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.
So the story went: Josef pursued a solo career recording for Sony BMG. He was later nominated as best new male recording artist in Awit Awards. He, however, missed the band and his friends, thus they came together.
Josef composes most of the songs. He says personal experiences inspired his songs. Together with the band, they collaborate to fill in the missing gaps, such as rhythm and melody
Though this may sound cliché, Josef believes that “being ourselves and just doing great music” is what really matters to them.
This is also the reason why the band plays original songs more than covers.
The Charms is still working on their album so as of now, you may check out their demos and gig schedules at www.myspace.com/thecharms.
February 2009 Archives
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.
"Wow!" a website visitor with screen-name 'Deb' wrote in a chat forum beneath the video. "This is excellent... loved the band... am a fan now!"
New videos will be posted to the website every Thursday, its creators promised.
Creators of the network include MTV's original creative director Fred Seibert and Felicia Williams, a former entertainment content manager at popular video-sharing website YouTube.
The low-budget music videos will be available at Google-owned YouTube.
"I was there at the start of MTV and this has the same feeling all over again," Seibert said of the website launch.
"99 Dollar Music Videos stands for everything that’s exciting about Web entertainment today in bringing together rising star bands, creative filmmaking, and a low-cost vibe to create original, fresh content."
Verizon is the website's sole sponsor and is to work with Next New Networks to promote the videos at hip Internet venues such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Flickr, and Tumblr.
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:
