Influence by ERASERHEADS

BIOGRAPHY

The Eraserheads or Eraserheads or E-Heads, was a popular Pinoy rock band in the Philippines during the alternative rock explosion of the early 1990s. The Eraserheads is also regarded as the band that opened the commercial doors for other aspiring Filipino rock bands like Rivermaya, Parokya ni Edgar, and Yano. Their influence and contribution to Philippine music today is so great that they have often been called the "The Beatles of the Philippines." Their music is almost unclassifiable due to its great diversity. They worked both in the underground and mainstream of the Philippine music industry with a mix of alternative, pop, rock, reggae, synth rock and other genres.

Members

Original members (1989-2002)
Ely Buendia - lead vocals, rhythm guitars
Raimund Marasigan - drums, samples, percussions, back-up vocals
Marcus Adoro - lead guitar, back-up vocals
Buddy Zabala - bass guitar, back-up vocals


Last lineup (2002-2003)

Kris Dancel

Kris Dancel - lead vocals, rhythm guitars
Raimund Marasigan - drums, samples, percussions, back-up vocals
Marcus Adoro - lead guitar, back-up vocal
Buddy Zabala - bass guitar, back-up vocals

History

The Eraserheads took their name from the title of the movie "Eraserhead" directed by David Lynch that they picked up while reading a magazine. When they saw the movie years later, they concluded that it had a dark and confusing theme. In December 1989, Ely Buendia, Raimund Marasigan, Marcus Adoro and Buddy Zabala decided to form a band, thinking of it as a nice way to catch the attention of girls on campus. They did mostly covers, playing at every gig in their school, the University of the Philippines, Diliman, they managed to get into. Eventually, they did the rounds of Manila's rock club circuit achieving little success. The band found that they weren't good at covering other people's hits, so they concentrated on writing their own materials instead. "After all, if we committed a mistake no one would recognize it since they don't know the song, right?," Buendia explained. Performing their original songs live soon earned them a cult following in their school which gradually spread outside the campus. One of the songs, a pop song entitled, "Pare Ko," became very popular, partly because of its lyrics that included a few cuss words. The band recorded a cheap demo tape in 1991 and shopped in around record labels and radio stations, hoping to have their songs reach public awareness. They were rejected at every turn. A friend professor from their school helped them record a better version of the demo which was named, "Pop-U!" in response to all those who turned them down. As this demo went around, it found its way to BMG Records (Philippines) a year after it was made.

Mainstream Success

Having been signed to a three-year deal, the Eraserheads settled down to work on their debut album. The result was the album entitled "Ultraelectromagneticpop!". The debut featured no less than the ecletic "Pare Ko" and a host of other novelty pieces that had people listening and discovering more about the quartet. The album also brought the underground college rock scene into public awareness. 1993 saw the emergence of "Eraserheadsmania" because of successive hit singles, sold-out concerts and thousands of fans. The band soon came up with a follow-up album entitled, "Circus". They said that this aptly describes how their life has been since their smashing debut. The album proved to be unpredictabile and unconventional relative to OPM ballads at that time. Its collection of songs range from being euphoric to downright hilarious, interspersed with occasional tenderness and somber tones. With the album, not only have the band established themselves as good songwriters and musicians, they have also opened a whole new genre of Filipino music. Their much-awaited third album, "Cutterpillow," was launched via an open-air concert attended by fans and followers in colossal proportions. All witnessed what was to be the Eraserheads' fitting finale to an explosive 1995. With Christmas barely a month over, the Eraserheads opened 1996 by making history in the Philippine music scene once more as "Cutterpillow" turned gold even before it hit the record stores as a result of the pre-selling promo campaign. Soon, the band shoot the music video for the song "Ang Huling El Bimbo"(The Last El Bimbo) from the album. Later that year, the Eraserheads came up with a conceptual Christmas album called "Fruitcake". This was followed shortly by a release of a companion storybook of the same title.

Going International

The year 1997 was marked with a series of gigs outside of the Philippines. The Eraserheads' first ever overseas gig was at BMG Records' "Sentosa Pop Festival" in Singapore in March 1997. It was then followed by a mini U.S. tour in May. Then four months later in September, they were in New York to receive the coveted "Moon Man" trophy for winning the 1997 MTV Asia Viewer's Choice Award, which made the Eraserheads, the first ever Filipino artists to win the award. Their fifth album, "Sticker Happy," was released a few days after the MTV Awards. A month later, they were back in Singapore for a series of shows and appearances for MTV Asia. In February 1998, they represented the Philippines at the annual "Asia Live Dream '98" for NHK Broadcasting in Tokyo, Japan. Then in May, they embarked on another U.S. tour, taking them from Oakland to Los Angeles and to New York. August 1998 saw the release of the album, "Aloha Milkyway," in the Asian region and finally in the Philippines two months later. The album contains chart-topping songs that have been re-mastered and five new songs. In early 1999, they did sold-out shows in Hong Kong, Sydney and Dubai. Their next album, "Natin99," was released in May. Between May and June 2000, they did another tour of America dubbed, "The Pop Machine Tour - USA2000", taking them from New York to Chicago and to California. After almost two years the much-awaited studio album, "Carbon Stereoxide," was released in March 2001 featuring the tracks, "Maskara", "Playgound" and "Hula."


BREAK-UP

After weeks of speculation, it has been confirmed that the founding member, main songwriter and lead singer, Ely Buendia, has left the band in mid-March 2002 for "reasons unknown". However, in subsequent interviews, Buendia pointed to business matters as the cause of the band's break-up.[1] In an interview, Marasigan said he was eating in SM Megamall, a local shopping mall, when he heard of the news (how he heard of it, was not clear). He said he was "semi-surprised" and wondered if Zabala already knew about it.[4] Adoro told of the story now famous among Eraserheads fans about Buendia's cryptic text message. He said Buendia stated in the text message that he had already "graduated." Adoro quipped in the same interview that Buendia being the first to graduate was natural, since he was batch in '87 in their school (UP, Diliman), while they are in Batch '88.[4] Zabala confesses in an interview that disbanding had not been that far away from the members' minds. He said that there were so many occassions where they could have disbanded but they did not.[2] Adoro expressed the belief of some people that the band was getting too old and that it was "selfish" for the band to continue, likely referring to comments about how it's time for other bands besides the Eraserheads to shine.[2] The band made it clear, though, that Buendia's departure from the band wasn't in any way violent and there was no shouting (sigawan) or any confrontation.[2] Without giving up, the three remaining original Eraserheads decided to continue on. Within just a few weeks, the "new" Eraserheads debuted at Hard Rock Cafe in Makati City on April 19 featuring a female lead singer, Kris Gorra-Dancel from the band, Fatal Posporos. However after a few months, Adoro finally quit the band. The remaining members of the Eraserheads added Diego Mapa and Ebe Dancel to their lineup and renamed their band, "Cambio."

After Eraserheads

Just a few years after the break-up, the tribute album "Ultraelectromagneticjam!: The Music Of The Eraserheads" was released in honor of the band. The Filipino artists who did their own unique renditions of Eraserheads classics include Imago, Orange and Lemons, South Border, reggae group Brownman Revival, Sugarfree, MYMP, Sponge Cola, 6Cycle Mind, Francis M., Rico J. Puno, and Radioactive Sago Project. Many people questioned whether the time is right for a tribute to a band just four years disbanded and with its former members still active in the music industry. Buendia, for his part had mixed feelings about the tribute album, saying that "It’s too early to be taking part in it and I don’t see myself being part of it kasi (because) I’m still doing something here...To be part of it is like acknowledging na tapos na ako (that I am finished); isa na lang akong trophy na itatago na (I'm just a trophy that is to be shelved). Siguro kung uugud-ugud na ako (Maybe when I'm really old)[2], that’s the time I’m gonna look back." Still, many fans - even some local bands active in the industry today - are hoping that the band will have some sort of reunion.[3] Source : Wikipedia

ERASERHEADS ALBUMS

ULTRAELECTROMAGNETICPOP! (1993)
CIRCUS (1994)
CUTTERPILLOW (1995)
FRUITCAKE (1996)
BANANATYPE (1997)
STICKERHAPPY (1998)
ALOHA MILKYWAY (1998)
NATIN99 (1999)
CARBON STEREOXIDE (2001)


The Eraserheads