Friday, July 18, 2008

back to (old) school

one time as i was about to withdraw some cash at the nearby atm at the pasir ris mrt station, my attention was caught by this blind man who was singing and playing his guitar. the song was U2's with or without you, and he sang it well. so well in fact that it made me stop and stay there for a while as he finished his song, together with a number of people who also stood by to watch him sing. i tell you, he was so good that it gave me goosebumps and made me drop a $1 coin into his box. that evening, i copied all my U2 songs (how to dismantle an atomic bomb & U218 singles) into my mp3 player and for about a week they were all i listen to as i get to work, starting off with beautiful day, which as lia suggested, is the song you should wake up to every single day.

as i was browsing thru my mp3s, i also realized that i don't have much current ones, save for the occasional downloads whenever i hear something catchy in the tv series that i watch. and they're not even the popular songs that they play in the radio every 3 hours or so. i dunno what happened, but when i was younger, i was addicted to mtv and channel [v], one reason why my adviser reprimanded me for not getting into the honours list back in high school. now, my collection is a bit stagnant, but i'm fine with it.


anyway, ever since the revival of U2 in my playlist, i started listening again to songs by my all time favorite bands, i.e., the old school bands that i grew up listening to. i'm talking about the likes of nirvana, pearl jam, stone temple pilots, live, REM, radiohead, smashing pumpkins, gin blossoms, bush, etc. whenever raymund and i listen to these songs, i always take pride in the fact that i knew them first before he did, thanks to my exposure brought about by my brother and musically inclined guy friends. and mtv too, let's not forget that. mtv had so much better shows then, especially since that channel is now bombarded with reality shows that have little to do with music, if not none.

these days i usually opt to watch music videos of these bands in youtube. i also get to appreciate them more - qualitywise, since i can compare them with the more contemporary ones. personally, i think the 90's has the best songs that are bound to become classics minus the outdated feel. brings back a lot of good memories too. like that time i thought gavin rossdale was the most goodlooking guy i ever saw, that i even chose a postcard of bush for our resin picture frame project instead of a family portrait, much to my mom's dismay. :P

right now, i'm kind of hooked on watching the acoustic versions because you'd really get to hear how well they can sing. so far i only have a handful of guys who really wowed me with their singing skills. these are scott weiland (STP), maynard james keenan (APC), jon mclaughlin and michael johns (AI, woohoo!) :P

eye candy of the moment: scott weiland in the mtv unplugged version of creep. there's nothing more attractive than a tortured man singing his heart out. ;) watch!!