The SLEEPYHEADS! This is a band composed of three like-minded individuals (JOHN JAYVEE DEL ROSARIO, drums / vox / composition; ERICK ENCINARES, bass / production / composition, plus RICO ENTICO, guitars / cook. They have had other guitarists like "Tomas," "Marvin/S.T." and "B.J.," and we are only using their first names to make them LEGENDARY!). They were formed around late-2000, but they've been in and around PLAIN GARAGE/AVANT GARAGE bands since the eighties and nineties.
John Jayvee and Erick formed the band at a school called Trinity College after the two met while visiting a common friend. Finding out they both loved THE VELVET UNDERGROUND/JONATHAN RICHMAN, and wanted to add ROCK AND ROLL FUN to their Third World lives (misery, poverty, crime, pollution, chaos, plus HEARTACHE and MUSICAL BOREDOM) they decided to meet again and rehearsed old (circa 1988-93) original compositions in that style and named the band SLEEPYHEADS (after "Wake Up, Sleepyheads," a Richman song). They are FILIPINOS! And being Filipinos-- as opposed to being British or American or "Western"-- that is quite remarkable! How can Asian guys, thousands of miles away from the West, be able to appreciate and be inspired by these bands/music? Well, maybe that proves that ROCK AND ROLL IS UNIVERSAL! Add to that the ECONOMIC situation in the Philippines, where people would rather have sure-paying normal jobs (like being a carpenter, jeepney driver, POLICE, electrician, etc.), how did these guys get the COURAGE to start a Rock and Roll Band (!) even if money-earning might become a problem? Well, that also proves that ROCK AND ROLL DOESN'T CARE; DREAMS MATTER! And dream is what these guys do! That's why they're THE SLEEPYHEADS!
As a result of that dreaming, since 2000 the band has played numerous gigs (they get PAID A LITTLE, of course, just like electricians, drivers, cooks, cops, etc.!) and even managed to release independently-pressed and defiantly RAW cd-albums. They've recorded songs like "I'M NOT GOOD ENOUGH," "NATURE (LOVE IS LIKE)," "ADDICTION," etc. and packaged it and released it as the album "(DON'T LET OUR) TUNELESS MOANING GO TO WASTE)" in early 2006. Artist friends (painters, fellow musicians, filmmakers, etc.) have also helped them with their "career" and this album, particularly the promising and talented LOUIE CORDERO, who made the cover.
The band plays their original music and occasional covers at bars and art shows, selling their indie albums DIRECT ("Okay, after this set, meet us at the back and give us a few bucks and we give you our album with some drips of concert SWEAT, yeah!"). The music is PRIMITIVE: John Jayvee sings AND plays stand-up drums; Erick throbs a simple bass melody; Alex (or Tomas or Marvin or B.J.) strums and plucks a DIRECTLY PLUGGED (no effects) guitar with the rusty sound. That's how they pay their tribute to the Velvets, Modern Lovers and THE SHAGGS and RAW Rock and Roll, but the LYRICS/SONGS are all theirs! You could even say they're FILIPINO SONGS because of the fact that they're stuck in this country, experience it first-hand, and deliver it the PRIMITIVE FILIPINO WAY! "BOOTLEG ENGLISH" as the band would say. ROCK AND ROLL IS UNIVERSAL. So, USE ENGLISH, so everybody can understand!
And now, almost NINE ROCK AND ROLL YEARS on, the band is finishing their SECOND ALBUM! It will be called "MALNUTRITION OF LOVE.." Whereas the early music of the SLEEPYHEADS had some sort of innocent/stupid view of the world played in a RAW style, the new batch of songs are DARKER but still done in that RAW style! For the SLEEPYHEADS have gone through a lot of LOSS-OF-INNOCENCE experiences like deaths, separations, fights, intrigues, frustrations, SEXUAL ADDICTIONS (joke!), etc. AND ALL THESE EXPERIENCED IN AN EVEN MORE DEPRESSING (BUT ELECTRIFIED) ATMOSPHERE OF CHAOS, POVERTY, MALICE, HOPELESSNESS AND ANARCHY IN A THIRD-WORLD COUNTRY LIKE THEIR BELOVED PHILIPPINES WHERE GLUE-SNIFFERS ROAM AND COPS CRUCIFY LIVE CROCODILES!!! Ergo, the new song "RAT EATERS," plus mellower ones like "MALNUTRITION OF LOVE," "MY PROBLEMS (ARE DEPRESSED?!)," "HOMOSEXUAL HOSPITAL," etc., etc. (IAN CURTIS would giggle from the grave!). "MALNUTRITION OF LOVE" has an album cover painted by the modern great MANUEL OCAMPO, who did BECK's "ODELAY"back-cover art (check out the new DELUXE edition of Beck's masterpiece on cd!). Fellow Filipino Manuel is considered by the band as "ONE OF THE COOLEST FILIPINOS-- JUST LIKE JOEY SANTIAGO OF THE PIXIES!" And thanks to him, the SLEEPYHEADS are dreaming again and trying to fulfill their ROCK AND ROLL DREAM of being a band that would matter, always inspired by their heroes, never betraying their vision, and always doing it for FUN!
Members:
JOHN JAYVEE DEL ROSARIO
-
drums / vox / composition
ERICK ENCINARES
-
bass / production / composition
RICO ENTICO
-
guitars / cook
Contact:
For Inquiries and Bookings:
STEREOTONE STUDIO
the SLEEPYHEADS (encinares)
334 Gen. LUNA st. GB2
San Mateo, Rizal 1850, Philippines.
Mobile : 09174244289 / 09202154293
Email : sleepy_nc@yahoo.com
Schedule:
September
17
Sat
The Sleepyheads - 3rd Album Launch Route 196, Katipunan Ave.,
Quezon City
Discography:
(don't let our)
TUNELESS MOANING
(go to waste)
Label: --- Released: ---
Tracklist
addiction(3:00)
can't go to church (1:42)
dead poet (1:26)
excitement calls (2:56)
i'm not good enough (2:27)
janitor fate (1:37)
man who wasn't there, the (2:28)
monotone melody (3:45)
mystery plucker (2:56)
nature (love is like) (2:52)
positive for negative (1:55)
rescued (2:43)
tuneless moaning (4:11)
underdogs of sunshine (2:45)
"(DON'T LET OUR) TUNELESS MOANING (GO TO WASTE)" (2006): This is a true D.I.Y. album. Recorded in bedrooms and living rooms (or "garage") with minimum equipment, the Sleepyheads are attempting an album that would mix the Shaggs' "Philosophy of the World", the Velvet Underground's "Loaded", the Modern Lovers' debut album, Half Man Half Biscuit's "Back in the DHSS" (not to mention the 1960s/70s Filipino singer PEREGRINE's Richman-like heartache songs and his bubble-garage rock like trebly band, The Blinkers). Meaning: Raw, amateurish, nerdy, dark, funny and poppy! All songs are sang in "bootleg English" (Jayvee: "These are FILIPINO songs sang in Rock and Roll English, not American/British songs merely TRANSLATED by sell-out groups in Gutter Tagalog !"). They want to make foreign, as well as Filipino local (and provincial, who don't speak Tagalog), listeners UNDERSTAND and appreciate the Sleepyheads."Bootleg English" is their ticket to the GLOBALIZATION AS GARAGE-ROCK PHENOMENON (!), whatever you make of that. Song topics range from media "Addiction", to "Can't Go To Church" Catholic Guilt, to "Dead Poet" modern world disillusion, to "I'm Not Good Enough" rejection, to "Janitor Fate" reverse-career rebellion, to that Metro Manila street beggar "Mystery Plucker" blues sound. The MAXIMALIST artwork is a painting of estemeed New Filipino Modern artist LOUIE CORDERO. Get this: Maximalist Painting on the outside, Minimalist Music on the inside! Pressed on a mere 1,000 copies without Major Record Label support or Payola Publicity, the band "toured" various local clubs and sold the album after shows. Line-up on the album includes the brilliant Marvin Justo on "rusty clean-tone" guitar; Erick on (sometimes) one-string bass; and Jayvee on stand-up, three-piece drum kit and vocals. The great local Modern Art pioneer and University of the Philippines professor-artist CHABET (who was also the Cultural Center of the Philippines' first curator) LOVED the album, seeing DADAIST touches in the band's cut-up lyrics, calling its minimalisms "dressed down rock" and its songwriters "geniuses" (ahem!).
MALNUTRITION OF LOVE Label: --- Released: ---
Tracklist
DEMONIQUE
ESPERATE AND DATELESS
DREAMING AND WAITING 1K YEARS
HOMOSEXUAL HOSPITAL
MALNUTRITION OF LOVE
MISERY'S LAUGHTER
MY PROBLEMS (are depressed)
RAT EATERS
TIME TIME TIME
TO LOVE EVERYBODY
SEX BUYS MONEY
VIRGINITY ANACHRONISM
WALL, the
"MALNUTRITION OF LOVE" (Octoberber 2009, tentative release date): The upcoming second album. Brilliant album cover artwork by MANUEL OCAMPO, who painted the inlay of Beck's "Odelay". Darker, harder songs, but maintaining the funny, "politically incorrect" outlook of the Sleepyheads. Songs include "Misery's Laughter Ha-Ha-Ha" (about self-inflicted insanity ha-ha-ha!), "Virginity Anachronism" (probably a subconscious, 20-years-after delayed reaction to Madonna's "Like A Virgin"), "The Wall" (about getting numb to malice, with the pioneering Filipino Modern Art U.P. professor CHABET on "spirit percussion"), "The World is Demonic" (an angry, nervous dork/nerd/geek's reaction to a rape/murder news story he had just read about in the papers), "My Problems Are Depressed" (a parody on the glamourization of gloom, after watching the Ian Curtis biopic, "Control"), "Sex Buys Money" (mock disco complete with UN-funky bass and mock- CHIC guitars). The recording is still defiantly PRIMITIVE, but this time it was done in a cheap studio in a "just-bash-it-out-and- record-'em" way, to capture the band's trebly and frenetic LIVE sound. Song lyrics have "(D)EVOLVED" in a darker way (as ERIC CARUNCHO, noted local rock journalist, described in a July issue of the "Sunday Inquirer" magazine, after he was given an advance copy of the songs). Players on the album are Jayvee on drums/vox, Erick on depressed (!) bass and some keyboards, and Alex Paita and B.J. Esber on guitars. The band plans to play various clubs and sell the upcoming album after their sets.
