Sino ang nagaplano sina man? WAW! Fuscha man pre ba! FUSCHA gid ya! Wala gid kamu ya nanumdum sina nga hindi na ya Coño nga gig? Tigana lang na abi ang mga mahal nga ticket prices nyo sa mga mala-craig david nga mga binuki na gig! Sobra gid na ya inyo! Sobra na ang pangwarta nyo sa mga rock fans ah! Kamu mismo hinde man rock fans, WAW, abuso superyor! Nakabatun lang kamo da grasya, abuso dayun sa ulo nyo ba…..meresi nyo man kay damu sang mga tuod na fans ang nagpamati na lang sa agwa, instead of buying a maliciously priced ticket. Naluoy lang ko sa banda, kay more or less, basi na-demoralize sila sa abuso nyo. Sa sunod, gig na lang ka Village People ang i-organize nyo!

x-x-x

A PAN PM
(An interview with the band PAN)
(March 29-30, 2003)

        Dong Abay used to be the frontman of the famous pinoy rock band Yano. After more than 5 years of musical coma, His music is once again alive. Along with former bassist Onie Badiang, they have created tha band Pan. An interview with the band wasn't a very difficult task. The discussions were a bit informal, which was the good thing about it, a conversational interview breaks any ice that bores the mood. We discussed many things from the past of Yano, its transition into Pan, and the life in the music scene, in the rock music scene in particular. Dong Abay put it openly "Pare, yung buhay ng musikero kumbaga 3rd rate e. sa iba pa nga pare patay gutom, kasi pare hinde naman kami masyadong kumikita, ang kita ng musikero ay hinde masyado sa recording kundi sa mga live performance. Eh yun yung nagsu-sustain sa amin pare, yung binabayad namin sa kuryente, ng bahay, the rent pare bullshit, the groceries, diaper, gatas. Yung performance dun galing yung amin bread and butter pare, hinde sa recording. Pero kailangan din yun syempre, kasi para mapakikinggan sa radyo o mapapanood sa TV, at para din makaabot kami sa mga lugar, halimbawa dito sa iloilo, di ba? Pero yung mahalaga alam namin na yung job namin ay tumugtog sa mga tao…paano kami mkatugtog? Kung merong plaka, kung merong recording. That's why iba kasi yung recording sa live performance, ibang discipline yan. Halimbawa, recording ng Pan sa live performance iba ang trato ko, dapat ang sa live performance mas mataas kasi buhay yun pare, moment yun na communication, eto pare (to the album) anytime mo mapakikinggan yung album e. Iba yung live. nakita mo naman pare kung paano ako mag-ga-gago sa stage pare. Which is iba sa akin pare kasi, naku sasabihin nila "anu ba yun yung tao sira-ulo, siguro adik yun ano?" di ba? Which is mali kasi I am a performer, iba yung performer, iba yung recording artist."
        

Reymundo: Actually, parang naging icon ka na with your personality which has first shone during the grunge days, and now with Pan. You are very much an icon especially among those who have experienced the grunge era. 

Dong: Wow. (flattered) Grunge pare. Alam mo, namatay si Kurt Cobain birthday ko. April 5. That's why nagkaroon na ko ng obsession kay Cobain pare, akala ko naging reincarnation ako ni Kurt Cobain pare (laughter)

Onie: Kaya nga binabantayan namin yan (more laughter)

Dong: pero pare sinasabi ko lang sa yo yan pero iba talaga ako mag-isip pare... iba kami ni Onie mag-isip ng aming music pare...hinde kami tumitingin sa iba. Syempre nakikinig din kami sa music ng iba, pero pag mag usap na kami ni Onie tungkol sa aming music, sa atin galing to, tayo ito. And hinde ako nahihiyang sabihin na it is something one should be proud of. 

Reymundo: so it's safe to say that ang binibigay ng Pan ay "Raw Art"?

Dong: Raw Art? I guess. Pare sa bahay wala akong ginagawa dun pero may gitara ako dun. The whole day pare, I can stay there at tugtug lang nang tugtog and write songs the whole week.

Onie: tatlo yung gitara mo dun

Dong: sira naman e

Melvin Leyson and Milo Duane Cruz, both friends, have been very lucky to being part of the band. Although theyre more or less referred as session members, their identities have now become part of the music of Pan. The two joined us after a while, and unlike many young rock musicians these days, the two are a simple and a very approachable duo. Duane has that friendly vibe that greets the people around him, and a smile that can extinguish any suspicious prejudice, while Melvin was silent and seemingly shy most of the time. 

Reymundo: (to Duane and Melvin) How did you feel when you found out that you were indeed going to be part of Pan? Wala ba kayong nadaramang pressure considering na this was a band that used to be the great Yano?

Duane: Nung una, kasi medyo natatakot pa kami sa kanila e. 

Dong: (to duane) bakit ina-ano ba namin kayo? (laughter)

Duane: Sa personality ko kasi, more on excited talaga ako e

Dong: meron kang personality? (laughter)

Duane: At first hinde ko naman na feel yung pressure pero later na, na feel mo na trabaho na talaga ito, hinde pressure pero more of obligation na kasi trabaho to e

Among the compliments and messages to the people of Iloilo, the frontmen Onie and Dong had the most prolific messages. 

Onie: Sa mga musikero, tuloy nyo naman ang paggawa ng inyong musika, musika na pinoy, na galing sa puso, sa isip. Wag nang manggaya, 

Dong: Kung meron kayong gayahin, si Onie na lang (laughter)

Dong: Sana makabalik kami rito, Hi dyan sa lahat ng mga estudyante. Ako nagustohan ko tong talaga yung Iloilo kasi ito yung mga among the first na binisitahan naming dati nung sa Yano pa, yung mga first provincial tours, barko pa kami nun dati punta rito e. Masaya ang pakiramdam ko kasi pinakikinggan ka talaga pare, yung crowd dito naiintindihan nila kung talagang paano mag react sa music namin pare, basta masaya. Salamat sa pagsuporta sa amin, sa album, marami pa kaming gagawin. Im still 31, sana pag mga 40 na ko makagawa na ako ng opera pare. 
Marami akung ginawang mga decision pero ito yung major decision ko yung nai-commit ko na yung sarili ko sa music. Eto na yung buhay ko men e, wala akong alam na ibang trabaho. Ito na nga yung nakasira ng pag-aaral ko e, hinde na ko nakagraduate eh. Yung sa mga nagaaral pa lang ng musika, makinig kayo pare, makinig kayo ng kahit ano, maging open sa lahat ng klase ng tunog men, yung "uha" ng baby mo pare, yun yung the most beautiful sound of all pare. Maging open sa lahat ng klase ng music, at dun makagawa kayo ng iyong tunog, marami dyan naiintimidate lang sa ibang banda. Ako nga nung nagsimula kami hinde ko inakala na makaabot kami rito. Pero nung naipatugtog yung demo namin sa radio talagang grabe yung pasasalamat namin. Ganun, basta masaya kayo sa ginagawa nyo men, pagpatuloy nyo lang yun kasi marami dyan yung nagsisisi e. Yung iba kahit na nag-na-9 to 5 jobs sila, kasi yun nga lang hindi financially promising yung maging musikero so hinihiling din naming na sana yung mga tao magsuporta din sa mga gigs. 
        Ako hindi ko naman ginawa to para magkapera pare, kasi art ito e. Hindi naman kami tatagal, Wala namang tumatagal, life span ng banda the most is 10 years pare, siguro Rolling Stones. I really do hope na tatagal din kami… siguro mga 104 years, ok din yun siguro no?
        According to the band's manager, Sammy Samaniego, Buudy Zabala (of the Eraserheads) once told him that Dong Abay always had questions in his mind. Many were the reasons why Dong Abay underwent a dark episode of depression in his past. One of his reasons was that he felt he had no reason to live. But then he woke up one day with all the answers. And he realized the many reasons why he should live on. One of them is his music.

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 THE REYMUNDO FILM FESTIVAL YEAR ONE
(March 1-2, 2003)

        I read an article on one of the other local newspapers that condemned this year's Pelikula at Lipunan film festival. Although that sometimes, there are indeed people who would act like the unforgettable Manoling Morato, whose insistent sermons of morality destroys art, but I would have to agree, in one way or another by what this article talked about. I was also glad that the said opinion was aired out, because I too, believe that good films are not exclusive only to erotic ones with good plots and gay films. I just hope that the people behind that organization read that article too, so that the next festival would be lined up with a better, more balanced selection. 
Which led me to daydream about my own selection of films if ever I was the big boss of some film festival. I know that I have no college or masteral degree in film or film appreciation to brag about. Neither am I a film-artist or a film director (although I hopelessly dream of being one, sabagay ive watched a lot of "making of" documentaries, hehehe). I was even just a mere outcast in our university's theatre society. But the littlest thing I can brag about is that I have been a movie-watcher all my life, from the most respectable artsy-fartsy ones, up to the cheapest, lamest B-movie types. And so with that little background in mind, here are my selections in the Reymundo film festival:

1. REQUIEM FOR A DREAM - director-Darren Aronofsky - Sara Goldfarb is a lonely widow who is revitalized by the prospect of appearing on television as a game show contestant, while her son Harry, his girlfriend Marion, and his friend Tyrone have devised an illicit shortcut to wealth and ease, but their hopes and dreams have all flushed down the drain as misfortune struck one by one. Perhaps the most heart-wrenching tragedy about drug-addiction. This dark tale about urban life that was fueled by love and destroyed by addiction. If I was to be asked how to describe this movie I would say it is a must-see movie for each and every teenager, the best modern parable, the perfect educational film. 

2. YOJIMBO - director- Akira Kurasawa- He was a samurai warrior whose service to the empire was over. Now he travels alone, a skilled swordsman without a master, he stumbles upon a town ravaged by two warring factions. He joins the conflict as both an ally and an enemy to both factions. Soon he is just grinning fox laughing from a distance, watching the two factions destroy each other to the end. Filmed some time in the 70s, Akira Kurasawa wanted to create one of the earliest anti-heroes. The perfect bad-ass who can pick his nose at the few minutes of the film. 

3. AND GOD SPOKE - This hilarious film is actually a scripted documentary about a group of idiotic film-makers who attempts to film a movie about the events in the bible. Just imagine how they cast Lou Ferrigno as the Cain on the Cain & Abel story, and how they stopped filming in the middle part just because they weren't sure how many the apostles were. 

4. FIGHT FOR US (ORAPRONOBIS) - Lino Brocka (and stars Philip Salvador, Dina Bonnevie, and Gina Alajar) - Set in the post-Marcos era, Jimmy was a former priest/former rebel who goes back to the countryside on a fact-finding mission of a massacre case. He finds that the town is ravaged by the paramilitary vigilantes "Orapronobis". After the fall of the dictatorship, he had hoped to find peace. Instead, Injustice was still a demon that roamed the land. This film was said to have been banned in the late 80s, (Thank God, I have a copy, hehehe) because of its pro-subversive ideas. But this is the kind of film that should be watched by many. Brocka is indeed a master director, creating the kind of intensity in a film as to make one shed painful tears. 

5. PLANET OF THE APES (The Charlton Heston version) - While the Tim Burton/Mark Wahlberg version was a commercial garbage of unbalanced fantasy, the original 1968 version was very scientifically thought-provoking, and had a great script that was rich in philosophy and anthropology. The scene where Charlton Heston was brought before a trial presided by ape judges, it was a reverse resemblance of the way Charles Darwin was condemned for his theory. 

6. BEAVIS & BUTTHEAD ---Angal Ka???

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SHOCK AND AWE
(March 24, 2003)

        To my readers, due to unforeseeable events that concern personal family matters, I had to be absent for quite a time. I have had to move my Pan interview to the weekend issue. I know that some people have been excited to read more about the new band of Dong Abay. The war on Iraq, though, has kept us thinking about other things which are more serious.
        And so the war has begun
        The first hours of the war has had the world glued on their TV. I was beginning to suspect that some networks were very much sensationalizing this Coalition Campaign against Iraq. People I know who don't regularly listen to the news even memorize the different ordnances used on this war, like the MOAB (Mother Of All Bombs). It is as if somebody sooner or later is going to come out with trading cards, action figures, and posters (soldiers posing a la Matrix) inspired from this war. Tuning in to CNN, BBC, or SKYNEWS has become like regularly tuning in to your favorite telenovelas. The Rambo-fan inside of us has been entertained with the sight of more than a dozen tanks speeding across the desert. But the footages after the "Shock and Awe" bombardment, however, brought a different emotion to all of us. 
        Saddam Hussein must be brought down, that I agree. War may indeed be the way to get shoot him down from his throne. But with the war initiated without, at least the supervision, of the UN, I'm sure things may not go on as planned. There is no such thing as a surgical strike after all. Women and children dying in fear. An infant breathing desperately. Peace protests would indeed escalate, with the footages of war-torn Iraq now making America look like the brutal villain, and the UN an inutile mother. If I was to point my fingers upon somebody to blame, it would be France. For it was their baseless opposition that hindered and complicated what should have been a UN deployment. This war should have been more of an enforcement to punish Saddam. Rather than an American war that has no clear objective. Is it for disarmament of weapons? Is it to remove Saddam? Is it to eliminate Saddam? 
        Sometimes, though, we realize with a callous thought, that war is inevitable. With leaders like Saddam Hussein who is already a brutal man of power, and tends to use his own civilians as shields against the armies that are against him, war sometimes is a risky last resort. 

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POST-SLACKER ANGST
(March 28, 2003)

        My old neighborhood was the Jalandoni Street, City Proper. It is the street lined up with apartments, boarding houses and bedspacer homes for students of the nearby universities, University of San Agustin, Iloilo Doctor's College, and the University of the Philippines. It is a busy street as each day is greeted by busy jeepneys, casual trafficjams, and the movement of students, a uniformed human traffic of going back and forth. To home, to school. To the nearby meal vendor, to the (Xerox) copy and bookbinding stores. 
        But every year, at around the time of March to April, there is an almost month-long shift, slowing down the activity of the streets. For it is the month when students and bedspacers head home as the end of the school year begins. It is when the sounds of 6 pm sound like 11 pm. When you could walk straight the sidewalk to the end of the street blindfolded without bumping somebody. When printing machines are silenced from their hum of electricity, as projects and term papers that were made here have long been passed unto shelves that secretly teleport old term papers to the distant planet of Gnormax. 
        I vividly remember how it was when the neighborhood which is usually enshrouded by the streetnoise, falls into its annual silence. It has been the cause of an inexplicable boredom or emptiness. Perhaps because your tambay buddies are packing their bags to go back home to some faraway hometown, or perhaps because you aren't so busy with class assignments all of a sudden. Its like when a party has to end, everybody has to go home sometime, and you still aren't drunk. Like a Mike Tyson duel against some menacing-looking giant, only to find that the match could only last for less than the duration of one round. But maybe, after all, the grief may just easily come from the fact that the allowance would have to end, if not decrease. You may have to forget buying that Audioslave CD and settle for a pirated copy. 
        But when you're one of those who'd be graduating, it must be a dozen times more nostalgic. One time, back in the days that I was about to graduate, I just sat at the park near our school's Liberal Arts department building, listening to REM's Automatic For the People album, and silently reminisce and let go of the days that I have spent with my college barkada. How I would definitely miss the crazy things, and move on to another level of life. 
        On the other hand, the first days of post-college graduation would be surreal. Imagine, getting out of bed each day, wondering what to worry. You have no more studies, no more books; you don't have an enrollment-for-the-next-school year to worry about. You get out of bed at 10 am, scratch your hairy ass which is spotlighted by the 10 am sun, you drink coffee at 11 am, watch TV till 3 pm, and wander like a zombie at the mall by 5. You wanna buy some stork or bust some ass at the arcade with a House-Of-The-Dead mood, but what can you do when your pocket is filled with tansan, 5 centavos, and a token from an arcade which already closed down. You chomp on fishball instead. And remember that old tagalog joke "Mamang vendor, ang sarap ng balls nyo!"
Right then and there you realize, that you shouldn't be a mama-papa leech fattening your ass with parental allowance, but get yourself a friggin job. Yes, you whine that you couldn't find a job because you claim that there is a massive "unemployment" crisis. When in truth, you couldn't find a job because there is no opening for a job description such as "classy desk job, looking like a cast of 'Ally Mcbeal', while typing the computer" no sirree, get a job and be thankful there is one. And having a job also means you also have to keep up and work hard like a marine. Don't expect to be some yuppie skank, not until you have proven yourself worthy of a better, higher position. Everything must start below. One of my close friends is now a manager of some appliance center; he used to be tricycle driver. You have to work your way up. Mash the shit before you get to be the one who counts the cash. Right now, you may have graduated. Maybe for the entire duration of summer, you may deserve a summer-long, or even a year-long rest and TV ogling. Sure you deserve to bore yourself out of misery by watching tanks and Iraqis on the news, the noontime booty-shaking, and the evening primetime, but one of these days, you should have to get up from that post-graduation state of yours and begin to tune in with the giant program of life. That stage where you should begin to take life seriously. Get a life, dude. 

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