New music videos from Reese Lansangan and Johnoy Danao

If you get your musical fix from foreign acts or local belters and balladeers, rejoice! Two of the most exciting names in the homegrown indie scene released music videos just days apart last week.

The first is from indie darling Reese Lansangan. The twentysomething singer-songwriter has been active in the gig circuit for a few years, playing her distinct brand of quirky pop to scores of ardent listeners.

When I first heard her play at the Fete dela Musique in 2015, there were bits about her that reminded me of Regina Spektor and Imogen Heap. She even looked the part of the intriguing, slightly off-kilter artist. When she performed, she made being different effortless and cool.

That was the first time I heard the songs that have since become LSS staples, particularly “Exploration No. 5,” the Mean Girls-inspired “On Wednesdays We Wear Pink,” and “Grammar Nazi.”

An album, Arigato, Internet!, was released on Spotify earlier this year, which contains all of those songs and then some. But it’s “Grammar Nazi” that seems to have, ahem, struck a chord with listeners.

It couldn’t have been easy, but Lansangan manages to turn a grammar lesson into a fun, whimsical pop song. She does it by creating a story—about a girl who likes a boy who, although “cute, nice and tall,” unfortunately “couldn’t spell right at all.”

How many of us have been there—liking someone who couldn’t tell the difference between “your” and “you’re” and “lose” and “loose.”

(It’s “YOUR problem,” and “YOU’RE confused,” Lansangan says in the song, fyi).

The chorus is probably the most adorable one in an OPM song in recent memory. “I’m not a nazi,” she insists. “I just care about good grammar. Hey paparazzi (okay), I just said that ‘cause it rhymes. But don’t you dare commit a grammar crime on me.”

You raise your eyebrows at first for the unabashed, out-of-context use of another word just because it rhymes, but you forgive her immediately because A) she admits it, and B) she follows it up with an admonition: careful with your spelling, punctuation and syntax when you’re with me!

It’s genius, but Lansangan never comes across as haughty. She’s very self-aware, which translates well in the video. All the pastels and idiosyncratic situations (an actual “grammar committee” making rounds around school) can’t help but recall Wes Anderson films and cutesy Japanese anime, but she and director GeloYellow (aka Gerard Lopez) make it work. The music video captures just the right tone for the song. It’s one of those videos you’ll have on repeat for days.

(Or, you can forward it to a friend who still hasn’t seen all the memes and insists on saying “stuffs” unironically).

The other video is for “Right Time” by another singer-songwriter, Johnoy Danao. For this song, he teams up with fellow musician Clara Benin.

This one is a short film masquerading as a music video. The protagonists, a boy and a girl, are each getting ready to go out, ostensibly to see each other. We see them waking up, in front of the mirror, getting dressed, basically playing out the routine all of us go through during that hour or so before we step out of the house to hit the town.

The twist (that many probably saw coming) is that the couple are actually meeting other people. Coincidentally, they go to the same café, and the song pauses for a bit of (awkward) dialogue in the middle. That’s when we find out why the short film is called One Year And Three Months.

Danao knows his strength: straightforward, unpretentious love songs, often in Filipino. Many a couple have gotten together with his voice in the background, and not a few weddings have taken place with him as the special guest singer. His vocal style, his guitar skills, and most importantly, his songwriting all work together to create the musical equivalent of being in bed with your loved one on a cold and rainy day.

In “Right Time,” he enlists the help of his real-life lover (who I keep calling “Grace Disgrace”) to craft a song that explores what happens when you meet someone that erases the pains from lovers past. It’s about good timing: when the stars align and the oceans sit still long enough for you to discover the person you’re meant to be with for life.

It doesn’t hurt that Benin complements Danao’s voice perfectly: the weathered but hopeful man and the coy but slightly playful woman mingling into one joyous whole. It’s a precious, beautiful song, one that reminds me of Nick Drake’s “Northern Sky,” which Danao often covers in his live shows.

I don’t really want to bring up the whole “OPM is dead” argument again, but if you ever needed a reason (or two) to believe that local music is alive and well, look no further than Reese Lansangan and Johnoy Danao. — BM, GMA News

Paul John Caña is a magazine writer and live music geek. Check out his blog manontheotherside.blogspot.com. Email him at pjcana@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter and Instagram @pauljohncana.