Cover Kuber Cober Kuver CoversDayToday!!! Part 4

Here's another CoversDayToday for this month...blame the batteries on my lazy watch for the delayed posting (again!) or the occasional lazy~bug~flu or something, hahaha!

Anyways, The Mongols were comprised of members of The Eraserheads and Teeth...so it was great to hear them cover an old song by Teeth with Ely Buendia on vocals! I heard a rumour that they recently covered "Laklak" also in one of their live gigs! Mmmmm, that'll be a great bootleged song to hear if anyone bothered to tape it!

Anyways, here's an old live radio session from The Mongols...enjoy!

The Mongols - Shooting Star
(Teeth Cover)
-from a live radio session

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Get your music fix from The Sleepyheads' debut!!

It's 2006 and this is the long awaited debut album of The Sleepyheads called "(Don’t let our) Tuneless Moaning (go to waste)". Wow, to start off this CD with a song called "Addiction" and then finding yourself getting hooked on the whole album's music is just pure poetry. Most of the 14 tracks in this disc (except for 2) only clocks in at just over 2 minutes long, some even less! Most of the songs can definitely be tagged as classic, brilliant three minute pop songs -- short, perfect, melodic, to the point, fun and snappy would-be hits!

The Sleepyheads formed around the year 2000. From a quartet to a tight-sounding trio, they have had their share of revolving personnel, but that's another story. The current members on this release is Jayvee Del Rosario (drums and vocals), Marvin Justo (guitars) and Erick Encinares (bass/organ/backing vocals). Tomas Jalina played guitars on two tracks, "Mystery Plunker" and "Monotone Melody". Having released an EP or two plus some occasional track in some compilations, they opted to go the DIY~way and independently self produced their debut album which is limited to 500 copies, as of today's date there are less than 100 CDs left (!)....so go hunt down a copy for your collection! Check their My Space Site here.

This is a video of the band playing live...the sound is a bit low so TURN IT UP...AND PLAY LOUD! Thanks to the band for posting and sharing this!
The band's main influences are Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers, Velvet Underground with a combination of 60s and 80s lo-fi pop sensibilities. They traded the extended solo-riffs, the wah-wah pedals and the fuzzboxes for honest to goodness, straight up rock and roll with just the right combination of snap, pop and crackle drum beats, boom-boom bass parts and strummy, jingle jangle guitar parts, brilliant monotone vocals and their occasional use of their organ (er, no pun intended!). In short, just think of their words of wisdom -- "Ethnic Faces Rock And Roll!" -- Pure underdogs of our current musical sunshine BUT definitely Purveyors of great music!



The Sleepyheads
(Don't Let Our) Tuneless Moaning (Go to Waste)
(CD / 2006 / Independently released / PH)

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1. Addiction
2. Can't Go To Church
3. Dead Poet
4. Excitement Calls
5. I'm Not Good Enough (Listen in MySpace)
6. Janitor Fate
7. The Man Who Wasn't There (scroll up
& watch the video)
8. Monotone Melody
9. Mystery Plucker
10. Nature (Love Is Like)
11. Positive For Negative (Listen in MySpace)
12. Rescued
13. Tuneless Moaning
14. Underdogs of Sunshine

Lovely, fluffy songs and Soft Pillow Kisses

I first heard the band Soft Pillow Kisses through a Philippine indiepop compilation CD called Mutual Admiration Society which was released back in 2001. The band's songs always reminded me of beautiful, melancholy, girl-boy indiepop music much like the classic releases from the houses of Sarah, Siesta and Summersound. They have appeared on several compilation CDs in Manila and in the U.S. but still no album was in the horizon until this year.

I always wondered these past few years when I can finally see a whole album's worth of Soft Pillow Kisses songs. Just like what wise people sometimes say that "patience is a virtue", I think my long wait might just finally pay-off because it looks like their debut album is just around the corner.

Here's a great sampler DIY video from the band...a great teaser called "Just Like The Sky" from the upcoming album of the same name. Thanks to the band's Allan Montero for making this and uploading it for everyone!

You might want to know that even though the band was not releasing any official singles or albums since their formation in late 1999, they were still sharing their songs via the internet to anyone who's interested to lend an ear. So listen to the 5 songs that they posted in their Soundclick site which were part of their sessions from 2000 in lieu of waiting for the album's release. I'm just not sure if these are the same songs that they included in their ultra limited DIY Cassette Tape EP entitled "As You Whisper In My Ear" that they only sold while on a small summer gig in Cebu on the same year.

Hopefully within this year we can finally see the full length debut album of Soft Pillow Kisses. Check out some more of the band's history and members in their Soundclick page here and see an early, rough artwork for the upcoming album and stories, lots and lots of stories in their blog. By the way, just a reminder....the upcoming album will have a very limited number of copies (last time I heard it was less than 1000 pieces)...so better be nice to the band, contact them and say HELLO! and have your copy of the CD (or make that two CDs!) reserved, this one will surely be a keeper.


Soft Pillow Kisses - 2000 Session
MP3s/2000/Online Downloads via Soundclick/PH)

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1. I Don't Know What To Say
2. I Was Right
3. Harsh Words
4. Stolen Flowers
5. Candy Bar

Smart, Brilliant Pop with The Dorques' EP!

I just got this new CDR-EP by a band called The Dorques that includes 5 tracks with a lot of Euro and indie influences. They kind of remind me of a lot of the new and great upcoming flavour of the month Brit bands, songs with bouncy beats and upbeat, boy-girl vocals and dance rock with just the right occasional jangle, pop hooks and twang. The band was only formed around late 2005, and so far they've had several personnel changes...but the songs in this release still remain consistently good. Although there's not much info regarding the band in their site, the songs in this EP speaks for itself, 3 english songs, one cool instrumental and the last song is in French which sounds like a lo-fi demo / practice version but you can hear a clear - studio copy through their MySpace page -- click here for more info on how to get this release and to listen to more of the band's songs!!).
The band members are Joff Cruz (guitars/vocals), Aimee Marcos (drums), Aless Tinio (vocals), Arnel (bass) and/or Pimee Ayala (guitars - not really sure is she played guitars on the songs on this release).

The Dorques - The Dorques
(CDR-EP/2006/Independently Released/PH)

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1. Murasaki Blue
2. Waltzing Away
3. Sun Just Feels
4. Cretins & Prudes
5. Le Metronome

Something About 5 Bands and 10 of Another Kind!

Back in the year 1989, it was almost the end of the 80s era and the start of a new decade...and just before the jump to the great unknown, another great compilation was released in Manila that year called "10 of Another Kind". This compilation featured 5 bands with 2 songs each. This was originally released in vinyl and cassette formats under WEA Records Inc. but was eventually re-released by Universal Records in CD format after a few years (unfortunately, no specific year was indicated on the CD version except for the original LP release-date, although I'm betting it was around 1994 or 1995). Having appeared in different independent compilations and performing in non-commercial venues, the bands that are featured here can be described as underground music veterans.

The First band on the compilation is Deans December. They originally released a cassette only album called Chemical Wedding in 1986. The two songs that they featured in this album are "Healing" and "I Read The News". The band's members on this release are Binky Lampano (vocals), Richard Cabauhatan (guitars), Jun Lazo (bass) and Pol Benitez (drums).

The second band is another one of my personal favourites. A band called Ethnic Faces. The band is made up of Jack Sikat (vocals), Rhany Torres (bass) and Jayvee Torres (drums). Even before this compilation was out in the market, the band had already produced and released their very own original 7" single and on this album they will feature 2 more original songs called "Golden Boy" and "Balikbayan". Combining new wave, post-punk, and jazz influences they would make more songs that are featured in other compilations and they would eventually release an album by mid-90s. If the ending phrases of the two songs here don't stick to your sub-conscious then there is definitely something wrong with you.

Under Blue Skies is the third band, featuring two great, upbeat post-punk songs, recalling early New Wave called "Falling" and "Under Blue Skies". Band members are Nathan Miguel (vocals), George Arguelles (guitars & keyboards), Dennis Ramos (bass), Robert Salva (drums) and Edwin Vergarra (guitar). Unfortunately, this is the only band in the compilation that never released a full album, but never say never because a collection of old and unreleased songs can always be compiled for a release (I'm hoping for one in the future anyway!) .

Violent Playground is also a veteran band in the underground music scene. Here they have two great songs called "Never the Bright Lights" and "Tupperware Party. They'll re-release these songs in their full length debut album by 1996 but the versions will be totally reworked songs. I'd still prefer these versions or their rougher, faster versions that were released a few years earlier. The members were Jeoffrey Roa (vocals), Raton Del Gallego (guitars), Mali Andres (bass) and Boom Jose (drums).

Last of the bands is Introvoys, this compilation contains two of their early songs called "Just A Dream" and "Lullabye". They did release a 7" single of "I Go Crazy" (a Flesh For Lulu cover) during their initial formation but they would eventually make several albums during the 90s. Members are Jonathan Buencamino (vocals), 3rd-G Cristobal (1st guitar), Ira Cruz (2nd guitar), Jobert Buencamino(bass)m J.J. Buencamino (keyboards) and Paco Arespacochaga (drums)
All five bands toured Manila's Colleges and Universities to promote this album and I saw several of them but unfortunately I haven't personally seen or heard any live recordings from that tour. I'm pretty sure some wise music fan eventually videotaped or made copies of the songs during those college heydays.

As much as this album was hailed as a good sign that the major labels were finally taking notice of Manila's underground music scene at that time, some music fans still preferred the original independently released raw versions of some of the songs that were featured here. Some found the production of the songs here as too slick and commercialized especially after hearing some of the songs in their original release specifically in another classic cassette compilation of Manila post-punk bands called Subterranean Romance. Songs like "Tupperware Party", "Golden Boy", "Falling" and "Healing" were featured here while "I Read The News" was originally released in the band's album and "Never The Bright Lights" had a raw, faster demo version that they used to play in DWRT 99.5 FM in the mid to late 80s.

Various Artists - 10 Of Another Kind
(LP/1989/WEA Records/P-94569/PH)
(Cass./Universal Records/M5P-94569/PH)
(CD/Universal Records/CDP-94569/PH)

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1. Healing - Deans December
2. Golden Boy - Ethnic Faces
3. Falling - Under Blue Skies
4. Never The Bright Lights - Violent Playground
5. Just A Dream - Introvoys
6. I Read The News - Deans December
7. Balik Bayan - Ethnic Faces
8. Under Blue Skies - Under Blue Skies
9. Tuppeware Party - Violent Playground
10. Lullabye - Introvoys