Musings on March & Music
FilAm Jam contributor Jammin reflects on March and shares some shows you can catch this Spring in LA
Here’s to April, to new Spring beginnings and perhaps to the true start of the year - where we start to realize the cool weather is gone, the sun stays out longer and our first 3 months free trial of 2024 is running out and we’re not sure if we still want to subscribe. Do we renew the commitments we made at the end of 2023 to eat well, be more social, control our screen time and really keep pushing through 3 more quarters? Is it really better to pay for subscriptions yearly than it is monthly? Does everything we do require a subscription, story and sale?
I find the month of March to always be such a fruitful and busy time for change due to the annuals that come with it - the Spring equinox, daylight savings, spring break and Easter for some and for myself this year: my birth month with three pay periods and a concert every week.
There’s definitely been a resurgence in my own being to once again search for live music - I’m a bit of a slow bloomer to reacclimate to the post-pandemic music industry, but this year I’ve felt driven to see shows and friends across SoCal and it’s certainly granted a bout of inspiration and excitement for future creative projects.
With this new beginning, my search brought me to some Local Filipinx jazz/r&b with touches of post-rock, San Marcos-born doomgaze and ambient, Taiwanese neo-psychedelia with near plunderphonics, Kampanpangan experimental noise punk, Silver Lake county country, funk from Reno and indie pop in the OC. When LA can host such a rich diversity of musical acts, you really can’t complain - other than having to drive yourself to Melrose, Downtown, Hollywood, Highland Park and Anaheim after a full work day I guess. Most notable of these shows were the stark moments of contextual clarity and contemporary calls to action that two of these artists brought into their sets. At separate shows, noise punk performers, Mirrored Fatality, and NPRcore outfit, Take Kare, both took moments between their hearkening artistic expressions to call forth the importance of anti-imperialist considerations for the well-being and future of our global communities - a balance of activism, mental health and personal creative expression in a live and communal setting that I wholeheartedly needed to see. As a contemporary-conscious Filipino American vying for a more liberated, knowledgeable and sustainable future, this is the kind of inspiration that fuels me to continue pursuing my own project under the name U.N.L. Rent-Network.
U.N.L.R-N, UNL, or even just Rent-Network, is most easily explained as a platform for Fil-Am news/journalism and educational media. We also specialize in music rights administration (copyright, licensing and royalties) and analog content creation, namely VHS and Reel to Reel (we can even burn you a few CDs and DVDs if you'd like).
The more complex name of the game is to unpack post-modernity, neoliberalism and consumer capitalism so we may look at contemporary Filipino-American Identity through the nostalgic lens of vintage media and further contextualize what makes up our unique community and expressions today.
If you too are searching for inspiration or drive within this time of new beginnings, I highly recommend looking to our local Fil-Am community for more opportunities of such nature!
St. Kio and Take Kare’s release of “Heavenly” - May 10th show at The Paramount
Reia’s release and music video of “Pretty Voice” - They're looking to book a show May 9th - May 14th!
Makina Driver’s Club “Parts and Service” - May 19th Community Event
Tobey Lynn - April 27th at the Flower Moon Festival in Garden Grove
No Translation and Marcheal Merza Ambient Sets - April 23rd or May 7th
Angela Franco’s pottery sale just ended but look how pretty !!
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