Tuesday, November 3, 2015

HOW MUCH PUNK ROCK DO YOU HEAR IN MANILA?


I have a thing for obscure musical artifacts and underrated bands, bands that puts out records with silkscreened artwork coupled with uneven Letraset type and handwritten track list. The less people that know about it, the better. I’m afflicted with the typical fanboy disdain for anything too mainstream. It’s fun to be ahead, or to be privy to info that is valued by a select few. 

During the early 80’s there was a fanzine dedicated to supporting and reporting the underground punk rock scene. The zine s a complete outsiders bible in its heyday it included scene reports, band interviews, columns, and exclusively reviewed no records that were released by an indie but distributed by a major label conglomerate record labels with names like Starving Missile and Disease Unlimited. It gave me information on lesser known, under the radar bands from around the world that only a few people knew about.

It also gave birth to a columnist named Mykel Board that was sacked by Maximum Rock n Roll due to some sort of censorship bullshit.

Beside being a columnist he also compiled the brilliant World Class Punk Tape featuring bands from South Africa to Columbia that was released by a cassette only label called ROIR and he also fronted a weirdo, lo-fi trash punk band called Artless putting out some records with titles such as Boy With A Cunt, Beer is Better Than Girls and how Much Punk Rock Do You Hear In Russia. He also published some books including I, A Me-ist a compilation of his written works in Maximum Rock n’ Roll Magazine.



This coming December he will be visiting our country and will do a show on the 5th, Saturday together with Philippines one and only punk band for hire called The Outsourced (this band also known as Bad Omen previously backed up Andy Deported of Taiwan based punk band The Deported who is also known as Andrew O’Brien a member of the Maine House of Representatives and Maximum Rock N Roll freelance writer). Included in this musical event is Arnold Morales of 80s punk band Urban Bandits together with Bad Omen and also in support are will be Collision and new bloods that will surely carve a niche in the punk rock scene here in Manila namely No Brake Fast Kid with their brand fast paced frantic, balls to the walls music fronted by a singer that sounded like Dave Mustaine's balls had been squeezed tightly with a monkey wrench and my current favorite due to their lack of musical education balanced with enthusiasm, The Dead Brains playing music for the punks who are bored of those other punks who have forgotten how great punk is and the anarcho acoustic troubadour The New Propaganda. 




This will be happening at For The Road Bar and Resto in Mandaluyong City located in Pioneer Street at the back of Robinson’s Forum in EDSA. Those of you who have read his often controversial write ups in MRR know what to expect and for those who don't know him for 60 pesos you’ll get a bottle of beer and sneak peek in the obscure but equally important piece of punk rock history.