Introducing Filipino Rock Band – Shamrock

Shamrock – Filipino Rock Band
 
Besides Gary Valenciano, I find it difficult to like Filipino music. 

Although, I love Anak by Freddie Aguilar, sometimes the insipid way of singing that the musicians have and the equally sugar syrup words that they sing grates on my nerves.  I’ve never gotten into Martin Nievera and Sharon Cuneta. 

So, when I stumbled upon Shamrock, guess my jaw dropping experience.  Did I know all the words?  No, but I got the gist of it.  I had to ask people I know for translations.  But the likes of Alipin, Paano, and Ngiti.  OMG!  I’m ready to melt into a puddle of goo.  No, they’re not visually aesthetic like the Korean boy bands, but the songs touch some emotionalism within.  And for that, I’m glad that Shamrock has taken me past the mediocrity of Pilipino Music.  The words are challenging yes, but it’s the way he sings.  Whoever he is.  I haven’t researched him out yet.  The songwriter is also very good.  Sandata is a particular favorite… But I’m currently under the spell of one “Sana” which translates loosely “I Hope”.  The lyrics go:

“Sana’y hindi ipagkait sa akin ang sandali…
namasilayan ka at marinig man lang ang tinig…
laging bukas ang puso ko upang ibigin ka…
laging wagas ang aking pagtingin at aking pagsinta…”
 
Which translates to:
 
I hope I’m not denied a second’s glimpse of you
Or hear the momentary note of your voice
My heart is open and waiting to love only you
My admiration,  my deepest love is pure and true…
 
Wow!  That’s all I can say… Deep… to the core of ideal grace.  I hope Pinoy music keeps churning out voices and music like this.  Then if that is so, I’ll find you and keep you in my arsenal of world music.  You’re lucky there’s an online dictionary.  Maybe I’m lucky there is an online dictionary for Pilipino.  For how I discovered them?  YouTube.  Same way I discovered KPop.  So, my Filipino lovers of music, put them out on YouTube.  I may discover one that I would truly support. The only caveat, because I have such eclectic tastes in Music from the musicals to jazz, to rock, to alternatives… truly only unique genius need apply.  After all, they have to compete with the likes of Sting and Jon Bon Jovi as well as new comers like Jung Joon Young or CNBLUE  in my playlist.

If you like music, for music’s sake, try them. Even without knowing what the translated words say.

The translation for Alipin is on my pages. It is titled “Your Servant”.

A/N: pictures aren’t mine. Any pictures of artists and the like are never mine. The belong to the various people that take them and post them on the internet. Thank You!!! Selamat Kepay!!! Gracias!!!! Merci beaucoup!!!! Maraming Salamat!!!

KPop and me – Just Us – JYJ album critique part two

Okay. I’ve totally gone in and listened again and again to the whole album. The order isn’t the order that the album plays on. It’s random. But it took me a while to figure out where I’ve heard the songs. Because they sound so incredibly good and somewhat familiar.

 
2:30 AM – (KPoppy Ballad) – I would have thought it’s something JJ had written.  But the music is something like a dancey-ish tune. 
 
BABOBOY – R&B primarily –the English is getting better.  Smooth R&B.  Something we’d hear in the 80s from Bell Biv DeVoe.
 
DAD, YOU THERE? – a cappella-ish – showcases Jaejoongie’s voice stylings very well. R&B.  Definitely New Edition kind of song down to the snapping of fingers kind of sound.  The lyrics (translated) is very nice. 
 
(YES!  R&B in pop in the 80s was the epitome of the genre IN MY HUMBLE OPINION!  And this is something that compares to that time to that genre.)
 
DEAR J – This one is a deviation.  It’s not R&B.  It’s K-Pop with a tinge of Rock.  I would have expected this in WWW.
(By the way, is this song supposed to be Dear Jung? Or did Yunho really make the lyrics and told Jae it’s for you.  So Dear J is really Dear Jaejoong?  LOL!  I’m just saying.  Can you tell my flags’ with the YunJae ship? Hahaha!)
 
LET ME SEE – A cappella all the way through.  It’s a great song!  This is something these boys are really good at.  This kind of song is theirs!  Even without the other two, they make it work.  This is the epitome of their skill.  This kind of song is really great for them.  This is DBSK at its greatest.  I swear.  It would be much more perfect if the other two was there as well, but this is why JYJ has my attention.  Even with just the three of them, this kind of harmony is possible. 
 
LETTING GO – R&B styling – I thought it was something that Jae had written lyrics for.  It surprised me that Yuchun and Junsu wrote the lyrics for it.  Well, with someone else, but still…  

 SO-SO – This one is very interesting.  I feel like it’s like a gospel song.  It’s A cappella-ish.  If I could find the right song, I swear it’s like a gospel song that I’ve heard before.  I’m telling you, this plays too close to a gospel-like song.  I’m not kidding.  Familiar if you’ve been in a progressive church all this time.  Soothing…
***NoTe: I found it!!! It’s a song called ‘Walking that Line‘ by Acapella (Christian Gospel A cappella Group – of course!)
 
THIRTY – is a K-Pop rap  song (mostly rap – like some of the songs you’d find in today’s Pop charts.  Mostly rap with a uniting melody.)  It’s a fun rap song.  That’s all I can say.
 
VALENTINE – urgh.  I swear, the boys can’t take on pure English songs unless it’s something they made themselves.  Because this don’t freaking work for them.  Oh, their voices are still good, but oh, lord, have mercy.  Well, it’s better than the Beginning one, but hello!  The lose the color of their emotions.  And it becomes just another song.  And an inferior one at that.  The rhythm is a bit off as well.  However, Yuchun’s singing voice actually sounds really nice in this one. 
 
7 YEARS– the only glimpse you have (if you’ve never heard Xiah Junsu in a musical) of the musical voice that was in Elisabeth, Mozart, December and Dracula.  This is Xiah’s best.  The ballad created for a musical.  The simply piano really lends itself to the musical genre of this song.  Fantine’s song in Les Miserables?  It sounds almost like that.  The highs and lows and the petering out of the song towards the end.  Yep.  Sung in the theater and not in stylings of pop artists –  “I Dream a Dream.”
 
BACK SEAT– K-pop dance.  And it’s okay.  Really.  Definitely something I expect men who are almost 30 to talk about.  The subject matter is risqué.  And I’ve read the protests about how coercive the lyrics are.  Or that it’s not something that JYJ should be singing about.  Urgh.  Really?  With this song, they’re breaking free from the little boy, clean cut image they have so far maintained.  When they come back next it’s going to be men.  And unfortunately for you people looking for clean ‘men’.  Just where have you been? Under a rock? This is what horny 16 year olds to 27 years olds think about.  That is until they get caught with the consequences of their profligate ways.  Then they start writing about other things.  LOL!  Okay, I’m being hard on men.  But seriously, don’t go with a coercive guy who’s telling you to go into their backseat.  Because I bet you if any of the three had said, ‘put you in my back seat.’ You, person that protests, would have gone, ‘Hell ya!  Anytime, big boy!’  So, to those that say the lyrics are a bit too much.  Hmm… I think you girls doth protest too much.
 
CREATION – sounds almost 70s – fresh.  I swear!  Yeah, it’s a bit more modern, but still.  You know the musical Hair?  That’s what I think this song sounds like.  Manchester England song.  Definitely Rock Musical kind of song in the 70s.  Or rock ballad… Jon Bon Jovi’s Blaze of Glory or Bed of Roses. It just seems really familiar. And it’s nothing like American Pop or KPop. It might have been Queen’s Bohemian rhapsody. I’m not sure, but the tune is familiar. Something we grew up listening to.
 
And throughout the whole album, Yuchunnie’s rapping voice…Oh, lord, it’s so deep!  Not hard-hitting deep like Zico’s of BlockB, but a mellow rapping which gives the songs a sort of…chill factor. 

Despite the sometimes awkward English (i.e.: “Boyfriend, which is my name…” Seriously? ), the album has a lot of songs I’d listen to. 

I think I’m currently stuck on untranslated SO-SO and until I solve the puzzle of CREATION, I’ll be stuck on that.

As for the unity, er, what are we? Seven? Where we have to have all of their albums have a unifying thematic congruency? You want unifying? Here’s your unifier. JYJ voices… ‘Nuff said.
 

KPop and me – Jung Joon Young

This newly discovered singer (for me) isn’t like anyone I’ve heard in the world of KPOP. The reason is because he’s a rock singer. And so good at it! But when I first listened to his song SPOTLESS MIND the English translation wasn’t there. It was only the music. But his voice was incredibly powerful to listen to! Lim Jaebum’s voice crossed with Kim Jaejoong’s is the best I can come up with. (CONFESSION/GO HAE & JUST ANOTHER GIRL)

He reminds me of Bruce Springsteen. I can hear this boy singing GLORY DAYS, BORN IN THE USA, and I’M ON FIRE. And just a bit like John Cougar Mellencamp. Especially Joon Young’s song REALLY? The voice reminds me of Mellencamp’s SMALL TOWN.
I’m hoping Korea is ready for rock stars like him. They seem to be, so I hope to hear more from this talented boy. The whole of Asia should be ready for this kind of singing. It’s incredibly captivating!

Ah! And so are his eyes. They remind me of elf eyes. They are mesmerizing.

I did mention he’s a rocker, right? He plays guitar.

And he’s a songwriter as well. I’m assuming he wrote the songs for his album. I will let you know what I find out. He’s relatively new to the scene.

Note: These pictures are from video capture from YouTube. The video is SPOTLESS MIND.

Too Young to Die Yet

I’m old. The first blush of youth has long passed me by. The innocence has long ago been lost. The gilded age of the teenage years have long been residents of my memories. The thing is, I’m not so old that the grave is a stone’s throw away. There is still a good five decades or so for me to go, I think. But I have lived a relatively uneventful life.

Now, I have chosen to take steps that would, back in the day, be considered rebellious and downright foolish. You can thank KPop for that! And One Republic for their song, I LIVED.

I seem to have acquired a taste for steel jewelry with crosses and crowns and such.

Stud earrings, Gothic screen prints on tees, studded belts, skinny black pants…. Stop me when I get to the tight leather pants because I haven’t gotten there YET.

I have a collection of rings. Unfortunately, my hands are small. I’m a small person. The rings I want are not compatible with my tiny hands. Biker rings, rocker rings with the skulls and the Fleur de Lys symbols, skeleton hands, the tall tubes…. Aaaaargh!!!! Why couldn’t I have been born with long fingers!!!! At least, the steel are compatible with my collection of silver jewelry I had long ago accumulated. I have been looking into military style boots, with the heavy track soles in black. I have yet to find one that I like.

Last year, I gifted myself with a second pair of ear piercings. I have plans to add a fifth one. Yes! Only one! So one ear will have three and only two on the other. This last one will be a cartilage piercing. It can wait two more years to coincide with a milestone.

The one thing that people are wary of, in my circle, is the stated wish to get tattoos. I have it sort of planned as well. Two words on my inner wrists and something on my right shoulder blade. What the image will be, I haven’t decided yet. Maybe a Phoenix Rising or Scorpio Rising. Maybe a water dragon for the water god, Lono, whom I have acquired a somewhat obsessive desire to delve deeper into.

One of the words on my wrists would be the cheer from the Philippines, Mabuhay! It means, Live! or Thrive! The other would be translated – hunger – bisin. The two will be done in the obscure script called Baybayin. The first is a reminder to me to live. Not merely exist, but to truly live. To examine my life and know all the adventures I’ve taken. The second is a reminder of what it takes to be successful. One must always remain hungry, for when one is satisfied, then there is no need to climb higher.

I have this recurring fantasy of baring my back in public and having a massive airbrushed work displayed. It wouldn’t be permanent because I’m the type that likes to change myself occasionally. And that’s too large to be permanently stuck on my body. But one on my shoulder blade should be okay. My fantasies of art include a tiger with its tail flicking my neck. Or a writhing Asian dragon with the tip of its ornate tail climbing up to the back of my ear. My hair would need to be cut very short or swept up to show it off completely.

Why? You might ask. One Republic’s song has a line that goes:
...I did it all! I owned every second that this world would give. I saw so many places… the things that I did… yeah, with every broken bone, I swear I LIVED…

I want this to be my epitaph, carved into the minds of those I leave behind. I do not plan for them to bury my carcass in some forgotten cemetery. I have stated that I expect to be cremated and my remains scattered in the ocean or to the wind. The specific places I named was the mountains of Tibet and Hawaii. But the local waters of the Bay Area would have been fine as well. I’m sure some are saying to bring my ashes to South Korea. My significant other had stated that I ought to be mixed in the barbeque grill ashes that way they will always have particles of me within them. A little too morbid for me.

But until it’s my time to go, I hope to live as fully as that song says. With every broken bone I swear I LIVED.

The tattoo and the piercings are just my small rebellion against conformity. It’s long overdue, but my advancing years make it easier for me to decide. Soon, I will bear the pain of the needles to mark on my body my philosophy, a reminder to my older self, a command to go down trying until the very end. And when they shove me into the oven, I hope my wrists will be prominently displayed so they that watch will remember my command, my advice, and I hope, my example.