American shoegazer band Hundredth hits Manila to promote their new album, Rare.

American shoegazer band Hundredth hits Manila to promote their new album, Rare.

by rick olivares

American post-hardcore band Hundredth blew into Manila for a one-night show – organized by indie promoters Sleeping Boy Collective -- in support of their new album, Rare, at Kalawakan Spacetime in Quezon City last Sunday, August 19. Rare was named one of the best shoegaze albums of 2017 when the genre made its triumphant return highlighted by releases by its champions, British bands Slowdive and Ride.

Filipino band Taken by Cars also made its foray into that music territory when they also released their brilliant album, Plagues, last year and was a stark departure from their earlier New Wave sound.

And Hundredth gave local fans of the genre a front row seat to an acclaimed album.

Local bands Life//Lost, the Rave Tapes, GYHT, Legarda, and Conformist opened the show before Hundredth (vocalist and guitarist Chad Johnson, guitarist Alex Blackwell, bassist Andrew Minervini, and drummer, Matt Koontz) took the stage past 10pm before appreciative Filipino fans.

Hundredth made a name for itself as a melodic hardcore band before flipping the script with a more progressive, shoegazer sound for Rare. However, they aren’t the first band to have done that.

During the earliest days of New Order, their sound somewhat was like an extension of the doom and dirge like music of their former band, Joy Division, with their albums Movement and Power Corruption and Lies before 1985’s Lowlife that saw the band shift to a more danceable sound.

Fellow British band Doves on the other hand started out with a more danceable sound before ditching it for a more alternative rock style in the mid-1990s. Said, Doves lead singer, Jez Williams of the change: "We were faced with a really black and white decision: throw the towel in or carry on. And if you're going to carry on, you've got to put everything into it to justify it, because before that you've lost everything. That was quite a liberating feeling, actually.”

A key band of those grunge days, Radiohead, kept in step with that style until their 1997 masterpiece OK Computer that was more experimental in nature; a style they have kept to this day. Mainstream-wise, the Bee Gees were a folk band with Dylanesque flirtations before 1977’s disco opus, Saturday Night Fever.

Since Hundredth released Rare in June of 2017, the band has gained new fans (while making a few of their older fans unhappy). The band members took time to talk about the new album and playing in Manila (through promotional outfit Sleeping Boy Collective) in their six-nation Asian tour.

“Manila is actually our last show in Southeast Asia after which we go to Japan and Australia,” bared Johnson who is sporting a hair style similar to Mike Score of 1980s New Wave rockers, A Flock of Seagulls, with most of his hair cut short with one part long and combed forward. “It’s the first time any of us have been in any of these countries and it has been a cool experience – from the scenery to the food and the hospitality. We’re learning a lot too about the world around us. We’re enjoying the tour. Last night we were at Singapore and a lot of people didn’t know who we were but they were watching. Now we’re in Manila.”

“We understand that we have some fans especially in Manila and that is really cool to know there are people here who listen to our stuff and who have our records,” added Johnson. “We see it on the internet where people write, ‘come to Malaysia’ or such. We didn’t realize there’s be fans. We’re just a tiny band from the East Coast of the USA so to come here and play for fans is a great experience. When they sing along to the words and music, it is cool.”

The band was also happy to know there was a burgeoning shoegaze scene in Manila and encouraged local crews to also push the envelope. “I don’t think you can keep playing the same music that you first recorded like nine years ago,” underscored Blackwell who also pointed out fellow American band, Deftones that shifted from its alternative metal sound of the first six albums to a more expansive sound that borrowed elements from shoegaze, dream pop, post-rock, and doom metal. “Bands like Deftones and Radiohead challenge you to broaden your horizons.”

The band hinted at this direction with their earlier extended play albums Revolt (2013) and Resist (2014). Their third album, Free, featured a quote from Jim Morrison from an interview he did with journalist Lizzie Smith back in 1967: “Expose yourself to your deepest fear and then fear has no power. You are free.”

The word “free” became the concept for the album and while stile hardcore, the table had been set for a sonic voyage.

The first song off Rare, “Vertigo” opens with the lines, “Escape. Just to get away.”

Change isn’t something people do not easily take to – even if most Hundredth fans applaud the new direction. “There are three types of fans – first, people who have never heard of us and maybe heard of us in a Spotify playlist so they come to see our show; second, people are fans and have gone with the flow; and third, people who don’t like our new music and they are bummed out.”

“We toured on those records for eight years. We came to your city five times. We’ve already done that. But the overall response has been insanely positive. The silent majority is a real thing. The only people who are loud are those who don’t like it. Either you really do not like it so you have to post on the internet or you love it that you also post on the internet. We didn’t set out to change the world, we just wanted to make music we liked.”

Music they liked? Rare and even its companion Ultrarare (a cassette only release of remixes) have drawn influences from the Cure to Joy Division to the Smiths right down to Tears for Fears. “Not your traditional shoegaze trailblazers, right?” pointed out Johnson who was wearing a shirt of shoegaze pioneers My Bloody Valentine. “But yes, we absolutely love MBV, Slowdive, Ride, Swervedriver, and Lush and others, but we like a lot of music too.”

The twelfth song from their second album, Let Go (that was released in 2011), “Soul” features an outro excerpt from the Smiths’ “There Is a Light that Never Goes Out”.

“We’ve been accused of going with the popularity of shoegaze, but that is farthest from the truth,” chimed in Minervini. “We have been slowly making changes over the years and we knew we were going to make that jump sooner than later.”

And the bassist cribbed the Smiths with a summation, “How soon is now?”

Indeed. That Smiths’ classic was included in their Manila set.

“We’re having fun seeing all these new countries and with all these new experiences, they are making us grow,” wrapped up Johnson of the interview. “In the midst of the tour and promoting Rare, we have asked ourselves, ‘We’re do we want to take this next?’ We’re in the deciding stage. Do we incorporate new instruments? We’ve started the search and the answer will reveal itself. It’s an exciting time for the band.”