More Pinoy pride from The Speaks

I am sure some of you have noticed this. There is a growing sense of pride in original Pilipino music and artists. Unfortunately, one reason why is because FrancisM died. The loss is immeasurable but the guy now stands for what can be great about a Filipino pop star. Another reason is that those poorly produced CDs from new local bands have stopped coming. They have stopped selling, that’s why. When people have to scrimp on their music, they usually go for quality. In music that means the kind that will last several lifetimes.

So we are now left with the better sounds from artists with a chance to be great, perhaps like Kiko or The Eraserheads, who reunited before a hundred thousand people early this month. The mood then was why bother about Journey when you have the E-heads around with affordable ticket prices too. And that was just what local fans did.

Well, we should also bother because Journey has Arnel Pineda, who is one of the best rock vocalists of all time and who is of course, Pinoy. OK he does his stuff for a US group but things like that are only to be expected in this global village. Like take the case of The Speaks. This band is classified as American and have won a lot of awards in Washington D.C. as such but the members are mostly Filipinos.

If I remember right, The Speaks was here some years promoting an album called Life’s A Joke with a single titled High. I do not recall how big a hit the CD became or how its kind of sound, fared in the US charts at that time. Since we had not heard of the group since I was not also sure if the group was still intact. But there was no way I could forget The Speaks because of the Filipino element. I thought then, who knows, the band might be rock’s answer to the hip-hopping Black Eyed Peas which has a Kapampangan member.

Now here is great news for fans of The Speaks and all those Pinoys out there who are constantly on the look-out for other Pinoys who are making it big in other parts of the world. The band is not only alive. It is actually very active. The current line-up has Raf Toledo on vocals; Archie dela Cruz on guitar; Cal Stamp on guitar; Jerry Delino on bass; and Derek Lee on drums. They are doing quite well. In fact they are back in town to show off the contents of a new CD titled This is the Time in a series of free shows.

Pinoy or not The Speaks is worth listening to. The members are true-blue indie rockers of the really hard kind. What I like about their songs are the soaring, catchy choruses that concert crowds enjoy waving to. Best examples in This is the Time are the powerful twangers Carpe Diem and Fallen Angel. It also helps that vocalist Raf has rock star vocals, all powerful one moment as in Regret and then all laid back with pent-up expression as in Nowhere Fast.

This is not a full-length CD. There are only eight cuts. Hopefully, these guys will have one the next time they visit. But it is well-made and I like it that they went out of their way to please local buyers. One is by including their first hit High featuring pretty Pinoy rocker Barbie Almalbis and then also by recording an acoustic piano version of one of the album’s new tracks Tomorrow. Hopefully again, we would be hearing how The Speaks is wowing rock lovers in the US soon.