Punk Rockin' in Bangkok!

My friend Tina is the hot bassist for the indie punk band here in Bangkok called "Tender Preys." They're a trio composed of a French frontman/lead guitar, a British drummer and a Pinay bassist:) All original stuff here, reminding you of happy 80's old school punk.

Checked out their gig last Saturday at the Immortal Bar on Khao Sarn Road (the famous backpacker district)--and it was great! Happy time for any head-banging rock lover in the emerging/indie/underground Thai rock band scene. The bar was a tiny place with a sitar, a mom and son manning the bar and dishing out beers, a 40-something way funky DJ who was spinning rock/metal hits punctuated by homemade sound effects, and 3 other Thai rock bands.

The Thai bands were interesting--a mix between pop-rock, heavier alt rock, and then there was this bluesy sounding one. Since they sang in Thai it was hard to make out but the songs were about, but good musicianship more than made up for it!

Tina's group is opening for the "Futons" this Valentine's day at RCA's Club 808. It's a kind of anti-Valentine's gig:)

The "Futons" are a pretty cool electro-punk gig with 2 Thai and 2 British members. They have a pretty cool music video here. And it seems like Suede's former drummer has been reincarnated moving continents to Thailand to drum for Futon:)

iPhone and The Who - Substitute?

"The Who," a British classic rock group, had a song called "Subsitute" that poked fun of them being a "substitute" for the Rolling Stones. In this case, the word meant a similar item and yet still a place-holder for the real deal.

An almost, and yet never quite.

In the song, it was about people in relationships substituting one another for the real thing. Pete Townshend blares:

"You think we look pretty good together. You think my shoes are made of leather. But I'm a substitute for another guy. I look pretty tall but my heels are high. The simple things you see are all complicated. I look pretty young, but I'm just back-dated, yeah."

With the entry of the iPhone into the big wide world, I'm wondering how will this phone slash music player slash other apple-ish computing device merge impact the way we listen and enjoy music and other joys like movies?

Is it going to be the real deal or will it be a substitute (a placeholder for Apple's next big secret surprise perhaps), as Townshend sang long ago?

Will the iPhone replace, as with most phones moving towards rivaling digital music players (iPods, Zunes, among others) for supreme playback? In the same way that CD's seemed to move in a not-so-distant memory with the advent of more portable ways to enjoy our music, videos and personal memories (as well as the more functional items like keeping grocery lists, finding our way in another city or calling a friend ahead at lunch that you're running late)?

It's being launched in the U.S. and looks wonderful in its simplicity, at what would be viewed as atronomical costs by those at the other end of the wealth spectrum.

Wondering now how does this launch translate to conquering the developing world's need for communication? How will it measure up against easy-going IPR laws and Chinese ability to mimic and mass-produce to be found in the underground economy sometime towards the end of the year?

Then there is the charge that Apple actually is guilty of mimicry itself, challenged by existing Cisco rights to the "iPhone." In softer allegations, there is another point circulating that the Apple iPhone actually seems similar in its design to an existing LG phone.

In the end, although The Who even has a musical after its music as testament to its staying power, the winner in the longevity and relevance category was definitely affirmed by a recent tour of The Rolling Stones--maybe longevity is the clue to the real deal in the world of great ideas.

Remember Classic Pinoy Rock circa 90's?

Thank God for a kind soul who hadn't forgotten Wolfgang on Wikipedia!

That great band of long haired, boom-voiced Pinoy-in-English alternative rock when oceans away Kurt Cobain was rocking out his zen-infused line "all-in-all, is all we are."

Tried looking for their first album (yes, in the time before we had music players) on CD at a local record shop for a friend. Should have realized it was way way way on the long lists of "against-all-odds" errands.

The ladies at the stores felt I was looking for the equivalent of the Holy Grail, and were miffed that I insisted they check other branches, warehouses, and other ungodly music storage places. To no avail.

Rummaged through CD boxes at home and found it. Having had a particularly tough day, just had to listen to "Darkness Fell," a pretty cool Goth anti-fairytale masquerading as a lullabye.

Does this qualify this album as "classic rock" then? My friend thought so---after laughing hard at my recent crusade to find a copy of the album.

Is it just scarcity and the rarity of my copy that makes it "classic?" When people forget about the band (frontman and his stunts with the ladies)? Or when their music won't even deserve a slot in your LSS (Last Song Syndrome) playlist in your mind (with bubble-gum radio tunes vying for random top 10 slots in that LSS list)?

Or when you do get LSS, sing a few opening bars under a riff--and friends say, "now THAT was a great song!"

Does the fact that they refer to that song in the past tense mean it's gone from present day consciousness, only to be preserved in nostalgia? Is that what it takes to make it "classic" like cars with large fenders and black rotary phones?

Or is it because the music conjures up moments past--and still finds a way to sing to your heart as aged as it has?

When it comes to books, the idea is that the stories that last are those that bear some form of memory and reinvention each time it's read--so that it matters to children at 5, 15 and 50 and their children. Maybe someday the great Pinoy rock I head-bang-ed along to will be the same way. Taking in meaning outside of the time in which the music was made. Rocking on...and on..and on...

Leaving a nibble of this song's opening line---remembering the riff that carries the words and the single exhale it takes so let it loose.

"And so she woke up from a dream/that was beautiful and starry and, oh, so wild/it was all still clear in her eyes//"-Darkness Fell, by Wolfgang