Pinoy Bandwagon

Congratumilations!!!!

to my kababayans, ICHTHUS band, for winning the Globe Kantabataan songwriting and band competition… they were awarded their prize last Sunday at the noontime show , A.S.A.P… these proud LETRANITES from CALAMBA CITY bested four other bands in the finals…

funnily though, as a sort of preview for September:

on Lokal Flavor, a feature on a Baguio-based band which, curiously enough, did not make it into the Top5 of the above band competition… i assure you though, they sound great!!

on Launch Pad, a band that will have its album launch this Sunday, also on A.S.A.P…  guess who the frontman is?

and on On The Look-Out, two words: TRANSIT & TWILIGHT! (",)

wala lang!!!

For this month, the top 3 pinoy band songs are:

1. Taralets - Imago (Blush)

a song that highlights the typical Aia de Leon energy, no.1 for three weeks! Imago stakes a claim as one of this year’s biggest bands….

2. Blue Sky - Hale (Hale Special Edition)

a song that refuses to slow down, although it has yet to make the top… it was so strong, though, it stayed on the top 3 the entire month…

3. Dulo Ng Dila - Pupil (Beautiful Machines)

the 3rd turns out to be the best… where Nasaan Ka and Dianetic failed, this song made it to #1…

and terms…

Bitiw - 1st single from….

————-    August 23, 2006… the radio premiere….

————-    August 28,2006… the video premiere on MYX

Transit - the 2nd album of…

————-    September 8, 2006… the album launch….

————-    September 11,2006… release of the album on record bars…

SPONGE COLA!

Waltz - 1st single from….

————-    September 5, 2006… the radio premiere….

Twilight - the 2nd album of…

————-    September 30, 2006… release of the album on record bars…

————-    October 7,2006… the album launch….

HALE!

I can’t believe it!!!… I have to wait until the premiere telecast on Sunday, August 20 at 8 pm to know the results of the MTV Pilipinas Video Music Awards 2006????

Well, not really! I found the list from Titik Pilipino…  (",)

And the winners are….

SANDWICH, which grabbed BEST VIDEO for "Sugod" ,plus the Best Director (astig talaga si Marie Jamora), Best Editing and Best Production Design… note that all these are jury awards…

MOJOFLY, which grabbed BEST ANIMATED VIDEO and FAVORITE INDIE VIDEO for "Tumatakbo" …

BAMBOO’s "Much Has Been Said" won Best Cinematography..

RIVERMAYA got FAVORITE GROUP IN A VIDEO for "Sunday Driving"…

PUPIL got FAVORITE ROCK VIDEO for "Nasaan Ka"…

HALE won FAVORITE POP VIDEO for "Kung Wala Ka"…

CUESHE was the SMART TEXTERS’ CHOICE HITMAKER OF THE YEAR…

KITCHIE NADAL finally won the award she should have won last year!! FAVORITE FEMALE ARTIST for the song "Fire"….

FRANCIS M. was given this year’s MTV GENERATIONS AWARD….

Congratumilations to the winners!!!   (",)

For August 4-6, 2006

i can’t delete the entry…. because of Jela and Jonathan’s comments…. thanks, guys!!

the new countdown!

Yup, you heard it right… it’s 9Astig!  Pwede mo basahin sa paanong paraan… S’yam Na Astig…  Nuebeng Astig…  O kaya Astig Nine? (",)

9 na kanta ng mga bandang pinoy na matindi ang pinakita sa loob ng isang linggo… ganoon pa din ang basehan… mga countdowns ng astig na radio stations sa Pilipinas…

Wala namang naiba, eh… ganoon pa rin kagaling ang mga banda! Ganun pa din ka-astig ang musikang bandang pinoy!

the explanation is rather simple…

the songs on the eligible list is not enough to make 20. it sounds disappointing especially for people who raves about pinoy band songs… but this is true… less songs are being played and less songs are making it to the countdowns…

but this should not stop the support.. that’s why PB20 maybe gone… but with something to replace it…

making the band…

Bamboo Mañalac (vocalist) and Nathan Azarcon (bassist) are originally from Rivermaya… Ira Cruz (guitarist) and Vic Mercado (drummer) used to play together with Passage… Bamboo went abroad, and by the time Passage was no more, Nathan left Rivermaya and later joined Ira in the band called Kapatid… in 2003, Bamboo returned, met up with Nathan and Ira, who convinced Vic to join them in forming BAMBOO…

the break-out…

the band first performed at the 2003 NU 107 Rock Awards, where they performed Noypi… the crowd exploded with the performance, and i knew then that the band will explode soon… by early 2004, Noypi is on every radio stations’ playlist and on the top spot of their charts… and by the end of the year, they are the top band in the music scene…

radiography…

their first album, As The Music Plays, released the following singles, Noypi (top song of 2004), Mr. Clay, Masaya and These Days… Mr. Clay and Masaya are certified chart toppers, too….

the second album, Light.Peace.Love. brought out these hits, Hallelujah, FU, Much Has Been Said and Truth… the album is critically hailed as an excellent collection that emphasized the band’s versatility…

excellence in music…

Bamboo has won a big number awards for the past two and a half years, it’s almost hard to keep up… a total of 8 NU 107 Rock Awards, including Band of the Year, Song of the Year and Album of the Year, plus 2 Listeners’ Choice and 2 Vocalist of the Year for Bamboo himself… a total of 9 Awit Awards, including Song of the Year, Album of the Year and Best Performance by a Group, plus 2 People’s Choice and 2 Best Rock Recording…. 3 MTV Pilipinas Awards in 2004, all favorite awards… 4 SOP Music Awards, including this year’s Best Rock Group and Best Vocalist for Bamboo again…

making it bigger…

now, the band is geared to release an international album… this augurs well for us, since we never had an act that really made a name outside the country… i hope the group will make it, because they really are a rock band that has a sound identifiablly their own… excelent, yet simple… that’s BAMBOO…

the first encounter…

it was 1986 when I first heard of the band… it was a time of New Wave music for us then, so mostly foreign bands dominate our listening playlist… until this song, Enveloped Ideas, came out… surprise, surprise, the band is a local one, known as The DAWN…

Composed then of Jett Pangan, Teddy Diaz, Caloy Balcells and JB Leonor, the fans of the band then experienced what many grunge fans would feel later in the 90’s when Teddy Diaz was killed in a mugging incident… it was a sad experience for us then, but fortunately the band found Atsushi Matsuura to continue and really move on… Francis Reyes later joined the band and Matsuura left… they came out with such rock classics like Salamat, Love (Will Set Us Free), Iisang Bangka and more…  that by the time of the 90’s first pinoy band explosion, the band is already a legend, yet still definitely active… they were awarded the first NU 107 Rock Awards Hall Of Fame in 1994, yet also won the Best Live Act award…

the band today…

Caloy Balcells have already left, and the band have found many guitarists and bassists to session with the band, including Louie Talan of old Razorback(now Loquy)… but they have now fixed on former E-head Buddy Zabala to do it… they have just come off the success of their latest album, Harapin, and have even starred in a semi-autobiographical digital movie, Tulad Ng Dati,which won 3 awards in the recent Cinemalaya…

many guys my age would say they have grown up to the music of this group, most of the bands in the 90’s and maybe even today would name them in their list of influences… but the fact that Jett, Francis, JB and Buddy still continue with their own distinct sound, no age can limit a person who truly loves music and who raves on Pinoy Rock to appreciate the music of The Dawn…

Another tribute album…

After the success of Ultraelectromagneticjam, fans are soon to be treated again to a smorgasbord of rehashed songs in honor of, this time, the APO Hiking Society. Composed of Danny Javier, Jim Paredes and Boboy Garovillo, the APO was a potent force in pop music during the 80’s and early 90’s with their poignant, yet often funny, lyrics and catchy tunes…

To be released by Universal Records (formerly WEA, which was the APO’s recording company then) this August and supported by MAgic 89.9’s Local Vocal, Kami nAPO Muna has most of today’s top bands singing original APO songs… already I have heard Do BiDoo by Kamikazee and Pumapatak Na Naman Ang Ulan by Parokya Ni Edgar… So far, other songs I know of are Yakap Sa Dilim by Orange and Lemons, Awit Ng Barkada by Itchyworms and Ewan by Imago… other bands in the album include Sandwich, Sugarfree, Sponge Cola, The Dawn, Rocksteddy, Boldstar, Moonstar 88, Shamrock, Kitchie Nadal and Barbie Almalbis, plus … Drip, Sound and Top Suzara.

I just hope that, when young ones today hear these new versions, they will appreciate, not just the astig renditions of the bands, but also the creative genius of the three dudes who composed these songs… ano na ngAPOng pangalan nila?