Tuesday, September 11, 2012

SunDownMuse "Apathy is the Cure" Album Launch at 70's Bistro



I used to be good with blogging each and every gig I have. As the countless undocumented gigs go by, most gigs just meld into a blur. I haven't blogged very much in over a month. I will attempt to change that in the coming days and weeks. So going forward, I will just blog about the ones of note. This post is about the SunDownMuse album launch at 70's Bistro last July 14, 2012.

The weeks leading up to the launch, I admittedly had increasing issues with the band due to unfairness with distribution of costs versus their individual preferences. All of us band members have day jobs. And therefore aren't necessarily reliant on the music scene to fund our musical passion. The music scene these days, doesn't pave the way for earning a decent living. So any ideas of perfection in album recording, or loftiness in launching an album needs to be either sponsored or personally funded. I would hold back my preferences and concerns, so as to not delay the release of the album. I actually only ended up having percussion tracks in 3-4 of the 6 songs of the album (partly my fault for not having time for recording sessions). And yet I was paying out one of the biggest chunks for the album expenses. Of course, every band member has their own perspective. But I always felt that one's demands should be commensurate with the money their willing to shell out for it. I had a honest discussion about how I felt when our band leader prodded me to speak up. That surely brought unnecessary stress to all the work that needed to be done to get the album out there. Briggs, our band leader, was trying her best to be sensitive to my issues, of course. But at the same time, the core band members wanted to push the album out as best in form and fashion as possible. You can't find fault in them for wanting that. So all those issues of mine drew to a stalemate and I continued to cooperate with the direction the band decided to take with the album.

Fast forward to the album launch itself, my head was still riddled with band issues and concerns. However, a certain sense of pride welled up from inside me. What has been a very long time coming has finally come to fruition. This album was 10 years in the making. That was 10 years of countless gigs and good memories. So whatever issues I did have, I just instantaneously kicked out the door. I even ended up giving my bandmates hugs near the end of that night.

We had a number of other bands to play alongside us for the album launch; namely Mr. Andersen, Julianne, Goo, and Color It Red. Below are some of the videos that we took of the other acts. I will post videos of our set right after.

Julianne

Julianne contacted us last minute saying that she wasn't able to secure her full band for our album. Her bassist was at an out-of-town gig. So she asked if it was okay if she played an acoustic set. We didn't mind that all. We were big fans of hers ever since her acoustic duo days (with Deej her percussionist).

Julianne - 7000 Miles to Grow



Julianne - Buwan



These first two videos are unreleased songs. According to Julianne, they will be in her upcoming album (which is supposedly due out later this year).

Julianne - Unsaid



This is actually my favorite Julianne song from her first album. It was surprisingly touching for Julianne to just try to play the song acoustic even though she said she hasn't played it acoustic for a very long time.

Color It Red

Our band has been a long time fan of Color It Red. We remembered the countless times they would get us to play at their "AAA" events in BigSkyMind years ago. We never forgot how fortunate we were as a band to share in their music. So we made sure that they were a part of our band history as well.

Color It Red - If You Love Somebody Set Them Free [Cover]



I haven't sifted through the other songs from the video I took of Color It Red's set. I will get around to it some time and put them up in a separate post I suppose.

SunDownMuse

I thoroughly enjoyed our set in all honesty. I couldn't really connect with my bandmates on stage. But at least Gigo glanced at me every so often.

SunDownMuse - The Writer



SunDownMuse - Loaded



SunDownMuse - Carry On



Our old drummer, Balot, flew in earlier that day from Australia just so he can jam with us at the album launch. It was only fitting that he be there since the drum tracks of the album were recorded by him. It was so awesome to see him and jam with him after so long. "Carry On" was particularly fast though that night. Balot was going on hyper speed in his excitement I suppose.

SunDownMuse - Failing Days



Both songs turned out great with Balot on drums. That's even considering he hasn't practiced with us at all in ages.

SunDownMuse - Quarter Life Crash



SunDownMuse - Khattamshud



SunDownMuse - Sundowning



This is one of the new songs we put together with our current band member line-up. It was originally already an existing song that we probably only played once or twice ever. But the current line-up overhauled the music entirely only retaining the lyrics. I'm particularly proud of the ending of this song. I suggested that we were all in sync with the strokes to make the ending powerful. I think we got the desired effect as an end result.

SunDownMuse - Burned



Andrew, our current drummer, was supposed to play drums for this song. But he was gracious enough to let Balot play drums since this was one of the songs that was close to the old line-up's heart back in the day.

To our surprise, we collectively as a band packed 70's Bistro. A lot of people were standing because there were no more available seats. The bar even ran out of San Mig Light early on. I suppose the staff under-estimated the amount of people we would be able to bring in. The only disappointment I had was that I invited a lot of people to our launch but only a few actually showed up compared to my other bandmates who had droves of friends who came. But despite that, I was glad to see some of my friends show up, particularly Joseph, my bandmate from another band JR, Mikko and his wife, Jan, and my younger sister and her husband. That was good enough for me.


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