tama kaya?

like what a good friend would do, i deemed it necessary to listen to this album.

it's more of a play-safe thing than anything else.

i know, there will come a time that mark will ask me this:

"anu ang paborito mung track sa album bok?"

and i don't want to end up getting dumped and un-friended on facebook  by foolishly answering:

"track number 15 pake, ayus iyun"

or worst, we might end up playing that sick bottoms-up shit that we automatically and happily take part in when we get drunk.

i already did my part. i can now safely declare that may favorite track is track number 14, "sabog na bandido". so let's move on, wait for the second album, promote it once again (12 months ahead), grab a copy, listen to the album multiple times, promote it some more and we will do the process over and over again.

wait...

listen to the album multiple times. that's step number one here.

i can't organize my thoughts so i'll skip step number two.

step number three and four is as easy as ctrl+a, ctrl+c and ctrl+v. from their website:

Bubblegoo is a Filipino Rock band formed in Baler, Aurora in 2007, consisting of Tobit Rubio (vocals and guitar), Mark Israel (bass and backing vocals) and Apa Rivera (drums and backing vocals).

Bubblegoo came up with a home-made demo CD in 2008. It contains 4 original songs (Magik, Greening, It’s Such A Shame I Think About You When I Smoke, and Know Your Insects). Only about 10 CDs were produced. Most were given to fellow local musician friends. Few copies were intended to be given to top radio stations and record labels in Manila. One copy made it to NU 107′s In The Raw sometime in 2010, the demo got positive remarks from Francis Reyes.

It was August of 2010 when they started doing Metro Manila gigs. That time, with a fourth member and second guitarist Alexies Racca who was Tobit’s schoolmate in high school. Bubblegoo was first regular at Freedom Bar.

2011 saw Bubblegoo producing a 2nd demo CD which has 8 songs (Magik, ‘Di Nila Alam, Know Your Insects, I Want Drrug, Dekada, Greening, It’s Such A Shame I Think About You When I Smoke, and Anung Nangyari). The tracks are combinations of home and studio recordings, and a couple of songs from the first demo CD. Tobit called the compilation “RadioReady” in response to a schoolmate who listened to the first demo CD and commented that the songs are okay but not yet radio ready because of the rough mixes. Lots of copies of RadioReady were randomly given to friends and acquaintances they met on gigs.

Bubblegoo started as big followers of grunge (or grunge-sounding) bands like Nirvana, Pixies, Foo Fighters (post-grunge) and The Vines (post-grunge); old-school punk acts like The Sex Pistols and Joy Division; and Brit sound like Blur, Oasis, and Radiohead. Local bands like Teeth and Eraserheads were a big influence to them as well.

i'm venturing into the unknown now, so bear with me.

but...

conventional wisdom will tell you that you don't review a friends album.ever. for some very obvious reason. so i'll stop venturing to the unknown and go straight to the point instead.

for a debut album, "tama kaya" exceeded my expectations. kidding aside, you don't need a rock journalists'god-given ears and instinct to music to fully appreciate this piece of art. it's not rocket science man.

ayus bok.

magaling.

astig.

sabog na bandido, sabog na bandido ka...
sabog na bandido, sabog na bandido ka...
sabog na bandido, sabog na bandido ka...