Bamboo Manalac (Marlo Cueto, NPPA Images)After stints with two buzz bands in two separate decades—Rivermaya in the 90s and the band Bamboo in 00s—Pinoy rock frontman Bamboo reclaims his Mañalac surname to his nom de rock and unloads a debut album that's fresh, unusual and expansive.

Entitled "No Water, No Moon," a Japanese koan that refers to sudden enlightenment, Bamboo takes his inner singer-songwriter out front in 12 songs marked by strings, piano and in a few instances, a gospel chorus.

This is not to suggest that "No Water, No Moon" is Bamboo's cold turkey comedown after the volume of his rocking years. What's likelier is that he has resumed probing the same sound that inspired him to be a musician, this time on more expressive terms without forsaking on his original ambition.

A 'film score' of an album

Bamboo has said that he was a film student in the U.S. during the break between Rivermaya and his namesake group. Along with the daily dose of American pop and rock, his exposure to soundtrack music came naturally.

That

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Brian O’Reilly and Darren Moore of Black Zenith. (Photo courtesy of Fete dela WSK 2011 organizers)Light & Space Contemporary is a three-storey art gallery located in a genteel upscale neighborhood in Fairview, Quezon City.

On the evening of Dec. 10, on a third floor room, a projector blinked cut-up texts and images on rows of unspooled tissue paper hanging from the ceiling. On the second floor, bulky garden stones sculpted like skulls appeared like sentries on both ends of a sofa. At ground level, two skull-headed Jollibee mascots, one in the usual bee costume while the other in gold-tinted dinner jacket, grinned toothlessly on the occasional passer-by.

At the back of the gallery stood a small warehouse where Fete dela WSK 2011 rolled out its sonic surprises on this side of Metro Manila.

There were at most 50 people at the venue—a mix of musicians, audience and art house staff, when Australia's Black Zenith prepared their equipment for the evening's performance.

'Swarms of squealing bats, droplets of metallic rain'

After a curt request to turn off the lights and without proper

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Lou Reed jams with Metallica in the 25th anniversary of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009. (Getty Images)

The collision of rock and art can lead to strange music. Even more outlandish when heavy metal aspires for the gilded crown of high art.

That was the initial reception when it was announced that thrash kings Metallica would collaborate in an album with Lou Reed, proto-punk Velvet Underground main man, rock icon and all-around 20th century miscreant following their performance together at the 25th anniversary Rock & Roll Hall of Fame concert series in 2009.

Metallica came out of the chaos of 70s hard rock and punk while Lou Reed honed his craft in association with 60s avant-garde musicians and artists including Andy Warhol then went on to influence glam rock, punk and new wave.

So with the punk godfather meeting the four horsemen of thrash metal, the collaboration was rife with promise (and perhaps doomed to fail).  People expected them to take their respective ground-shaking legacies to uncharted spheres.

"Lulu," their album, was released officially early in November but streamed over

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Kurt Cobain (Getty Images)This year marks the 20^th anniversary of the worldwide release of Nirvana's second album "Nevermind." Its significance has never been lost to a generation of musicians, critics, underground snobs and mainstream rock fans.

"Nevermind" transformed punk rock to grunge and yanked the music from under the radar. Previous to it, punk was associated with the scabrous underground rock of bands with dismal names like The Sex Pistols, The Dead Kennedys and, well, the Dead Milkmen. No future was written all over their music in commercial terms.

The arrival of "Nevermind" changed all the rules in favor of the nascent punk underdogs and the ensuing rise of grunge, and just about everything that can come under the alternative music tag.

Since lead singer and songwriter Kurt Cobain committed suicide in 1994, Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl formed the enormously-popular hard rock band, Foo Fighters, while bassist Kirst Novoselic formed a few bands, plunged into political activism, played a little with the

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Michael Stipe of R.E.M. (Getty Images)

After 31 years, R.E.M., one of the most influential bands of the 80s, is dead.

And now, as is wont by this blog, I pay my respects.

I pay it especially to "Murmur," the band's 1983 debut, the best for me of the 15 albums R.E.M. put out in its lifetime. It is (because I can't resist the pun) the one I love.

I was introduced to R.E.M. on a rainy night in 1983. I was stuck in the office listening to DZRJ when the opening chords to what I found out later to be "Laughing" played and charmed the socks off me.

I immediately rummaged for a used cassette (all you kids, Google is your friend) and slid it into the player. I pressed Play and for the next hour, I captured the rest of the album. (I must have made the first "pirated" copy, albeit incomplete, of "Murmur" at that time.)

Senseless lyrics, so what?

"Moral Kiosk" with Bill Berry's pre-new wave drum slam, "Catapult" with its shout-along refrain and rocking beat, "Perfect Circle" with its ringing guitar and piano interplay, and lyrics

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Edgar "Koyang" Avenir (Contributed photo by Bob Guerrero)When Edgar "Koyang" Avenir, jazz guitarist and musical arranger, passed away at the age of 61 on September 17, we lost a quintessential collaborative spirit.

Few people will instantly recognize the name, but in local jazz circles, he is considered among the bluebloods of Pinoy jazz.

He was responsible for shoring support for the first Philippine International Jazz Festival in 2005, which led to succeeding fests seeing the likes of Diane Schur, Flora Purim, Eumir Deodato and Lee Ritenour flying to Manila.

He also worked as arranger with Sammy Asuncion on Mishka Adams' debut album, "God Bless the Child" for Candid Records. The album was hailed for bringing "a fresh perspective to the (jazz) material" and for diversity highlighted by the vulnerability in Mishka's soulful vocals. It won Mishka the 2005 Awit Award for Best New Female Recording Artist.

Rock beginnings

Koyang started in rock bands as was fashionable in the early Seventies. As Pinoy rock leaped and bounded to new heights,

Read More »from Edgar Avenir: The passing of a legendary jazzman

Even (Contributed photo)PsorRocks!, a benefit concert conceived, launched and promoted by and for persons with psoriasis,  will rock the senses on August 20,  Saturday night, at the Baypark area, Roxas Blvd, Service Road near Raha Sulayman in Malate, Manila.

Psoriasis is a non-contagious disease characterized by severe itchiness that often leads to inflamed, cracked and bleeding lesions on the skin. It takes its toll mainly through the emotional, mental and psychological distress on the afflicted and those close to them.

Among the guest artists who will lend a helping hand are Calla Lily, 6Cyclemind, Up Dharma Down, General Luna, Kenyo, Gracenote, Slapshock, Even, and DJ Buddah. A number of established solo performers are expected to make surprise appearances in solidarity with the event's chief advocacy.

Not sympathy but empathy

Psorphil Executive Director Josef de Guzman says, "Staging a rock concert is one way to get people's attention and rally them to our cause. Their presence is actually a show of

Read More »from PsorRocks! shakes the disease @ the Baypark

Amy Winehouse (AP Photo)Two weeks after her death on July 23 at age 27, the rumors went on overdrive: a cache of unreleased Amy Winehouse songs about her brief marriage to Blake Fielder-Civil (true), a duet with Tony Bennett on the song, "Body and Soul," in advance of a new Duets album he is releasing in September (also true) and a collab with Cee Lo Green (never went past the discussion stage).

Face it:  following the shock of her sudden death, it hit us—a legacy of two albums that simply hinted at Winehouse's caliber and originality.  Two albums and that's it? Thus, the mad scramble to dig up her new recordings. After all, she last released her second and blockbuster last album, Back to Black in 2006. Surely, there must something more since then.

But, like many others, I went back to Black.

The first time I heard her hit song, "Rehab," I thought it funny in its cheeky wordplay although the music itself sounded a bit sing-songy, wanting in full-on display of killer hooks.

But the album opened a whole new can

Read More »from Oh Amy, Amy, Amy, Amy…