How I Got To Sing with Another Music Icon

I don't remember the second time I met Eraserheads' drummer Raimund Marasigan. The reason why I said second time was because I remember exactly my first encounter with the entire band but that's a totally different blog post. Anyway, I guess it would probably be during those times that I was still working for Pulp Magazine that I've met him again and eventually worked with him in some gigs and photo shoots. Raimund is like Ely and the rest of the Eraserheads, to me, they're like demigods of music. I'm good at keeping my cool when I'm around them but truth is I always make sure that my inner fan girl is asleep just to avoid any shameful scenes and/or circumstances that could possibly arise.

So, how did I ask Raimund to do this cover collaboration with me? I didn't send him a tweet just like what I did with Ely (for my post regarding my jam with Ely, click THIS!), I asked him personally when I watched his band Sandwich in Saguijo and surprisingly enough he said YES! Like Ely, I was ready to be turned down due to the fact that Raimund and his bandmates are probably the busiest local musicians around but he said YES, so jjjoooyyy! It did took a while though before this jam materialized but I had no complains whatsoever. One day while I was doing mundane work at the office, I got a text from Raimund, he said "Pano and kailan mo gusto gawin itong project mo?" So I gave him a call and explained everything and good thing there was that long weekend last August so the date was set.

It was a long travel from Laguna to where Raims lives but I was ready. I wore comfy shoes. Look.

Nice no? Hehe. Anyhu, I was there early, around 10:30am I think. Raims showed me his basement studio first which was being renovated because it got flooded recently. Since the basement studio wasn't ready at that time, we opted to set up in his garage.

Me: Ay sa garahe tayo? Hindi ba nakakahiya? Hehehe
Raimund: OK lang yan. Sanay na sila sa akin na nagiingay dito tsaka ginusto mo yan e haha!

He was right, I really wanted this cover collaboration to happen with him. So what if people can see us thru the gate, the jam was going to be on video anyway and will be uploaded on Youtube. So game! 

That's Lipstick the dog, she'll have a very special participation in one of the videos that you will see later.

 

Raimund made me use this really good looking black Fender acoustic guitar. Ang gwapo gwapo ng gitara na'to. 

 

So we did a quick jam of what we planned to play.

Another dream collaboration that came true! Thank you, Raimund for the jam and lunch hehe. Here are the videos of my project. We decided to play "Hysteric" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and "Gold Guns Girls" by Metric. I hope you'll like them. Thank you for watching!

 

An Afternoon Jam with Ira Cruz

Guitarist Ira Cruz is like the kuya that I never had but I guess unlike the usual kuyas with issues that you guys have, Ira and I never fail to always get a laugh out of something. Mali na nga at wala sa lugar na ata kung minsan e he he.

 

Excuse my brace faced phase

We go a long way back. I think I first met him when I was still working for Pulp Magazine. I've arranged numerous photo shoots with bands, and also gigs, that included a shoot with the original members of the band Kapatid.

Hay, memoriiiieeeessss! He has been one of the few people that I've become friends with in the industry. At one time I actually convinced him to do a fashion editorial, yes, I asked him to be one of my models! If that is not true friendship right there, I don't know what is! Hahaha! Too bad I don't have a picture here with me that I can post, tsk. With all biases aside though, Ira is one of my favorite local guitar players because of his versatility. Tugtog lang ng tugtog, that's the vibe that I get from him. Aside from his present band Hijo, he still sessions for other artists (he played guitar for Anne Curtis' concert recently). That's why it's a no brainer that I asked him to be part of this so-called "project" that I'm working on.

So OK, for those of you who are first time visitors of my blog HELLO! I'm working on this cover collab sessions where in I will be tapping my favorite local musicians and ask them if they can do two covers with me and we'll record it on video to be posted on my youtube account. What's the purpose of this you might ask? Nothing really. I just want it to be one of a few sources of my happiness, a happy thought generator if you will. One of these days it would be fun to look back at these videos and say that HA! I did that!(?)

Back to my afternoon with Mr. Cruz. I went to his house somewhere in Cubao and I brought him his favorite pancit which we dubbed Pancit Highblood.

 

This is the glorious Pancit Highblood that can only be found here in Sta. Rosa, Laguna. First of all, I love it because it has no onions! Second it is to die for because it has lechon kawali mixed in there somewhere. So before we recorded the covers, merienda muna! 

F na F sa unang subo

So after our cholesterol filled merienda, we practiced the songs and worked on our harmony for 311's "I'll Be Here Awhile." We made it a pitch higher so my voice won't disappear in the low parts of the song. 

 

 

At first he told me not to ask him to sing but I said that he has to because the harmony is the best part of that 311 tune plus the ten ten nen ten ten tenenen (that's my best rendition of the lead part at the beginning of the song). 

Enough of the text, here are the two covers that my friend Ira and I recorded, 311's acoustic version of "I'll Be Here Awhile" and Corinne Bailey Rae's "Like A Star." I hope you'll like them. 

 

The Strokes and How Their Music Defuses all the Annoying Things in My World Right Now

I've been playing my entire collection of The Strokes songs in my iPod here in the office. It's on shuffle so sometimes "You Only Live Once" would play and then another version of the same song would play immediately after. The entire collection have been playing for almost 3 hours straight and it's close to being in its 4th hour, yes, I do have a lot of Strokes songs but I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Yesterday, it was Kylie Minogue and Mariah Carey day here at the office. No we didn't go to work wearing Kylie and Mariah inspired clothes which would be really skimpy for my own sake and for the rest of the people here,  instead I played Kylie and Mariah songs. I downloaded something online that said Kylie Minogue Hits, and true to its name, the songs in the .rar file were all her hits, or at least the songs that I'm familiar with. Too bad "Especially for You" wasn't in it but "Kids" (featuring Robbie Williams) was. I love that song. Kylie day was triggered because me and my Associate Editor France Pinzon weren't able to watch her concert which I heard was one of the gayest things that hit this soil! Shit! I would have loved to be there and watched Kylie straddle Pegasus! Huhuhuhu. I'm still very sad actually but not as sad as when I wasn't able to watch John Legend (that, my friends, is a totally different story but let's just say that I've been melancholic for about a week).

Anyway, after at least 3 rounds of the Kylie hits, I got tired of singing  Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-naaaa, then France asked "wala ka bang Mariah?" HA! It's a trick question obviously! How dare her ask me if I have any Mariah songs in my iPod? THE NERDDD!!! (I know, that it's "the nerve"). So Mariah she wanted, Mariah she got. You guys should have heard us, if banshees were hunted at this day and age, France and I would have been staked already. Complete with the Mumamariah hand gestures, our awful versions of her high pitch punchlines, damn we were amazingly horrendous. Our families would have disowned us if they heard us singing HONEEEYYY, I CAN'T DESCRIBE, HOW GOOD IT FEELS INSIIIDEEEE (honeeeyyyeaahhh). It was fun though.

Wait, this post  was supposed to be about The Strokes, right? So going back to that, this office is not what you can say the most uhhhmmm feasible and sensible place to write. There are just a lot of things going on; a lot of unwanted noise. But for some strange reason though, I can write (or attempt to) even though The Strokes are blasting in my background and it just magically defuses all the annoying little things that I don't want to hear. From time to time though I catch myself making a weird face every time Julian (Casablancas) would croak or reach that weird high note (insert France saying "Julian, ano na? What's happening?"). I also had my "Let me listen to their solo projects" phase. I listened to Julian's Phrazes for the Young (I think France took a liking to "11th Dimension," I caught her humming it a few times), Fab's Little Joy, and Albert's Yours to Keep and Como te Llama. I skipped Nikolai's album, I don't like his singing voice (I'm sorry, Niko...but I just can't) but I keep coming back to The Strokes. Their song "Soma" is now playing and it's almost 6pm, I would love to continue this love story with The Strokes but there's always tomorrow.

I don't know how to write that good but I love listening to The Strokes, Kylie and Mariah.