A decade of noise and magic

It was on an obscure station called LA 105 where the Eraserheads’ Pare Ko first played in the early ’90s, the song which practically triggered the whole band explosion of that decade.

The E-heads would eventually sign up with BMG, as did a number of other seminal bands like Rivermaya and FrancisM backed by Hardware Syndrome. The three were the label’s contract bands from the start, releasing more than a handful of albums that helped define the 1990s. Acts like Yano and Color it Red were initially signed up with the fledgling Alpha, but were later herded into the BMG stable as well.

BMG thus saw it fit to release the series Himig Dekada, featuring the five bands, arguably the main musicians of the period (the only other major act that comes to mind is Wolfgang, under CBS Sony).

Overall song selection is impressive, except in the case of Yano, whose Best of collection omits the band’s second album, Bawal, most likely due to copyright problems. On the other hand, Yano’s entire first CD is here with the exception of one cut. This then cannot really be called "best of Yano" if some Bawal songs are nowhere around, like Astig, Pyucha, Metro and Askal.

BMG though, skirted the copyright question in the case of Color it Red, whose standout songs in their debut Hand Painted Sky (originally under Alpha) are included in their Dekada CD.

Notwithstanding the missing Bawal selections in the Yano CD, the Himig Dekada series is still overwhelming.

Rivermaya’s music has withstood varied personnel changes through five, six albums and counting. First to depart was guitarist Perf de Castro, who formed his own band, Tri-Axis, and played session guitar for Francism in Freeman. De Castro was with Rivermaya in only the first album.

Next to go was vocalist Bamboo Mañalac, whose excellent work in Atomic Bomb before heading for the Bay Area, made it easily Rivermaya’s best.

Bassist Nathan Azarcon, who left after It’s Not Easy Being Green, is in all of Greatest Hits, although It’s Not Easy itself is not represented in the band’s Dekada CD.

Another point worth noting about the E-heads (Singles) and the Rivermaya CDs is that they chose not to include the late ’90s releases, such as Sticker Happy and Natin-99 for the E-heads, and Rivermaya’s Being Green album as well as Free, the one exclusively put out on the Internet.

Whether this was intentional to sort of narrow down the many choices we may never know; yet, even if either band’s biggest hits were practically all accounted for, inclusion of those late ’90s albums in the selection process would provide the listener with a more comprehensive overview of each band’s musical development.

Where, for example, is the ’heads’ Maselang Bahaghari from Natin-99?

Yet even without that song, Singles is a worthy anthology of E-heads’ tunes, and proves Ely Buendia’s songwriting genius. Ang Huling El Bimbo, Magasin, With a Smile, Toyang, they’re all here. A pity though that BMG bigwigs chose not to use the original bootleg version of Pare Ko, the one with "Di ba, tang ina" in the chorus, instead opting for the sanitized version of "Di ba, nanghiya." Of course we should be shielding our impressionable youth from so-called profanity, but something is lost when an expression like that is literally taken out of its context.

Listening to the E-heads and Rivermaya compilations side by side, one can’t help compare the two bands’ styles and songwriters. Though Rico Blanco is Rivermaya’s main songwriter, it was Bamboo who was the singer. In the E-heads, Buendia was both songwriter and lead singer. The result is that while Rivermaya’s sound may be more refined, verging on the slick, the E-heads come across as more sincere if a bit rough-edged and streetwise.

Buendia also has a surer feel of the mass pulse, though Blanco seems to revel in the intricacies of love dynamic. Bamboo is also a far better vocalist than either Blanco, who now does the vocal chores for his band, or Buendia, who makes up in swagger whatever he lacks in timbre.

Yano, which actually had only their third and last album recorded under BMG –the incendiary Tara –is one of the more underrated bands of their generation. Weaned on the Clash, Yano encapsuled well the everyman’s concern in a society fast losing its grip.

In their Himig Dekada CD, Yano practically reprise their debut album with Alpha, which was no doubt their best. One can only hope that they can get their act together other than on a compilation album, this time with Dong Abay’s Sunken Gardeners.

Color it Red’s CD is also an aural delight, tracing their beginnings as an indie sounding band to their later forays into pseudo-house. Cooky Chua’s singing "you thrust me deep" in the LA Woman-like Hand Painted Sky still rings in the ears.

The name of founding member keyboardist Marc Floirendo is not in their CD’s sparse credits, however.

FrancisM, Pinoy rap pioneer, is perhaps the most sufficiently represented, with only his earlier, tentative CDs not taken into consideration. Then again, all the main hits are here, and then some, from Kaleidoscope World to Bading ang Dating.

Bands in the 2000s have an overwhelmingly tough act to follow, judging from the sustained and brilliant material in Himig Dekada, but people are already listening to Parokya ni Edgar, Imago, Sandwich, Badburn and Salbakuta.