Music (Part 1)

Lately I have been thinking of how it was like being a music fan before the age of the internet. I mean, music information then was hard to come by, and most of it were crap. But I read 'em sometimes anyway, just because there was nothing else. During those days I never came across articles about Einstuerzende Neubauten or Ryuichi Sakamoto...it was more like New Kids On The Block (damn!) or something. Back then if you wanted to learn something new, to "experiment" if you will, you really had to dig deep. Plus you gotta be prepared to gamble that lunch money of yours...buying albums of artists you've never heard, just because their names and album titles, and artworks for that matter, attracted you. That's how I discovered bands like The Nymphs, Nirvana (hard to believe they were unknown then), Miranda Sex Garden, etc...plus a lot of "bad buys". But even before then, while still in elementary school, I was really drawn towards vinyl covers of those hairspray bands like Quiet Riot, Twisted Sister, Motley Crue, Kiss, Alice Cooper. Then in High School I thought how cool it would be to have hair like Ian McCulloch, Robert Smith and Richard Butler. They looked so badass and dangerous and different. I wanted to be a part of that.

Then even before the internet, back issues of magazines like The Wire, Raygun and Hypno strangely came pouring into Philippine shores, odd as that may sound like. There, in those pages my hunger for stranger things became more intense. I'd pass my days staring at whole page ads of Bill Laswell, William Orbit, Front 242, Projekt Records, 4AD, Cleopatra, Wax Trax, e:mit...and the list goes on and on. I mean, who are these people? What kind of demented mind would name their album "Ege Bamyasi" or call their band Cabaret Voltaire? Words of wisdom from people like JG Thirlwell, Pete Namlook, FM Einheit and others glared before my lustful eyes, straight from the lips of the artists themselves. I started realizing their visions, wanting to be part of that movement, if ever there was such a thing. And I've never even heard of their music.
Then one by one their albums started creeping into "specialty shops" in Manila. And one by one my "glam" collections started making space for Skinny Puppy, Nine Inch Nails, Nitzer Ebb, Future Sound Of London, Aphex Twin, Autechre...I was on drugs...better than drugs. Finally, I get to hear their music. It was like the first meeting with someone you've been in correspondence with for so many years. And the music failed to disappoint. I was in heaven...and I was never coming back down.