Category: Music

Music Questions, and other stories

Jolens8 Comments

Do you have any fan merchandise that is unusual?

I don’t think so, no. I was a broke-ass kid so I was never the type to spend money on fan merch.

I used to be surrounded by artists though, and they used to give me the coolest hand-made gifts. A teacher once gave me a wooden kunai (the ninja weapon from Naruto) which he carved out of mahogany. A schoolmate also gifted me a guitar pick with the Natin99 pattern that he painted himself. The paint (acrylic?) easily chipped off when I started using the pick, and so this guy reminded me that the gift wasn’t made for actual use: “pang-collector’s item kasi ‘yan!” Shet sorry naman! Haha.

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Searching 3.0: OPM and Figures of Speech

Jolens14 Comments

An interesting query I found in last week’s Search Terms:

My post has a few examples, but it doesn’t explicitly state which lines count as personification. Hopefully the kids who were searching still found it helpful; I bet you they were actual kids cramming for an English or Filipino assignment. 🙂

Anyhow, I decided to do some further digging and write about the different ways figurative language has featured in OPM lyrics. I initially wanted to explore at least 10 figures of speech, but because I tend to get way too chatty about these things, I eventually narrowed them down to three: simile, metaphor, and personification.

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Shuffle the Music #2

Jolens6 Comments

Go Slow – Tei Shi

My favorite parts in this song are the breathy halinghing that remind me of a less energetic Robyn or a funkier Moira De La Torre.

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Piazza, New York Catcher

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How many nights of talking in hotel rooms can you take?
How many nights of limping round on pagan holidays?
Oh elope with me in private and we’ll set something ablaze
A trail for the devil to erase

20 Songs

Jolens6 Comments

I’ve been out of sorts since the 25th. Christmas was fine, all right, but my headspace? Not so much.

My room is a mess, my hair is a mess, and my wallet is a — it’s missing. I can’t find my wallet and I don’t remember where I left it. I know it’s just somewhere around the house but I’m just too drained to look for it, man. I’m exhausted even though I haven’t been doing anything. Ah shit, I hate this feeling.

Anyway I needed some sense of faux-productivity tonight so I did this tag from Sleeping Suburb. Twenty questions, twenty songs. I discovered some of these songs only this year and, hmm, should I write a year-end essay too? I’ll think about it, but maybe only after I find my wallet.

Your favorite song

One of my favorite songs this year is “Lose It” by SWMRS. The opening lines hit close to home, and then I got to the chorus: And tell me / why d’you have to have such a damn good taste in music? / Yeah if all my favorite songs make me think of you / I’m gonna lose it.

I fucking lost it.

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Shuffle the Music

Jolens4 Comments

I couldn’t bring myself to write a proper post so I’m doing another tag that I found via the search bar. This time I’m supposed to shuffle my music library and comment on the first 15 songs that come up.

I couldn’t bring myself to write a nicer intro or a better transition either so, um, voila:

Tokyo – Lianne La Havas

Love these lines: “all I’ve ever known is / how to be alone / it comes naturally.” Sometimes it bothers me how comfortable I am with being alone — a self-fulfilling prophecy, correct?

Beautiful Girl – Jose Mari Chan

Mama explained this song to me when I was a kid and was way too young to understand English. Maybe this is why I never really had a problem with the phrase “love at first sight.”

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Song Challenge

Jolens26 Comments

1. The last song you listened to: 3 A.m. — Gregory Alan Isakov
2. Last song you purchased: Smokers In Love — The Lucksmiths
3. Song you discovered on YouTube/tumblr: Take Me Somewhere Nice — Mogwai
4. Favourite Soundtrack piece: Adagio in D Minor — John Murphy (“Kaneda’s Death”)
5. Favourite Band: Eraserheads
6. Favourite Solo Artist: Joni Mitchell
7. Favourite Album: Blue by Joni Mitchell
8. Best Live Gig OR Act you want to see live: I would love to see UDD again.
9. Guilty Pleasure Song: No Touch — Juan de la Cruz Band
10. Song you used to hate but you now like: Lush Life — Zara Larsson
11. Song you used to love but now can’t stand: Kissin U — Miranda Cosgrove
12. Group you wish had never split: Narda
13. Favourite song from a video game: —
14. Favourite song from a film: Two of Us — Aimee Mann and Michael Penn (Beatles Cover)
15. Favourite song from an advert: —
16. Song you grew up with: Pretty Little Baby — Sexbomb Girls
17. First song/album you ever bought: Color It Red’s The Best of Color It Red
18. Album you found accidentally and love: Hoodie Allen’s All American
19. Favourite foreign language song: Rindu — Everybody Loves Irene
20. A song from the year you were born: —
21. Song from your favourite music genre: In Undertow — Alvvays
22. Most Over-rated song: —
23. Song you would recommend to everyone: Sili Song — Fatal Posporos
24. Song that reminds you of a specific event: Bathala — Talahib
25. Song you can’t help but sing along to: Kahimanawari — Pan
26. Favourite parody song: —
27. Favourite slow song: Indak — Up Dharma Down
28. Favourite fast song: BYOB — System of a Down
29. Favourite song at the moment: Rescue Song (RAC Remix) — Mr. Little Jeans
30. All time favourite song: A Case of You — Joni Mitchell

I’ve done this before, here, and the list was lifted from Angel’s blog.

A few things of note:

  1. Some things change, some don’t. “Favourite” is such a capricious concept ‘no, which is weird because the word implies certainty? Hm, maybe I’m just indecisive.
  2. I still don’t know a lot of new OPM.
  3. The Sexbomb Girls are a big part of my childhood. I remember an interview in Startalk — home to the hottest meta-okrayan segment “T the Tigbak Authority” — in which Rochelle or Jopay or one of them said something like, “Mas gusto ko ang ‘Sexbomb Girls‘ kaysa ‘Sexbomb Dancers’ kasi hindi lang naman kami dancers — mga babae kami.” Strong, ‘teh.
  4. I’ve been listening to a lot of Pan and Fatal Posporos recently. I used to wish I was born a decade earlier so I could be a 90’s teen instead of a 90’s kid. Pinoy rock had its moments in the 2000s though, so it’s all good.
  5. I still love “A Case of You” big time. Damn all the lines, man, and especially these: I could drink a case of you, darling, and I would still be on my feet. Sheght. ❤