Midweek Music Plus Guidelines

Many are asking.  So here it is.

General
1. Call time is always an hour before the show.  Usually it's 8:30PM.

Who gets to play first?
1. First band to complete gets to choose preferred slot.  Always be on time.
2. Mint performers usually play 2nd or 3rd.

Qualifications:
1. Online presence is a must.
2. At least 3 complete mp3 recordings uploaded online (more is always better).
3. A good band photo is a must.
4. Must be successively active in the local music scene for at least a year.

Midweek Music Plus FAQs

We've updated.  Here it is.

1. What is Midweek Music Plus?
Midweek Music Plus is a derivative project that was originally conceived as Midweek Sessions and launched at the Artist's Dais Music Gallery, Manros Plaza on May 10, 2000.  Its incidental purpose was to sign up local bands in the light of building a community of musicians writing original music.  Its impact inspired and motivated more bands to pursue in the same direction.

2. Who can play at Midweek Music Plus?
Musicians/artists, solo or group, are always welcome at Midweek Music Plus. Just prepare at least 5 original songs.

3. How can my band audition for Midweek Music Plus?
Auditions are not necessary. Artist Ko has a research team to check on bands that are active both offline and online. We watch you gigs and we check your websites.  Simply upload at least 3 original tracks online, post a good band photo, and write a good profile of yourself or your band.  We will contact you.

4. Who to contact?
For now, you may get in touch with us at Facebook.

4. Does Midweek Music Plus have any preferred music genre?
No we don't.

5. Why is Midweek Music Plus advocating more on original music?
We believe that ideas and personal stories are what make things move.  Music being an effective marketing tool in storytelling is a good way to do it because original songs say a lot about you and me.

6. Does my band get paid performing?
Yes we have honorariums for the regular performers. In a bigger picture, Midweek Music Plus is managed by Artist Ko and its members.  Click here for more details about the us.

MuSic + Alex Uypuanco + Short 56

This month's MuSic + is 'Short 56' for Mint and independent playwright and stage actor Alex Uypuanco.  We will set the mood this Wednesday as he introduces his passion and his way of telling a story.  This is exciting.


*for those reading from Facebook, please click on 'View Original Post' below.

Spelled with an 'M' and an 'S'

Old concept plus curiosity plus questions plus questions plus propositions plus more questions equals proposed solutions.  Creative solutions.

Creativity could mean a lot of things.  Most often it could mean innovative (re)packaging.  Innovative repackaging gets attention.  Attention is good.  It means you did something right.

We are doing something new for Midweek Sessions.  We call it Midweek MuSic Plus.  The 'plus' stands for a merger with other disciplines in the art scene.  It's also about letting these creative people speak.  Let them show and flaunt their works, be it recent or past.  It's about sharing their stories of how they learned to love their craft.

Stripped down, MuSic Plus or 'MuSic +' is really about artists sharing their stories to everyone what they do.  And it's spelled with a capital 'M' and 'S'.

MuSic + Apiong + Stars In View

So as I was saying... Midweek Sessions will try something off the music circle but closely within the circuit.

Performing for us tonight are: PG18 (after their long hiatus... glad to hear and see you guys again), Rescue A Hero, Bethany, One Man Down, and the first 'Plus', MS mint artist of the month Stars In View.

And the second 'Plus' is BITE mag's camipulator Apiong Bagares (Yes him and I made that term up ok?).  I had a chat with him this morning.  He said he'll share his story about what inspires (and inspired) him, his passion, and talk about his collage of small pictures, 247 pieces of them.

Hey! It's MuSic +.  It should be interesting.  Let's get inspired shall we?

MuSic + (plus)

I thought of running a generic title for Midweek Sessions this time this year.  Instead of monthly themes like in the last couple of years, I thought of narrowing it down to one main idea.

I'd like to call it Music Plus.

The idea is really simple.

This should reduce the time to think about monthly concepts that translates the effort to poster designs and subtitles while allowing more focus on the artists' work instead. The time saved can be spent on research for substance.

What Music Plus is will hopefully be a showcase of interdisciplinaries on top of the music itself.  One show would invite a photographer, another would have a graphic designer, then another date would have a journalist, and so on.  Each artist will show their works and tell their stories big and small.

So there.  I thought Music Plus should be a platform to be updated on what's going on in the scene up this close.

See you tomorrow for its first leg.

The plight of Midweek Sessions

On and off, Midweek Sessions has been around for 9 years now since May 2000.  I'm happy to say that today, this production has partially fulfilled its purpose.  It has somewhat started the trail in unifying a community of songwriters in a small scale - be it band members, solo artists, or simply composers.

In fact, I remember Randy Su saying something about being so delighted to witness how healthy and happy we artists and musicians are at the recent Midweek Sessions Christmas get together (see photo).

If I remember it well, back then, bands were always asked by sponsors to play familiar songs (I sound like a broken CD, don't I?).  "Familiar" is synonymous to Top 40 hit songs.  In other words, cover songs.  To me, it was a shorthand statement for ,"Stop being creative and let's make money fast."

Maybe I was overly and obsessively passionate about making things right that I took a personal rally against this issue.  This included a blind item I wrote titled "Rock 'n' Roll Woes" sometime in November 2001.  It was published in a popular local daily (the article was acknowledged in PG18's CD sleeve).

Yes it was me.  I wrote that.

I apologize for those who got directly offended.  I must also apologize for those who got accused.  I didn't mean to do that to any of you.

Wait.  No.  I don't owe anyone an apology.  It was all for a good cause.  And if I had not done that, the music scene wouldn't be this healthy at all.

Not that I'm being messianic and I'm sure there are those that did their part too.  It was all for a good cause.  I was aware that Cattski was one of those who championed for this cause too.  Then there was Micmic Demeterio, Insoy, Budoy and everybody else who, after all the peaceful plights, survived up to this day in this little and only community of musicians we have.

And so, I thought deep down, it would be a swell time to hold a small Christmas get-together this year for this little midweek gig. Something we haven't done yet and so we did.  Something to be thankful for and return the smiles and laughters to those who stayed with us.

Thank you for all those who came, partied, and laughed with us.  It was a memorable time.  Special thanks to Remugs Fuel of Happy Days for doing a good job and managing the production.

More power to all of us at Midweek Sessions.

More power to our cooperative Artist Ko.

Early Christmas at Midweek Sessions

Dec. 2 is the last first Wednesday of 2009.  And for that, we at Midweek Sessions decided to enjoy this moment with gift giving and a little conspiracy of love, peace, and of course rock 'n' roll.

The mechanics goes like this:

1. Tsinelas will set up a table to display gift items.
2. You pick a tiny rolled paper from a bowl with someone's name in it (you're not allowed to open and read it just yet).
3. Buy item(s) from Tsinelas worth at least P100 (proceeds of sales will go to Tsinelas' beneficiaries).
4. The Outpost will provide finger foods for us.
5. Drinks won't be on the house so we have to buy it (so we can drink at our own pace too).

Ok I'll stop here.

Remugs Fuel of Happy Days will explain the details on the rest of the fun at the venue.   So it's best to see you there.

Undercover Grasshoppers and their Hoppers Union

I always admire people who bravely speak their minds and talk out ideas. Those who work on it and collaborate with people whom they believe could help them get started.

One band, a rock quartet composed of 3 lads and a lass who call themselves Undercover Grasshoppers fall in this category owning an ocean of thoughts to do. They just fascinate me.

First off, their music is eccentric at its most beautiful sense. Jaw dropping I must say.

After a few guestings in Midweek Sessions and some side projects, they asked me if I could produce a couple of their songs. Why not?

A month after a series of studio rehearsals, things expectedly started to fall in place. I have discovered more of UCGH than what could've just fancied my attention. UCGH is a band composed of young entrepreneurs. Apart from their amazing music and performance, they are also working on a band-owned business. Simply because they want to fund their music and keep the hobby "sustainable".

Their debut product? Check this out.

If only opportunities come by easy

I said this once and I say this again... when you see, hear, and feel people do the things you do then you know you've done a good thing.

Missing Filemon frontman Insoy Ninal invited one of the car watchers at The Outpost to watch their show at Midweek Sessions' Playback. If you haven't been to the venue, I'm talking about those poor yagit kids guarding cars (probably one of yours) from being towed away. After a night's work they would go to one corner of the same sidewalk and slumber on the pavement... all for a cheap service fee of P5

Yes, those kids that we often take for granted.

Insoy admittedly said to me that he thought the boy wouldn't take it seriously. But the kid showed up - well prepared and dressed up for the gig. To us perhaps it was just another entertainment... to this kid, it was a once in a lifetime chance to sing Sine Sine and be with his favorite Cebuano rock band.

Kudos to you boy.

Cover songs are not evil.

I once had the impression that many in the music circle see me as a person who averts strongly on cover songs. Cover songs aren't really bad. But to me, they just don't sting that long.

I mean I love them radio hits, chart topping tracks or whatever you call it. But I just prefer not play them (not anymore that is). Why should you if you could do it too, sometimes even better... that should be the attitude to fuel up the right stuff and get things started, yes?

Oh and I have to apologize for those who thought I was with a cover band - tried real hard to be an original rock group and pretended that everything was okay. It wasn't okay and I never meant to mislead anyone.

My band collectively were trapped as we got greedy.

But it's a totally different story and a totally different issue.

If I were to cover a song (which I've been doing for so many years by the way), this time I'd go for something that represents you. Something that you can move with... not necessarily something everybody likes but something I can reinvent so you could see through what I'm trying to convey from another perspective.

Cover songs are not bad. They just need to be presented appropriately.

The tambourine sounds happier

I would carry with me a lengthwise Beatles notepad in case an idea hits me I'd scribble down the lines and images on the sheets.

Since Midweek Sessions' comeback in Feb 2007, reinventing the logo had become a persistent need. And for a long time the right inspiration just don't happen. Sketches, sketches, and more sketches.

Then I saw a sketch of a kick drum looking like a tambourine.

Bingo!

After that I talked to Lucille Umali a.k.a. Palot. She's one of those graphic artists I know who's got sharp ears for creative collaborations... perhaps even with the vague ones.

So I brought my notepad, talked, presented my sketch samples to her, and asked if she would be interested to translate the tambourine idea into a logo.

We came up with this.

Midweek Sessions has a Squidoo

Whew! It feels good deciding to finally launch the partial Squidoo lens of Midweek Sessions. Yes it's still partial as it will always be partial. The Midweek Sessions Squidoo lens is a work in progess. Feel free to join in and contribute to the local music community's learning curve.

Cheers!

How 'Versus' works?

Music brand names like "experimental", "alternative", "indie", "emo", and what have you, this labeling approach often leads many into perceiving it as music genre when it's supposed to be just a description of a creative musical work.

The "experimental" or "alternative" clout eventually presented itself as the safe tag to use for musicians' innovative sound. Perhaps for 2 reasons - generic branding for easier public acceptance and to satiate the need for "belongingness ".

But if you really think about it, it's just creative repackaging.

Bands wanted to come up with "new" soundscape continuously fired up by other artist's passion and persistence. It's a never ending quest. We at Midweek Sessions decided to take this pursuit to another level in the hope of finding an innovative musical gratification.

Imagine this proposition:

1. Cattski's pop-eratic modes working for (or against but I hope not) The Spirals' britpop undertones.

2. Missing Filemon's "Inday" may sound better (or awfully worse but God forbid) with Smooth Friction's fancy tricks and licks.

The result? It would go something like this:

Cattski vs. The Spirals
1st number - Cattski sings a Cattski song
2nd number - Cattski sings a Spirals song
3rd number - Louell sings a Cattski song
4th number - Cattski sings another Spirals song
5th number - Louell sings another Cattski song
Finale - Louell closes the set with a Spirals song

Smooth Friction vs. Missing Filemon
1st number - Insoy sings a Missing Filemon song
2nd number - Insoy sings a Smooth Friction song
3rd number - Val sings a Missing Filemon song
4th number - Insoy sings another Smooth Friction song
5th number - Val sings a Missing Filemon song
Finale - Val closes the set with a Smooth Friction song

I'm not sure yet how this works exactly. We'll have to go to Midweek Sessions this Wednesday to find out. Given the right chance and if our musicians are open minded enough to take this challenge, 'Versus' might just work. And if all things go wrong... then it'll be my fault.

But that's exactly the point. Never mind the mistakes and the booboos that may happen. That's going to be a given. We just want to know how far new musical ideas can go while keeping the fun. After all, it's always interesting to imagine how music could evolve right in front of your face - live.

Note: For those who don't know the names mentioned above, please google it.

The plummeting catalogs

Although this had already been calculated, nobody knew exactly when the plummet of the music catalogs will happen.

Just recently I happen to chat with an editor-in-chief of a prominent Manila publication who shared his observations on how the music sector in the capital is doing. He outlined some specifics that lead to the understanding of the music industry and that the long anticipated big dive is finally happening and fast.

While the major labels are still hopelessly panicking to save their boats, music downloads had never been so legit and literally free as it is now. Ironic in The Philippines where copyright concerns are often shelved and ignored.

Thanks to digital technology...

The once-indie-then-signed-to-a-major-record-deal artists are going indie again.

The signed artists are going indie this time.

The big stars are not as big as they once were (unless you belong to the couch people who spend most of their days at home watching noon time shows daily then you won't agree with me).

Some labels settled for a distribution deal but eventually lost because the indies still own the rights to their songs.

Other labels tried the in-house talent management approach where they employ "band managers" to, well, manage a band. But they're missing the point. A band manager is not a business partner. Well it is but he/she is also the Nth band member... ergo the band's best friend. How can you build a best friend when it all started as a business?

Not so long ago, major labels refuse to sign indie bands because they think niche marketing is too small for their bank account. But nowadays the public is smarter, tasteful, and sophisticated and unlike a decade ago, the regular pinoy can now breathe through music by Up Dharma Down, Daydream Cycle, Sheila and the Insects, and the likes.

Contrary to the labels' old school and stubborn mindset, good music cannot be exclusive to typically structured pop songs. Nothing against the genre. It's just been misconstrued too often and dangerously misunderstood.

When was the last time the major labels signed a band? And if they did recently how good is it?

Things are a-changing... the vision that was foretold is unfolding fast. Today you won't hear labels saying '(band name - and feel free to fill in your band's name in) is good pero masyado lang silang niche'.

Niche marketing is what works these days. Well it's been there long before the indie clout has gone big time but it is only now that it is most appreciated.

The good news is that the indies are staying in their niche because that's exactly how their music is supposed to work. But wait... before we all make the last laugh, let's figure out how music can put food on the table first.

And if I am right about this...

What is Mint?

Q : What is Mint?

A : Mint is any aromatic herb of the genus Mentha, having opposite leaves and small, whorled flowers.

Q : What?

A : Ok let me try again... Mint is a place where coins, money or paper currency, special medals are produced under government authority.

Q : Uh... okay. But I knew this one already.

A : Ok let me try again... Mint means fresh.

Q : As in fresh bands? Newbies? Debut? First time in Midweek Sessions?

A : There you go... perfect! Tumpak! Tagumpay!

Music strips and the poets

Poetry blends with any available template it could love. The most obvious and doable being verbal and print - the mind is your only lid.

Music however, turned out to be its new favorite partner in Midweek Sessions' Stripped last February. This romance was probably expected.

Thank you Bathalad Sugbu for guesting in the show.

About believing that something you do is special

Midweek Sessions' been around for 9 years now. Perhaps to some, it may seem like just an average club gig... even too ordinary for them to care. Small time production they call it. Maybe it is.

But then again maybe it isn't.

Mr. Ping, the Chinese goose noodle expert in the movie Kung Fu Panda revealed that the secret ingredient of the Secret Ingredient Soup was "nothing" yet it was special because he believed it was meant to be that way.

Sam believes that TLC is the only ingredient that makes her recipes work.

Entrepreneurs succeed because they believe their ideas can deliver a positive change in the community for the community.

Boats float, planes fly, and man landed on the moon because somebody believed it's possible.

Midweek Sessions too has a little secret ingredient. Its love for ideas. Its advocacy for original music. It's passion to inspire. This effort sustained. And believing more in it makes this believing a little more special, don't you think?

Midweek Sessions is not just an ordinary gig. I believe it's a special one.

Cupcakes for the good times and the change...

There are plenty of reasons to celebrate.

Last January 14, on the way to The Outpost, I thought it's a good time to recognize the show's performance - for staying this long in the music scene.

Here are some of the obvious.

1. After 8 years since the Dais, Midweek Sessions have finally survived for 3 consecutive years in its new home.

2. Like the Jews without a nation, Midweek Sessions shared the same little pains and successes and reemerged.

3. It's the first Midweek Sessions of the year.

4. Midweek's January Session showcases the Best of 2008.

Hmmm...the above mentioned should be more than enough. So on the way to The Outpost, I thought and asked Sam for an idea. She fueled in and suggested for cupcakes and binggala (thanks to Archie Uy for the wonderful photos).

Tadaaaaa!!!

There are plenty of reasons to celebrate.

Stripped = Music + Poetry + Beat

Rock groups cut in half. Poets on the loose. And the beat is just about non-stop in between. That's the idea. At least from how I imagine it to run. Since it's February next month, I thought Midweek Sessions should be a bit romantic this time and for obvious reasons of course.

I thought of an intimate set up but acoustic sets are just way too simple. Not only that. It's a very abused and overused concept. So I thought... why not reinvent? Add? Subtract? Multiply? Divide? Anything to get that new flavor to it.

Poetry perhaps?

Minimalistic but it could work.

Yes?

Yes.

Nice?

Maybe.

How's it going to work?

I don't know.

Hmmm...

Rock groups cut in half. Instead of the usual 4 piece rock band format, The Ambassadors, Rescue A Hero, and Juress will be stripped off half its lineup for this show.

Poets on the loose. Bathalad is perfect.

The beat shall be about Marc Nadela, Jay Young, and yours truly.

I have but a vague idea of how it's gonna be like. But if anything, I'm more excited than scared.