At the invitation of the boyz from Yupangco, I caught Yamaha's "Asian Beat Band competition" at Hard Rock Cafe Saturday afternoon. Grand prize winner was Hogcanary! They won $1000, a Yamaha drum set, a one-year Yamaha contract (to do what, I dunno, but maybe it means an endorsement deal) and they will represent the Philippines in an international band competition.
The Big Shocker: the lead vocalist lost a lot of weight since the last time we saw him!!! From a chunk of blubber, naging hunk na siya, which can only help the band marketing-wise. But I don't think I can nominate him for Mike's baseball battery brigade anymore!
So no more "hog" in Hogcanary.
The only problem is most Filipinos will probably have some initial problem pronouncing their name. When the judge announced them as grand prize winner, he pronounced their name as "Hog Cannery" - which brings to mind a spam factory, hmmmmm.
Music critique: Each band performed an original song. The Hogs' sound reminds me of Razorback, that tight chug-a-lugging rhythm section, full bodied vocals ala Kevin Roy, and dual-guitar attack - but!! the unison guitar work is a lot flashier and intricate than the usual Tirso-Dave blues-based riffs. I'm not sure if this is an accurate description but its more like prog-rock guitar grafted into a more basic rock rhythm section. Nice guitar harmonies too (ahhh Allman Bros??) - maybe Perf can describe this better.
The other bands were very good too. There is a lot of talent out there that we never heard of!!! Why are all the mediocre "alternative" bands the ones doing the demos and sending them to radio stations?? hehe --- one of the bands that won (third place) was doing very intricate original prog-rock 7/8 tunes ala Dream Theater - very good keyboard work too, fronted by a female vocalist who also played some piano. They're called Fuse Box and their clockwork precision literally gave me goosebumps because that kind of musicianship is very rarely heard 'round here.
Best name of the evening was a band called "Extra Rice". That name would look good in a poster along with the other food bands like Sandwich, Cheese, Garlic, etc. Their sound was more like Introvoys styled pop-rock, not my cuppa tea though.
