By Marjorie Gorospe
INQUIRER.net

THEY describe their music as “rebellious, live and organic.”

An indie garage-rock/post-punk band (yes a mouthful) with influences from the Beatles, the Libertines, The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys, Muse, among others, the Charmes believes they have what it takes to stand out.

Formed in 2006, the Charmes is now working on an album. It was formed by long-time friends Brian Josef (vocals and guitars), JB Bulan (lead), Jerome Abello (drums) and Jino Manalo (bass later replaced by Jiggers Vergel de Dios). They all went to the same high school.

The Charmes disbanded but later reunited.

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DONDI Ledesma, a Filipino bassist, has passed away, according to a report from the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Excerpt:

MANILA, Philippines—(UPDATE) Dondi Ledesma, a versatile bass player considered by peers as one of the country’s best, died of heart failure at 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Makati Medical Center.

He was 50.

The favorite bassist of Joey “Pepe” Smith and a member of Wally Gonzalez’s current band, Ledesma reportedly complained of wobbly legs upon waking up in the morning of January 9.

He was rushed to the Makati hospital where he had been confined till his death.

Here’s Dondi playing a progressive rock instrumental:

Agence France-Presse

SAN FRANCISCO–Next New Networks and Verizon on Thursday launched a website where little-known bands and film makers can unite to create “music video masterpieces” for 99 dollars or less.

Online television company Next New Networks will stream selected low-budget productions at 99dollarmusicvideos.com with support from sponsor Verizon, a US telecom titan promoting its FiOS broadband Internet service.

The website debuted with a sepia-toned music video of Brooklyn band La Strada performing an original “The Sun Song” with backdrops including The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island in New York City.

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FILIPINO rock band Hale holds a recent a gig meant to raise funds for some charitable organizations. Watch this video report by INQUIRER.net production specialist Janie Octia.

Remember FunTwo? He’s now all grown up. I stumbled upon this video from YouTube Live, which features two of my guitar idols, Joe Satriani and FunTwo–yes the young and mysterious YouTube guitar virtuoso who played Canon in D. Watch them jam:

Here’s FunTwo’s famous YouTube video: