PRIVATE STOCK - Hype's Cool

PRIVATE STOCK
Hype's Cool, Payola records 001, 1984

1. Have More Fun
2. Rock N' Roll Machine
3. Spider's Web
4. It's What I Want
5. Whatta Girl
6. As You've Said Before
7. High Volt For Revolt
8. Chaos of the Bandits
9. Girls In My School
10. Class Villains
11. Future Generation

http://www.mediafire.com/?ui1ygkqga4d


This album is quite unique, it blends pop, mod, rockabilly, some new-wave and punk rock out from a time capsule. Some of their songs sounds like if they had been written and recorded somewhere back in the 50's or the 60's...
They were in a way the clean-cut boys from the Philippine punk scene, sure their music sounds neat and clean compared to the noise produced by their counterparts.
Still, it's a nice listen, and it has definitely an exotic feel to it, like... let's say a Pinoy version of Happy Days , if you can try to figure that out.

Short band bio, taken from their Meatspace page:

Private Stock was originally formed back in 1983 and the following years have seen the band carve out their own distinctive niche in the Filipino music scene since 1983. They made their mark in the Filipino punk history when they performed at the legendary Brave New World 5 concert in Manila, Philippines. During that time they launched their first original composition written by Edmond which is Future Generation.
Katrina's in Mabini, Manila became their home club. They became regular performers there and honed their music skills. Around that time they still do the regular punk/ mod shows. They also released a cassette of original songs, Hype's Cool. By 1986, Strange Boy (In the Secret Service) and the song Hype's Cool came out and was included in the Twisted Red Cross compilation Third Bombardment.
By 1988, the group fell silent.
(...)
It's a great combination of youthful enthusiasm and tempered experience which has enabled Private Stock to formulate their own sound. It's a sound that draws from the British pop scene...The Jam, The Who, the Beatles, Kinks, XTC and some Tamla/ Motown soul.
(...)
They had a reunion gig at Bistro 70's last December 2005 and it was full -packed. That was the last goodbye.

Strange Boys ( in a secret service )




Excerpt from an article found on Jing Garcia's blog which gives interesting details about the local punk scene and its cultural context... Read on:

Chill out chong out

But new wave was the order of the day. While the entire country drowned in the music of Duran Duran and Culture Club, people at A2Z were listening to The Fall and Tones on Tail and The Specials and Bad Manners. Ces and company would later have successful new wave shindigs in small local bars in Malate where the likes of DJ Par Sallan would spin some of the best if not the latest from British underground. The creative team would go on to buy airtime for their own radio show called “Capital Radio” so they could play what they wanted on DWXB 102, an underdog FM radio station, which by its sheer cult-status spawned many enterprises including a portion of the T-shirt industry along Recto Ave.

Bands such as XTC, Bauhaus, The Cure and Japan were first and only heard on XB, while Capital Radio went even deeper with Teardrop Explodes, Joy Division, the Jesus and Mary Chain, Minor Threat and yes, even Motown. Local earcandy proponents Dean's December, Violent Playground, Identity Crisis, and Ethnic Faces also found a comfortable home in the government sequestered 10,000-watt radio station.

The term “chong” – to distinguish the new wavers from the punk rockers – originated from the jocks that spun for the A2Z team. Stubborn teens that couldn’t get into the music of Paul Weller or Joe Strummer would approach the music booth and irritatingly ask, “Chong, chong, 'State of the Nation' naman." The name stuck forever.

In an article by Didits Gonzales

Rock journalist and photographer Didits Gonzales made the better distinction on punks and chongs in a column called “The Low Life” for A2Z’s in-house newsletter and fanzine called The Shop (c.1987). "Chongs and mobile discos go together. You'll find them in trendiest discos, privately organized parties, 102 soirées, and Identity Crisis concerts. Chongs go to school and eventually take over the family's handicraft business. Punks avoid school like the plague, and if they don't end up dead, they end up scrubbing decks on merchant marine ships plying the Persia Gulf. You can have a decent if somewhat shallow conversation with a chong. You can have a slurring match with a punk but remember to duck when you see the first sign of a puke-a-thon. Chongs have cars, punks have no money. Enterprising punks have car spare parts. And when chongs and punks meet…they ignore each other." Well, that sums it up.

Punks not dead! Or so they thought

But another scene began thrusting its way out of the underbelly of popular culture. More than 10 years before the Eraserheads, and only a couple of years after Sid Vicious crossed the line between punk and stupidity, Pinoy rock was slashed in the face by an underground music scene that would leave a haunting scar.
Tommy Tanchanco and his Twisted Red Cross (TRC) cohorts led the way in the early ‘80s and introduced some of the best if not the brightest stars in Pinoy underground music. TRC was bred from punk. The music was harsh, hard and in your face.
Bands such as Betrayed, I.O.V., G.I. and the Idiots, including two of my personal favorites, Urban Bandits and The Wuds, all in their combat boots punk regalia, were just among the few who carried the battle flag that would push Pinoy punkdom its demonizing identity. Like its origins in decadent 70s England, Pinoy punk created tribes stretching from the gutters of Malibay in Pasay to the sidestreets of Recto, disturbing even the once rural life of Malabon.

Pinoy punk threw their guttersnipe punches in Brave New World concerts at PhilCite, an ihaw-ihaw shelter in Malate called Katrina's, or at rundown corner gymnasiums, far from a police precinct. Chicoy Pura's The Jerks, who at one time played regularly at On Disco in Roxas Boulevard, became club favorites for performing upcoming classic punk tunes from London to New York. Indie filmmaker Patrick Puruganan would immortalize the Pinoy-punk scene with his short flick Generation Lost, making reluctant underground stars out of Noel F.Lim and Dominic Gamboa.

Under the TRC label, Pinoy-punk would thrash their wares on the compilation cassette albums Rescue Ladders and Human Barricades and Katrina's Live – Tama na Away!, just to name a couple. Tommy documented everything in his very own punkzine Herald X under the editorial guidance of Edwin Sallan and the late great Dodong Viray.

Yet, however pure it was, the immaculately dark conception of punk just had to end. When the hype started to creep in, it was already a sign that the spiked hair and the bondage pants trend had become no more than a fad. The chongs ended up mixing with the punks and vice-versa, and suddenly, they melted into a single fashion statement. Blame it on MTV. Blame it on Aga Muhlach. And blame it much on Ray 'PJ' Abellana and Leni Santos, who starred in a 'That's Entertainment' variety show-type teen-trash musical movie called , whatelse, The Punks. The entire cast of Generation Lost deteriorated to the reality of being a lost generation. Along with the safety pins and Meralco safety boots, the music got lost too.