Category: Music

Music Questions, and other stories

Jolens14 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

Jolens15 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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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. ❤