‘Giniling’ summer

Slowly but surely summer crept in, with all its attendant commencement exercises, culminating activities, and assorted soundtracks popping up every which way but loose, among them a pair of indie recordings from the Terno label, a couple of CDs of covers that serve as tribute and nostalgia by two established bands, as well as a duo of jazz artists of different persuasions.

Not since the first Yano or Parokya ni Edgar album have we heard as raunchy and humorous a debut CD as "Giniling Festival," a band which could be from UP as their liner note thanks are studded with references to the State University, alma mater of both Yano and E-heads. Songs like Letter to Angelina Jolie and Bano are melodic as they are brilliant, full of catchy hooks faster than the ear. The lyrics are likewise incomparable: In Letter, the narrator asks if it’s okay with you to have Angelina Jolie as a girlfriend if you will also bear her child who happens to be a wild boar. More riotous non-sequiturs abound in Bano, which has the singer pleading not to be called "bano" (lousy, mediocre), it doesn’t matter if you eat his dog or burn down his house, but please don’t call him bano. The word though seldom used these days could very well sum up much of the happening scene of bad governance. Everybody wants a piece of the so-called action.

Led by one Anto Garcellano, Giniling has post-punk send-ups in songs such as Holdup, McJolly, and Hari ng Metal, with tangential references to the masters through guitar lines worthy of Metallica and Rainbow. Excellent cover art too courtesy of Garcellano’s girlfriend, which features a rear view of a sow, evoking memories of our high school practical arts class where we were made to watch mating barakos by our teacher.

A breath of fresh air for the somewhat predictable music scene Giniling Festival is. On the same Toti Dalmacion-brainchild Terno label is another purveyor of new sounds, the Radioactive Sago Project, with what could be their third or fourth album, "Tanginamo Ang Daming Nagugutom sa Mundo Fashionista Ka Pa Rin."

Trust Lourd de Veyra and brod Francis with the rest of the guys to cook up something different in the Pinoy pop and jazz scene, this time doing spoken word and beat one better, with the horns well up front and brassy, the bass prominent as an exposed nipple, and Lourd himself presiding the proceedings like the Elvis of Kamias.

In Alak, Sugal, Kape, Babae and Kabaong (not necessarily in that order) we hear wah-wah like we never did since the heyday of Clapton, complete with the vocalist’s ambient recitation of verses. Reminded us too of how we put meaning to the ABS-CBN in our younger days — alak, babae, sugal, cabaret, babae na naman. Writer Ricky Torre also does a cameo in one song title, somehow equated with the character actor Raoul Aragonn. Sago’s music has always been more complicated than they’ve let on, and their music videos are also the more notable and memorable in the glut that thrives on oblivion. Who can forget the Astro takes and how it boosted the cigarette brand’s sales in the Visayas and Mindanao? If Tado wasn’t in it he should be in a future Sago MTV.

Just when we thought this could be the year of the covers, who else should reinforce this notion but two of the leading mainstream rock bands today, Rivermaya and Bamboo, who happen to come from the same (i)Pod. In "Isang Ugat, Isang Dugo," Rivermaya sees fit to pay tribute to their favorite influential artists of the Pinoy alternative scene in the 1980s, including then underground heroes Deans December, Identity Crisis, Ethnic Faces, the Jerks, Bagong Lumad. A very listener-friendly salute "Isang Ugat" is, with Rico Blanco mimicking the original vocalists down to the last nuance and exhaled breath. Binky Lampano, Deans December leader now possibly based in Los Angeles, writes significant thoughts on the sleeve notes, same with the other ’80s icons, Joey Ayala of Lumad, Lennie Llapitan of Identity Crisis, and a member of Ethnic Faces whose lead Jack Sikat we once espied driving in a beat-up car near the Mediterranean food stall off Timog near the old Red Rocks club, long before it became Club Dredd, very James Deans December he was, not at all Saul Bellow the belt. The songs here remind us too how once we watched Identity Crisis play, we forget now where, but the other woman vocalist was tall and might have been named Carla, and the guitarist was pale and wan and resembled David Lava if indeed he wasn’t Lava himself in rave-up disguise. "Water Came Running," a cassette of that must be lying somewhere in a corner of the apartment, un-played and gathering dust.

There’s a nice duet too of Lumad’s Ilog by Blanco and Kitchie Nadal, whose melody we found ourselves humming to keep our wits about us under deadline pressure. As for the title song, it somehow made us feel as if we were watching the late night news, very anthemic and Rivermaya with guitarist Mike Elgar picking up a few pointers on sustain from The Edge.

The touching trip down memory lane is taken one step further in Bamboo’s "We Stand Alone Together." This time the band does their favorite songs of artists both local and foreign mostly from the ’70s, some of which were hits before the band members were born. The inevitable remake of Probinsyana composed by guitarist Ira Cruz’s dad Alex, a founding member of Anakbayan, is the centerpiece, and rightly so. Bamboo’s voice though is like a city slicker compared to the orig Edmund Fortuno’s unpolished probinsyano vocals, though the horns in the new version are more forceful and driven by an energy tapped from the technology of modern recording.

They also retool Dave Mason’s cult classic Feelin’ Alright, late of Traffic, and the result is nothing to be ashamed of. Though Bamboo has none of the self-deprecating, deadpan demeanor of Mason, the keyboard work is dizzying and gives color to the song not found in the original.

Also present is an update of Buklod’s Tatsulok, and again the urgency in the delivery is a bit watered down, but then it may all boil down to a matter of style: Bamboo can never be as grim and determined as Noel Cabangon.

There’s a CD extra included in the "We Stand Alone Together" package, featuring three sets of five songs each sans one member of the band: i.e., five songs without Ira’s guitar, then five songs without Nathan Azarcon’s bass, and five songs without Vic Mercado’s drums. It’s a bonus of bravado, sort of like a boxer fighting with one hand, but there’s no denying the consummate musicianship of this band. Azarcon too plays the bass as if it were lead guitar, no one comes close to him in terms of depth and range with the possible exception of Louie Talan.

Received some time ago in a handy packet were the latest CDs by Mon David and Myra Ruaro aka Skarlett, both from Candid Records. David shows why he won that prestigious jazz vocalist award in Britain in the not too distant past, and sheds some light on phrasing and scatology.

Ruaro we have to get used to in this new setting, so typecast she had been as Manila girl and ska gypsy wanderer, that I guess it will take a while before we really get into the album. Someone to watch over us as we listen to Skarlett sing standards is what we need in this long hot giling-giling summer.