Eraserheads fans, there’s reason to rejoice – our favorite band’s music is given new life in the just-released UltraelectromagneticJam– classic Eheads tunes as interpreted by popular bands and artists. That’s not all, Budz, Raimund and Ely themselves are part of the album, but this time separately as producers and guest performers. Even Marcus told us that he’ll be jamming with um, one of the artists (surprise na lang muna) at the launch on Tuesday, coolness! It would be great if they can all perform as one group again, but I guess we have to wait and see if that’ll ever happen. (By the way, we have Jam 88.3 and SonyBMG to thank for this project.)
UPDATE: There are a few pics from the launch on our phlog, here you go.
We’re listening to it right now and these are our personal faves: FrancisM’s Superproxy2K2, Radiocative Sago Project’s Alcohol, Isha’s Torpedo, Sugarfree’s Tikman, Rico J Puno’s Huling El Bimbo, Orange & Lemons’ Huwag Kang Matakot, and Imago’s Spoliarium.

By the way, my Arn did all the band illustrations while I did the overall design and hand-lettering (gulp, yes everything from the album title down to the copyright line was hand-lettered). Hope you like it (;

I told Arn that this album was the perfect project to end 2005 because it’s been 10 years since my first design project for the Eheads. I actually met Budz, Raimund and Marcus in college in 1988 when I would hang out with my good friend Candy – she was their band Curfew‘s vocalist (and now she’s a bank executive and doting mom to two adorable daughters, haha).

I didn’t see them again after we graduated until I bought Ultraelectromagneticpop and realized that the three guys in the pic were “Candy’s former bandmates”. In 1995 I was working as Art Director for Pepsi in O&M and we got the Eheads for the Megadrive promo. We renewed our ties and they asked me to design their fanzine Pillbox.

Everything else followed after that: Fruitcake, Aloha Milkyway, Pillbox2, Natin 99, and Carbon Stereoxide. They tapped me for side projects too – Ely’s Wanted Bedspacer, Raims’ Sandwich’s Grip Stand Throw and 4-Track Mind and Inkjet, Ely’s sis’ Lally’s Fair Tales, and later on Arn did Marcus’ KamonKamon and last year’s best-selling Anthology.

Thru them I got immersed in the music scene where I met really good friends like Marie, Earnest, Quark, Monra and Nev and fabulous bands like the Itchyworms, Fatal Posporos, Sugar Hiccup, and many others. They also got me in touch with one of our most suki and consistent clients to date.

By the way, did I mention that they somehow got Arn and me together? We were introduced by a common friend, Marco, at the Fruitcake book launch in 1997. (;

I’m not sure if they’ll ever have another album again, or if I’ll get to design it too, but I’d like to thank them for touching our lives with their music, and for letting my art touch theirs.

While I occupied myself designing t-shirts and whatnot, Arn was busy creating a card game to accompany his latest book The Mythology Class Special Collected Edition. The game is now available for download (for FREE!) at the Myth Class website so please do give it a try. It’s really fun, trust me, and is very easy to learn even if you haven’t had any experience playing CCGs.

You can also download the rules and decks via the following links:
– Adventure Deck, 1.3mb pdf file
– Character Deck , 412kb pdf file
– Creature Deck , 544kb pdf file
– Game Rules, 296kb pdf file

Once you’ve played it, please drop Arn a line. He’ll love to hear what you think. And if you’re going to the Komikon this Saturday, do drop by Arn’s booth and say hi. For sure we’ll be playing it there.

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Sigh, our skeds have been unbelievably crazy lately. I’m designing another album for Sony BMG and Marbee and I are currently working on the third issue of WE, set for release in a couple of months. Meanwhile, my Arn since coming back from Korea had already finished a project with Sheila and Mike for their agency in Singapore, and is currently working with the local counterpart of the sameagency on an illustration-heavy project. It’s amazing that we still find time to sleep!

The CafePress bug bit me hard so I made another shop, this time selling fun household items and apparel carrying playful Pinoy food prints like isaw, bibingka, sago’t gulaman and the like. Hope you can check it out. 😀

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Do you dig the itchyworms!? (We do!) There’s good news, their much-awaited 2nd album Noontime Show is out. It’s a steal at P250 and is probably the best local rock album Arn and I have listened to in a long time. It still has the itchies’ signature catchy melodies but their music and writing have matured in terms of style and substance. Apart from the early favorites “Buwan” and “Akin Ka Na Lang”, you have to listen closely to the lyrics of “Theme From Noontime Show” (hanggang dito na lang ba ang masa?), “Contestant #1” (kalahok sa kalokohan, kala mo ay panalo ka) and “Soap o Pera” (sa pangongopya lang ba tayo magaling?) and then say “hooray, it’s about time someone said something about the state of local TV programming!” A must-listen-to is “Production Number”, a 12-minute hodgepodge of snippets spoofing the different characters polluting noontime TV — it’s a riot!

UPDATE:Since I posted this entry, I’ve been receiving tons of hits via “Google Search: itchyworms akin ka na lang lyrics”. The correct link is here, peeps.

And as a bonus, here are really retro pics of them (c.1998 I think) from their early gigging days.