Loud December 9, 2007

I used to be a music lover. I used to play in bands. But no more.

I have no iPod – no portable music player of any kind.

I have to play music out loud. That often is socially unacceptable.

Ear pain is to blame. I can’t stand sound piped into my ear. I no longer tolerate amplified music. I had my hearing checked – it’s fine. So I don’t know for sure what causes my ear problem. It could be the side effect of the lithium I take.

Sometimes I just want to listen, so I have to make a sacrifice. The listening is fine; the pain and ringing comes after.

Band Days February 16, 2007

I’m almost apathetic about music nowadays. Mostly because it makes my ears hurt. But this pic made me reminisce.

How? No, Chiz Escudero has nothing with my personal history. And I will probably never write about Philippine politics in this blog.

It’s because Mrs. Escudero – Christine Flores, was a bandmate of mine back in high school. Circa 1990-1991.

I was playing drums. I learned just because my friends who played electronic keyboards and piano wanted to start a band. They had no drummer, no bassist. So, they got friends who were game to learn!

I studied drums in Yamaha which then had a branch in Manuela Shaw (now Star Mall). I bought a second hand set from some where, took it apart, and had it painted and chromed. At first I had only the stock “lata” cymbals, but I was able to buy a Sabian hi-hat and Zildjian budget (Scimitar I think?) crash/ride.

Christine was our second singer. Our first vocalist our schoolmate, recruited her when he quit. Our only gigs were: a school “Peace Concert” in early 1991, during the first Gulf War (I remember this was when the “EDSOR Consortium” was formed), UP Freshman Engineering “Maskipaps” when we were freshmen (I didn’t attend UP though); some UP Freshman concert the next year (when the Eraserheads borrowed our guitar cable and walked out mid-performance); and some party in Xavierville (where we played along with Kelts Cross). Our great non-achievement was being the only band who was eliminated during the Xavier Musicfest Eliminations.

The band never broke up, it just faded away. All in all, we had three permanent members including myself, four vocalists, and two guitar players. We played unabashedly commercial showband-quality pop all the way.
That needed a counterpoint. So I had another band in fourth year high school. This was a four-piece punk band, with another of my classmate and two of his neighbors. We had one gig, a punk event in some parish school in Pasay City, where the parish priest shut down the concert to all but a few people in the audience since it was time for Mass. Two years ago, one of them invited me to play with them. It only lasted a couple of sessions since I couldn’t get my groove back.

I also played a few times (3?) in “Jamming EBs” where people met up to play. I also hung out with a friend’s band when they had practice at home.
Somehow I lost interest. It also doesn’t help that I had computer-related wrist problems, and the ear problem. I had myself checked already. My hearing is perfect but the rinning – tinnitus – is annoying.
I was hooked on the electronic drumming game, Percussion Freaks. (And the dancing game, Dance Maniax – another story!) But I have forgotten it already.

I could probably still play, but beatboxing with my mouth is about all the drumming I do nowadays.