Pao, Clem, Law and I met at Lilystar’s HQ for a photo shoot. Its always a bit rough for me to pose without some sort of social lubricant, so I brought along a litre of Absolute Blue. We got dressed and Daphne took some pictures.
It wasn’t long till Pao and Sarah (Turbo Goth) introduced us to their little friend. Jose Cuervo. Antonette’s mom hooked us up with some Shakey’s. By then the sun had already set and it wasn’t too long till we had to head out to the studio to rehearse the songs on the set list.
The Moz covers we did were: Suedehead, The More You Ignore Me The Closer I Get, Interesting Drug and The Last Of The International Playboys.
Here’s where it got hazy.
Lots of people. Lots of flowers. The Bernadettes. Turbo Goth doing Get Behind Me Satan. My family showed up. Standing on the drum set. It was hot. Steamy. We played a great show.
Epilogue.
Cheska and I met up with my family at Whistle Stop. I had 6 shots of Chivas, A Baconsilog, A burger, Salpicao, a tapsilog, Coke Zero, Iced tea and a key lime pie…. Got home.
Exactly over a year ago, Colin Gazeley from Bath, United Kingdom sent us a message on MySpace regarding his interest to include ‘Clinically Dead For 16 Hours’ in his play list for one of his podcast.
Last night I went to a potluck party where I celebrated my birthday with dear people from my record label and some friends. It was fun. Good friends, great music, lots of food and booze. I went home at 4am in the morning. Took a bus going home to Bulacan. Got a copy of fresh newspaper from a boy half my age just to follow the news on violence and political mumbo-jumbo.
(Blowing candles with co-celebrant Paolo Peralta, who happens to share the same birthdate)
Woke up at 2pm today and realized I’m already 33 years old. Blew a candle last night but never really thought about making a wish so I decided to make time and blog about it in between sips of herbal coffee only to end up composing a new song. It became pretty intense I worked around it for 4 hours without leaving my desk and continuously plucking an old acoustic guitar.
By the time I was satisfied with the verses and flow of the song I was also completely exhausted with my fingers already giving up on the fat string gauge. I manage to record a live demo directly on my beat up laptop in the living room while everyone is doing siesta.
I don’t normally share demos to the public but since it’s my birthday paired with eagerness to relate what is currently in my emphatic mind, I decided to upload my first live demo take. This is very raw and will surely evolve overtime as I continue developing it. I hope to arrange this piece sometime soon with my bandmates and properly record it in a studio. Maybe include it in the next album. We’ll see.
My Birthday Wishes (Live Demo) words and music by Clementine
I call upon the Universe
To never take the shine off common people
Whose eyes are still gleaming with hope
I call upon the President
To limit her ambitions
There are far more greater things in life than power
I wish for peace and love
A better country and a happy coexistence
Longevity of the people I love
All these years I think of nothing, no one but myself
In birthday wishes
Now I think of you.
Now I think of you.
I pray to you my sweetest Lord
Paint us a portrait of your Love
I sing to you my dearest friends
Never cease believing
Dreams do come true.
I wish for peace and love
A better country and a happy coexistence
Longevity of the people I love
All these years I think of nothing, no one but myself
In birthday wishes
Now I think of you.
Now I think of you.
Oh, grant me these wishes
Oh, grant me these wishes
Something good ends, something better will begin
Something good ends, something better will begin
And in this fog i use my heart as a compass
And in the darkness, my faith is my lamp
And in depression I learn the real value of living.
To cover more songs from The Cure has been a desire long overdue. So when the opportunity presented itself, we were more than happy to indulge. The pop sensibility of the 80’s icon has influenced my songwriting for more than a decade – in doses big and small – but not as heavily as The Smiths and The Beatles.
It was an awesome event. The place was packed and everyone was looking forward to each band’s rendition of a Cure classic. We were favored to cover “Just Like Heaven” while I personally chose “A Letter To Elise” – one of my all time favorite Cure single. Here is a clip our friend Antonette manage to acquire with her digital camera. Please excuse the audio and video quality. First time we ever jammed “A Letter To Elise.”
I read in wiki that Letters to Felice by Kafka was a huge influence when Robert Smith wrote the lyrics of the track. Franz Kafka is a Jewish-Bohemian major fiction writer and “Letters To Felice” is a book collecting some of Kafka’s letters to Felice Bauer from 1912 to 1917. During the correspondence they were engaged twice. Must be something worth reading.
"A Letter to Elise" is the third and final single taken from the album Wish from The Cure in 1992.
To listen to the original track of “Letter To Elise:, click Here.
Below is our minimal live performance of “Just Like Heaven” from the same night. It would’ve been nicer having an electric guitarist to session. It’s fun to spin around with.
The group largely wrote the song during recording sessions in Southern France in 1987. Robert Smith drew inspiration from a past trip to the sea shore with his future wife. Do not be fooled to thinking that “Just Like Heaven” is a happy heartwarming song. Beneath the sunny-day-holding-hands-together-on-grassy-fields trance the music exude lies an incredibly sad ending. Wait till you hear the third verse. Click Here to watch the music video.
"Just Like Heaven" was the third single released from the band's 1987 album Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me.
Never mind the big, towering hair and smeared lipstick on their faces (a signature look) the musical styling is great and offers a mix of records wallowing in melancholia to ear-candy-pop madness.
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The Cure are an English rock band formed in Crawley, West Sussex in 1976 by Robert Smith, Lawrence Tolhurst and Michael Dempsey. The band has experienced several line-up changes, with frontman, vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter Robert Smith being the only constant member. The Cure first began releasing music in the late 1970s with their debut album Three Imaginary Boys (1979); this, along with several early singles, placed the band as part of the post-punk and New Wave movements that had sprung up in the wake of the punk rock revolution in the United Kingdom. During the early 1980s, the band’s increasingly dark and tormented music helped form the gothic rock genre.
After the release of Pornography (1982), the band’s future was uncertain and Smith was keen to move past the gloomy reputation his band had acquired. With the 1982 single “Let’s Go to Bed” Smith began to inject more of a pop sensibility into the band’s music. The Cure’s popularity increased as the decade wore on, especially in the United States where the songs “Just Like Heaven“, “Lovesong” and “Friday I’m in Love” entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart. By the start of the 1990s, The Cure were one of the most popular alternative rock bands in the world. The band is estimated to have sold 27 million albums as of 2004.The Cure have released thirteen studio albums and over thirty singles during the course of their career. (source: Wikipedia)
(Part 1 of The Camerawalls’ experience in National Bilibid Prison. A written account by Ian Sarabia)
MICHAEL SALVADOR (original drummer of Orange And Lemons) gave us these things. Wooden crafts he built inside prison. But don't tell the guards.
I don’t remember how or why I woke up. I just remember being in the car with my bandmates. The Camerawalls. Headed straight and driving to possibly the most dangerous place in the Philippines. Maximum Security. Bilibid Prison. Third world.
As we approached the gate, the acid I had taken early that morning began to take an awkward turn. The hazy depths of recollection and introspective melancholy escape me now but we were all unified in the thought that we should leave all our valuable belongings in my car. Its the only way to enter a gig full of criminals, I thought. And why not, if only faking, stroll confidently in their midst.
As we walked down its moat a sense of wonder filled my senses. It really did seem like I was walking into Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. Hoping on hope I wasn’t going to end up like Veruca Salt. Lest I be judged. And not for lack of judging. For who I thought would be imprisoned in a land ruled by generations of corruption?
The guards at the gate seemed like Ogres. Enslaving their own kind. We were patted down and violated to perform awkward pleasantries towards them. We knew they had the guns. And they were happy to oblige. For in here they were the lords.
“In the kingdom of the blind. The one-eyed man is king”
We then were ushered up across the prison court and up a hut. In my mind knowing that at any given Sunday this could all go south. It wasn’t a prison for me at that point. It was the open sea. I was ready.
At least I thought I was until I ran out of vodka. D’oh! I thought. The heat and nervousness made me drink the last of my reserves. I was going to have to man up for this gig I thought. Two thousand Five Hundred Fifty Four convicted felons… I better not make any sudden moves.
As sober as I was I got bored and proceeded to speak to a slight man (thinner than Clem or Pao). blah blah blah. Can’t disclose double homicide what he attempted robbery did. And I was set and way too sober to play.
There we were around so many killers. And I felt ….. less than auspicious….. Then. We played. I felt like I was back in High School playing ball in the heat of a lazy day sun. I felt good. We rocked. A very special guest named Michael Salvador jammed. He was the original drummer of Orange And Lemons. He rocked. It made me wonder if all he did in prison was play drums. I asked him what it was like. I learned that so much rehabilitation works here. This was a society functioning and helping people in a third world live in peace and harmony. It was amazing. The cat I mentioned earlier. Mr. Double homicide found out that he was really good at painting. Actually most of them did. Their art strewn across the corridors and all along the walls. Their idle hands directed towards a more peaceful and stimulating outlet. These people were not bad. They were mostly just passionate people who got caught in an awkward phase. But it did not define them. I guess in prison they found themselves. Sometimes you gotta get lost to find your way home. See the forest for the trees. And all that humbug.
I spoke to them some more and realized that the prison wasn’t too far from the society we live in. I realized that we’re all in jail. Some of us just live in Bilibid.
The Camerawalls 