our song plays on

ah, the joy of being without guilt.

for some reason, i decided last night to visit the urbandub yahoo group page. i almost flailed when i found out they were playing at elbi tonight. it's common for the big deal gigs to happen on thursday nights here in elbi, so it's no surprise. still, i was undecided if i was going to make the effort. but i posted my dilemma as my ym status, and a friend of mine from high school buzzed me that she and another friend of ours are watching. yay!

got home at precisely 8pm, and broke all records in wardrobe change because i was meeting my two girlfriends at bean hub (near the up gate). they seemed not to be in any hurry, as the gig was apparently just starting and dub wasn't on yet, so i grabbed a sandwich and a cup of coffee for supper. afterwards we started on our short walk to the venue.

the gig was in between bands when we got to the social garden, and it was just our luck because urbandub came on immediately after. wheee! they played songs from the latest album, under southern lights, and a couple from the previous one, embrace. kevin, another high school classmate whom we saw there, was impressed with the technical quality of urbandub's sound (i was like a proud mother hen when i affirmed his observation). and linlin was excited to find she actually knew one of their songs, evidence, which was on heavy rotation at mtv.

i wasn't really planning to hang around for sandwich, but luckily i did, because i didn't know they were that good live. i was really impressed. i actually had newfound respect for myrene academia, their bassist. and their new guitarist is cute (i forgot his name, i read it somewhere a while ago).

not bad for a thursday night gimik, was it? it's just a pity best buddy mike wasn't able to come, but there'll be other chances.

special mentions:

• urbandub riffing a new tattoo (god i miss that song)
• raimund singing masilungan, then changing the lyrics to the first verses of alapaap. panalo! long live the eraserheads!

2008 mtv asia awards - let's vote!

i've successfully ignored my yahoo inbox for several days now, and it just occurred to me that i might want to check it out. good thing too, because i got a message that prompted me to look up the mtv asia website.

the mtv asia awards is on again, and we have four excellent bands vying for favourite artist: chicosci, sandwich, sponge cola, and urbandub. personally, i'm supporting urbandub, which is one of the most underrated bands in the country. but if you don't quite dig them, vote for the other three acts and let us show our appreciation for their contribution to the local music scene.

you will find voting links to all four artists here, and even widgets and email links to get your friends to vote as well. the winner will get to perform in malaysia, and while i'm really pulling for urbandub to have that honor, all four bands deserve to show the world what we've got.

(at the risk of excessive fangirling, i have to declare that lalay lim is one of the best female bassists ever. she can give myrene academia a run for her money, not to mention a lot of the male bassists out there. that's how good she is.)

you are what you wear

how ominous can a shirt be?

early this afternoon i was watching the tube for sightings of hale. the band performed broken sonnet live on a.s.a.p. and right after, i saw the vid of the day you said goodnight at myx. then i saw parokya ni edgar's plug for their celebrity vj slot, specifically the opm myx (i think) slot this coming week. darius was chosen to be the spokesperson for this spot. after watching the ad several times i finally noticed some of the details, and one surprised me a heck of a lot. darius was wearing a dubista shirt!

a few minutes later, i chanced upon mtv siesta hosted by this guy called john joe. his guests on the show is a hindu-esque act so i got a little confused whether this was really an mtv pilipinas segment. and then i saw it again. john joe has on a blue shirt with the word urbandub in yellow. the same one darius was wearing. what the...?

unable to come to terms with my envy, i told mike all about it. and guess what? he also has his own dubista shirt, given by his colleague who was singularly responsible for making us fans of this band. d-oh!

one day i'll get my own dubista shirt, count on it. just you wait.

---

along with hale i also saw parokya perform at asap with andrew e. i guessed right away that they were going to do okatokat/humanap ka ng panget, which they had performed with great success in the inuman sessions gig. this one could have been good, too, if not for 1) lack of rehearsal time with andrew e (they were losing each other in parts), and 2) carlos agassi. enough said.

couldn't believe

obviously, i'm still not over urbandub. if i had to list my top ten best finds, it would definitely include influence. to think that the others would be radiohead's the bends and switchfoot's beautiful letdown. udub is in great company.

so here's another song from the cd. what attracted me first to this song is the dreamy riff followed by the power licks (man, i love guitar lingo). if i may enthuse (as if you have the right to complain ;), udub always had power intros, which is why the songs on influence are so catchy. plus the vocal harmonies are reminiscent of... i really can't recall, but they do remind me of someone. the lyrics are simple but plain they are not; they tell stories, though not explicitly. but the ultimate hook in this particular song is the minor (or 7th?) chord near the end of the chorus. as an erstwhile (and trying hard) music student i felt the power of that chord.

i’m so tired of being left behind
eating dust, pushed and shoved
beaten up and blinded
i’m praying for the day when it ends.
so goodbye to the sun for now
‘till i come back again
when i do, you’re the fool
i’ll be pushing you…

standing on the back line
but now i’m way ahead (couldn’t believe it)

i’m so tired of being left alone
looked down, written off
got to learn to fight it
i’ll be laughing last when this all ends.
so goodbye to the sun for now
‘till i come back again
when i do, you’re the fool
i’ll be pushing you…

standing on the back line
but now i’m way ahead (couldn’t believe it)
was crawling for a long time
now i’m way ahead (couldn’t believe it)

i’m ready to take everything right back
it’s a brand new day
the fire in my heart, it burns…

-- urbandub, versus

i'll bleed for you

i think i'm in one of those moods again. you know. my playlist for today consists of six songs from urbandub's influence. actually, it was a fluke because as i was constructing my playlist i was never able to save the tracks and the playlist keeps defaulting for some reason.

so, i'm in the middle of my urbandub phase. i had just copied the lyrics of my favorite urbandub song onto a piece of my elmo post-it. that was because i couldn't find a decent stationery pad (i didn't have my "x" stationery here in the office). again, it proved to be an inspired choice (the post-it, i mean) because i pasted it onto my laptop. heheheh.

however, my urge to do something urbandub is yet to be satisfied, so i'm doing the next step: posting the lyrics. just for posterity.

great moments they pass by
if you’re careless
desperately trying to speak the words
i’ve been wanting to say for a long time.
tongue tied, every time i try to talk to you
in time, i’ll find the right line

caught a glimpse of you
i tremble every time you walk by
hopelessly trying to find a way
to be near you, to get near you.
in my mind, plays thoughts of you all the time
i’ll find the right line…

i’ll bleed for you
like a new tattoo in my heart
you’ll stay permanent…

am i too late now?
will i find a way to get to you somehow?
she’s breaking me down again
she’s breaking me down

-- urbandub, a new tattoo

courtesy of http://www.urban-dub.tk/

the ultimate gig experience

for once i threw caution to the wind. i had no companion, it was weeknight, i'd never gone there before, and to top it all, i'm supposed to make headway on my strama external analysis. but no. i've reverted to my college student ways (only now, the educational level has changed), and who the hell cares about my paper?!?

last night was urbandub's last gig before heading back to the south. as in south, philippines. and no sched for return engagements. i just had to go.

because of my innate charitable personality, i found another dubista to hang out with, who also had no other companions. so while waiting for the performance, we exchanged small talk and swapped udub stories. believe me, i managed to breach my two-bottle limit without feeling too tired. and after 2 hours, the front act finally came on. hmm, good songs. my interest in the local rock scene just went up a notch. and then it was time.

my buddy and i had already moved to the front -- as in we were just an arm's length away. and even if i was not very familiar with udub's other songs, like the ones from the first album, i found myself nodding and swaying to the beat. man, they really rocked. and lalay is my god. i really wanted to be as good a bassist as she is, and it was like living my dreams through her. and the crowd was great. capone's isn't my usual kind of place, but the udub fans last night made me feel so comfortable. it wasn't rowdy, and though you'd find beatnik types they weren't alienating at all.

a pity i don't listen to nu anymore, i belatedly realized they were awarded album of the year in the last rock awards. now i can't wait to see them again, though i might have to wait until june (says their roadie). and next time, i hope i have my usual gig buddy with me. he would really enjoy it.

p.s. the front act -- menaya -- performs regularly at xaymaca. i'm thinking of going to their peligro gig next week. hmm...

(saturday, 5 march 2005 10:57 pm)

hah. i almost forgot. in my excitement i failed to mention this was the night of the jars of clay concert. i almost went there too, but i didn't have the money nor the time (though i did for this one)

mike and joe, two of my bestest buddies, watched the concert (separately shempre). so when i texted them both for this gig, they had to decline. hay.