Turns into Gold

Very few local acts are currently as searchable on music blog aggregator The Hype Machine; Eyedress has been getting a lot of attention, and deservedly so.

New Pinoy pop-rock classics, strange psychedelic nostalgia, and amiable ramshackle rock: let’s get started, shall we?

Tama na ang drama

Four years ago, when I co-authored a roundup of 2008’s best local music, Ang Bandang Shirley was my choice for Best New Artist. “They’re not rock gods or avant-garde experimentalists,” I wrote. “They’re the people that you meet, when you’re walking down the street, each day — except that they have an enormous talent for impeccable pop tunes and quirky-heartfelt lyrics.” They had just released their debut, “Themesongs,” and I was taken by everything from the album’s cover art (by Pepper Roxas) to its prevailing mood, which was fun but not lightweight, tinged with sadness but mostly hopeful.

With everything accelerated these days, it may seem that Ang Bandang Shirley’s second album has been a long time coming, though four years is not too long to wait in between good full-length releases. And is “Tama Na Ang Drama” good? In a word, yes. The lovely pop-rock songcraft is still present, the players are if anything even more skilled. The diversity on display may not be for everybody: the rougher, noisier, more discordant moments may turn off fans who love the band mostly for straightforward, sweetly catchy tracks like Sa Madaling Salita and Themesong, and the variety of vocalists over a total of 16 tracks means the listening experience as a whole may be occasionally jarring. But for some, this variety will be a good thing, a welcome evolution, and for others, they’ll have new, immensely winning pop songs like Wala Lang, Polygonal Graphs and early favorite Nakauwi Na to savor (as well as another artistic album cover, this time by Dina Gadia)

The charm of their first album’s songs is instant and enduring, but Shirley can be said to be growing up with this release — they’re trying different things, while retaining much of what made them such a vital act to begin with. You might say, as befits the four-year span, that they’ve graduated

“Tama Na Ang Drama” is being released by Wide Eyed Records Manila. The launch is tomorrow night, Saturday, 8 p.m., Dec. 8, at the B-side Courtyard at The Collective on Malugay Street in Makati. Be there: it was worth the wait

Everything we touch turns into gold

“Is that The xx?” my friend asked as we were climbing up some stairs on our way to an exhibit opening. From a set of steps and a door away, the music did sound a bit like the epic minimalism of the celebrated English band, but as we entered the exhibit space, we realized that not only was the music live, it was a little stranger than we suspected.

It was Eyedress: a.k.a. Idris Vicuña, whose work is described on the Number Line Records site as “A mix of slow beats, sauntering synths, and washed-out vocals.” Eyedress produces “songs inspired by new wave, Super Nintendo, mistrust, loss, and psychedelic drugs.”

Very few — if any — local acts are currently as searchable on music blog aggregator The Hype Machine; Eyedress has been getting a lot of attention, and deservedly so. Listen to (and order) his stuff on Bandcamp; download the “Half Japanese” EP from Number Line. Oh, and watch the video for Everything We Touch Turns Into Gold, on Vimeo — I am tempted to say that Alessandra De Rossi has never looked as alluring as she does here, cavorting on a couch in ‘80s pambahay, posing her way with Idris through a variety of setups, with everything blanketed in a nostalgic haze.

Nothing but a test

I sometimes wonder how the members of the excellent rock band The Strangeness find the time to do everything that they do: day jobs, regular gigs, other bands, side projects, short films, Instagramming, Tumblr-ing, wedding singing, et cetera. I’m thinking bilocation, or maybe clones, or some kind of Fermata-like time-pausing ability.

In any case — go check out Kidstuff, a solo project by The Strangeness’ Francis Cabal. The EP “Nothing But a Test” is available for free download at cultshitrecords.blogspot.com. I can’t really describe it better than it’s described on the site, as a set of lo-fi garage folk tunes with a few curve balls; “like a gem that was unearthed from a long forgotten musical past of rock and roll — not of this time but definitely of the now.” Like transmissions from some dream-blurred desert town, these songs amble along, telling tales of people dying in car crashes and houses burning down. Good stuff.