BambooThe Story and Songs of BambooBamboo, today’s hottest pinoy rock sensation, is composed of Bamboo Mañalac and Nathan Azarcon on bass, both ex-Rivermaya members, and Ira Cruz on guitars and Vic Mercado on drums, both former instrumentalists of the Passage Band.
This band is an alternative rock band founded by the ex-vocalist of the Rivermaya band, Bamboo Mañalac, on the year 2002 and was also named after him. He serves as the band’s frontman. Mañalac and Azarcon, four years after they left Rivermaya, met again and Azarcon introduced him to Ira Cruz and Vic Mercado who were then members of the pop ballad band, Passage. Eventually, the four became friends and formed a new group which is now known as “Bamboo”. In February 2004, Bamboo launched their debut album, As the Music Plays, and it received a positive response from both fans and critics. The album garnered numerous awards at the AWIT Awards, NU107 Rock Awards, and MTV Awards 2004. Light Peace Love, their second album, was released in 2005. It consists of ten songs which only took 3 months to record and it has differing moods and subjects. This album has a softer sound in both its lyrics and the way it was delivered. For this album, the band added more strings and some instruments, including a trumpet and used other styles that may catch the taste of new listeners. This was done with the risk of disappointing the fans of their first album which has a more conservative rock style.
Their third album, We Stand Alone Together, was released in 2007. It contains the revived local songs which includes Cabangon’s “Tatsulok” and international songs such as Paul Simon’s “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” from different generations. It also includes bonus tracks like unplugged versions of their hit songs from the previous albums such as "Mr. Clay", "These Days", and "Hallelujah". Opting to do away with the conventional rock image that was attached to the band, they produced sounds which were more jazzy than expected. Backed up by ABS-CBN TV Production and MYX, Star Records produced and created the official soundtrack for the tele-epiko “ROUNIN”, wherein the title track “Argos” was performed by Bamboo. Argos is said to be the band’s first venture to record a song for a primetime television show. It is also the first time for the multi-awarded band and Star Records to work together. The band, together with Gary Valenciano, was part of the “Days of Peace” campaign by UNICEF. Awards Received
|
