Cuidad launches new single and looks back and forward

Cuidad launches new single and looks back and forward

by rick olivares

Last Friday, October 12, indie rock band Ciudad performed an intimate set to about three dozen people at the 123 Block to coincide with the digital release of their new single, “Tiny Apartment” and “to give us an excuse to perform,” underscored lead singer and now keyboardist Mikey Amistoso whose bass parts are now played by Wocky Singson (when he is available), the son of drummer Mitch Singson.

Famed director Marie Jamora helped introduce the band (along with the Itchyworms’ Jazz Nicolas who also performs with Boldstar that includes Ciudad’s Justin Sunico). “Back when we were in college in this tiny room, I’d listen to Ciudad write this really beautiful songs…”

And I agree. I always felt that Ciudad was our answer to an amalgam of Death Cab for Cutie and Fountains of Wayne who both wrote shimmering, poignant, and bittersweet indie pop songs that tugged not only on your heartstrings without being sappy, but also to the simple things that matter.

Ciudad is like a love letter to all your favorite things – comic books, super-hero and science fiction films, video games and the Mario Brothers… even old school textbooks.

And in this intimate setting that looked like you were in someone’s living room, there were old comic books (I noted that these were the titles they read during their high school and college days in Ateneo), DVDs of Deadpool, Transformer, and Star Trek to name a few, and some figurines of Mario from Super Mario fame on a table surrounded by all their instruments.

Ciudad wore their heart on their sleeves and their albums dripped with references to who they were. They were the cool nerds who also channeled their inner Weezer. In their third outing, It’s Like a Magic, the album cover was taken of the band walking in the parking lot of their alma mater, Ateneo, and inside, there were pictures of the band in their graduation togas. Cut to today, thirteen years after It’s Like a Magic, you could verily take a snapshot of the band that started out as a bunch of friends who were classmates and are now family with almost everyone with children of their own.

And it’s like a Van Halen moment during their performance at the 123 Block when Mitch Singson gives his son a fist bump after “Tiny Apartment” that was written by Amistoso about married life in a tiny apartment. In case you aren’t aware of the reference, Wolfgang Van Halen, the son of guitar god Eddie, is now a part of this long-running American hard rock band – playing bass.

“Even without Ciudad, we’d all still be friends because that is how we started,” emphasized Amistoso. “When Jeff moved to the US (for five years), at no point did we think of replacing him with another guitar player. We continued as a trio. And when he came back, it was like the family was back together again.”

And the band and their respective families – and extended families in theboywhocriedfolk, Boldstar, and Hannah and Gabi – were all present for the new single’s launch.

“Tiny Apartment” is the latest of three digital releases by Ciudad over a period of several months. It sounds nothing like the band circa their first album, Hello, How are You, Mico the Happy Bear? For all the band’s keeping up with the times with gadgets and digital releases, “Tiny Apartment” is an incredible throwback to the 1970s and 80s and has this America and the Eagles vibe with Sunico channeling Joe Walsh and the slowhand guitar of “I Can’t Tell You Why.”

“I think it is a sign that we’re getting old,” laughed Sunico who cheerfully admitted that back when the band was starting had all these alt-indie leanings, but now older, have backtracked to the older music. “It’s expanding our musical horizons and getting into what they call ‘music of our titos and titas.”

Cabal pointed to the band’s ability to write about mundane things with a touch of their geeky sense of humor: “Before our experiences were tests in school, teachers, movies that we watched, or what the hot new band was. We could in one day, write a song about a toothbrush, hence, ‘Sipilyo’ (from Hello, How are You, Mico the Happy Bear?). But now, we have a different set of experiences – family, adulthood.”

And that has carried over into how the band writes it music right down to “Tiny Apartment.”

“It is putting the song above everything else. What serves the song as opposed to what serves your ego. That is how the band has matured enough,” explained Amistoso. “Ten years ago, we started branching out. Everyone started playing other instruments with everyone exploring different roles.”

“Minsan nangagaling na sa amin, ‘hey, dito siguro walang gitara,’” added Sunico in the approach to songwriting.

And that leads us to the here and now.

It is ironic and even humorous that after all this time, the band is getting serious. That is how Mitch Singson puts in with the band nodding in agreement at the same time. “You asked us earlier, ‘Nasaan na kami?’” answered the drummer who co-owns the Block with Amistoso. “Nagseseryoso ulit. Ang dami naming singles. Ngayon lang kami nagpa-practice ulit. Nag de-decide kami kung ano mangyayari. Before we won’t call you up to cover this. Kasama lahat ito sa transition namin as a band.”

Even when Cabal moved to the United States for five years, the band continued as a three-piece unit. “We never thought about replacing Jeff,” said Sunico. “Never crossed our minds at all.”

Now the four-piece band is back with the fifth-Ciudad “member” in Wocky like Billy Preston to the Beatles.

Amistoso noted of the latest in a line of singles, “It’s a prelude to a new album. We recently released two singles prior to this – ‘Caught Me at the Worst Time’ in December of 2017 and ‘Get You Closer’ in February of this year. In 2014, we also put out two singles a week a part of each other – ‘S.I.F.I.L.’ and ‘You Shouldn’t Wait.’ We’re trying out this approach to release singles when we feel like it. Then we can compile all of them including unreleased tracks for a new album.”

Hopefully, it does happen for next year, 2019 which is the band’s 25^th anniversary.

“I want our new album to be like Michael Jackson’s “HIStory” where one side is the old stuff – like our greatest hits – and the second side, all the new songs,” hopes Amistoso. “It is going to be a nice retrospective on one hand and a nice view of where we are going forward.”

So, can you say that life for Ciudad begins at 25?

“Most definitely,” smiled Sunico.

And Ciudad… took to the stage. With a nod to who they were and who they are now while moving forward.