Monday, December 29, 2008

New Year, New Song

Last 2008, while we were having gigs aplenty, we were also able to allocate some time to record our long overdue sophomore album. As of the moment, I already posses a rough edit of half of the album's songs. And as a treat to all of you who have been supporting us, I'm attaching a preview version of our prospective carrier single for the new album, the song called Runaway Angel. We have already included this song in our setlist and for those who were able to watch our gigs, I'm sure you guys were already able to listen to this. But to those who were not able to, now is your chance to exclusively preview this song here. This version might not be the final version that would be coming out from our album, but more or less the basic structure of the song can already be found here. Drop us some comments about the song. We will really appreciate it =)

2021 EDIT: Attaching here the video of the live performance of the song during the Rehab Underground Event Last 2009. The Mic played tricks on the band however. But you'll basically get the feel of the song.


Runaway Angel - Thoughts And Notions

Where have you been gone
The skies have cried for far too long
When it saw you lose your luck
It's missing an angel to come back
You tend to think you were right
When you said you'd fly into the night
A journey you decided to embark
You disappeared into the dark
 
You're an angel with no song to sing
You're an angel with broken wings
 
You said you're taking a chance
In this world of circumstance
But now you have fallen apart
Silently nursing a broken heart
Heaven has shown you the light
Telling you not to give up the fight
I'll help you mend your broken heart
And i will teach you where to start
 
You're an angel with a new song to sing
You're an angel with beautiful wings
 
No there's no need to be scared
I am with you when you spread your wings
Take the first step here with me
Open up your eyes and you will see
 
And you'll fly much higher than the sky
 
P.S. You can also head on to our main page of this site to listen to songs from our previous album. Especially the song called Brand New Day, which talks about New Years and New Days... Happy New Year Everyone! =)

Goodbye 2008


Whew, time sure flies by so fast. As the year 2008 comes to a close, allow me to recollect some of the most tumultuous as well as the memorable significant events of the year. It was during this year that our band made some drastic changes in our lineup. Ironically, we opened the year with an anniversary concert celebrating our 2 year existence as a band. Little did we know, what comes after would be our biggest challenge as a group. I momentarily decided to break up the band due to the fact that there were some shuffling going on with the lineup because of geographical issues. Like most college bands, some band members would be returning to their respective hometowns for an indefinite period of time (for us, it was Tim Marquez and Alvin Carreon). I experimented on hiring session musicians to help fill the gaps. Anthony Rosquesta, Joshua Manguiran, and Raphy Sescon would briefly play with us for a couple of months as we tried to figure which definitive lineup that we should take. I briefly let go of Adonis Berongoy to allow him to explore his other options as he was offered to play drums for a fellow Christian Rock band called Paid. While there was a lull of our live gigs for a period of two months or so, our presence was continually felt thanks to Kevin Sardines for commissioning us to write a product jingle for them which was massively played over at Love Radio CDO during our brief hiatus. As well as a radio guesting at 89.3 Killerbee for the indie top 20 countdown where our song Brand New Day made it into the charts. We also had a chance to catch the nation's attention when Pinoy Magazine featured us as well as two of our songs in their songhits portion.

On April, armed with the new session musicians that we were able to hire, we had a fitting resurrection as we played in a Praise Music Fest (see attached video) back to back with an event by Gang Badoy of Rock Ed fame. John Fernandez, our former vocalist/guitarist, jammed with us on this event. What follows would be a series of gigs wherein we experienced our busiest year thus far. On May, we were honored to be invited to join the O2 Jam battle of the bands competition courtesy of Globe. June was our busiest month of the year as we made way to guest in RPN 9's Ang Bagong Kampeon monthly finals. We were also lined up to play at Punchbowl Sonata's thursday night band events at FU. Southrace, CDO's premier bisrock band, would also invite us to guest during their album launching. And we capped off the month by playing at Skypark Restobar, the newest resto bar in the city.

On July, the band would grace the Launching of an online fanzine that I created (which can be viewed at www.rubatothezine.multiply.com) which highlights on news about the CDO music scene. We were also invited to front act for Christian Bautista's major concert here in CDO. The month of August was also a busy month for us as it is the City Fiesta month. We were lined up to play at Punchbowl Sonata's anniversary which was highlighted by a guest band from cebu, Smooth Friction. We would also have a fiesta mall tour as we visited Gaisano Mall, headlining a mall show back to back with Nobelista Pasta. And on fiesta day itself, we had a very rare back to back gigs as we celebrated the city fiesta guesting for Love Radio's event which was highlighted by an all girl Manila based R&B dance group called Mocha. Which was directly followed by a CDO Rock Festival event where Ram Chavez (of Pinoy Idol Fame) and his band guested. 

But this year wasn't just all about Thoughts And Notions. On September, Thrina and I took time to revisit our Praise and Worship music roots as Thrina rejoined our church's singles group music ministry team. We also joined our fellow CDO indie bands at Ghana the site to celebrate the new gigging venue. This month also featured our second straight Regional Finals appearance for Nescafe Soundskool as the band made it's way to Davao. 

October would be our most special month as we shared the stage with the comebacking former Rivermaya frontman Rico Blanco's first solo concert here in CDO, which gained us a considerable amount of milege as the event was featured on two locally produced ABS-CBN shows . I have always been a fan of Blanco's works. And I acknowledge him as the person that influenced me most to write songs. Wild Fm also invited us to guest in their band events. This was also the month that we regrouped and unveiled the final line up for the band (which I hope would really be the final line up, no more revisions) as we took in Thrina's best friend Doris Bangot as our new bassist and got back our drummer Adonis Berongoy . November on the other hand netted us only one single gig, On/Off production's Friday night Madness. Most of the time, we spent the month holed up in our recording room to record new materials for the new album. And finally, the last month of the year, we got invited to play at a private corporate party for an exclusive acoustic set. And to cap off the year, we played at our guitarist's Church for an anniversary event. It was indeed a fruitful year for us and a lot of growing pains. We are hoping that 2009 would be even a better year for us. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone!


Saturday, December 13, 2008

Best Products Corporation Christmas Party

Start:     Dec 20, '08 5:00p
Location:     Lim Se Jo Building, Carmen, Cagayan de Oro City
Corporate event. 15 songs, all acoustic.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

CAC Youth Presents: Reactivated feat. Thoughts And Notions

Start:     Dec 28, '08 5:00p
Location:     CSFL Bldg, Osmena St. Cagayan de Oro City
CAC Youth Presents: "REACTIVATED" Y-acts launching. This could very well be our last gig for the year =)