Wednesday, December 31, 2008

The top 10 songs that made me happy this 2008

So, I haven't touched this blog for the longest time. But since I've already started a tradition of posting my favorite songs of the year (plus, I've got lots of not-at-work time to spare), I can't not do the same for 2008. Like the previous years' top 10, not all of these were released in 2008. And of course, this list is based purely on personal enjoyment.


10. Time to Pretend by MGMT
The song never really registered even when I first heard it on the movie 21. I only started really liking it when I heard it on the radio.

[MP3] Time to Pretend c/o MFR (To download, right click on the link and "Save as")




9. Nazanin by Good Shoes
A song about two minutes long, er, short. You'll tap your shoes and sing along to the chords.





8. See the Sun by The Kooks
Their album Konk received mixed reviews. O ano ngayon? I like this song. I especially like the "For all the times..." till the end.






7. Patty Lee and The Equestrian, both by Les Savy Fav
I love this crazy band. Check out their live performances on YouTube. These two tracks are my favorites. The first video is Patty Lee.





6. Bright Red Helmet by Styrofoam
I like this song because it's so...Postal Service-ish. Though the lyrics are kind of weird (you can tell these guys don't really speak English), it's very cute. I first heard it on Jam 88.3, which incidentally is one of my greatest discoveries this year (I hear then play Broken Social Scene, The Postal Service, MGMT, and Bloc Party among other artists on a regular basis!).




5. A Fortnight's Time by Maximo Park
I fell in love with Maximo Park because of Nosebleed, which is included in last year's list. Eventually I had to listen to other tracks from the album and I realized that the album really has a lot of good stuff with really unique lyrics to boot. This track included, of course. You'll never look at the line "Five times five equals twenty-five" the same way again.



4. Vice by Razorlight
This is a happy, not-sappy subtle love song. I like their more popular track from the same album, Golden Touch, but this is the track that made me love the band. And made me truly believe that Up All Night (and not their self-titled one) is hands down their best album so far.




3. The Re-Arranger by Mates of State
It easily became my favorite Mates of State song the first time I heard it (sorry, Beautiful Dreamer). I also like how it's about how couples should try to work out difficulties in their relationship, particularly how sometimes no matter how angry you are with your partner, you'd just have to shake it off ("You've got a fury for the smallest things. You've got to bury it in your head... I know it's impossible, but you should try to shake it off.").



2. Unguided by The New Pornographers
It has great lyrics, though I don't really understand them, he he. But I gather it's about one-night stands ("Why wait for the weakened state to lie next to the weaker sex?)? Who cares? I like it because of the melody and the sorta ad-lib parts towards the end of the song.


1. After Hours by We Are Scientists
First off, it was a close fight among Nos. 1, 2, and 3. Ask me another day, and I could easily reorder the top 3. Anyway, as for After Hours, I first heard it on Letterman, which I have to say was an awesome episode featuring Gillian "Dana Scully" Anderson and Simon "Shaun of the Dead" Pegg. I guess I liked this song the most because of the anthemic, madrama feel that slightly reminds me of Arcade Fire.



Absent are tracks from two bands that I really like that both released albums this year, Bloc Party and The Killers. Eh ano pa bang magagawa ko? Ang papanget ng mga kanta, eh! Ha ha! Happy New Year!

Scribbled by in_sneakers at around 21:27 0 thoughtful dawgs

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Not another Oktoberfest-Third Eye Blind post!

I myself am sick of reading like a gazillion blog posts about the recent Oktoberfest Kick Off Party where the Third Eye Blind Concert was held. When I want to read updates about Third Eye Blind, especially feedback on their concert, I of course Google them but much to my great dismay, the first few pages of the search results yield mostly Filipino SEO-ed blogs that practically read like press releases — same shit, different writing styles (I should know; I write press releases, too).

And you know for a fact that there's a hint of truth to the "read like press releases" part because, alas, a lot of them were obviously written from the point of view of some starry-eyed Willy Wonka who just happened to score the golden ticket to the beer factory. Hence, no golden ticket most probably means no "Yey! I love Oktoberfest! I kiss the feet of the purveyors of the Oktoberfest for the opportunity to join in on the fun! Even if I'm not a Third Eye Blind fan!" post. Whatever. I, too, had "golden tickets" — but chose not to use them.

Anyhow. I still got to see Third Eye Blind perform, and I won't go on about what they sang or whatever, as everyone's written about that already. I will say, however, that aside from the concert itself, two other things that made Third Eye Blind's visit to the Philippines truly memorable to me were: 1) Stephan Jenkins signing my CD, and; 2) Stephen Jenkins teasing me that I'm a "naughty, naughty girl" (or was it "bad, bad girl?") and that I "need help and we [the band] are all here to help [me]" in a room full of people. I love it.


Scribbled by in_sneakers at around 00:32 1 thoughtful dawgs

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

RIP Hughey +

We love you and we'll miss you, Hughey. =(

Scribbled by in_sneakers at around 03:38 0 thoughtful dawgs

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

17

What were your concerns when you were 17? When I turned 17, my two greatest concerns were: passing Math and The Prom. And at that time, to me, they were valid sources of stress.


But look at the time. Fast forward to ten years and here I am—cringing at memories of The Prom. Now I can laugh at how silly I was for being so worked up about one evening at The Manila Pen (and another at the Makati Shangri-La). But see, I can laugh about it. Because I was there. I was in on the big joke of an event.


I guess you never know how much time has passed until you actually look back. You never know how old you've become until you bump into someone a lot younger than you and realize, "Hey, I was your age, too—ten years ago." And upon that realization, you long for that feeling that you can't really describe, but ascribe to only one thing: youth.


Of course you can't get it back. Sometimes it excites you just reliving it vicariously through interacting with someone young and carefree, or for some, just making do with memories. All because you want to remember what it was like when problems consisted of school, boys, and asking your parents permission to go out, and not work, bills, and preparing to settle down.


I know, though, that ten years from now, I will look back and laugh again at how silly my petty 27-year-old concerns are.

Scribbled by in_sneakers at around 22:00 1 thoughtful dawgs

Monday, May 19, 2008

The Neil Sedaka experience

The first concert my parents dragged me to I ever went to was Gloria Estefan's at the ULTRA Football Stadium some time nineteen kopong-kopong—I was only in the first grade then. Still a first grader, I also got to watch Fra Lippo Lippi perform, also at the ULTRA. Frankly, I don't even remember anything about those concerts, except for me being there. I didn't fall asleep, though (unlike when my parents took me to that silly Martin Nievera concert when I was in the second grade—I remember trying desperately trying hard to keep my eyes open because I was so conscious thinking that Martin Nievera could see me).


Those were the first and last foreign acts I ever watched perform. Maybe my parents thought it was a waste taking me to the Duran Duran and Earth, Wind and Fire concerts around the same period because I'd probably only fall asleep again.


Some time last month, my dad casually told me that Neil Sedaka was performing at the Araneta Coliseum. He also asked if I wanted to go. I answered a very genuine—and excited—"Of course!" But those of you thinking "Who the hell is Neil Sedaka?" Heller?! He's only the genius behind the songs "Calendar Girl," "Oh! Carol," "Breaking Up is Hard to Do," "Love Will Keep Us Together," "Solitaire" (yeah, the song that made Clay Aiken so popular), and "Laughter in the Rain," among so many others. When my dad brought home a copy of Sedaka's Timeless: The Very Best of Neil Sedaka (a compilation of a whopping 22 tracks), I couldn't get enough of it. I actually listened to the album over and over again—alone. I was in the fifth grade then.


More than two decades after we first got that CD, we finally got to watch the Neil Sedaka. My parents, boyfriend (who, coincidentally, knows the lyrics to other Neil Sedaka songs that aren't on the Timeless album), and I. It's so funny because predictably, Araneta was packed with senior citizens. I've never seen so many old people...partying. My dad kept on cracking jokes about the elderly at the venue—"Dapat hindi iced tea binebenta nila dito, hindi bagay. Dapat Ensure or Enervon Prime"—I swear sometimes I don't know if I got my dissing genes from my mom or dad. My dad is in his mid-fifties, so imagine how old those other people were.


Anyway, I really enjoyed the concert. I even surprised myself that I still know most (if not all) of the lyrics to majority of the songs he performed. I'm so happy I got to watch Neil Sedaka live. He's awesome. You wouldn't think he's pushing 70 with the way he dances on stage and plays the piano oh-so effortlessly. Even if he didn't sing my favorite song of his ("Our Last Song Together"—but I understand; it's not like one of his super hits), I had a fantastic time. Neil Sedaka rocks.

Scribbled by in_sneakers at around 02:27 1 thoughtful dawgs

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