I fuckin' love music! I love everything music and i love music related things like guitars and amps and drums and concerts and gigs and people who are involved with music and productions and working in the industry and of course i love listening to music! But if there's one thing that pisses me off about working in the music industry, its the fuckin' merch! Dont get me wrong, i love wearing all the shirts and seeing pins and hats and stickers and all that fun stuff, but putangina, i have never had a harder time dealing with merch than i am now!
For one thing, getting shit packaged is so much easier said than done! Sure, you could just use a plastic bag and its done, but if you want quality for the price people are willing to pay, then obviously you wanna produce something that at least looks good packaged, even if thats got nothing to do with the actual merch! Im fuckin' dealing with plastic bags of different sizes, impulse sealers and a blow drier to get it done and even with all that, i still gotta sort out cardboard paper cuz otherwise the package shrinks and crumples the magazine in the pack.
Surely i understand the need for all these things, but when your deadline was 2 weeks ago, you start thinking fuckin hell how hard is it to get a sample and check out the merchandise?!
Another thing, the fucking stickers that are gonna be put on the shrink wrapped merch. Man oh man oh man! Ridiculously expensive when you get quotations from suppliers, when in the end i learned that you can do it on your own with your own office printer and some sticker paper from national book store! So, from spending anywhere from 8k to 10k for 480 stickers, you can do it yourself for who knows how much, but definitely not in the thousands!
In the end, my problem with this isn't that i've had to figure out suppliers and who to call and what was needed (cuz this is my first time ever assigned to such a project), its that i had no one freaking guiding me and telling me what next step i needed to take in order to get this thing in the stores. Had someone in the office thought, "hey, he's new to this, he's never ever done anything like this, maybe i / we ought to help him?", this whole fucked up experience would have been completely different?! But no...im expected to know everything about everything when i've never even fucking heard the term shrink wrap!!!
And then man, there's the bar codes!!! This bit is one of the most irritating parts of this experience! Not only am i being harassed by my boss to produce them NOW, the only person that can guide me through what needs to be done is only guiding me on a step by step basis, like im some fucking idiot that cannot understand step 2 had she given it to me. Anyway, im just pissed off! This sucks!
And to think, i dont put it out of reality for my boss to fire me over this bullshit! Im on probation and if i dont deliver or impress him with what i am capable of, i just wont be surprised if he let me go. And that really sucks because i dont even have a job description! No one, including me (and of course my officemates) have a clue what im supposed to be doing in this office! So its not like i was hired to handle the merch, i was hired for this reason which quickly became that reason which quickly became another reason til finally i landed the production manager role, which pretty much has no role when there are no shows...so im really stuck in the middle and a hard place. Sucks man! And i love this job! I love the work and i love working with foreigners at their over the top professional ways!!! If i lose this job over merch, im gonna fuckin have a completely different and jaded view on the music scene and the people who run it...Fuck Me!
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
Shadow's Fall's "Retribution"
I met Shadow's Fall the first time they came to Manila. Actually, i knew they were coming and was really excited about their up coming concert but was saddened by the fact that i would not get the chance to see them as i was booked to be out of town that weekend. Luckily, PULP had decided to take the band to Boracay for a few days prior to the concert, which was exactly where i was booked to be!
So, one mid afternoon, i saw the guys walking down the beach with a videocamera and introduced myself! We got to chatting a bit then we went our separate ways! Later that night we ran into each other again only this time we were all drinking and having a great time!
I got to spend quite some time with Brian and he shared some stories with me as we sat on the beach passing a spliff to each other til it was dead and gone. Good fun and what a treat to hang with them, although i still wasn't gonna get to see the show! Fuck!
Retribution is an exclusive release in the Philippines done by PULP Live Productions! It contains 10 great tracks as well as a limited edition booklet which includes the lyrics to the tracks as well as photo's from their trip to Boracay (including a couple with me and my friends) as well as shots from their performances at A-Venue as well as the PULP Summerslam 9.
Grab a copy of this great new album and enjoy the songs and get tripped out by their trippy booklet!
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Apparently i know Kelly Clarkson Songs!
Been working for PULP now for just over 2-3 weeks and its been really interesting! In my first week i just worked on the Super Junior Super Show. On the 2nd week, it was preparations for the PULP Summerslam. Now is my 3rd week and were getting ready for the Kelly Clarkson Live in Manila "All I Ever Wanted" tour. At first my joy out of this came from loving the production side of putting together these big events. Like with Super Junior obviously its not music i listen to but man from the stage to the lights to the LED Screen and everything that came with it just made it so fascinating!
Now with Kelly Clarkson, its the joy of being able to put together her needs to do a concert! Yesterday we were youtube'ing her and realized that we all know or have at least heard so many of her songs. Songs were all catchy and great and im sure ill be singing along much more than i first thought!
Im excited for this show, even if im not that big a fan. I know its gonna be an awesome 19-song concert set and im sure she's gonna be putting everything she's got into this show! Are any of you guys coming? Would be cool to see friends there too!!! Lets go!
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Rhea & Miggy are getting Married!
Hi Guys!
Were getting Married!
Check out our little video that we made just for you guys!
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Hi-C and Playboy!
I really am quite lucky that i get to go to all these random events with VIP passes that let me frolic anywhere i choose to.
Last wednesday, Hi-C released her first solo album and celebrated it with her cover appearance on Playboy. Though i haven't heard the album, the songs are catchy and she's fun to watch!
Feel free to have a look at these photo albums.
Last wednesday, Hi-C released her first solo album and celebrated it with her cover appearance on Playboy. Though i haven't heard the album, the songs are catchy and she's fun to watch!
Feel free to have a look at these photo albums.
Thats me in the middle :)
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Blues Night at Brewsco
Brewsco celebrated a night of blues last night and we were booked to play along with DRT, Southern Grass and one more band who i dont quite know...
It was a wicked night! We had a couple of beers before going onstage, had a smoke as well with some of the guys of southern grass and decided to take the stage before SG as we were good to go and they weren't.
We weren't told how many songs to play or how long our set could be so we mustve played about 8 songs, typically that aint that much but our songs are quite long so what is sometimes a half hour 8 song set for us was more likely an hour or more! Good fun though, i think we all jived well with each other and were tight all throughout! We all enjoyed and the audience seemed to dig us as well with their screams and applauses.
I have to say that southern grass and drt played really good too! We kept drinking as the night progressed and finished the smokes that remained. When that band who's name i cant remember sound checked to fuckin' careless whisper i got the hell out of there!
Thanks to Joseph Araneta for hooking us up! We love playing for your productions man!
It was a wicked night! We had a couple of beers before going onstage, had a smoke as well with some of the guys of southern grass and decided to take the stage before SG as we were good to go and they weren't.
We weren't told how many songs to play or how long our set could be so we mustve played about 8 songs, typically that aint that much but our songs are quite long so what is sometimes a half hour 8 song set for us was more likely an hour or more! Good fun though, i think we all jived well with each other and were tight all throughout! We all enjoyed and the audience seemed to dig us as well with their screams and applauses.
I have to say that southern grass and drt played really good too! We kept drinking as the night progressed and finished the smokes that remained. When that band who's name i cant remember sound checked to fuckin' careless whisper i got the hell out of there!
Thanks to Joseph Araneta for hooking us up! We love playing for your productions man!
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Junkies play Magnet and have a party!
We played last tuesday at Magnet in Katipunan and though there weren't all too many people there, we had a blast being onstage together and in front of some of our friends who hadn't seen us in quite awhile. Special thanks to Aussy for hooking us up with the gig the drinks and the food, we loved it all! Also a special thank you to Gasulina who not only played a great set before us, but went on to lending us one of their guitar amps! Awesome stuff man!
After the gig, we headed out to Route 196 for a few beers. I was happy to see that Gaijin was on the bill and even happier when we entered and found them already onstage! It was too bad that we were being charged and chose not to pay the entrance cuz we didn't even know if Gaijin was already the last band and maybe even playing their last song...so, instead, we went back to my place.
All in all it was Nino and Niko of the Junkies, Carla Laus who is an old friend from many years ago, Rupert Oldham who was the man in charge of booking us a fantastic 3 night series of shows in Saigon in Vietnam, as well as LC De Leon the guitar player of the year who plays and fronts Reklamo. Gabby Alipe of Urbandub and I are housemates and he came downstairs to join us too when he heard the noise we were making downstairs and soon followed Paul Velasco, drummer for Cosmic Love most notably but has played with many other bands already.
It was a great little crowd and in no time there were all sorts of conversations going on and was really good fun! We sound tripped, had shots of beers that came out of Red Horse Grande bottles, and of course...smoked our lungs out! It was crazy in its own ways and the laughter throughout was energetic. We spoke of the progress of Urbandub's Recordings, we made suggestions to Rupert of who else he should see while he's in the country, we made other plans as to other things we can do to show him a good time, i got to hang with Carla for a bit too but since i could tell she was tired, i shut up and let her take a nap. It was a cool night and though our place can get pretty hot even at night, this was a particularly cool night and everyone was comfortable.
I hope for more unplanned great nights like these to come in the near future! But thank God that it was only been we were drinking cuz i aint on holiday and its virtually impossible to get to work the next day had i been drinking harder stuff. Til the next time!
After the gig, we headed out to Route 196 for a few beers. I was happy to see that Gaijin was on the bill and even happier when we entered and found them already onstage! It was too bad that we were being charged and chose not to pay the entrance cuz we didn't even know if Gaijin was already the last band and maybe even playing their last song...so, instead, we went back to my place.
All in all it was Nino and Niko of the Junkies, Carla Laus who is an old friend from many years ago, Rupert Oldham who was the man in charge of booking us a fantastic 3 night series of shows in Saigon in Vietnam, as well as LC De Leon the guitar player of the year who plays and fronts Reklamo. Gabby Alipe of Urbandub and I are housemates and he came downstairs to join us too when he heard the noise we were making downstairs and soon followed Paul Velasco, drummer for Cosmic Love most notably but has played with many other bands already.
It was a great little crowd and in no time there were all sorts of conversations going on and was really good fun! We sound tripped, had shots of beers that came out of Red Horse Grande bottles, and of course...smoked our lungs out! It was crazy in its own ways and the laughter throughout was energetic. We spoke of the progress of Urbandub's Recordings, we made suggestions to Rupert of who else he should see while he's in the country, we made other plans as to other things we can do to show him a good time, i got to hang with Carla for a bit too but since i could tell she was tired, i shut up and let her take a nap. It was a cool night and though our place can get pretty hot even at night, this was a particularly cool night and everyone was comfortable.
I hope for more unplanned great nights like these to come in the near future! But thank God that it was only been we were drinking cuz i aint on holiday and its virtually impossible to get to work the next day had i been drinking harder stuff. Til the next time!
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