True Blue Eagle: Ang Palabas ng Spongecola sa Tainga Ko

    Ateneo De Manila has been classified with UST and San Juan De Letran as hero-producing schools, as well as future artistas (with La Salle taking the lead). I know some famous Atenistas like Dough Kramer (Season 69 ng UAAP now with the PBL), Chris Tiu (also UAAP 69 but now at PBL), JC Intal (UAAP 69 and now with Harbour Centre of the PBL), Atom Araullo of the now-defunct BREAKFAST show with Patty Laurel, Jose Rizal (after transferring from then-hellish UST, no offense), and the infamous Joseph Estrada (yah, my Mom hates him too). One of its latest products is a recently-graduated is the rising band from the recent band-wave of 2004 and 2005, Spongecola comprising of Yael Yuzon, Gosh Dilay, Armo Armovit, and Chris Cantada.

    Well, why in the heck am i mentioning a band that plays alternative music with mooshy lyrics mixed with rock-on sounds with a vocalist who can't seem to make his voice sing from mellow to rockish while in a live gig (based from my observation)? The sad truth: I'm addicted to their sounds.

    I got to know about Spongecola back in 2005 when "KLSP" came out on MYX. I didn't really watched the whole MV, just parts of it shown during the summary of  the top videos on the Daily Top Ten and the Myx Hit Chart. I also heard part of the chorus ("Kailangan bang pagbigyan, kulang lang sa pansin...). Sad but true, I'm not really into alternative music much, except for npast bands like the Eraserheads, Rivermaya, Bamboo, and those pop rock acts I grew up with during grade school the past decade.

    My first impression about the band was further sustained by the releae of their second single (also debuted at Myx) with another mooshy song titled Gemini, with a narrator saying lines from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, and featuring Yael's brother Yani as Romeo. Well, sad to say I also didn't have a good first impression with the song either. An added plus is their live cover version of Crazy for You during the Myx Mo! concert (in contrast with their "remastered" version palyed as theme song of The 101st Proposal back then in ABS-CBN).

    I don't know why but things changed when I heard on the radio waves (and on our classroom computer) on a new song played by Spongecola, "Jeepney". The song has two different versions, one is the acoustic music video version and the album version. The albujk version really changed my perception on the band's sound. I admit that Yael is not that a good singer for mushy rpop rock songs with love themes but I guess he made pretty good combination with their playing of "Jeepney". When the MV of Jeepney was shown way later than did the airing of the album version on the radio, it was also as good as the former, with Yael sounding much better with the acoustic sound (last year, someone inserted a live acoustic version of "Jeepney" which I later acquired before the end of the school year).

    Added to my renewed appreciation of the band's music is the showing of "Una" on Myx. Their song fitted perfecctly with the director's concept of the music video. However, I think Yael should have let the second voice parts to his band mates if he's gonna sing the whole song as a solo, maybe he would leave the second-voice parts behind. But over-all, it is good.

    Maybe what made me even more appreciative to the music of Yael, Chris, Armo and Gosh is the release of their first single from their sophomore album (Transit) which was used as OST for Komiks: Pedro Penduko. The song is catchy and is in line with the purpose of the show (Huwag kang bibitiw bigla, huwag kang bibitiw biglaahaha...), I even made a spoof of it like "'Wag kang lilingon bigla...'wag kang lilingon biglaahahaha". Nge....! They use the song whenever Pedro is about to do something heroic both on the opening credits (all 4 versions of the credits) and on every episode (with an added choir touch). Their MV was good too, them riding on top of MRT and all.

    Now with the curse part, what made Spongecola literally stuck into my head was when I made a burned copy of the band's first album from a copy my sister borrowed (although she's not totally kissing over them). At first I only listened the song's like Jeepney and Una but now that I'm in college, I need something to keep myself pre-occupied while riding on the LRT all the way home. So I used my burnt copy and set my CD player on random, so I get to listeb to all the song's from "Palabas", all 14 of them (22, Partisan, KLSP, Neon, On The Floor, Stone's Throw, Jillian, Lunes, To the Sky and Cunning, Una, Dragonfly, Gemini, Jeepney, and Closure).

    As of right now, I'm having LSS from listening from too much Spongecola. Even without the help of lyrics, I can somehow remember some parts of the songs' words (...maybe this is paradise).

    Their songs also seem to be perfect BGM for any slideshow movie that I may make, with "Closure" I already have it used for one.

    So my brain now's "maybe little addicted, maybe i just can't get out of this, maybe it's just too soon to say" and that my brain is now filled with "fireflies, take a trip to paradise".

END