By Lawrence Casiraya
INQUIRER.net
IF you find yourself in Singapore early next month, make sure not to miss Baybeats. Assuming you love listening to music, which is why you took the time to read this blog, then all the more you should be interested in finding out what Baybeats is. 
The annual music festival features the current crop of the best indie bands Singapore has to offer. And you thought there’s no music scene at all in Singapore, save maybe for Filipino show bands playing in hotels? So dead wrong (you and me both, then) because apparently youngsters in Singapore have decided to gather up in arms, wield their instruments and make terrific music.
The music scene there has been brewing as early as last year with bands like Electrico, The Observatory and Astreal — some of them even moving on to play in famous festivals like South by Southwest in Texas, upping their indie cred some more. Click on MySpace to find out about these bands or tell your jet-setting friends to pick up their CDs next time they go to Singapore.
But that’s not the end of it. Baybeats also aims to showcase the best bands this side of the world has to offer. Aside from local bands who pass the auditions (yes, bands need to pass quality control) in this year’s festival, also playing are bands from Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia and our very own emo-punk rockers Typecast and Urbandub from the Philippines. Woo-hoo Pinoy!
To top it all, Baybeats also features dream-pop Mercury Rev. Click on the Baybeats main page to hear some classic Mercury Rev tunes. “Diamonds” is one great song.
On a recent trip to Singapore, I picked up a copy of local zine Junk that has an accompanying CD of songs from the bands playing at Baybeats. Not bad at all for seven Singapore dollars. More about it on a later post. Or check them out on the Baybeats website.
Baybeats happens August 3 to 5 at Singapore’s Esplanade. Best of all, it’s free. And the show’s produced by people from the Esplanade so you can be sure the sound’s not crappy.
If you have no idea where the Esplanade is, ask anyone where the durian-looking building is or let Google Earth point it out to you.
PS. A “little-known” band called The Cure is also playing in a one-night-only gig in Singapore on August 1. Lucky Singaporeans, the best we could get here so far is Christina Aguilera.
July 26th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
[...] Soundtrip : Baybeats: Pack your bags and go [...]
July 24th, 2007 at 2:20 am
I wish they had one in the Philippines.
July 21st, 2007 at 5:37 pm
[...] Soundtrip: Baybeats: Pack your bags and go [...]