No static at all

(First of two parts)

One of our favorite magazines often has a section where subjects are asked what kind of music they currently have in their car’s audio system. It’s an enlightening little section that shows a glimpse of the interviewee’s personality and preferences without necessarily going into the nitty-gritty of asking them where they are coming from and what their background is like. It leaves much to the imagination and gives an interesting twist to otherwise typical interviews. Plus, it stimulates one’s creative juices.

A perfect example is this piece, which was spawned by meandering thoughts brought about by dreary Manila traffic. En route one day to the Sunshine TV offices, where our columnist Ray Butch Gamboa holds office, we found ourselves trapped in a monstrous traffic jam thanks to the sudden re-routing around the New Manila area. We did what any disillusioned motorist would do in such times, and turned to our audio system for inspiration — or at least some form of escapism. Luckily, we had a few CDs in our stash that helped ease the pain. Here are this writer’s suggestions for beating the horrendous Manila traffic (and we’ll stick to artists instead of albums, because really, there’s nothing like having a compilation of an artist’s better works when you’re trying to water down raging tempers):

Steely Dan — Donald Fagen and Walter Becker are two of the most profoundly sophisticated yet simplistic and straightforward musicians to ever grace our turntables, cassette players, CD players, MP3 players, and what have you. Their music embodies the hip fusion of jazz, blues and pop rock of a disaffected 70s that can take you into a regressive stage, infernal heat and hellish traffic notwithstanding. Even Fagen’s solo effort (The Nightfly, 1982), which spawned such unforgettable ditties like IGY and Green Flower Street, can mellow down the stiffest of nerves. With "lite rock" radio-friendly hits like Babylon Sisters, Black Cow, Deacon Blues, FM and Peg, you’ll find yourself bobbing your head to the infectious rhythm while listening to the music of Steely Dan. All that plus the fun of picking out from the delicious muck of music the talents of greats like Jeff Porcaro (Toto), Joe Sample (The Crusaders), Michael McDonald (The Doobie Brothers), Larry Carlton, Lee Ritenour, Tom Scott, Patti Austin and many others who played as session musicians with the duo, make listening to the incredible pair from the East Side a truly pleasurable experience. Listen intently and we guarantee you’ll forget the atrocious state of traffic outside your car.

Ronnie Laws — At the risk of sounding "uncool" by professing loyalties to the one-time saxophone player of Earth, Wind & Fire, we’ll go out of our way to say that this dude’s music has what it takes to take your mind off the rages that the road can bring. When Ronnie Laws launched his solo career in 1976, he headed in the right direction by hooking up with Blue Note Records and producer Wayne Henderson. The immediate impact of his debut album Pressure Sensitive was so pervasive that the instrumental hit Always There has been covered through the years by the likes of the late Willie Bobo, Jeff Lorber, Incognito and the James Taylor Quartet. As his musical wings started to spread, so did his range as proven by the 1980 monster hit Every Generation, where his vocals took center stage along with his sax. John Coltrane he is not, but Ronnie Laws’ own brand of sax sophistication can definitely cool your head in spite of the scorching heat that traffic inevitably brings.

Everything But The Girl — The duo of Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt, collectively known as Everything But The Girl, is one of the few groups to successfully bridge the gap between the 80s and the 90s. They first gained recognition in 1984 with the release of Eden, which carried the single Each and Every One. With the subsequent release of Love Not Money in 1985, EBTG established a solid following among New Wave enthusiasts with the unforgettable tune When All’s Well. It wasn’t until 1988’s Idlewild, though, that the listening public got to get a glimpse of what to expect from EBTG through the years to come.

The singles I Don’t Want to Talk About It and Apron Strings marked EBTG’s transformation into the easy-listening gurus that they would become. The duo would continue to churn out cool, mellow hits (like 1990’s Driving — now that’s easy-driving music that’s obvious from the very title) until 1993. In 1994, with the release of the Terry Todd’s remixed version of Missing, EBTG again met with a new musical fork in the road. Their subsequent works clearly showed influence from Watt’s experimentation with the beats and textures of Britain’s club scene. They have since championed the deep and soulful level of rich song-based dance music. Half the fun of listening to EBTG lies in trying to ride with their evolution as musicians. The other half lies in allowing yourself to be helplessly immersed in the smooth, hypnotic sound that is Tracey’s voice. Theirs is the kind of music that will soothe tensed nerves even in the most trying of conditions — whatever era each song comes from. Definitely anti-traffic.

Parokya ni Edgar — This writer once had the opportunity to sit down with the jesters of Pinoy rock right smack in the middle of the production of an album (Gulong Itlog Gulong). What we found out then was that the group’s street smart sense of humor rivals that of even the most respected of our comedians. Which is why listening to the boys of Parokya whack their way through your stereo is almost as pleasurable as listening to intelligible music. With contemporaries like The Eraserheads all but fading into oblivion, their "screw the world, we want to laugh at ourselves" attitude has only made them more accessible to the younger set — and more endearing to those who’ve learned to appreciate what they bring to the table — honest to goodness silliness.

Chito Miranda, the group’s lead singer, once (perhaps jokingly) said that musically, he didn’t think Parokya really contributed to the Pinoy rock scene. We tend to disagree. What Parokya has done, really, is create a niche and give people an alternative — an enjoyable one at that — that’s perfect for cooling down in times of traffic. The way they mock and pay tribute at the same time to the bands who do give a hoot about making great music is a testament to their underrated sense of respect for other musicians. For a bunch of great laughs, check out songs like Trip (a spoof of Radiohead’s Creep), Nakaw ang Wallet Ko (Guns N’ Roses’ Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door), Picha Pie (from Cake’s version of I Will Survive) and some gems from their new album Bigotilyo — Chikinini (a parody of Yano’s Banal na Aso), The Yes Yes Show (a twisted, narcissist view of themselves as interpreted a-la G-Love and Special Sauce, which by the way includes a line culled from the Eraserheads’ Toyang — listen if only for the fun of picking it out) and of course the killer lead single Mr. Suave.

These of course are but a few of the songs and artists that can help you de-stress in times of traffic. We promise to publish a whole slew of other suggestions in a future installment. We’ll need your help, however. Send your suggestions — artists, songs and your own reasons for choosing them — to [email protected] and when we’ve received enough reactions, we’ll give our fellow motorists a few more suggestions on how to best beat the traffic heat.

And don’t be stingy with your suggestions either, we promise not to indulge in the juvenile practice of belittling and ridiculing your suggestions as we tend to agree with our columnist Butch Gamboa, who wrote in a recent column, "If you have nothing good to say about somebody or something, just seal your lips." (Hats off to this gentleman with panache, he knows how to treat people, institutions and establishments right — by respecting their beliefs and preferences and not looking down upon those who don’t share his views. No wonder he’s considered an institution in the auto industry.) So if it’s Tchaikovski’s 1812 Overture or F4’s Can’t Lose You or a Beatles marathon that gets you through the traffic, just let us know — if only for the fun of it.