Got the Deftones' White Pony misprint

I am not really into variant editions, colored vinyl or what not. If it is there, I get it but I do not go out of my way. Misprints? This is the first I have gotten one and not because of that actually, but because this is an original pressing of Deftones' White Pony. I have this soft spot for original presses - imperfect as they are -- over reissues. 

Nevertheless, for the sake of pointing it out, some of the misprints are encircled in red. There are more such as the spine where the label, Maverick, is left out, but that's enough don't you think?

Into the Black: Lourd De Veyra’s Kapitan Kulam cometh

Into the Black: Lourd De Veyra’s Kapitan Kulam cometh

by rick olivares

Kapitan Kulam took the stage at Mow’s in support of punk band Betrayed. No lights were flicked on. Not even the light from a cellphone dared shine. As if the light were an affront to their performance.

And as the opening riffs and feedback roared and threatened to break your ear drums, the band rose from the primordial ooze. They cast shadows; maybe like Tolkien’s Ringwraiths come alive. Swaying to the doom and sludge. Raging against the light.

Welcome to Lourd De Veyra’s new band.

If his Radioactive Sago Project was characterized by spoken word satire and poetry to a dangerous jazz beat, Kapitan Kulam is quite the opposite. The songs hardly have words. Instead, the band, like the bastard sons of Black Sabbath, Corrosion of Conformity, and EyeHateGod and dressed in immaculate white – possibly a nod to the droogs of A Clockwork Orange – perform heavy dirge like songs with titles like “Demonyo Death Squad”, “Agimat”, and “Pozo Negro”.

It’s a heavy assault on your senses with emphasis on the word “heavy”. In a time where 1970s terms such as “repapips” and “lodi” are once more in vogue, you just have to trot out the word “heavy” when talking about this band.

Monochrome guitarist Wesley Valenzuela concurs. “The first time I saw Kapitan Kulam, they reminded me of Black Sabbath; except they were a heavier version.”

Added Betrayed guitarist Boyet Miguel, “They’ve got really awesome and emotive instrumental songs.”

For a year or so now, the four-piece band – Kaloy Olavides and De Veyra on guitars, Eric Melendrez on bass, and Jay Gapasin on drums – have pounded rock clubs into submission playing alongside hardcore bands and post-hardcore outfits who had straddled into shoegaze and prog rock territory. Despite the feedback and what sounds like a dozen skulls being pounded on by Gapasin, Kapitan Kulam have mesmerized crowds. And De Veyra can only cackle with glee.

And now, Kapitan Kulam has hit the studio to finish their album for a year end release. According to De Veyra, it will either be on compact disc or vinyl (“nothing wrong with fantasizing about wax,” he says).

While waiting for Kapitan Kulam to release their debut, you might also want to check out the releases of local bands Eyes of Fire whose debut album on cassette, Paperpipe, was released by Sickos Records and Delusion of Terror Records; and Bulacan crew, Jahannam.

The Deep soundtrack

The Deep soundtrack

Colored vinyl is all the rage today. Yet even back in the 1970s and 80s, there were the occasional ones as well. Such as this soundtrack from the 1977 film, The Deep.

This was the first ever soundtrack released by Casablanca Records (they would later score another hit with the Thank God It’s Friday OST). The record features only five tracks. It’s mostly classical scores by conductor John Barry but there are a pair of disco tunes as recorded by then-Casablanca star, Donna Summer, and Alston “Becket” Cyrus (aka “Beckett”) who recorded the song “Disco Calypso” for the album.

While most pressings of this soundtrack are of the black color there are a few that are in the blue translucent color.

My father used to have both the black and blue translucent vinyl. That of course, was lost to the fire that gutted our home. So getting this back means a lot to both him and me.

A Mania for the Ramones

A Mania for the Ramones

by rick olivares

Last July 5, I was able to pick up for the first time on vinyl, Ramones Mania; a greatest hits compilation released in 1988 that gathers songs from their first 10 albums (they went on to record four more after its release for a total of 14 studio albums). I previously purchased this on compact disc and the opportunity to get the first pressing of this record was something that greatly appealed to me.

While reading the album’s liner notes and brushing up on Ramones history that day, it dawned upon me that 5th of July was the 42^nd anniversary of the of one of the most important days in punk rock, let alone, music history.

On the evening of the 5^th of July, 1976, the Ramones played their second show outside their native USA. They played back-to-back nights at the Roundhouse in Camden, London, England. The first show coincided with the American Bicentennial and at that time, the band toured in support of their self-titled debut album that came out some three months earlier.

Yet, the Ramones weren’t the headliner for those shows – something that said a lot about their career in hindsight – it was fellow American band, the Flamin’ Groovies. British band, the Stranglers, was the opening act after which the Ramones played a 33-plus minute set that featured 17-songs.

During the second show, in attendance were members of the Clash, the Damned, the Sex Pistols, and one expatriate American, Chrissie Hynde who would later go on to form, the Pretenders. Every one of them would go on to be inspired by the Ramones as punk rock arrived in Britain. Within a year’s time, those three bands all released albums with the Pretenders following suit four years later.

The Ramones and their British offspring also went on to inspire a number of Filipino youth who later put up their own bands and released self-produced albums.

Speaking of albums, the Ramones never sold a lot of records or received acclaim during their heyday. The mainstream derided them for their music and look. They were a casualty of the derision that followed in the wake of the Sex Pistols appetite for destruction. Punks were seen as anarchists; a stigma that is still there to this day. In fact, their debut album finally achieved gold status – 500,000 units sold – only in 2014!

That their songs were blitzkrieg fast and ended in about two minutes didn’t sit well with rock cognoscenti at this time when progressive rock performed 10-minute epics. Stadium rock was on a roll and fans celebrated guitar heroes. The Ramones and other punk acts eschewed that. And their songs of violence, protest, having a good time, and nihilism put off others.

The lack of success, in addition to other problems, caused a lot of friction within the band, some of which was never resolved even up to the death of all the original members (original drummer, Tommy Ramone, passed away in 2014).

On the other hand, 26 years after their first album came out, the Ramones were inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. Today, they are looked upon more fondly; recognized by their peers, critics, and perhaps more importantly, today’s music-loving kids. You walk into any HMV store and you’ll find the famous Ramones presidential seal on t-shirts next to ones that feature the Clash’s London Calling album or the cover to Nirvana’s Nevermind.

Many an artist from the Misfits, Metallica, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Green Day, the Beastie Boys, the Strokes, Shonen Knife, and the White Stripes to name but a few were also influenced by these punk purveyors. Locally, underground punk band, the Dead Brains wear their Ramones influence literally on their sleeves right down to the look and the band logo. Today, there are over a dozen tribute albums to the Ramones that can be found on music shelves and for sale online. There’s even a Ramones Museum in Germany of all places!

Having lived in New York City at one point in my life, I recall how one time, I made that trip to Forest Hills. I wanted to check it out as I knew it to be the fictitious home of Spider-Man’s alter ego of Peter Parker, the US Open of tennis, and of course, the Ramones. My cousin thought I was half mad.

That fixation on the Ramones took a fortuitous turn the next day one August afternoon in 2003 as I took the subway with my cousin from Elmhurst, Queens to Times Square. We were going to watch a performance by the Misfits who were promoting their new album at that time, Project 1950. Their drummer at that time was none other than Marky Ramone.

Much to my surprise inside the R Train was this tall and oh-so familiar man standing next to a bass drum. It was Marky Ramone and there was that famous drum kit with the Ramones seal on it.

I sidled up to him and told him we were on our way to watch the show. We had a brief conversation and eventually got a picture together. I later had my Misfits CD signed not only by Ramone but the other members of the Misfits.

To date, that subway ride and subsequent show and autograph session with one of my music heroes is one of the best days of my life.

And going to CBGB – and later, Joey Ramone Way (a block along East 2^nd Street) – was like a pilgrimage.

As a youngster in sixth grade, I quickly gravitated towards punk rock when I heard the Ramones. I thought then that they were the Buddy Holly and Beach Boys of aggro music and I still feel the same way today.

I formed my first band a year later with “Rock ‘n’ Roll High School” one of the first songs we ever played. Man, we played our guitars like Johnny and Dee Dee Ramone with our legs stretched far apart, our heads bowed and bobbing – the anti-guitar hero.

My first ever punk rock records were a pair of compilation albums. Then I got the Sex Pistols’ The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle. Then I was able to get End of the Century, the Ramones’ fifth album, right before my freshman year in high school. I got their debut album a short while later and have all their albums on vinyl and compact disc. “Hey ho, let’s go” remains a catch phrase for me as does “gabba gabba hey”. “Blitzkrieg Bop” remains one of my all-time favorite songs. End of the Century, given the Wall of Sound treatment by producer Phi Spector and sounding like a throwback to the 1950s music that I love, will always make my Top 50 Albums list.

To this day, punk rock remains one of my favorite subgenres of rock music along with shoegazer/dream pop, rockabilly/jump swing, and reggae/ska. In my record collection, outside my OPM records, my punk rock albums are perhaps my most treasured.

Punk resonated well with me as I was approaching my teen years. I got the words of rebellion, angst, and having a good time. Unlike the British bands that were hell bent on destruction, I appreciated the Ramones more.

It is a moment of serendipity that thirty years after the release of Ramones Mania, I got the vinyl record also on the anniversary of their second show in Britain. Today as it was yesterday, their music still takes ahold of my senses the same way it did back in the 70s.

Ramones Mania?

Indeed.