Hmm, wala nga ang Datu’s Tribe sa Tanduay Rockfest. (Bakit wala ang Datu’s Tribe Sa Tanduay Rockfest Part 2)

To everyone who waited, my apologies for the delayed posting. My brain was already on torture overdrive, distilling 20 years worth of thoughts, experiences, and insights on the music industry, and it really took time to decide on how to finally treat the issue at hand without resorting to producing a litany of sins I’d love the music industry to answer for.

This piece, I address, above all others, to my fellow established musicians in the local rock music scene. Most of us have gone way past that enigmatic “dead at 27” mark, so I think it’s about time we started thinking about the future. Not ours – the music’s.

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Like so many others in the scene, I’d like nothing more than to just simply make music, have fun, and deliver the shit out of my bowels at every engagement. But the fact is that I’m forced to deal with the business side of things by default and this necessitates my having to arm myself with as much knowledge of the industry’s inner workings as I can just so my crew and I don’t end up getting victimized.

Since the 90s, I’ve had a lot of opportunities to talk to fellow artists about their thoughts on the music scene and one thing I’ve learned through these interactions is that everybody is privy to some kind of industry bullshit or sob story in one form or another. Whether it’s about greedy label execs, fly-by-night organizers, lopsided contracts, under-the-table agreements, payola and other kickback schemes, or even opportunistic poseurs within our own ranks, these rants have essentially remained the same since I first entered the fray more than 15 years ago.

So, I guess the question is not so much about what’s happening anymore (again, since everyone seems privy to all kinds of dirty info) but rather, HOW the hell they keep on happening and WHY in Pepe fuckin’ Smith’s name haven’t we been able to fix these problems in spite of the fact that WE, the MUSIC ARTISTS, are central to all the wheelings and dealings that take place inside the music industry?

Bakit wala ang Datu’s Tribe sa Tanduay Rockfest?!?

Towards the end of July, I received a text message from (itago na lang natin sa pangalang) Jonas Jejemonias asking me if Datu’s Tribe would be interested in playing 2 songs for a gig on October 15, 2010 at the Mall of Asia. Jejemonias told me that he was organizing the event and that it was going to be a major reunion concert for “old school” 90s bands. Aside from telling me that the talent fee was going to be 15k, no other details were provided.

I was all gung-ho, of course, and decided to give conditional approval for the event in spite of the bare info given. Since the occasions that still provided opportunities for bands of my generation to get together already come rare and far between these days, the chance to participate in one exclusively organized for us “old school” 90s bands was too good to pass up. An element of blind faith was also involved as I knew Jonas Jejemonias to be the manager of another “old school” contemporary we’ve had the pleasure to play with back in the 90s and also even on a number of other occasions (some fairly recent) since we came back into the scene in 2005.

Now, ever since our last manager left us in virtual limbo late last year, I asked Cindy (my wife) to handle booking negotiations for the band. She’s always been very meticulous in her professional dealings and we’ve been quite satisfied ever since at the level of professional savvy she’s always brought to the negotiating table on our behalf.

So when she told me a couple of days later that something didn’t feel right with Jonas Jejemonias’s proposal, red flags started popping up. Apparently, Cindy had been informed that the talent fee would be dropping to 10k, with Jejemonias citing budget constraints and other difficulties as reasons for the drop. My wife naturally took back the conditional approval and reasoned (rightly so) that a new approval now had to be secured from the band before anything can be finalized.

Rakistang Aktibista (A Reprise)

(NOTE: This is a truncated version of a much earlier post that was, in part, a rejoinder to arguments posted on a musicians’ forum. This version only contains the 2nd half of the article and I’m reposting this as a prelude to an article in the works. This future article is inspired by a grossly scheming 3rd party’s botched attempt to have Datu’s Tribe perform at the Tanduay Rockfest this coming October. Wait for the juicy stuff, kiddies. Sandali na lang. \m/@@\m/)

Si Spiderman na ang nagsabi: “With great power comes great responsibility.”

Not everyone has what it takes to be a true artist, and that’s why a true artist’s talents are uniquely double-edged gifts. A true artist possesses the means to inspire people through creation; in the musician’s case, through music and lyrics. But a true artist lacking in direction will instead have the dangerous ability to reinforce escapist mentality, submissiveness, and conformity. For those of us who won’t be fortunate or resolute enough to go beyond the 15-minute fame mark, the talent may early retire to a quaint, perhaps even painful corner of memory. But for those who’ll persevere and perhaps even break into the scene with a vengeance, talent suddenly takes on a more enormous significance.

Art for art’s sake is a luxury that our counterparts in developed countries enjoy, sometimes to the point of absurdity. In our country, this just isn’t the case. If you’ve ever given a thought as to why most musicians who pursue their craft outside the mainstream tend to struggle and/or starve, you should know what I’m talking about. But despite this reality, the sorry state of affairs is precisely why we should push on and continue evolving as artists, as musicians.

OCAMPO Ye Faithful

Nothing can be more disheartening to a nation that has been promised revolutionary changes since 1986 than to have those promises broken – and every so often at that for the last two decades.

After the Marcos era, we’ve had a disappointingly (though not quite unexpectedly) lackluster line-up of would-be-saviors whose words either hardly ever translated into meaningful changes or just surreptitiously materialized in the form of half-baked, compromise-peppered gestures aimed at pleasing whatever major vested interest happened to be present at the time of consummation.

We’ve also resorted to casting our lot with showbiz celebrities in the oft mistaken notion that their altruistic silver screen personas would translate into incorruptible heroism in the real world. Unfortunately, nobody ever seems to be able to convince those making the career move that scripts in the political arena are fiercely formulaic and that producers and directors are even more cutthroat (some literally) than those found in showbiz. It doesn’t help either that most politicians are actually better at acting than actual actors themselves, so it’s been largely hit and miss with this option.

But then, once in a while, somebody does surface to shatter conventional molds in order to provide real alternatives to the status quo. Case in point: Satur Ocampo.

2010 Slogans

AN URGENT APPEAL FOR SUPPORT FOR THE VICTIMS OF TYPHOON PEPENG IN THE CORDILLERA REGION, PHILIPPINES

(This is a repost from a friend’s Facebook notes. Some portions from the original were taken out for space considerations. Please share this information with & through your network/s, dear reader. Thank you.)

October 9, 2009 —The Cordillera Region in Northern Luzon, homeland of indigenous peoples collectively known as Igorots, is one of the areas hit (hardest by) Typhoon Pepeng, after Super-typhoon Ondoy. This mountainous region may not have been as victimized by the flood, but the very nature of the land and terrain has resulted in massive, disastrous landslides that claimed both properties and lives, especially in the mining-ravaged areas of Itogon and Mankayan in Benguet province.

As of 7 PM, the region’s death toll has mounted to 191, with 121 dead in Benguet, 54 in Baguio City with 5 still missing, and 23 in Mountain Province with 32 still missing. Cordillera Peoples Alliance’s chapters and affiliates in Ifugao, Abra, Kalinga and Apayao are still gathering concrete data, but have generally given feedback of massive agricultural damage in the towns of Conner, Apayao and Tabuk, Kalinga. Major roads, such as Kennon, Marcos and Halsema highways have been closed, threatening Baguio City of isolation, while Conner is now totally isolated. A total of 18 landslides were documented (11 in Baguio, 6 in Benguet, 1 in Mountain Province).

Got MILF?

I’ve been married for 15 years to a MILF who just turned 40.

And throughout the 15 years we’ve been together, we’ve experienced just about all kinds of fuck-ups imaginable, unimaginable, and everything else in between.

Before we became an item, I had to invent a story about me having sex with a total stranger in a party that never happened just so my girlfriend at the time would initiate a break-up. I know, I know. It was cruel and twisted, but the relationship really wasn’t going anywhere anymore and I didn’t have the heart to be the one to do the splitting-up, so there. (To every rumor-mongering shithead out there from our old college crowd who conjectured and assumed this and that about the whole affair, here, finally, is the version – the true one, mind you – that you assholes were never privy to, so…tangina niyo ngayong lahat, kung sinu-sino man kayo, hahaha.)

Datu’s Tribe Contra Con Ass (LEGO Adventures 3)

Prosperous Garapales: “Mga kasama, tagumpay ang ating Con-Ass Resolution! Wala nang makakapigil sa balak nating manungkulan habambuhay, muhahaha! Chuvanezzz!”

Tropang Trapo: “Oink! Oink! Ngasab! Ngasab! Nguya! Nguya! Huwee! Huwee!”

The ‘Ayes’ Have It

Not yet…

Rakistang Aktibista 2: Rise of the Poseurs

Barely a year left before this decade draws to a close, my “old school” rocker status now burdens me with an Amador Daguio “Old Chief” kind of dread.

Although our Pinoy Rock godfathers and goddessmothers from the 70s and our New Wave/ Pinoi Punk brethren from the 80s do fall under the same general category, “old school” seems to have become a classification that today’s younger set more readily associates with “dekada nobenta” bands, albeit with a quaint naivete.

There are, of course, meatier indicators that can expose a music generation’s (both fans and artists alike) manifest ignorance of and/or contempt for the histories and traditions behind the musics they claim devotion to. While we might all be aware of the saying on how history repeats itself through those who have no appreciation for its lessons, we should be more aware of that implicit possibility embedded in the truism: That ignorants can also end up unfolding an entirely new history replete with epic fails that can surpass even the most idiotic idiocies of screwed-up generations past.

Even as Rock & Roll continues to prove itself the most dynamic and innovative of all musical languages, it also continues to inspire self-delusion in those ill-equipped to deal with its awesomeness. But it’s never too late to shift towards an intelligent “Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll” lifestyle (yes, it does exist) for as long as one is inspired enough to dig into history to obtain it.

(WARNING: Clicking on “read more” will activate the “Magical Mirror of Musical Truth and Other Holy Shit” – an “old school” relic that’s been proven deadly hazardous to poseurs.)