For Esmeria: with Love and Squalor

“There is a Light That Never Goes Out,” Morrissey would sing, and, for once, looking at an unbearable beauty straight in the eye, you somehow get a physical sense of what Moz means. If only for a few hundred words, get a sense of what it’s like facing (and confronting) the sublime godliness that is Paloma Esmeria.

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UNO Magazine’s November 2010 Contributors

The Eraserheads’ Unreleased Album Art by Cynthia Arre

WALTZ THIS KNEE: The Eraserheads’ Unreleased *Final* Album (2007)

“In February of this year, I got an unmarked brown envelope that bore the label “Hubad sa Kalsada [Mix-Down 001/2007].” Inside was a CDR. Playing it back, it revealed a bare, guitar-and-voice recording bearing that unmistakable falsetto (with the voice double-tracked, and with a bit of slap-back echo, a la Spector’s Lennon recordings, as in “Instant Karma”). It sounded sort of gothic folk, but sang in falsetto. This was most unusual. Insanely enough, I sometimes get unsolicited demos over e-mail from indie bands who ask for professional advice—to which I invariably say, “I’ll be as much help to you as a sack of hammers; see if there is a listing under ‘Rico Blanco’ in the white pages”—but this can’t be one of those demos. More to the fact, it is unmarked. I personally brought this up with suspect number one, Ely Buendia, but he unnaturally shifted gears, “You know what we don’t hear a lot? Good whistlers.” Such a strange, eyeliner-wearing man.”

Read the rest of the story in Uno magazine’s April 2010 issue (the FICTION special)

— written by Aldus Santos, art by Cynthia Arre

Repeat While Fading

This is a piece written by Luis Katigbak from our Jan – Feb issue. Writer and musician Aldus Santos celebrates and autopsies Pinoy Rock in his new book, Repeat While Fading.

Some wit once said that “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.” I suppose the implication there is that both are fairly pointless activities that fail to capture the essence of — well, anything, really. But you know what? Hell, I’d rather watch someone try to dance about architecture than dance about dying swans or the indomitable spirit of simple country folk or something like that. Dancing about architecture sounds pretty damn interesting.
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