Despite the cool label, neither of these songs impress me. “Paiyakan” starts out like “Whittier Blvd” by Thee Midniters, but takes a turn into calypso territory fifteen seconds in. “Sunglasses” is light pop but works in that way.
I’m sure there’s great 60’s rock from the Philippines out there, but I haven’t heard much of it. There must be more than this, as Filipino bands were hired all over Asia as cover bands in night clubs. Can anyone contribute some?
R.J. and the Riots (Ramon Jacinto & the Riots) had many good cover versions and pop songs, but “Fuzzed” is a classic instrumental, sounding just like its title. Hear their odd take on “Shotgun” called “Teenstone” (?!) at Radiodiffusion Internasionaal, which also has some info on Ramon Jacinto.
Bobby Gonzales was better known for ballads, and he seems to have been a huge pop star going back to the ’50s, with some movie roles as well. The songwriter Levi Celerio is also famous in the pop and movie scene.
I have read that The Trailers from Singapore were inspired to add brass instruments to their line-up after being inspired by some of the more polished Philippines bands. So maybe the Philippines bands played a role in bringing an end to the rawer sounds from Singapore etc bands? One Philippines bands with the polished sound were The Brown Boys, who recorded Goin’ out of my head and Gimme little sign in Singapore. The Hi-Fi Twins also recorded in Singapore a few years earlier. They were backed by local boys The Kings and that’s a bit of a rawer sound. They did Papa Oom Mow Mow and Boom Boom. Check them out on Mr Ed’s site from November 2008.
the 2nd RJ & The Riots lp is cool especially advertising man, susie q & a couple of others.
i have a couple of philippino 45’s coming one by the downbeats doing gloria & the other being d’rebels doing oh yea. we’ll see what the sound like