MOVE UP HI FI PRESENTS MANILA STANDARD TIME

Looks like the stars are all aligning by the end of this year. After a successful crowd funding gig for the Wuds by Kounter Kulture last Saturday there is yet another musical event worth checking out this month as Joseph Minister of Move Up Hi Fi is serving up another batch of tasty JA 45s with his cohorts Sarge Vez and Norris King.

With performances from 2 tone band STEADY MOVIN' BEAT, DANDIMITES, EARTHLINGS together with their new vocalist Viola from 3rd wave ska band SPORNEE, GOODLEAF and ska punkers PINKCOW the last two mentioned bands will be releasing albums of their own by the end of this year the last one happens to be recording at CBI's Paul Putian's recording studio called STUDIO JUAN that i think is worth waiting for.

And just to give you a quick history on who is the man behind MOVE UP HI FI. He happens to be a good friend of mine named Mark Young a DJ and a vinyl collector with impeccable taste for Funk, Jazz, Afrobeat and other music that you never heard before music that is worth listening to. I met him, along with fellow funk enthusiast and hardcore Meters fan Francis Hernandez of Loads of Motherhood way back early Y2K at The Fort during my ex wife's corporate party for an adult entertainment. I was blown away by the funk that was blasting through the speakers that i decided to check him out the rest is history.  Mark AKA Mark Zero, AKA Joseph Minister had been around the music scene for quite sometime since the early 90's and now he is focussing on unearthing some tasty Jamaican oldies but goodies - labels like Jayboy, Pama, Bamboo, Gibbs and Crab for all the ska and reggae fans to enjoy so if you happen to love ska and early reggae then do drop by at MUZACK MUSIC HALL AND SPORTS BAR in MAKATI CITY on NOVEMBER 28, FRIDAY. He along with NORRIS KING, SARGE VEZ and guest DJ NICK MONSOON of the trad ska band THE MONSOONS will be spinning 45s so do not miss out because this will be a trainspotters wet dream so don't miss it!

The location of the venue is at the back of McDonalds Buendia before Mayapis there's a building in front of Mini Stop where the whole shebang will take place. Entrance cost will be 100 Pesos that comes with a one bottle of beer fairly cheap if i may say so.

As i always say here in this blog. Dance hard, Drink heavily, Leave your politics at the door, Bring your tolerance with you and please spend money at the venue and not at the convenience store. This is the only way that you show your full support in the scene so please try not to humiliate yourself by displaying a 711 bought booze at the venue and lastly do not be a freaking asshole by doing the Nazi salute.

METAMORPHOSIS

  

Tonight Kounter Kulture together with Dirty Shoes Collective and THE Clothing  will be doing a crowdsourcing gig for one of Philippine’s surviving and still active 80's punk band - THE WUDS at SELDA DOS BAR in Visayas Avenue, Quezon City entitled METAMORPHOSIS. The aim of  the event is to seek out financial support  from people who will attend the show this November 15 that will help fund The Wuds recording expenses.

This band that Kounter Kulture and Dirty Shoes Collective is supporting is hailed as one of the best if not the brightest stars to came out of the Pinoy underground music scene in the 80s. I first heard of The Wuds on the radio way back when I was just barely a teenager via Howlin’ Dave’s punk rock show at RJAM that I patiently listen to. The music that Dante was playing was harsh, hard, and in your face. It appealed to me and I liked it a lot to the point that I was religiously following his show and do my own mixtape using my Dad’s Sanyo radio cassette recorder and his Perry Como tapes that I used for recording music whenever Urban Bandits, Third World Chaos, Integrated Circuit and The Lost Boys is being played by Dante. My first impression of The Wuds was that the band lyrically and musically is different from the rest of the Philippine Punk Bands that came out in that era. Their sound has this folky undertone on them. Imagine a bunch of hippy Khrisna devotees who decided to cut their long hair in exchange of a Mohawk then traded their acoustic guitars with an electric one then plugged it on a dilapidated amp with the volume blasted way up high. They got that positive spiritually behind that noise and angst. Just listen to Patay Buhay from their debut album ARMS TALK with that Khrishna Chants. These guys where doing Khrishna Core long before American Hardcore Bands Youth of Today, Shelter and Cro Mags coined the term.

Their music and the rest of the bands that Howlin’ Dave had featured on his show had left an indelible mark on me when I was growing up. The Wuds along with Dead Ends, Private Stock, Urban Bandits and the rest of the bands that recorded on Tommy Tanchanco’s Twisted Red Cross label had been a part of my life in one way or another. It influenced me spiritually and mentally. Arguably speaking The Wuds are the only existing underground band with original members still intact that survived the 80’s Philippine music punk scene the rest of the bands in that era sadly disintegrated completely when that year come to an end, While the other bands are content on just doing the same old thing up to now they however are still putting out records in the span of three decades including the raw and uncompromising album recorded in the mid 90s called AT NAKALIMUTAN ANG DIYOS under the highly controversial record label called Akasya Records run by Heber Bartolome in which the band felt they where swindled in the process.

After 30 years in the underground music scene The Wuds is still standing strong with 8 albums under their belt including a rare 7 inch split vinyl with The Jerks vocalist Chickoy Pura that i am on the constant look out. Not content to sit on their laurels the band have decided to put out new material by doing a series of live shows to fund their new project starting tonight November 15, Saturday with the help of a bunch of young upstarts who called themselves Kounter Kulture and Dirty Shoes Collective a bunch of creative misfits who most of them have become a regular mainstay of Bisikleta Productions before they successfully had done a series of musical events this year mostly album launches from new school punk bands that I highly respect and admired.

It is great to see that these young individuals had taken a big step forward by helping The Wuds achieve their goal and true to form the band is proudly showing their anti consumerism by coming full circle doing it the old school punk way of DIY via crowd funding to record their new album. For those of you haven’t got a single clue on what crowd funding is all about it is a form of soliciting financial contributions that gives musicians freedom from shady greedy record producers whose only goal was to churn out idiotic music for money and fooling people. 

This form of monetary help gives them complete creative control of their work because at this day and age of Lizza Nakpil fabricated bands the likes of Rivermaya, The Wuds brand of music is still relevant today as it was 30 years ago because it is fast, hard and painfully true that everyone should hear right now and in order for them to make a new album for all of us to hear The Wuds needs us. Which reminded me of Joe Strummer saying without the people you're nothing quote. This band is turning to us for help.

It is high time that we all give something back to this band and rest of the pioneers who paved the way for all the new breed by spending our hard earned money to real music who influenced not just me but countless others who in one way or another started their own bands. 

Now give yourself a favor and go out and spend your half months worth of your salary to something meaningful. Go watch The Wuds play with Neighbors, Goodleaf, Coffee Break Island, The Exsenadors, Tolonguez Death Squad, PinkCow and a bunch of talented musicians.

HENRY NEEDS YOUR HELP

A few weeks ago a friend of mine from Angono, Rizal had informed me about a friend of ours in the music scene that suffered a stroke. A regular fixture on the Mod and Ska scene and well known as the go to guy when it comes to threads worn by skinheads and mods.

I was surprised to learn about his condition because first and foremost he is a health buff. He habitually does cycling and runs regularly in other words he lead a positive lifestyle. I admired him because of this. 

On November 22 bands who knew HENRY RIZARDO personally is asking for your help. They will stage a gig at FOR THE ROAD BAR in Madison Square, Mandaluyong City. If anyone of you reading this post and knew Henry please do drop by and lend a helping hand.

Let us all wish for his speedy recovery. HOLD STEADY MY FRIEND, HOLD ON HENRY.