Publication:
MaximumRockNRoll

Author:
Felix Von Havoc

MRR #210
For those who haven't noticed the zine world is looking a lot more interesting lately with the return of Profane Existence (P.O.Box 8722, Minneapolis, MN 55408) and the new Short Fast and Loud (P.O.Box 420843, San Francisco, CA 94142). Unlike Heart Attack, MRR, Hit List and Punk Planet these zines focus on bands that I listen too. I don't know about you but I've never heard of, much less listened too most of the bands in Heart Attack, Hit List and Punk Planet. MRR at least runs some good interviews, although the policy of spotlighting "new bands" means that most of the bands that don't catch on remain unknown. Anyway, one of the letters to Short Fast and Loud criticized "Felix Von Havoc columns on how to be an expert record collector." Yes I spend a lot of time writing about records, I write about records because they are the medium that documents the MUSIC. You will also notice that a lot of my columns are about social and political issues, and more "how to" type articles to share knowledge and experiences with other bands and labels. I think some people are missing the point with what I am trying to do with this column. I am passionate and enthusiastic about punk and hardcore music. My objective is to expose lesser known, overlooked and under appreciated bands to the punk public at large with some critical insights. I rarely write about the values of records or their relative rarity. I also only write about records and music that I really like.

Alot of you will have noticed that lots of the really rare "Killed By Death" type stuff is really not very good musically (See the article in Better Off Dead about the most overrated rare records of all time). I’m currently working on writing a discography type book about 80's hardcore not to list every incredibly rare and obscure record but to highlight what I feel are the most important and influential records of the genre. OK got that.

Here then is part two of the adventures of Code 13 in the Pacific. For those who missed part One, we already discussed the planning and preparation of the tour, financial aspects, the Bay Area and Japan. We left Japan via Osaka airport, which is a pretty wild place as airports go. We flew to Manila, largest city of the Philippines. For those who don't know, the Philippines is an Island nation in SE Asia. The people are ethnically related to the Malay although there are some indigenous peoples here as well. The country was ruled by Spain from the 1500's to the early 20th Century. The USA took the Philippines from Spain in the Spanish American war and ruled it as a colony until 1948. Japan invaded the Philippines during World War Two and the reason usually given for granting Philippine independence was the "loyalty" of the Philippine people in assisting the USA to drive out the Japanese. There was an attempt to make the Philippines a state but it was rejected by the US Senate who balked at adding so many non-whites to the USA. The main language in the Philippines is Tagalog although there are many dialects on the different islands. English is very widely spoken and most signs on the street are in English. English is more of the language of business, higher education etc. while Tagalog is spoken on the streets and at home. Compared to Japan this made communication very easy. The Spanish thoroughly Christianized most of the country. Catholicism is very prevalent and taken really seriously, like in Poland or Italy. There is also a Muslim minority who is of course battling the government. These guys were in the news all over Asia for taking a bunch of hostages. Lots of people advised against visiting the Philippines due to the hostage situation. Look at a map. The rebels are fighting on Mindanao. That's a long way from Manila. That would be like not going to Chicago because of a riot in Miami.

The Philippines is a poor Third World country. There are a few really, really rich people and everyone else is either dirt poor, at best living a lower, lower middle class lifestyle compared to the US or Europe. Political corruption is endemic and generally accepted as the way things are. The Philippines was ruled for many years by the dictator Ferdinand Marcos who was propped up by massive US military aid. In the 80's Marcos was finally toppled and the Philippines became a democracy. But it is the same sort of democracy they have in Mexico or Nigeria, a democracy of corruption, nepotism, and bribery where, you guessed it, the rich get richer and poor stay poor. The US maintained a large military presence here until just a few years ago when our last bases were shut down. I couldn't really tell you what the main basis of the economy here is. The only the thing the Philippines seems to have in abundance is people. There are tons of Filipinos working overseas in Asia and the Middle East doing all the low skill, low wage jobs. There are also a lot of Filipino women in the sex industry in sex tourist centers like Bangkok and Amsterdam as well as in Japan. Capitalism, that brutally efficient system moves human flesh around the globe to supply the demand as if it were just another product. In general the Philippines seems dominated by Japan economically, all the cars and other manufactured goods were from Japanese companies. However, the culture is totally dominated by America. English is widely spoken, and everyone watches American TV, wears American sportswear, and listens to that horrid American top 40 pop music.

I hope I don't get myself in too deep here, but consider that in the early 20th Century Asia was ruled by colonial power, foremost among them Britain. When Japan decided to challenge the western imperialists they resisted and World War 2 was the result. The British, by surrendering Singapore rather than fighting to the last bullet like the Russians or Japanese would have done, basically gave up their control of the Pacific to the winner of the contest between Japan and the USA. The USA won militarily and became the dominant military power in the region. However, it was Japan that stepped in to exploit the "stability" afforded by American military hegemony. Therefore, Japan achieved its wartime goal of a "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" by corporate rather than military conquest. Now China is beginning to challenge the USA for domination of Asia. And I think I'm correct in observing that there is not the political will to fight for Taiwan when the inevitable Chinese invasion comes. This because the ruling class of the USA is so deep in bed with the Chinese dictatorship to get access to their cheap labor and resources. Why then the continued military umbrella for Asia? Why is America the mercenary army of global capitalism? Are our troops in Asia to protect America or just to protect Japanese and American multinational corporations who wield the real power in the world. The American victory in the Pacific in World War Two (in which Grandpa Havoc played a role as a bomber pilot) was really a victory of corporate neo colonialism over old style military colonialism. So aren't we the American working class the suckers here. We are footing the bill and providing the troops to make a few corporations rich off the workers of both Asia and America. And if war comes whose blood will be shed, ours.

OK that said, the Philippines has had a punk scene since the early 80's although it is largely unknown in the USA or Europe. There was once a club scene in Manila that supported live bands and there were some really good punk and hardcore bands here in the 80's. The sound tended towards Clash/Ramones influence and melodic So. Cal. Style Hardcore. I wish I knew more about this scene but I just heard a few tapes and talked to a few old punks about it. There is an article if not a book waiting to be written. Today the Philippines has a pretty large scene which is very US influenced. In fact the scene there seems to mimic the scene divisions we have the USA pretty uniformly. There are various SE factions, some emo type kids, spikey haired punks, lots of NYHC jock core types, crusties, and pop punks. There aren't that many shows as they are difficult and expensive to set up. The music is mostly recorded onto tapes and there is a very lively tape and zine culture. There are a lot of small zines and newsletters and almost all of them are in English. If you are interested in the Philippines scene it should be very easy to get dialed in through the many zines and newsletters just remember, it’s a very poor country so send IRC's or money for postage. I had a whole box of tapes and zines from the Philippines that I mailed back to the USA from Malaysia. Here it is September and that box still hasn't showed up yet. So for that reason I don’t have a lot of addresses to give you.

We arrived in the Philippines and what a stark contrast it was to Japan. In Japan everything was super clean, modern and uptight. In the Philippines its super hot and humid, everyone is poor and everything is old, dirty and run down. Three guys handled most of the organization of the tour for us Noel, Ban and Dennis. These three guys although they worked in different parts of the scene, were really nice, dedicated and did the best they could to organize our tour. However, most of the rest of the scene was, by our standards, very disorganized. There seemed to be a lot of inter scene politics going on all the time regarding what bands played when, on what equipment, where and when show could take place etc. We had originally planned to do five shows in the Philippines. By the time we showed up this was pared down to three, of those we only played two, and one of those we almost didn't play as Trevor was very sick. But I'm getting ahead of myself. We went to stay at Ban's place on the outskirts of Manila. Ban lived with his extended family and we stayed a small room with a dirt floor and a tin roof. There were roosters running all over the place, crowing at all hours. This was quite a contrast to typical American lodgings but despite their poverty the people here were super nice and very hospitable. We all got bitten by bed bugs and woke up by roosters crowing but the home cooked food didn't stop coming. We became local celebrities in this part of Manila and a crowd of little kids followed us everywhere chanting "Ice Ice Baby."

We spent the first few days hanging around Manila. This city is very crowded, 10 million people and that is expected to double in the next 20 years. The streets are narrow and jammed with traffic 24 hours a day. Most of the local vehicles are powered by second hand diesel engines from Japan. If I remember anything it was the pervasive smell of diesel fumes that blackened everything and burned my eyes and nose. There were lots of people everywhere all the time, everything was crowded and packed. Even big US cities like New York and Chicago its not so hard to find a little peace and quiet away from the crowds, not so in Manila. The principal form of transportation is the Jeepney a locally produced panel truck with the front end fashioned from world war two pattern Willys Jeep sheet metal. These are plated and painted up in a short of "low rider" custom style. You pay a small fee to ride in the back. These are all owner operated and seem to be the one of the main industries in Manila as there is no public transportation system. There were also a lot of bicycles and motor scooters fighting for space on the roads. The Philippine Peso was trading at about 40 to the US dollar. This made everything very cheap for us as far as food and drinks went. On the flip side it made the records, CD's and shirts we brought with us very expensive for the locals. The minimum wage here is about 4$ a day. As I mentioned before the culture is heavily Americanized. By that I mean the worst aspects of American corporate culture. McDonalds, 7-11, Burger King etc. were popped in next to tin roofed shacks and old style street vendors. There were also a number of American style malls. For whatever reason we were taken to several of these malls to hang out. I haven't hung out in a mall since I was 14 or 15 and it felt pretty strange to be playing video games in an arcade at a mall. In fact I'd have to say that except for some local cuisine we never really experienced much culturally here that was uniquely Filipino. Everything seemed to be bastardized American culture, albeit made in Japan. This is one of the real tragedies of neo-colonialism. Western corporate culture is destroying local cultures at a rapid rate. In a few years Filipino folk culture will be reduced to a museum piece level like traditional American folk culture. The Philippines has the fasted growing population in Asia and the slowest growing economy. As I said before the only major export seems to be people. The strong Catholic influence has prevented family planning while the corrupt government has concentrated any benefits of economic development in the hands of the elite. To me this is a recipe for disaster. No way does this country have the resources to support double its current population, and its virtually condemned to stay poor forever. Even if wealth was better distributed I don't think it could keep pace with a rapidly growing population. I'm short on solutions here. There have been various left wing/Marxist parties and rebel groups but we have all seen that that path just leads down the same road for most third world countries. A revolution followed by another corrupt one party state where all the wealth is concentrated in the hands of the party as opposed to the old elite.

Our first show was on the outskirts of Metro Manila. It rained all day and in the part of town where the show was to be was flooded. People kept apologizing to us, as it was not the rainy season, as if it was their fault. I mean I don't apologize about the snow here. In any case we showed up to the gig to find it was cancelled. I was mad about this at first until someone showed me the mark on the wall where the water had been a few hours earlier. It was like three feet up the wall. I felt kinda stupid then. The show organizer fed us a really good dinner and we went back to Ban's place. The Manila gig took place or a rooftop terrace of a closed down bar, owned by a guy who was in a NYHC type band. The gig started really late like 10 or 11 and maybe 20 bands played before us. They played really short sets but still it went on and on I think we played about 3:30 or 4 in the morning. The equipment and sound was really bad. Tiny little practice amps for a huge outdoor gig. There seemed to be a lot of scene politics going on about who got to use the good amps and mics etc. A lot of bands from different styles played. By our standards they were all pretty rough and sloppy. There was a lot of energy, but poor sound and lack of practice isn't a very good combination. My advice to the Philippine bands is to practice and tighten up the sound! We played a pretty wild set to maybe 300 kids. They were tired but rose to the occasion, despite the strain this turned out to be a pretty good set and I think the kids enjoyed it. This gig cost maybe 50 cents to get in and still most of the kids didn't pay to get in. There were a lot of "organizers" around with nametags on but not a whole lot of organization the way we would expect for a 20-band gig. Still it went off pretty well considering. Its easy to criticize other people's scenes comparing them to your own, however, I kept having to step back and tell myself that these kids had a lot more obstacles in organizing a gig than we do. That said, virtually nothing seemed to get done on time or thoroughly.

The scene here is the most male dominated of anywhere I've been in the World. There were very few women at the gigs or involved in the scene period. I think much of this reflected the conservative Catholic society. If American or European women were thrust into such a secondary position there would be an immediate feminist backlash. A lot of the guys we hung out with were married but wouldn't let their wives come to the gigs. If hardcore is going to reach these kids with any sort of message it should be a message that counts in the other half of the scene. This country is begging for a riot grrl movement or any other sort of revolt from within the music scene to give women some rights and recognition.

Due to the poor exchange rate we sold virtually no merch here. However, Ban brought Code 13 screens to the gigs and for a small fee (maybe 30-50 cents) he would print a Code 13 design on your shirt. This was super cool and DIY at its best. All during the gigs there was a clothes line in back of Code 13 Philippine tour shirts drying. Ban and his crew also released the Code 13 discography CD on Cassette locally at a price most local kids could afford. Unfortunately this didn't hit the streets until after we'd already played otherwise I think a lot more kids would've been familiar with our material. Once again a note to bands in the USA and Europe, try to release your material on Cassette in Asia! No one here can afford imported CD's and very few have record players.

After the Manila gig things got worse for us as the entire band got sick. Especially Trevor he had a high fever and could barely walk. He was puking all over the place; it took some cajoling reminiscent of Spinal Tap to get him on the bus to our gig in Lucena. I'd like to think I'm a tough guy but us White folks are just not made for life in the tropics. The diarrhea we picked up the Philippines stuck with us for weeks and all of us ran fevers of various intensity. The illness combined with the crowded and polluted conditions and lack or organization started to make us spoiled Americans pretty homesick. There seemed to be a lot of "hurry up and wait" sort of stuff going on, waking up at 8 am when you didn't play until 3 am seemed a little excessive. We crammed maybe 30 people into a short bus and drove about 6 hours to Lucena. I thought we would leave the city and hit open country but the population seemed pretty densely packed along the road all the way. The Lucena gig was in a big community hall, resembling a Catholic Church in size and layout. Once again it started really late and there were maybe 15 bands playing. The PA and amps were too small for a basement gig much less this huge place and as a result all the bands sounded pretty bad. There were maybe 200 kids there. I had to really lay it on to get Trevor to play this gig. He was passed out in the back of the bus, waking up only to puke and shit. But I managed to get him on stage and we struggled through a really sloppy and uninspired set. I would like to apologize to all the kids at that gig, as it's probably the second worse set we've ever played live. Trying to "rock out" when you are feverish and nauseous is a tall order. It was pretty wild though travelling deep into the jungle to this gig in an exotic locale and show up to find a table with kids selling Profane Existence and wearing T shirts of Minneapolis punk bands. The strong influence of Profane Existence in linking scenes and spreading DIY culture around the world makes me incredibly happy to see that it has returned. Everything in the Philippines is distributed in a DIY fashion, mostly just sold at gigs or passed hand to hand. I went to one record store in Manila but it just carried bootleg CD's and tapes of major label Death Metal and a few Jock Hardcore bands like Sick of It All and Earth Crisis.

After this gig we were supposed to go to the beach, however, the bus we had taken down from Laguna was leaving so we had to take the bus instead of going to the beach. All the money we would have gotten from the gig went to the Jeepney driver who was supposed to drive us to and from the beach. I don't think we would've had much fun at the beach any way as sick as we were. Our last night in the Philippines we had to get ready to fly to Malaysia and clean up for the flight and customs etc. As sick and tired as we were we pulled a real western rock star move and checked into a hotel. I'd say our morale hit the lowest point of the tour at this point.

Visiting a Third World country like this really made me consider how lucky I am to be American and how unequal the distribution of wealth is world wide, not just here in America. The poorest of poor here are still well off by Philippine standards. I did my best to have a good time in the Philippines and to accept that their scene is organizationally not able to compete with the standards we are used to in the USA and Europe. We made less than 100$ in the Philippines and it cost us an extra 600$ to go there. In retrospect it was a trip we couldn't afford but we did it because the kids invited us. That said I think it’s a long time yet before DIY hardcore bands can tour here and even hope of covering travel expenses. If you go to the Philippines think of it more as a vacation with some music on the side. One last thing that surprised me is that there was little contact between Filipino American punks and the scene in the Philippines. OK that wraps up the Philippines, next month Thailand and Malaysia!

Publication Date:
January 1, 1988

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