pinoy rock + funk sub cult

Farewell to my friends
Thought I'd leave you all behind, yeah oh no.
My time is runnin
And I'm about to lose my mind again.

Today is a sad day. Even the skies agree --- it's raining in the middle of summer [ika nga ng kaibigan kong si Windi: even summer has given way to mark the passing of a legend]. 

Nakita na ni KARL ROY ang PUTING ILAW.

No other person among his peers [not Bamboo, not Rico Blanco, not Ely Buendia etc etc etc] can come close to the way his voice sounded. Again, unlike his peers, he had soul, funk, charisma and stage presence.

 My cousins and I started watching him when he was with ADVENT CALL playing at the now dead place beside the also now dead WHISTLESTOP in Libis. I remember thinking to myself... wow, a black man trapped in a Pinoy's body. That's how he rocked - with funk and soul.

Sometime in the late 90s/early 2k, I met the man when I went on a bodyboarding trip to Daet. He was a bodyboarder too. And I remember his story about how he took acid on the beach [I think while bodyboarding] and he colored the sky as purple. 

Then he went on to his POT version, and then to his KAPATID version. Like a real fan, bought all of his shit and uploaded it to my Ipod.

The last time I encountered Karl was a few years ago in La Union. Just a short conversation while he borrowed my bodyboard. He was hammered and he continued on with his hammered-ness until his gig later that evening. As it would turn out, he wouldn't even finish his set. He was so wasted, they had to carry him off the stage.

Heard nothing about him until today.

 Now, I wonder why they take the good ones first. First, it was FRANCISM, now Karl Roy. All I can say is sayang. He could have been this and that. But that's how it goes when you live fast, I guess.   

Rest in piece.

No more loneliness.
No more emptiness.
No more melancholy, baby.
Have a piece of this.