Ney still rocks. (Contributed photo by Rose Pablo)Two years after leaving 6CycleMind, its former front person Ney Dimaculangan receives an award for Best Performance by a New Male Recording Artist from the last Awit Awards.

It’s for a piano-driven ballad entitled “Ligaw” from his solo debut album simply titled “Ney” released in 2012.

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Previous highlights of his solo career were collaborations with Yeng Constantino on the soundtrack to the ABS-CBN telenovela “Imortal” and on the Eraserheads all-covers tribute for the film “The Reunion.”

He has also become a favorite celebrity judge and mentor in the noontime show “Showtime.”

Out to try new things

As for stepping out of the 6CycleMind gravy train, he says, “It was an amicable parting of ways. It came at a point when I wanted to try out new things and the band was also seeking other musical directions.”

He was not afraid to go solo, knowing he could count on the support of his former bandmates.

WATCH VIDEO: Gloc-9 wants you to vote responsibly

“We

Gloc-9 has been as busy as politicos hawking promises these days.

On the week of the official start of the campaign season, the rapper unleashed two songs advocating for clean, honest elections.

The first song entitled “Dapat Tama” debuted Monday night, Feb. 11, on the GMA evening newscast “24 Oras.”

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Gloc 9 performs the song with his protégé, pop singer Denise Barbacena, to serve as soundtrack to the Dapat Tama advocacy of GMA Network’s News and Public Affairs group.

Not playing the blame game

In lyrics and gestures, Gloc 9 and Denise call on the voting public to use their minds and hearts in deciding who they will vote into office. The lines go: “Kung di tayo kumbinsido wag na natin ihalal/ Dahil sa dulo bawal ang kakamot kamot.” (“If you’re not convinced, don’t vote for them/Cause at the polls, you don’t start scratching your head.”)

In an email exchange with Yahoo! Philippines OMG!, Gloc-9 says, “I can easily say that the song expresses

ChicoSci has been an operating unit since 2002 and the songs on the new album, which comes three years after their last, remind of the old melodic sound of the band even as a few tracks look forward to the future.

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“This Is Not A ChicoSci Record” opens with a beat-driven instrumental and closes with a series of raps over a simple funky beat. Sandwiched in between are hook-laden rockers and a curious lounge number entitled “Alexandra.”

Singer Jimmy Cliff (On stage at Theater Circo Price on July 16, 2012 in Madrid, Spain. Photo by Carlos Alvarez/Redferns via Getty Images)Third time’s the charm!

On its third year, the annual Malasimbo Music and Arts Festival, happening in Puerto Galera, Mindoro from March 1-3, 2013, promises to draw the biggest crowds yet.

Reggae legend Jimmy Cliff top bills the second day of the Festival while blues siren Joss Stone closes the Festival. Filipino art-folkies Grace Nono-Bob Aves Group headline the opening day.

READ AND VIEW PHOTOS: The girl at the rock show

Each day, new local acts will support the headliners. At the press briefing at the Sofitel Hotel on Jan. 16, the organizers announced that four relatively unheard of acts have already signed on to play at the Festival. They are punk-electronica outfit Similar Objects, Davao-based ethnic funkateers Jazlagiba, soul providers Yolanda Moon and lounge explorers Ivan Theory.

More new acts will be announced this month.

U.K. paper sings praises

Concurrent with the music fest will be the visual installations on show at the sprawling Malasimbo Sculpture Garden. Joining the

So I went through the pile of CDs I had on hand and realized that some of the best local acts that released albums in 2012 played at Rockout Fridays, the (still ongoing) live band night at 7th High at The Fort in Bonifacio Global City.

Here’s a sampling:

Funk to make Karl Roy proud
GAYUMA
Silaw

"Silaw" by GayumaThe band whose members still shuttle from Batangas to gigs in the metro cites P.O.T., Incubus, Lamb of God and Jamiroquai among their influences. Stitching bits and pieces of those primal elements to fashion their own sound, Gayuma still comes through like acolytes of the late Karl Roy’s various incarnations in his lifetime.

It’s not exactly a bad thing because “Silaw,” which translates to momentary blindness, moves through a repertoire of hot funk, rock and roll and jazzy ballads on their own terms.

What’s more, the band displays lyrical finesse, equally at ease with biting political commentaries and long sad goodbyes.

Live, Gayuma, which roughly means charm, is a dance machine fueled by funky

On New Year ’s Eve, record producer and The Youth bassist Robert Javier issued a cry for financial help on Facebook. His mother suffered a stroke while on vacation in Cebu and Robert had no money to defray his mom’s mounting hospital bills.

When Bong Pascasio, frontman of ‘90s rock band Grin Department, was diagnosed with colon cancer, his former bandmates and supporters put up charity concerts to raise funds for Bong’s treatment. An online campaign for donations was also launched.

RELATED: Frontman of Grin Department passes away

“Ganito na lang ba palagi? Concert dito, concert doon kapag Stage IV (cancer) na?” asked chanteuse Skarlet (real name: Myra Ruaro) of what has become standard procedure to raise funds—often, too little, too late—for desperately ill musicians?

Working for the love of Pinoy musicians: Gou de Jesus, Cooky Chua, RG Salazar and Skarlet. Photo from HOM.

Remembering Susan and Koyang

Skarlet, of Put3ska and Brownbeat All-Stars fame, remembers deeply mourning the passing of protest singer Susan Fernandez from ovarian cancer in 2009.

She could not accept that in ill

Blues legend B.B. King once said of the late guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan: “Playing the blues is like having to be black twice. Stevie Ray Vaughan missed on both counts, but I never noticed.”

The same can be said of the seven Pinoy bands featured on the recently released compilation “The Roadhouse Manila Bay Pinoy Blues Jam” under Roadhouse Rekords. The all-blues album features 18 tracks, 14 of which are original compositions by select homegrown blues bands that regularly gig at The Roadhouse Manila Bay blues club. Four of the 14 originals are in Filipino.

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The artists include Dr. Crowley, Memphis International Blues Competition sensations the Bleu Rascals, 69 Proof (60s garage rock by way of Screaming Jay Hawkins), self-confessed Chicago blues fans Ian Lofamia Band, the pop-rockish Tarantulas, rockabilly slashers Sangre Blues Revival and blues-with-a-metal-makeover Plug.

The cover of a new album with 18 tracks from 7 Pinoy blues artists

Heart and soul

It is this mother lode of blues talents that drew

concert poster

When Wolfgang mounts the stage at the Irwin Theater of the Ateneo de Manila University on Wednesday, Nov. 28, they will be celebrating "Dos Ekkis (XX)" or 20 years of hounding audiences everywhere with their brand of hard rock.

In looking back, Basti Artadi, Manuel Legarda, Mon Legaspi and Francis Aquino share with Yahoo! OMG! 20 of their best moments as a band:

1. Bassist Mon Legaspi joins the band  in 1992.

20 years of rock & roll (Contributed photo by Lizza Nakpil)2. "Summer Rolls," the first song we ever wrote as a band, never made it to any album but it showed we were capable of writing music together as a unit.

20 years of rock & roll (Contributed photo by Lizza Nakpil)

3. "Halik ni Hudas" in 1992 was the first song Mon Legaspi wrote for the band in Tagalog and showed all of us that we had another weapon in Mon's caustic words.

4. The first time we ever boarded a plane to play a gig in another part of the country. We thought that day would never happen and one day it did.

5. We could never truly describe the feeling of recording and putting out our first album in 1992.

6. Our first overseas