Thursday, February 7, 2008

Oh! Yeah! I wanna riot!--Slam Dancing to Pinoy Punk Rock



Golly gee whiz, Filipino punk rock does exist!

In my very first post, I shared my experiences of frequenting my hometown's local punk/ska scene as seemingly the only Filipina at any of those shows. It was almost comical at times since I would often show up with my buddy, Andy, a big tall Black guy with a heart of gold, who was also an aficionado of Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Operation Ivy, and the like....Andy and I, along with the rest of our friends, would often arrive at these gigs amidst stares ranging from mere curiousity to sheer puzzlement, which seemed to imply:

Dude, are you in the right place? SNFU is playing tonight not Run DMC....

Okay, so no one ever came out and said that but like I said, their stares often said it all. And the thing was, I also happened to listen to Hip Hop, Trip Hop, Indie, and Classic Rock--Who the f*** cared? But once I got older and started checking out DJ buddies of mine spinning Breaks and Jungle beats at local clubs, I would be one Pinay in a sea of other Filipinos so I was always treated with a special kind of respect--the nod--like I was their long lost brethren.


So what did this all mean?


I wasn't sure. It was something that I was aware of, but couldn't quite put my finger on.


So years whizzed by and this subject fell right off my radar as university, relationships, and careers begin to take centre stage. That is, until recently....


After starting my blog and writing that first post, it seriously got me thinking. Are there actually Filipino punks and rude girls/ boys out there?


A night of unscholarly research via GOOGLE and an entire bag of Clodhoppers turned up the answer I was looking for: YES!


Issues of race, identity, politics, activism, and resistance becamse apparent in the voices of :


ESKAPO--a Filipino American hardcore band outta Vallejo, CA



KADENA--a Filipino American punk band from Brooklyn, NY


T.R.A--a Pinoy punk/ska band from Cainta, Rizal Phillipines


Delubyo--Filipino American hardcore band outta Vallejo, CA


Shuffle Union--Pinoy ska band from Quezon City, Metro Manila


Marcos Cronies--Pinoy Ska band from Angeles, Pampanga Philippines
Put3Ska--two-tone ska outta Manila

I.O.V., G.I. the Idiots, Betrayed and Dead Ends--Filipino hardcore godfathers circa 1980s



What I realize now is that I shouldn't have been surprised. Extreme poverty and the seemingly endless generations of political instability--most recently marked by the corruption of Marcos, Ramos, Estrada, and Arroya--naturally went hand-in-hand with the origins of punk rock ethos. Instead of Joe Strummer and Johnny Rotten expressing their disillusionment in regards to the British monarchy and blatant classism in the UK, Pinoy hardcore trailblazers, Urban Bandits, were screaming their angst about the political assasination of Sen. Ninoy Aquino, a man seen as a symbol of hope in succeeding the notorious Marcos. They were all voices of punk rock resistance, only separated by geography.


And in discovering this rich history of Pinoy punk rock, I couldn't help but feel a sense of personal validation. My identity had been legitimized in much the same way I had suddenly become relavant when I went from being the only Pinay kid in Elementary School, to becoming one of many Filipino Canadians in High School. I wasn't the only one....


As a very fitting end to this post, I'll leave you all with this great documentary made by a group of Filipino American students at the University of San Francisco entitled, Rock and Resistance: Filipino American Identity Beyond Bebot (**"Bebot" is a reference to a Black Eye Peas song of the same name, which translates into 'hot chick' in Tagalog**). The documentary spotlights the contributions made by Filipino American musicians outside of the realm of Hip Hop.


Rock and Resistance: Filipino American Identity Beyond Bebot (Pt. 1)

(Pt. 2)

An Unofficial History of Philippine Punk

Philippines--80s Hardcore

Razorcake zine--"Philippine Hardcore/ Punk Scene Report"

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here's one. Put3Ska. Filipino ska band straight from the PI. The sound is very much 2-Tone/Specials era. I had a tape. But lost it. Shame on me.

BAMBOO BLITZ said...

Right on, soupnumber5! Thanks for the reccommendation--I'll definitely check them out and add a link to this post. Cheers buddy!

Indigo Indica said...

Pinoy Rock, Rocks!!!!! Let's show the world, our voices shall be heard!

BAMBOO BLITZ said...

Cheers to that, dewimagenta! I'm so excited that I found all these bands...

nicobeyn said...

thanks for the info! it nice knowing pinoys in different countries still into punk. I thought I was old with this. but still.. oi oi oi oi!

xmabaitx said...

I came upon your blog while performing my occasional google search for Filipino punk. I can definitely relate to your experiences of being the square peg in the round hole when it came to negotiating between my punk identity and my unapologetic ownership of my identity as a person of color. (I've got tons of stories to share)

Pardon the shameless promotion:

I'm fortunate enough to play guitar in a hardcore band with Rupert Eskapo.

myspace.com/echoofbullets

Also a page that Rupert put together...
http://www.myspace.com/pinoipunkscene

Joshua xvx

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