By Angela V. Ignacio
Inquirer
MANILA, Philippines–Just when you thought you’ve outgrown bubblegum pop along with pillow fights and pinup posters, along comes a boy band whose music reminds you how fun and carefree those times were — so much so that it makes you want to skip cramming for finals week and get up close and personal with the boys instead.
And that is exactly what this writer did recently with The Click Five, the power pop band responsible for such sunny hits as “Just The Girl,” “Catch Your Wave” and the current chart-buster “Jenny.” The Boston-based quintet dropped by Manila as part of their Asian invasion to promote their sophomore album, “Modern Minds and Pastimes,” along with new vocalist Kyle Patrick. Patrick replaced Eric Dill, who has left the band to pursue a solo career.
Whirlwind
The boys succinctly sum up the past couple of years in one word: “whirlwind.” From jamming at Imrie House (the apartment building that the guys lived in during their college days) to performing in front of — and being chased by — hordes of rabid teenybopper fans across the globe, these guys have come a long way in such a short span of time. The truth is, they’re still more than a little overwhelmed by it. “A lot of these things that we’ve experienced are things that we couldn’t really have dreamed of,” bassist Ethan Mentzer tells 2bU! in an exclusive interview at My Cinema in Greenbelt 3. “It’s kinda flattering to start something in Boston then have it be recognized on the other side of the world. That part’s pretty surreal,” drummer Joey Zehr marvels.
Like all the other young foreign bands that graced our shores, they were dumbstruck at the reception they got, from the burly escorts to being mobbed at the hotel.
“We’re, like, linking up arms and trying not to get eaten,” adds Zehr with a laugh.
Then there’s the fact that all three of their Ayala Malls gigs plus their RX 93.1 live set were totally jampacked. “The fans were amazing,” Mentzer raves. “They were really loud and everybody was singing along… It was pretty cool to experience that.”
Of course, we couldn’t resist asking the one question that’s on every starry-eyed teen’s mind: Who, exactly, is Jenny? “It’s symbolic,” answers keyboardist Ben Romans, who penned the song himself. “We’ve all been through that type of relationship — things hot and cold, coming in and out of your life,” explains Patrick. “I don’t know if any of us have actually been with any Jennies, but Jenny was kind of like a symbol of that relationship, so it could be anyone’s.”
Good, clean fun
Sure, The Click Five boys may have gotten the mod look down pat with their spiffy suits and messy mop-tops, but they’re far from being lumped into the derogatory “boy-band” category where all the members supposedly do is sway their hips and look pretty (“We’re not that pretty,” Ethan says matter-of-factly, and we all laugh). They actually play their own instruments pretty darn well, having attended the über-prestigious Berklee College of Music before they got signed.
The question is, do they sound as good as they look? The Click Five’s signature power pop brand is all about good, clean fun (not the Gym Class Heroes kind, sorry), something parents won’t be scared to have their kids listen to. If we absolutely have to go down the “Hmm, kinda sounds like…” trail, their music might remind you of Fountains of Wayne (remember “Stacy’s Mom”?), or maybe even Rooney with a splash of pure pop. Okay, maybe a tsunami. But, heck, who’s complaining? Either way, it’s like one head-bopping joyride to the beach, stuffed full of sunny harmonies and eardrum-friendly beats.
But if you’re a die-hard fan of the first album, “Greetings from Imrie House,” don’t expect the new one to sound as prepubescent. Aside from having a new vocalist and a three-month production timetable for “Pastimes,” the band obviously dug deeper into their rock ‘n’ roll psyche for the latter than they did for “Imrie.” “We may have also been listening to stuff that was a little more experimental,” puts in guitarist Joe Guese. Aside from The Beatles, Tom Petty and The Cars, they’ve added modern rock bands such as Keane, Weezer and Death Cab for Cutie to their eclectic mix of muses.
Influences
Surprisingly, their all-original song repertoire does show off their decades-spanning influences, from the swingin’ “Headlight Disco” to the synth-slash-new-wave ditty “Addicted to Me” to the more familiar breezy ’90s rock, with Patrick’s emo-pop vocals adding the 21st-century element. A word of caution: If preteen angst-ridden “Jenny” had lovestruck girls vainly trying to change their birth certificates, the mournful single “Empty” will have them tearfully waving lighters in the air… That is, assuming they’re old enough to use one.
Growth spurt
Despite the apparent musical growth spurt the band has gone through, it doesn’t seem to be affecting their ever-increasing fan base. While Dill may have had effortlessly hit all the high notes, Patrick’s deeper vocals together with the band’s slightly edgier sound are enough to keep their fans from outgrowing them.
They may still have a long way to go before joining the rock ‘n’ roll kings of old, but these power pop princes are perfectly happy “growing up” at their own pace, and their loyal subjects aren’t complaining one bit. “The thing about being successful at something is once you’ve been doing it for a while, you can only hope to be better at it. Like with our music, it’s for everyone,” Patrick says. If you’re itching for some fun, feel-good, totally expletive-free music, then The Click Five is just the band you’re looking for.
Grab a copy of The Click Five’s newest album, “Modern Minds and Pastimes,” released under Warner Music Philippines.
E-mail the author at aoshi_no_miko@atenista.net
November 20th, 2007 at 6:03 am
Bloomfields – let the fields bloom!
The Bs – or liking them – is culture-bound. First-timers – young or old – have always been captive audience. To think that it is just some purely rock and roll stuff ought to be rather unbelievable. One then tends to ask – what is with the Bs that is well, not found in another pack of ‘rockers and rollers’ in a ‘rocker-roller musical ride’?
We all love cool stuff, don’t we? And Central Plaza or Fuente Circle in Eastwood is venue for the Bs’ regular Wednesday gig although CP is still under renovation. FC provides a less than panoramic view with its rather makeshift stage compared to CP. Sadly, CP is not about to open soon – not next week, not next month, not likely soon. FC or CP doesn’t really matter, does it? Rock where the Bs rock, roll where they roll. For life is music. And music of this type sets toes on fire.
Karl Popper wrote the book, “The Open Society and Its Enemies” and the Bs, like its counterparts knew this as a reality. No one is perfect. Every band, worth its salt, strives for perfection and the Bs is no exception. Sadly, others are simply too quick to judge – even have to rob their own sense of pessimism to the more adoring patrons of Bs. Viewed differently, critics are doing the Bs a favor – not a disservice.
Or, so I thought. There simply are a lot of options on how one can best promote a musical group and the Bs has started to invade the boob tube, the radio waves, the print, and even the web. While Eastwood is home to the Bs and their adoring fans as it is with maybe – the Blue Wave in Macapagal Avenue, or Aruba in Mall of Asia, or Bellevue Hotel in Alabang, or Ricco Renzo Bar in Makati – it is of no real moment where the gigs break. Truth is, you can take the Bs out of Eastwood.
Bs performs in a quite borderless environment. Hawaii and Hongkong registered in the musical Richter scale when the Bs touched everyone with their familiar tunes, antics, and perhaps signature voices. Only George knows how many invitations or requests have to be turned down owing to the Bs’ fully-booked schedule until the 1st quarter of next year. If that were any reliable gauge, it tells us that perhaps, the Bs is the highest paid band in the local music scene. That is not said as to attract violent reactions from some quarters, though.
Of late, undoubtedly, the Bs attempted to experiment on various other stuffs. Jayjay even tried brass – blowing the trumpet – and maybe the sound produced fell flat with what we normally expect from a trumpeter. But even if Jayjay may have been not much of a trumpeter – so be it. Trumpets probably match better with jazz music (or so I’m wrong?). Other songs have likewise been sung by the Bs – one caught fire – ‘Obladi, Oblada’. In itself, every gig is a social experiment in its musical acceptability. Playing new instruments, singing new songs, morphing into dancers than rock and roll artists – all these – are virtual questions in a survey.
What is wrong with trying to know what appeals to the taste or liking of a larger, less homogenous, more varied audiences? Kids love the Bs, no matter what. Teenagers as much as love them, too. Adults – or those born from the 1950s to the 1960s – are willing victims, matter-of-factly. Just everyone can really like them perform where they do although perhaps, the Bs’ first debut with foreign stand outs could have been that – in the Gary Lewis and the Playboys concert at the Araneta Coliseum or the big damned dome.
Not too many people know that the Bs come with their families. They listen, too. If every member of the Bs is friend to one another (is there any other option left?), their parents unto other parents are, too. There ought to be a larger circle of families or friends coming into the gigs for a much-deserved respite from routine, boredom, that rat race called living in a cosmopolitan jungle.
The Bs are just boys who don’t have to descend from their Ivory Towers to send across a message. They are what you see, individually and collectively – soft-spoken, courteous, meek, average. No one tends to turn down anyone for a ‘photo-ops’ with each or all of them. Too obliging, too warm, too accessible. Perhaps, they love the audience and the crowd as much as their fans love them.
Funny but true, the rains seem to be ‘kill joy’ at Eastwood last 14 November. And who would like to get wet in an evening of great musical numbers? But none of us want to get wet, do we? And great musical bands are not at all that scarce. They even have their own websites and I must state that if you ever wish to ‘sign in’ – bring an umbrella with you.
The point I am trying to drive at is this – there are other websites or links hostile to the Bs. Any of these could get you wet. In other words, sometimes we can’t really think that loud. Fact is, an audience’s round of applause for the Bs might be enough to break the ear drums of Bs’ unpatronizing audience.
For those of us who never miss a gig at Eastwood on a Wednesday night, evenings are safe but even the place is not at all ‘off-limits’ to even the non-adoring viewers. Be the better judge whether a first-time visit deserves a second time. Meantime, let the Bs do the rock and roll – beyond its limits. So guys, how about seeing you at Eastwood come 21st of November?
November 2nd, 2007 at 6:49 am
Bloomfields’ walk to fame!
At the rate and pace it goes, the fast-emerging retro band – the Bloomfields – will soon become a national security issue. There might come a time when there are more children, kids, teens, young girls and boys, even adults from across the age spectrum found in Eastwood (and beyond) than in their respective places of abode. When this happens, the National Security Adviser is well-advised to keep tabs of this development before everything goes out of hand. Sounds McCarthyst? No sir, but it is not an overstatement to say that all we see on the surface of this little localized ‘planet’ is a rock band now known to an expanding population of kindred souls. The Bloomfields – Jayjay, Pepe, Louie, Lakan, and Rocky – at the exclusion of all other bands is now making the waves. And soon enough, everybody else will see them coming.
That 31st of October in Eastwood is truly awesome, by Rocky’s very words. Indeed, it was never like that before as an entirely very juvenile group, aged 3 to 19 from presumably middle class families – invade Fuente Circle in Eastwood – to get a piece of the action. All tables were filled – not few – were standing but glued to the show they are watching. It was such an evening and Pepe, some minutes before the show has reason to be worried as to be apologetic that they might already be some kind of a ‘bad influence’ to my three kids. Thinking out loud, the Bloomfields is not a bad influence to my kids. To us parents – the kids are. The ‘generation gap’ has just been bridged by this evolving and patronizing fondness for the members of the band. To see other parents with their kids as well truly relieve us from any moral responsibility over our own. Right or wrong, music is all there is to it.
The original pack of bloomies doubled in size that evening and it is axiomatic that parents have become the bad influence over their own kids as they trooped to Eastwood for what was to be a simple Halloween party. There is no passing the buck now. In the spirit of clean and wholesome fun, the Bloomfields met the universal criteria of what a good rock band is. Some degree of TV exposure is partly responsible for this craze. Now more people will go to where they will find the Bloomfields in their regular gigs – north, south, east and west of Manila. It is not about how much one family will shell out for each viewing session. It is a common therapy from our pestering collective existence in a country ran by evil-doers, bootlickers, criminals in uniforms, ‘commissioners’.
Bloomfields is set to become the next phenomenal rock band. Its mercurial rise to fame is a group project, call it that. Molecular Louie – less ‘eye contact’ with a revering audience – is superb by any standard. Leader-of-the-band Jayjay is not King Creole for nothing – long live Jayjay. Magnetic Pepe and his glueing stare – full eye contact (and its captives) - is no age-specific (pardon me). Lakan and his rare voice put more fingers to the keys than are necessary. Rocky-drummer boy Rocky discovers every new tone where he hits his sticks to. Even George, the disc-jockey out of the box has voice that is too prompting. All the six are definitely doomed to fame, if you follow my drift. After all, each performance is created as though it were the last and thus, the musical recital is one for Guinness.
Not surprisingly, no two performances of Bloomfields leave the same and identical trace. Each performance is always different from the last – the relationship being moment-specific. Thus, it does not bore anyone who goes to Eastwood as a matter of unstoppable habit or addiction. There could really be one of a problem on whether Bloomfields can connect to all kinds of people in the Great Cultural Divide. Mall experience tells us that indeed, in mall tours, Bloomfields does not quite connect with the rest of the pack. More TV appearances at drowning frequency may yet be necessary to pole-vault the retro band to highest status as the ‘national rock band’. Eastwood, Blue Wave, Aruba, or else where – these are but music laboratories for just the middle class of society writ large.
Whatever segment of our realpolitik Bloomfields’ brand of rock music caters to – is of no moment. If others will tend to accuse the group for its inherent middle class bias, let them be proven wrong. In music, there are no social classes. No such thing as elitist rock. Remember that if we light others’ candles, we don’t have to lose the light. Thus, if Bloomfields are out there to pluck their guitars, punch their keyboard, bang their cymbals, hit their drums – perform to their own excesses – let the listener be the better judge. A lot of people from all walks of life love the Bloomfields. Whether there is only one Wednesday in a week, in a month, in a year, or in a lifetime, it is worth listening to this band – one gig at a time.
PRIMER C. PAGUNURAN
UP Diliman, Quezon City Email: nielsky_2003@yahoo.com Cell: 09164985265