Happy 7 rocking years Saguijo!
This 2011, here's their Part 1 and Part 2
JUNE 03
[FRIDAY]
Saguijo 7th Anniversary Pt.1 w/ Chicosci, Encounters with a Yeti, Hijo, Identikit, Imago, Maya's Anklet, Paranoid City, Pedicab, Sandwich, Sleepwalk Circus, Sleepyheads, Taken by Cars, Techy Romantics & Urbandub
JUNE 04
[SATURDAY] Saguijo 7th Anniversary Pt.2 w/ The Charmes, Curbside, December Avenue, Greyhoundz, Hidden Nikki, Hilera, Miscellaneous, Musical O, The Out of Body Special (OBS), Peryodiko, Tanya Markova, Turbo Goth, Twin Lobster & Typecast
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Reminiscing their story and what they had last year....
MAY / 2010
TAKING CHANCES
saGuijo Celebrates Six Years of Evolution and Revolution
Change (verb) - Pronunciation: \ˈchānj\\, 1: to make different in some particular way, 2: to replace with something else, 3: to shift one’s means of conveyance, 4: to pass from one phase to another.
You never end up quite where you expected…
Six years ago, big bro Angelo approached me with this crazy idea he had. Not being the most verbally-inclined of people, his pitch went thus: “Dude. Dan and I have been talking and we’re thinking of opening up a venue. Kinda like Club Dredd, y’know? But it’ll be a space where we don’t have to worry about getting our teeth kicked in by some junkie. Chill lang, diba?”
I couldn’t blame him for wanting to take our life-long music fandom to the next level. The aforementioned performance area co-founded by Patrick Reidenbach and Robbie Sunico was, at that point, nothing but a fond memory. Meanwhile, Indie bastions such as Freedom Bar were starting to feel the pinch…God bless them…moving heaven and Earth just to stay alive. The Katipunan peeps and the fine folks of BigSkyMind in New Manila were doing their share to keep the torch alive. Mayric’s and 70’s Bistro, to be fair, had their hands full with the more established bands. 2003, though, was the year that Original Pilipino Music had reached critical mass. Unfortunately, there simply was NOT enough space for everyone. Who knows how many fledgling Abays, Artadis, Blancos and Buendias were out there just itching to be discovered? SOMETHING had to give.
Now don’t misinterpret what I’m saying. We didn’t (nor have we ever) hoodwinked ourselves with delusions of grandeur. The so-called “scene” wasn’t waiting for us. Christ…sometimes I think we are still considered outsiders REGARDLESS of how long we’ve played the game. Our motivation was simple: we wanted to see something fresh. New. And if we weren’t getting what we needed elsewhere…well…why not actually DO something about it rather than bitching?
The catch? We were going to launch in …yes…MAKATI of all places! The business district. Where the metropolis’ bright and beautiful yuppies converged to rub elbows. A vastly uncharted territory with regards to what these straights dismissed as “jolog noise.” Right into the stronghold of long-held suspicions and mistrust. The mainstream didn’t want to come to us? To music that, in my honest opinion, was far superior to a lot of the shit they were raving about on Top 40 radio? Fine. We would break their doors down and get right in their faces. Flood them with so much sound, substance and creativity that they couldn’t POSSIBLY keep ignoring what had been under their noses all along: THERE IS A LOT OF TALENT OUT THERE. You just have to go a little out of your way to look.
Were we justified in our chutzpah? I really don’t know.
Personally, I threw in with this project thinking that it was a temporary endeavor. A side-thing which would keep my writing chops sharp while I sought a paying gig elsewhere. Painting…writing. It didn’t really matter so long as it was something I could be passionate about. Little did I know that I’d still be here six years later. Six years, man. That’s a fucking long time to NOT know if any of you have given a shit about stuff I committed to print. But it’s like I told Angelo in the beginning: “If we can just get ONE new person out there to care…to see our local musicians as invaluable and world-class…then all of this will have been worth it.”
Know what the funny thing is? It may have actually worked…
Call it providence. Call it happenstance. Call it pure, dumb luck. But word got out. I really cannot fathom how it happened. It just did. Aspiring groups that nobody had ever heard of started submitting demos. Never mind that they often performed to only a handful of people in those early days (who were probably on their “guest list” anyway). What matters is that they cut their teeth and honed their skills. Skills that, in almost no time at all, led to record deals and television appearances. The more experienced veterans of the scene, likewise, would eventually pitch camp. Road-testing new songs and forming alliances with their younger peers. Indeed, saGuijo was initially considered nothing but a “hang-out” place…tamabayan ng mga musikero. Right on cue, the fans followed close behind. Ideas came hard and fast from every conceivable direction. It was messy. It was chaotic. It was glorious.
It all culminated, of course, in those few heady years in the mid-2000s when Original Pilipino Music was everywhere. Restaurants remade themselves, looking to cash in on the growing demand. New venues popped up like mushrooms in a moldy cellar. Rock radio was no longer a niche. The advent of affordable home-based recording equipment ushered in a welcome influx of Independent labels. Maverick entrepreneurs could, for the first time in recent memory, challenge the formerly-invincible Major labels on their own terms. The underground had gone over…much like it had in the mid-1990s. Predictably…the bubble burst under the strain of its own enormity. And the silence that followed the fallout was deafening. At least for a little while.
But everything moves in cycles…
Already, signs of rebirth have materialized. Bands are being formed. Albums are produced every few months. Gigs are being played as we speak. Things are shifting around. Past trends are being discarded or assimilated based on how valid they are to our people’s developing appetites. It’s not a question of how fast or slow things are going. It’s a question of forward motion. Based on what we have seen in the record stores lately, there is much reason for hope and optimism.
Things have changed. But the one constant in this clusterfuck of an industry has always been the patrons. The listers. The supporters. Some are rekindling their passion. Others are buying that first album that will forever change their lives. But they will always…ALWAYS…be there. If only for each other.
Because if there is one thing I’ve been mulling over for some time now, it is this: being a music fan is…complicated. Some of us will slap our hard-earned money on the counter to buy a CD. Some of us will attempt to “friend” specific musicians on social networking websites. Some of us will flesh out production companies in order to highlight our chosen band’s live performances. Hell…some of us will even go out of our way to open up a physical venue just so our favorite group has a place to ply their trade. We have CHOSEN to love your music with every fiber of our being. And…like the proverbial one-sided relationship…we never question whether any of these artists have ever bothered to love us in return.
And it goes beyond that. Even when our heroes fail us, I urge you to rage against cynicism. Go to a gig. Take a good hard look at the person standing next to you. You didn’t go to the same school. You don’t run in the same social circles. Chances are, you have absolutely nothing in common with them. Save for that one unifying factor that brings us together five nights a week. Isn’t that what it SHOULD be about? If we in saGuijo have tried to do anything these past six years, it has been to foster a sense of community. Of belonging. Because the “scene” isn’t some elitist clique for people “in the know.” It isn’t a place that can be measured in mortar or bricks. It is something that belongs not to the one…but to the many. This venue has always belonged to ALL of us. It was…is…and so shall it ever be… always about the music.
In this spirit that we PROUDLY invite you to “TAKING CHANCES: saGuijo Celebrates Six Years of Evolution and Revolution.” We’ll get the party started on Friday, May 28 with the likes of "SaGuijo 6th year anniv" Part One. feat: Up Dharma Down, The Charmes, Sandwich, Blast Ople, Imago, Pedicab, Greyhoundz, Drip, Angulo, Spy, Mr. Bones and the Boneyard Circus, Out Of Body Special, Sleepwalk Circus and more... On Saturday, May 29, we offer the fantastic "SaGuijo 6th year anniv" Part Two. feat: Us-2-Evil-0, Taken By Cars, Techyromantics, Musical O, Encounters with a Yeti, Chicosci, Lady I, Soapdish, Paranoid City, Domino, Radioactive Sago Project, Typecast. Show starts at 9 p.m. We’d love to see you there….cocked, locked and ready to rock.
There is nothing so certain as the inevitability of change. The issue is…how will you deal with it? In this new age of hybridization, it isn’t unusual to have a Jazz bassist, a Thrash Metal guitarist, an Electronica beat-programmer and an R & B singer working cohesively as a unit. “Purism” is an outdated approach left to nostalgia acts and showbands. Our musical vocabulary has outgrown that. Innovation is no longer a flight of fancy that we can afford to leave to the “artsy-fartsy” crowd. Taking chances has now become an essential survival skill if we are to keep pace with the rest of the world. And those who get hip to that stone-cold fact? Those who learn to adapt quickly…production, patron, performer and…yes…club owner alike? These are the people who will undoubtedly define Original Pilipino Music in this new decade.
One way or another, it is a very exciting time. For all of us. So I’ll leave you with this: STEP OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE. Keep developing. Keep learning. LIVE. Grow stronger. As a music fan. And an individual. Taken in that light, I guess change isn’t such a bad thing after all.
As a wise man once said… “every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.”
It’s been a hell of a ride. I’ll see you folks some time or other. ‘Til then…love, empathy and rakenrol.
-Christopher A. Carlos (C.C.)-
chrisofsaguijo@gmail.com
