Refer to The Ex-Presidents Combo
HE punk revolution was all about going against the grain, sticking it to the "man" and the culmination of all that was anti-establishment. Here in the Philippines, it was the voice of the youth pushing the boundaries of what was considered the norm and conforming. And it was one loud, screechy, screaming voice paired with clothes that nobody understood--ripped, mismatched and disheveled, and hair that went against all rules of gravity by seemingly poking the stratosphere. The higher, the better; the weirder, the better; the more disturbing, the better.
"We are Cueshe and contrary to popular belief, we are not a kick-ass band." This is my most vivid memory of the Ex-Presidents Combo of the first ever time I saw them play. I first encountered the Ex-Presidents Combo when I had attended one of the Panic nights in Zen at Glorietta 3. I had not, unfortunately, heard of them before this, and had only heard rumors of an album of theirs irreverently called The Greatest Hits?, which has, apparently, gone down in the local music scene as a myth, as no one can really find it nowadays. Though they did open for the UK band The Barbs a little over a year ago.
They have become synonymous with the punk scene here in the Philippines, right along with the re-emerging band Betrayed.
I was soon kindly introduced to Pepper (who is, by all accounts, the Filipino answer to Johnny Rotten, just as Joey "Pepe" Smith was our answer to the hippie), et al. I must say, it was an experience. I was then asked to do an interview with them, I said "yes" without hesitation. I racked my brains on how to go about it. I knew it could not and should not be the usual "let’s all sit down and talk about yourselves" type of deal. That would have been an insult to their style. This was not going to be a "normal" interview, by any means. So I decided to go about it the punk way: concise, straight and in your face; in other words, pakapalan na ng mukha. I let them answer the questions how they wanted. When I presented them with the questionnaire, they snickered and said they’d give it a shot, because, hey, WHY THE HELL NOT? So here it goes:
Who are the members of the band?
Pepper "vocals" Andres. Dax "gitara" Gomes. Erwin "bass" Edralin. And Nonong "tambon" Timabaopez
Why the name?
It sounded freaking amazing, that’s why.
How long have you guys been playing together? Why did and what made you start playing?
How long??? Forever. Why? IT WAS MEANT TO BE! (I loved this answer by far!)
Why have you only returned to the scene now?
Because a friend was in need of a punk band (to play). (That would be Alessandra Tinio, the instigator of what is now Panic in Zen every Tuesday night.)
Are all your songs covers / remakes, or do you guys have original material?
We have originals but they suck so it’s better to play covers.
Do you think you’re presidential material? Are you presidential material?
ASK OUR PARENTS!!!
If you are, would you guys run for president?
We did and we won, but we were cheated!!
What would you do if you guys DID run for president? What issues would you address?
We would lie, cheat, steal and NEVER GET CAUGHT!! Hahaha!!
What kind of president would you be?
A cross between President Marcos, JFK and IDI AMIN, and eat babies!!
What would your political party be called?
C.B.P – Children’s Birthday Party
As expected, their answers came brief and bullet-like across the page, the devil in blue ink.Watching these guys take the stage is exhilarating on many different levels, namely that they are legends that are arising from the shadows, with the help of a re-merging movement everyone had written off, and more important, with music that has again become poignant to young’un’s ears. They rock a room like no one else can, making people go into a frenzy of pogo-ing, and screaming the lyrics into the mike that’s been passed to the back of the venue. As you can see, dear reader, punk is sooo not dead.
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