Before the release of The Sleepyheads' (Don't Let Our) Tuneless Moaning (Go To Waste) in 2005, rock and pop music was caught between two extremes: noisy, in-your-face "death/rap-metal" on one end, for the masses of tattoo-and-nose-stud-wearing kids turned on to both Slipknot and Eminem; and lightweight, muzak-like "chill-out pop" on the other, for the "cooler" young professionals wearing stylish sweaters in their air-conditioned call-center offices and listening to Sitti and EBTG.
The Sleepyheads didn't fit in with these two extremes of the musical crowd circa 2000-2005; they were way too primitive, punky and raw to hang out and play their music at Malate's Chill-Out Centers; nor were they a Heavy Rock Band who had a collection of eardrum-damaging guitar effects and double-pedals, long hair, tattoos, beards and nose rings, wearing black T-shirts and playing screaming motherfucker sounds with the Slapshock crowd.
And they weren't "O.P.M. rock" either, that whole school of "Pinoy" bands inspired by the Eraserheads. Though they had that "-heads" on their name, The Sleepyheads really took their name and inspiration from Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers (who had a song called Wake Up, Sleepyheads). Along with the Modern Lovers, the Sleepyheads also liked the Kinks, the Velvet Underground, the Shaggs, and vintage punk rock and new wave (Talking Heads, Ramones, Wire)-- all bands that the mainstream musical crowd circa 2000-2005 either didn't know or were ignoring because these were either too weird or inaccesible to listeners of the mainstream sound.
But anyway, with those bands to inspire them, the Sleepyheads defiantly created a sound and a stance that was an anomaly at the time-- it wasn't "chill-out pop," "death/rap metal," or "O.P.M. rock." It rocked, but it sounded more like "pebbles of noise"-- tiny, tinny rumblings the way rock records of the '60s sounded. It didn't sound muscular and macho at all like Metallica. It was also trying to be "Pinoy" in its own way, but it was all sung in English, contrary to the Tagalog-isms of the "O.P.M. rockers" (but the Sleepyheads called their style "Bootleg English," delivered by its singer-drummer, John Jayvee del Rosario, with hard Filipino accents at times!). And of course they never sounded at all like Sitti-- they never could 'cause they're way too moronically rock 'n' roll to play "bossa nova" or "jazz" which requires discipline and skill!
This was probably the reason why these "chill-out" and "death/rap metal" and "O.P.M. rock" bands and fans didn't understand the sound and the songs of (Don't Let Our) Tuneless Moaning (Go To Waste), the Sleepyheads' first album, when it was finally released (independently, and against the current) in 2005. It was somehow ignored.
And the songs were truly puzzling to most other listeners: Why does Can't Go To Church have that antique-sounding organ and impossibly raw sound? Why does Addiction have a "rockabilly" beat like that, out of step with the rocky/funky and/or chill-out beats of current bands? Why were the guitars of Underdogs of Sunshine so plucky and thin-sounding, instead of being overdriven and heavily fuzzed up like most macho rock bands ? Why does Positive for Negative have a rhythm that speeds up and slows down, exhausting the listener, then suddenly ending in less than three minutes - without giving time for the listener to catch up? Why is Monotone Melody so dry to the ears when you listen to it? And just what are these songs with strange lyrics? What are these Sleepyhead guys singing about? Why are the songs recorded in that low-budget way, with murky-sounding instruments and voice and all? Just what the hell is this?!
Add to these questions the sick humor of the album cover by Louie Cordero (a boy vomiting his innards), and the strange live band set-up of the Sleepyheads (singer-drummer Jayvee plays rudimentary drums standing up and singing at the same time, backed up by the economical guitar of Rico Entico and the elementary bass-playing of Erick Encinares), and you'll really get normal music fans scratching their heads!
Not that the songs were atonal (they were melodic in that classic three-chord way); nor were the songs crappy (they surely meant something); nor was the band a sloppy unit (they surely kicked ass live, for the few people who watched them early on)-- it's just that there's something unusual going on here...
But then things started changing in the local and international music scene. Bands like The Strokes and the White Stripes were praising the Velvet Underground and punk rock to high heavens, and influencing new bands too. They, too, swam against the current still being generated by Linkin Park, Rage Against The Machine, Sugar Ray, and post-grunge/alternative bands like Bush and Hootie and the Blowfish. Surprisingly, these new bands found success in a new musical revolution: the return of Punk and Garage/Lo-Fi Rock,
Suddenly there were local bands who were also doing music that was somehow similar in spirit to what the Strokes and the White Stripes were doing-- The Dorques, Death By Tampon, etc. But then the Sleepyheads have been doing this too, reacting against the mainstream. The Sleepyheads and these other bands became players in a sort of new-band movement where out-of-step-but-innovative bands began putting out their own albums in their OWN way.
Not to say that "chill-out pop" or "death/rap metal" or "O.P.M. rock" died; it's just that another kind of music had arrived around 2005. And (Don't Let Out) Tuneless Moaning (Go To Waste) by the Sleepyheads was one of those albums that was around at that turning point in the music scene. And now a question deserves an answer: HAS IT ALL GONE TO WASTE, OR DOES INDEPENDENT ROCK STILL HAVE A FUTURE?
Take a listen to the strange songs on this album, cheaply recorded, defiantly released, and met with puzzlement at the time of of its arrival. Listen to (Don't Let Our) Tuneless Moaning (Go To Waste) and see NOW if it is any good (and if the cold reception it got before was simply because people weren't ready for it at that time)...