methods of dance

Deep Fried 2nd installment post mortem.

Ok. It wasn’t an improvement from the first, looking back in September, the first was way better than last night. Most people on the guest list did show up but unfortunately it doesn’t work when it’s in spurts. Some came early as suggested and some came at certain points but not in full force which leads me to assess that currently in order for this to work, spread and influence, the inner circle of friends and supporters should really make an effort to show up en masse and park on the dancefloor.

Now why is it that some of the original GN crew don’t really show up anymore? I would attribute it to age, different priorities, change of lifestyle etc much like the followers from as far back as 1995. It’s been more than 10 years ago and obviously people have changed and some have moved on.

Unlike the old days when it was new and really exciting, when you say 10pm, by the time you get there at 10pm, the place would already be half full of guys and gals with backpacks, surgical masks and dancing like hell. Of course those were the “rave” days and that’s toned down but it doesnt mean it can’t happen again in a more intimate setting which is really how it is now abroad…come to think of it… for quite some time now.

Now ,some have suggested that maybe  Saguijo isn’t really as inviting to “party” people who are into “dance music”. I think they’re MISSING the POINT of the experiment. If i wanted the party people or the “Tugs” as the rock people lovingly call them, i would’ve insisted on doing it in, say, Warehouse 135 or another club venue but as it is, most party people here in this city are either clueless of the music they’re dancing to or couldn’t care less because it’s the “party”  that they are there for and the people that that end up dancing or even tuning in to what’s being played are merely secondary, unless, they hear the anthems of course. Now that’s not to say they shouldn’t go but for the most part Deep Fried is about opening the ears and minds of people who have certain misconceptions about dance music and dancing in the local setting.

It’s also for the local minority of clued up people though i find it amusing that despite the usual complaints and rants that there are no places in the city to really go to in terms of underground dance music, something that’s already handed down to them in a silver platter, they don’t take advantage of.

Someone mentioned that another reason could be because of the Trance party last night but that has nothing to do with Deep Fried for the very fact that 1. we DO NOT play trance(never have,never will). 2. The  average ,clueless trendy kids and the party crowd that i’m referring to obviously would definitely go there while we on the other hand, are targetting the more hip and discerning ones, the adventuous kids and the main target of the experiment , the local rock crowd scenesters and movers who might just PICK UP on the CONNECTION of rock and electronic music the way most have accepted it outside.

So to insinuate that the Trance Alliance event was competition is completely off and a stab a creating intrigues. Sorry but i won’t bite into that. I’m very vocal about disliking trance but nothing personal. In fact, if you ask me, i’m glad as it should be helpful in weeding out party people who do not appreciate quality dance music and just want commercial dance anthems because that’s NOT the crowd we want .

One factor was obviously the long weekend, hence friends and people you count on in helping the cause have gone out of the city etc  along with the other reasons mentioned at the beginning of this post. Another could be that being bi-monthly, momentum’s lost but that’s about to change because of an alternating venue so it’s a monthly night from now on.

I do personally feel though that for the next ones, the core group should really support and be there. While i cannot force people to do so, some extra solid support would be much appreciated as it is such a daunting task to IMPROVE the state of things in this country, be it the arts, living standards, politics, you name it. I’m doing what i can to make it a little better and not just addressing the problems but doing something about it. Why do you think i’m called the man with the messianic complex?

There are several people who i have to THANK for their continuous, unconditional support like Jaime T. Swissy, Arthur, Ed C. and Jac V., UDD, Johnny B and wife, the staff of Saguijo and Angelo C., Mario Benipayo of Forerunner Technologies Inc. THanks as well to the people who were there last night and shook their butts like Marco, Bubu, JC, AJ,PG,Kevin and partner, Paul P and JIm P. Also to Ryan, Garovs,Marie and Sunshine who should really get over their shyness and dance by the way.

It’s just no.2 so far. It’s definitely not gonna happen overnight for sure. Some people probably feel we old fogeys should let go and pack up but i’m not one to give up that easily. See you on the 13th of December for the FIRST Deep Fried at Route 196.

gig-a-bytes pt.deux

It’s 12:25 AM and i just got back from an outdoor gig but before that had a pleasant Thai dinner alone at  Jatujak. Great food and fast service. Had a hard time choosing  but settled on Tom Kha Gai and Pad Thai. Excellent.  Normally, the pictures would be the food in it’s complete uneaten state but i was so hungry i ate without taking pictures first so here’s the aftermath instead.

Wipeout!. Great Thai Food. Fast. Excellent service.

Now for a plethora of pics from the Lee Rocks Manila gig.

Peavey. Guitarist of  Sleepwalk Circus Fran- guitarist and lead vocals of Sleepwalk Circus.

Mica-bassist of Sleepwalk Circus

Marco-lead guitarist and vocalist of Musical O.

Chino Soliman-bassist of Musical O.

Mario Consunji-rhythm guitarist of Musical O.

Peavey, Fran and Mica of Sleepwalk Circus.

Sleepwalk Circus-watch out for these kids. Amazing band.

Musical O-another fantastic band to watch out for. These kids play music way well beyond their years and have great material to boot.

Marco,Miggy and half of Mario of Musical O.

Ria of Paramita consistently wow-ing the crowd

Unfortunately, most of the Paramita pics were blurry as i just used my phone’s low unmega pixel camera so here’s another shot of Ria at the start of their set.

Ean, Paul and Carlos of Up Dharma Down.

Armi of Up Dharma Down

Aue and Bing of Juan Pablo Dream

get your kicks on route 196

For the longest time Terno has been mostly associated with Saguijo, 70% of the Au Go Go series were in  Saguijo. In fact, Up Dharma Down built their audience from those Terno Au Go Go’s in Saguijo. They don’t seem to recall that now but their early best gigs were from those nights wherein the audience literally surrounded them(we’re talking a foot between audience and performer) as well as the other Terno artists. There were no tables during Au Go Go, a practice Saguijo started doing with their anniversaries but early on Terno Au Go Go had the place wall to wall with people.

For the past year or so though, i’ve put up nights in other establishments and one of those is Route 196. It ’s been steady so far. There are good nights and there are bad ones but overall it’s been a nice second home for that part of town. The really good thing about Route 196 though is that one of the owners, JP, really promotes on his own and doesn’t just rely on the bands to do so or depend on the strength of the line up for the night. That i can appreciate as it is unfair to rely solely on the bands to do the promoting. Aside from that their Pizza’s incredible.

Starting December, 13 to be exact, DEEP FRIED will also be held at Route 196 alternating with Saguijo which makes the electronic dance night ‘Monthly” as opposed to being “Bi-monthly” and that’s a good thing. Special thanks to JP for being open to the idea much like Angelo of Saguijo was. Kudos to these bar owners.

Speaking of Route 196, tonight is Terno Night…

and tonight we have Menaya as guest band along with the Terno staples. Thanks again to FRan of Sleepwalk who’s taking over eflyer chores temporarily. See ya.

terno infairness

When i look back and reminisce about the Terno Au Go Go series from 2005-06. It makes me think of how good it was because it was held quarterly or just when we can. It could be two months in between or four. There were eight or nine i think, total with the one at the Adidas Sports Camp being the last. Every Au Go Go was something to look forward to for myself, the bands on the bill and the audience.

Nowadays, it’s become more of a routine, the monthly nights in various bars all over the metro. I had to adjust to the state of things and keep up with the times. For visibility, i had to do it frequently and it has its moments but lately it’s somewhat gotten better,even though it’s monthly and you don’t miss it as much.

I suppose, it’s good somehow for most people to know that they can catch their favorite band/s in a particular place every month and as long as they introduce more people to what they’re digging and bringing them to the gigs then it’s OK.

By the way, for those who are confused or weren’t around the early days of Terno, Au Go Go was the showcase night for ALL the Terno artists and some guests quarterly or whenever while the latter part,  Terno Inferno is basically, just a night featuring a revolving number of Terno artists and a guest once in a while that happens on a more regular basis. Monthly. There’s the original Inferno at Saguijo and it’s satellite nights in other venues like Route 196, Magnet Bonifacio High Street etc.

On that note there’s Terno Inferno TONIGHT the 15th of November @ Saguijo.

Usually i do the Eflyers myself, when i can, but for this one Fran of Sleepwalk Circus volunteered to do the deed. THanks FRan! JOin us tonight…

Waiter, there’s a fly in my soup

Actually it’s more of “Waiter, may ipis sa iced tea ko”  Translation: Waiter, there’s a cockroach in my glass of iced tea”. Yes, it did happen last Wednesday at a Chinese restaurant, let’s just put it under the name, Zong at Trinoma. It’s definitely a Fear Factor moment i never expected in a quite high priced establishment.

By the way, for the purpose of your imagination, i drank half of the iced tea already by the time i discovered this character swirling in the drink and obviously scared that i might completely swallow it. Thankfully,i saw it and was spared. Anyhow, of course , no restaurant owner nor its people would do anything deliberate as to put a  creepy crawly on an unsuspecting customer’s food or drink but i’d like to think that it’s still the responsibility of the management of the said restaurant to ensure cleanliness within the premises.

Oh and i take back what i just said because you and i know if you’re an asshole to waiters then they don’t get angry, they get even if you know what i mean.

Back to the issue on hand, It also doesn’t help that the staff who were manager-less weren’t really trained for customer relations in times of crisis. The  somewhat expected response was an apology and reassurance that should i end up getting sick, they would take care of whatever hospital or medicine bills and that they will waive the charge for the dinner.

As in most cases with majority of local restaurants, the acting manager/waiter  and a couple more waiters( who by the way don’t seem to like their jobs, unsmiling, looking irritated when you flag them for some service) offered to….just replace the iced tea. Oh they said sorry alright but in a casual manner though like i should just accept that i could be harboring some cockroach eggs by the following day.  Then again, maybe its a daily occurrence to them i don’t know.

My wife Rica who obviously cares about the health of her husband was miffed at this point as the acting manager,while polite in tone, was haggling on what can be done to appease us. It went from replacing the iced tea to “we cannot do anything about this but say sorry as it wasn’t intentional” to “we don ‘t have a manager to decide on these things” onto “the owners can’t be reached and they don’t have email and the restaurant also doesn’t have an email address”. After a few more sermons of how the customer is always right and as consumers we must fight for good service in establishments, the waiter gave in to giving a discount. A whooping 20% discount.

You know, It’s not really about getting a discount or getting a free dinner it’s more of the service and enforcing our rights as consumers so that they can improve their service. If it happened in the US or elsewhere they probably would’ve been sued already. But it’s a good thing for them, we we’re still quite understanding and patient but it’s really about time restaurants and food establishments train their staff on customer relations and to be more specific, on situations wherein the customer has something to complain about.

I know it’s a delicacy in other countries and a reality TV staple but the common household cockroach that hangs out in the kitchen or garbage can variety can’t be clean to eat now are they?

Luckily, so far, i’m ok. Acid in my stomach probably nuked the little bastard. Well, as they say, there’s a first for everything but i’m certainly not looking forward to more nor will you find me dining there again.

look what the cat dragged in

From the folks at FHM comes this nice surprise and despite the financial hardships of a small record label like Terno, declarations like these makes it seem worth all the blood, sweat and tears.

to view another Terno Recordings artist on this list click HERE

and so it goes

For those who want to catch UDD again,they will be performing at 70’s Bistro with Sleepwalk Circus this Wednesday the 5th at 10pm. Those who will buy the limited edition cds at this particular gig( we cannot sell at just any gig) will get in, free of the usual door at 70’s Bistro. Again, let me reiterate that the gig is a plus much like Hexagon’s but if, again, should the venue be full, we cannot do anything about it.

This is NOT the album launch part 2. It’s just a regular UDD gig at a QC venue wherein the best we could do is to have the venue, 70s’s Bistro waive the door if you purchase the limited edition cd.

There is another chance for those who don’t want to purchase anything or if you have already purchased the limited edition cd but would want to catch UDD since you weren’t able to get in during the launch. It is for free and it’s in a mall, Podium to be exact. It’s on the 14th of November. I really would want you to come and support the band on this date plus you get to see the newest Apple store in the country, the A Shop.

I think i might be spinning some tunes as well using, just an Ipod along with the latest Numark iDJ2, a nice toy to have if you really want convenience. As much as i’d like to bring vinyl or use Serato with turntables and my laptop, i think i’ll give this baby a whirl. Curious to see how it performs. Mark the date. 14th of November. 7pm as stated in the artwork below.

If you want the other version of this artwork click HERE

The regular version of Bipolar should be out 3rd or 4th week of November at all Astrovision, Odyssey, SM, Tower/M1 and Fully Booked branches. While waiting, get the brand new album of Ang Bandang Shirley already available at your favorite record stores as well as this year’s other Terno releases like Paramita’s sophomore album and Swissy’s debut.

after the fire

A few pictures from outside and inside the venue during Up dharma Down’s launch last Friday. Why not pictures of the performance? I have none and that’s because I was mostly outside, trying to appease those who couldn’t get in anymore. A decision, as hard as it maybe, i had to make, being that safety and well being of everyone inside was more important than being greedy and just squeezing everyone in.

My apologies to those who weren’t able to get in but i’d rather that than guilt on my head should’ve anything bad happen inside like fire or some other tragedy. Just as well, it was clearly stated that the event was at “8PM”. I even delayed performance time to 8:30PM so there’s not much excuse from those who went an hour, hour and a half later. Traffic i can understand but people should take these things in consideration when planning to see a performance much like if they’re trying to catch a specific time for a movie.

Yes, you can say we should’ve done the event in a bigger venue but that’s easy to say as everything has a price and to add to the already surmounting costs of the limited edition this is not something we could easily consider. Not to mention there aren’t any mid sized venues in this city. As for the album, the normal release is slated for the 3rd or 4th week of November. It’ll be the normal Terno carton packaging for the actual release so for those who want the collector’s edition better act on it while there’s still some left.

THanks to the UDD listers,mainly Ed, Mayee, Bel and Jheysi for their help and to everyone else who made it possible. Special thanks to ADIDAS, Philmusic, RSL, Team Manila, NU107, Living It UP, Jam88.3 Myx and MTV.

NO thanks to the prospective sponsors we sent proposals to who didn’t even bother to get back to us and had the foresight of a paperweight in terms of knowing a good, premium event. What else is new? Comes to no surprise really.

…and the following day Saturday, an equally successful launch at Cubao X by Ang Bandang Shirley for their debut album “THeme Songs”. T’was a fun launch with an early Halloween costume party angle. Combine that with Shirley’s bright and happy sing along pop tunes and Cubao X’s crowd of Lomo/Photography/film/design, hip and equally trendy scenesters and you’ve got a parteeey indeed.Thanks also to Mario Serrano who spun for the kiddies.

Unfortunately my camera died on me and my current phone’s camera capabilities aren’t really spot on but here’s a few pics from it. Congratulations to both bands on their new albums.

open up your mind and let me in

While the majority of the youth and Filipinos in general are continuously getting derailed in terms of electronic dance music, there is still hope for some of the young uns who refuse to conform, who think and decide for themselves and are open to new sounds, new ideas, new experiences.

I post here a blog entry i stumbled upon from a young, bright lass named Jaja who went to the first DEEP FRIED night last Sept.6. and while she mistook everything played the whole night as all techno ,(actually, it was a combo of deep and tech house and techno), she’s excused. Not bad for a newbie and better than mistaking it for Trance! Kidding…

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First Techno, First Balut    Sep 7, ‘08 6:18 AM

I went to Saguijo for the first time last night and was introduced to TECHNO (although it became more house-y towards the latter part of the night, er, dawn) at Deep Fried by Groove Nation with Mr. Toti Dalmacion on the decks. It’s definitely not your like your garden-grade exclusive though. That’s for sure.

the place
reminded me of a much cleaner version of xaymaca. hehehe.
lots of posters and murals. baul saguijo -where i bought silver and gold wire bangles (a steal!) was upstairs. small but efficient and well-stocked bar. wood floors. definitely homey. only one bathroom but very clean. and they never ran out of toilet paper! the flush was working. no liquid soap but the water pressure was strong. the walls were a different much more pleasant version of your public washroom vandal. my personal favorite scribble was “god is coming. look busy.”

the outfits
I haven’t been out to a party party in the longest time and i’ve never been to saguijo, so i wasn’t sure about what i was supposed to wear. i shouldn’t have worried – at all. i could’ve been wearing a baby blue shirt, tiny tiny green pekpek shorts, fuschia tights and sneakers and nobody would’ve even noticed or cared. and yes, someone was actually wearing that – complete with a tiny white shoulder-purse and hair ponytailed  in a matching pink scrunchie. there were people wearing flipflops, stilettos, ruffles, tank tops, leather belts, good ol’ t-shirts, blouses, onepiece safari-type  shorts ensemble, skin-tight jeans, square-legged bottoms, jerseys, dresses, skirts, jackets, scarves, boleros, sweaters, chucks, boots – all heights, too.

I loved it.

the people
all ages and sizes were there. mixed breeds too. drinking water, redhorse, pale pilsen, smlight, cocktails. i was personally enjoying my favorite malibu rhum and coke.

the dancing
i’ve never seen anything like it. people weren’t dancing with each other at all. everyone was facing the dj, doing their own moves. and by own moves, i mean their Own Moves. rocking side to side. rocking front to back, back to front. stomping. clapping. hopping (for lack of a better verb). crazy footwork. swaying. jumping. hands up in the air. hands down by their sides. hands everywhere. no gyrating bodies humping each other like agogo dancers. there was no one common dance step that the entire room would do at a particular part of a song.

It was new. I Liked it.

the music
came from a turntable, a mac book and other contraptions i’m not familiar with. i’m not sure if toti uses discs but i did see vinyl being pulled out and placed back in their case on almost regular intervals. very little lyrics. mostly beats and other stuff i can’t really explain.
let me just say that now, i truly understand the power of a dj – how s/he can make an entire room move. He alone controlled the pace and brought us to different levels -up and manic, steadily rising, steadily falling, slowing, calm, then rise again.
astig.
the music was something that would move your feet and pulse through your groin even if you’re sitting at one corner of the room people-watching.
astig talaga.

it was very much different from the dance music i was used to. i still think nothing beats dancing with someone else – may it be one person or two or ten, and singing along to a song you just love. but last night’s environment was a new and refreshing and welcome change.

would i go back? oh yeah. and maybe bring some girlfriends along so i have pretty lady friends to dance and share the experience with.

are you game?

—-
p.s.  i ate balut for the first time last night too.
i think the yuckiness hype it’s been given is overrated. it’s not that bad at all.
and hella Delish!

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Now this is the kind of attitude we’re looking for. Bravo and kudos to you Jaja. May there be more of you to balance the future of this country!

dance with me

…or just by yourself or with other people. Whatever. The point is to take it all in and celebrate life through music and dancing. This is an advance warning for the second installment of Deep Fried on November 29. I know ya’ll do the right thing. Be there early. Saguijo neighbors complain around 2-3am so make the most of it that by 10pm you should be on the floor warming up and preparing yourself to surrender to the gorgeous grooves and relentless beats.

Help build this new community of discerning electronic fans and dance aficionados together from the ground up just like how it was built back then. Be a part of the quality,underground dance set. See ya on November 29!

your soon to be monthly electronic fix