 Aug 5, 2006  SOUL UP! ALBUM LAUNCHIt was a lovely evening. Nice people! Happy Faces! Excellent fashion! Groovy dancing! Beautiful scooters! Great bands! The JUAN PABLO DREAM ALBUM LAUNCH!!!Thank you very much for all the wonderful people who went to 6 Underground last night. till... more   Aug 23, 2005 You are inside my dream...  This is Pinoy Mod Juan Pablo Dream brings back the spirit of old soul and cool Mod. By KARL R. De MESA To say that Bing Austria is a laid back guy would be like saying ice is cold. Today he’s clad in funky checkered slacks, matte violet T-shirt with a Vespa printed on the chest and brown-tinted aviators. These sunglasses he wears whether burning down the house on-stage or fending questions in interviews. Austria, no doubt, is one cool cat. You’ve probably heard Juan Pablo Dream and their infectious, hit single “Nice Place.” The one with the video where they get down with local James Bond actor Tony Ferrer. JPD is front man Austria, Alexander Dumlao (bass), Aurelio Castro (guitars), Christopher Carpio (trumpets) and Eman Tabujara (saxophone). Juan Pablo Dream is where Austria channels his coolness to transport us to the perfect party; that ideal celebration where success means living in the moment. Fine food, fine clothes and a fine life all come together in one top-of-the-world, orgiastic shout of “Oh yeah!” Trippy, joyful, triumphant and festive JPD’s music is of the credo that: if you can’t come to the party, the party will come to you. It’s delicious, lush Mod. Which is short for Modern. A music movement primarily rooted in UK lifestyle, perspective and art. This puts Austria in mind of the time he talked to snobbish British Mods who would like to keep the music “pure” and “Euro.” “Frankly they come on like they’re racist,” Austria shakes his head. “Hindi daw pwedeng maging Mod ang ibang culture aside from British. They have this possessiveness with their movement. I retorted to that by asking: what about the Pinoys who are in the Mod scene in England? Maybe it started there but it doesn’t belong to them anymore.” Austria is of the belief that many Pinoys lead a Mod life unknowingly. It’s the need to be different from the hoi polloi, the trend followers in fashion, music, food and even street jive. It may come across as condescending but the attraction of it is akin to being version one point oh. Laughs Austria: “I told my Mod friends here: sigurado ako pag sumikat kami, ayaw nyo na samin.” Juan Pablo Dream has its gestation in several bands. You may remember a dreadlocked and wiry Austria playing with Put3ska back in the day. But when that band broke up in the late 1990s Austria hopped right back into the scene with a number of outfits including playing session for Tropical Depression, a lounge band called Bing! and then Technicolor Dreamcoat. By the time 2003 rolled in the Dreamcoat had vamoosed and the first incarnation was born as Juan Pablo -- sans the last word. They played bossa nova and Latin tunes for the next four months, but decided to go the way of Mod and old soul when they were slated to play at a town fiesta. “Sa Bulacan may pinadinig kaming bossa sa isang tao (na hindi naman aral sa music or anything),” narrates Austria. “Sabi nya: `parang pang-ponebre no?’ Nasaktan ako. Kung sa Bulacan nga nahihirapan na, sa ibang probinsya pa kaya?” So Juan Pablo became Juan Pablo Dream. As Austria explains: JUAN=Pinoy, PABLO=Picasso and DREAM=Dream of Pinoy Artists. Half of JPD, see, are visual artists and painters. Taking the stage in there-piece suits and bowling shoes Juan Pablo Dream was an instant hit. Their energy and danceable tunes became a furious word of mouth in the indie scene. When they signed up with indie pop stalwart Toti Dalmacion and his, back then, nascent Terno Records everything was set for a major breakthrough. “Music has to go back to that party, festive rationale,” exclaims Austria. “What’s the point of feeling heavy and angsty, going to a gig full of the same kind of music and coming out of it not feeling any better or maybe even feeling worse? We believe that music can alter moods and ultimately alter lives.” He’s referring to Soul Up! the debut album from JPD which will be out on the record shelves by the time you read this. “Hits” being the operative word because this is one record that’ll be spinning in hipster parties for a few years to come. Take the head-bobbing groove of “Do You Rememebr When We Were Still Kids?” with a bass line as snappy as a teenager fondling his first bra strap. Meanwhile, the spy movie meets Latin soul instrumental “Soul Up!” with its incantatory, anthemic shouts and 100mph beat is perfect for singer Austria’s trademark impromptu splits. While earlier songs like “Nice Place” and “Yeah Yeah Yeah” (with a swagger worthy of James Brown) nail the revelry and randy ecology of the Mod world it’s actually songs like the trippy, nearly lounge psychedelic “Night Jeep” and other experimental fusion tracks that give the album depth. In fact, lost among the tall trees are songs (“This Man” and a totally unnecessary bossa version of “Nice Place”) whose hooks and melody never quite find that balance point, its center of gravity. “Night Jeep” is in fact the band’s way of correlating the Vespa scooter, the Mod’s favored form of transportation, and imbuing it with Pinoy character. “See, the Mod’s scooters are filled with side mirrors and all sorts of gew gaws,” Austria points out. “They look like jeepneys, don’t they? We call it the Sarao Vespa.” How much of a songmeister Austria and his cohorts are can really be appreciated with something like “To The. . .” With an almost rockabilly hepcat texture, JPD evoke smoking stylistics of everybody from Sly Stone to Elvis, Paul Weller to Jerry lee Lewis. Austria clarifies that their on-stage antics are all about “Showmanship. Music and lifestyle are one. How can you show people you play soul and Mod if you can’t show them the way this scene dances? They want to dance but don’t know how. So we show them. Even with Put3ska. The kids never knew how to dance the ska way. We showed them how to skank. It came to a point that everybody moved the same.” At this point Austria cackles, in a what-have-I-done? glee. Whether you buy this album or not you best be sure you catch Juan Pablo Dream in performance live. With a beer in one hand and another to cheer on the band with, that’s the perfect party right there. Juan Pablo Dream’s SOUL UP! is now available at all major record outlets and music stores.  Nov 17, 2009
 Oct 23, 2008 ska in the philippines 1968dolphy and panchito
 May 15, 2008 MOTOWN NIGHT AT TEN 02(SKARLET'S RESTOBAR)YEAH YEAH YEAH!!! JUAN PABLO DREAM PLAYS EVERY TUESDAY NIGHTS AT TEN 02 RESTO BAR. SCOUT YBARDOLAZA ST. CORNER TIMOG AVE. 2 SETS OF SOUL/MOD MUSIC FROM JUAN PABLO DREAM AND RARE GROOVES FROM THE HOUSE. BEER IS ONLY 25 PESOS DURING HAPPY HOURS(... more
 Nov 28, 2008 
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hello papamod, kamusta? 
