Waves of joy

Once again, here are a couple of music-related matters that may be of interest to you:

Attraction! Reaction!

You gotta love production nights — they give you the chance to see multiple bands in one night, for a pittance, and the best of them have a personality of their own, through the bands they choose to feature, the atmosphere they foster, and the moments that they make: music-burst moments never to be repeated and possibly to be recalled fondly way in the future (“I remember when Modulogeek was just one human, before he got his biotech grafts and absorbed the Radioactive Sago Project into his gestalt...”).

THREE YEARS AND COUNTING: This prod night is built to last

Attraction! Reaction! is one of the best ongoing prod nights we’ve got. “It started three years ago, ‘coz Anj Pessumal and I wanted to go to HK to stalk Tony Leung, so we thought of doing gigs to save money for it,” says co-founder Kathy Gener. “...And at the same time we made this prod to watch bands that we like in one gig. Hindi na now reason ‘yung HK and Tony Leung kase after three years di pa rin kami nakakapuntang HK and we haven’t seen Tony Leung in person, haha!”

Ther more-or-less monthly gigs have titles like Some Kind of Wonderful, Dangerous Minds, and The Emperor’s New Groove — “‘Yung prod titles namin every month may meaning ‘yun, bale movie title siya connected with the feel of the lineup. Both Anj and I love watching movies aside from watching gigs kaya we decided din when we made AR that every month we’ll think of a movie title in connection with the feel of the lineup.”

DANGEROUS MINDS: The A!R! prod night gets inspiration from movie titles

Bands that have been featured repeatedly include Ciudad, Outerhope and Ang Bandang Shirley: “We also only feature bands that we like regardless (if they’re) unknown, or have an indie cult following, or are mainstream popular — and regardless of genre. Basta yun gusto sila yun lang naman ang basis namin talaga hehe. And our posters are always nice and we thank our talented friends who make them for free and for creativity’s sake only!”

Quezon City dwellers are grateful for the gig’s usual location on Katipunan Avenue extension: “It has always been held at Route 196 (and before. sa Mag:net High Street) — gusto ko kase everyone going sa gig went there for the BANDS/MUSIC FIRST AND FOREMOST para walang ma-OP kahit wala silang kilala around. ‘You can never be lonely when the band plays,’ sabi nung singer ng Popsicle haha!”

IT TAKES TWO: A!R! prod night poster by Amadeus Cobangbang

And yes — there is an Attraction! Reaction! gig this Saturday, May 28, 9:30 p.m., at Route 196 on Katipunan, featuring Hannah + Gabi, Paranoid City, The Strangeness, Techy Romantics, and the Aldus Santos Quartet. See you there.

Joywave, “77777”

“Free” and “legal” and “good” are words that should come together more often, as they do when the subject under discussion is “77777,” a downloadable mixtape by the band joywave. to quote umstrum.com, joywave is “a young Indie pop band based out of Rochester, ny,” and 77777 is “kind of a ‘concept mixtape’ which includes original joywave material, reinterpretations and covers. There are three covers, rearranged (Limp Bizkit cover), Hang With Me (Robyn Cover) and Feet Become Hammers (The Gaze cover), and five reinterpretations,” which sample “everything from Miike Snow to Pet Shop Boys, Flaming Lips to LCD Soundsystem, Foals to Beach House.” There are also three completely new tracks: PM, Traveling At The Speed Of Light, and Virus.exe.

ATTRACTION! REACTION! is happening again tomorrow night, May 28, at Route 196

And it all sounds great, a headlong rush of rock sound with sweet synth sinuousness, and impeccable pop sensibilities. And all for the grand price of nothing. Get it at http://joywavemusic.com/mixtape.html (and while you’re there, click around and download their excellent single Golden State too).