| Category: | Books |
| Genre: | Other |
| Author: | Lourd Ernest H. De Veyra |
Bought this about a month ago. Already on my second reading. Like I have nothing else to read, eh?
Imagine it's the 90's. Imagine your fantasy band and how frustrating it is to be so full of potential and musical energy and not be heard. Imagine the aural power that your soul can create whenever you unleash that raw emotion, that controlled chaos through your instrument. Now imagine you are a chain-smoking, alcohol abusing, drug-addicted, acid-dropping, crystal meth-fiend and music, and MUSIC is your life.
Super Panalo Sounds follows the lives of five musicians (Milo the Saxophonist, Budik the silent Bassist, Composer/arranger Dax the Guitarist, Zorro the ambitious ex jock/drummer and activist/musician Vic on vocals and guitars) their complexities, weaknesses, and drug induced hallucinations but also their struggle to release that one album that would characterize and define them and their sound. That one album that will speak for them, of their longings and rage and love.
Never have I felt so close to fictional characters in a book. The shit they lived through and that frustrating struggle to form and maintain a band and the background noise they have to live through. There are a number of instances while reading their sorry exploits that I have to say "He, he. That happens" to these strangely lovable individuals as they live the life of an ordinary Juan with it's disappointments. Consoling themselves with their heroes instead like Mang Dading, an aging National Artist who play humiliating piano standards to make ends meet and Dugong Aso, that mysterious 60's band that references Rizal erect penis in one of their hallucinatory songs.
I guess reading familiar places like Kamuning, Kamias, K-10 and Anonas gives me an oddly fanboy-like joy that even though these places, that in some time in my life I lived on, are portrayed here as places of secret drug dens and homes of drug pushers. Hey, It might be true, it might just be artistic license. But seriously, if you look hard enough, doesn't your neighborhood have it's share of durugistas? You might even have been one.
Anyway, this is a solid book from an author who wrote this close to his heart and if you like Drugs, Sex and Fuckin' Rock and Roll (more emphasis on the drugs part) and Pepe Smith then you will enjoy this book with it's cautionary tale. And if you think that Saxophone as a musical instrument sucks ass then you might just want to read through this book and find out about the bitter, bitter end.
Imagine it's the 90's. Imagine your fantasy band and how frustrating it is to be so full of potential and musical energy and not be heard. Imagine the aural power that your soul can create whenever you unleash that raw emotion, that controlled chaos through your instrument. Now imagine you are a chain-smoking, alcohol abusing, drug-addicted, acid-dropping, crystal meth-fiend and music, and MUSIC is your life.
Super Panalo Sounds follows the lives of five musicians (Milo the Saxophonist, Budik the silent Bassist, Composer/arranger Dax the Guitarist, Zorro the ambitious ex jock/drummer and activist/musician Vic on vocals and guitars) their complexities, weaknesses, and drug induced hallucinations but also their struggle to release that one album that would characterize and define them and their sound. That one album that will speak for them, of their longings and rage and love.
Never have I felt so close to fictional characters in a book. The shit they lived through and that frustrating struggle to form and maintain a band and the background noise they have to live through. There are a number of instances while reading their sorry exploits that I have to say "He, he. That happens" to these strangely lovable individuals as they live the life of an ordinary Juan with it's disappointments. Consoling themselves with their heroes instead like Mang Dading, an aging National Artist who play humiliating piano standards to make ends meet and Dugong Aso, that mysterious 60's band that references Rizal erect penis in one of their hallucinatory songs.
I guess reading familiar places like Kamuning, Kamias, K-10 and Anonas gives me an oddly fanboy-like joy that even though these places, that in some time in my life I lived on, are portrayed here as places of secret drug dens and homes of drug pushers. Hey, It might be true, it might just be artistic license. But seriously, if you look hard enough, doesn't your neighborhood have it's share of durugistas? You might even have been one.
Anyway, this is a solid book from an author who wrote this close to his heart and if you like Drugs, Sex and Fuckin' Rock and Roll (more emphasis on the drugs part) and Pepe Smith then you will enjoy this book with it's cautionary tale. And if you think that Saxophone as a musical instrument sucks ass then you might just want to read through this book and find out about the bitter, bitter end.
(Originally posted on http://theilldiablo.multiply.com Nov 24, '11 11:48 PM)
