The Eraserheads saga: The making and unmaking of a rock n’ roll dream

Bong Godinez

Wednesday, March 12, 2008
12:33 AM

Marooned comfortably on a couch inside a science lab turned dressing room, Eraserheads frontman Ely Buendia downplayed the news that the band's current single "Julie Tear Jerky," lifted from the band's Asian album Aloha Milky Way had gone number 1 in Indonesia.

 

Prior to the news, it was reported that the initial pressing of the album in Singapore, 400 copies to be exact, sold out at the day of the launching and has stayed on the Singapore charts for several weeks.

 

"Ayaw kong kontrahin, e," Ely told reporter Rod Yabis after a St. Scholastica's College gig back in 1998. "Ayaw kong pag-isipan. Masyado pang ano, kumbaga, naaalala ko nang lumabas ‘yung Ultra," he reminisced, pertaining to the band's 1993 groundbreaking album Ultraelectromagneticpop under BMG Pilipinas.

 

"A few months after, kinakabahan pa rin ako. Ayaw ko ring mag-isip nang time na ‘yun. Talaganag bahala na. Ganun pa rin ang attitude ko," continued Ely in typical deadpan delivery.

 

ROCK N' ROLL DEGREE. Ely's unassuming attitude, as displayed in the interview, aptly sums up the story and eventual success of the Eraserheads, particularly at the beginning.

 

It was in 1989 when four college students from the University of the Philippines decided to merge and form a new group. Bassist Buddy Zabala and guitarist Marcus Adoro of the band Curfew hooked up with guitarist Ely Buendia and drummer Raimund Marasigan of Sunday School with the intention of playing music inside the campus during programs and events.

 

But while undeniably being ardent music fans, the quartet's desire to form a band also stemmed from shared adolescent yearnings; something that had to do with their perceived shortcomings.

 

"We form a band so we could attract girls sa campus," all four took turns in saying years later, "hindi kasi kami marunong mag-basketball kaya banda na lang."

 

Legend says that the scruffy quartet arrived at the name Eraserheads during a hastily arranged campus gig. Groping for a name to put on paper, they leafed through a well-thumbed magazine carried by Ely, who is a film major student, and stumbled upon the movie title Eraserhead by surrealist director David Lynch.

 

It wasn't the best name, they would later say, "but somehow it stuck," said Raimund in an early interview.

 

Finally with a stable lineup and a definite band name, the boys then confronted a daunting problem: they realized that they're not competent when it comes to playing covers.

 

Undeterred, they decided to write original songs instead to make up for the liability. "After all, if we committed a mistake, no one would recognize it since they don't know the song," rationalized Ely, who embraced the songwriting responsibility more seriously during the period.

 

The logic was perfect. Armed with original songs, the Eraserheads soon earned a cult following inside the campus. One particular song that stood out among the earliest materials was the song titled "Pare Ko"—a straightforward ditty about spurned love, laced with obscenities and street-smart lyrics.

 

UNDERGROUND SENSATION. For some time, the band was thinking of cutting a demo to document the original materials they fastidiously wrote and rehearsed.

 

Fortunately, a UP professor named Robin Rivera was generous enough to lend a helping hand. Robin, who studied music recording at Berklee College of Music, convened the quartet and gave them their first taste of actual recording albeit primitive conditions. The band used the demo to shop for a record deal but was consistently turned down. Label reps said the record was not pop enough and unsuited for the airwaves. Upset but still upbeat, the band sarcastically named their demo record Pop-U! as mock response to the "not-pop-enough" comments.

 

Robin's intention was noble. "One of the main reasons I decided to help the band record the now legendary Pop-U! was that in the event that they never got a recording contract, I wanted it to serve as permanent proof of the creativity of their youth," he wrote years later.

 

The band produced only 20 copies of Pop U! which they proudly distributed to close friends. However, the numbers grew exponentially inside the campus as other students began dubbing copies for themselves.

 

Setting their sights outside UP, the Eraserheads in 1990 managed to land a regular gig at Club Dredd in Quezon City. It was the perfect venue for a fledgling band to hone their chops while at the same time partake in the steadily growing underground-alternative community and rub elbows with the old timers like The Jerks and Betrayed among others.

 

Ely, Buddy, Marcus and Raimund were not the best musicians around as perhaps compared to most of their contemporaries during their startup years. But what they lacked in virtuosity, they more than made up for with catchy hook-filled tunes—a critical element that would serve the band greatly as they inched their way slowly to the mainstream.

 

The Eraserheads gained admission in Club Dredd mainly on the strength of Pop U! Insider Jing Garcia, in an essay he wrote for Tikman Ang Langit recalled the prophetic words uttered by local rock scene impresario Wilfredo "Dodong" Viray to friend Robbie Sunico upon hearing the crudely recorded Eraserheads demo.

 

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