Bamboo was a

Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

band formed in 2003 by lead vocalist

Bamboo Mañalac Francisco Gaudencio Lope Belardo MañalacVIDEO: "It's Francisco, that's my great-grandfather, then Gaudencio, that's my lolo, then it's Lope, then it's Belardo Mañalac." / (born March 21, 1976), popularly known as Bamboo Mañalac or simply by ...

, bassist

Nathan Azarcon Nathan Peter Hachero Azarcon (born January 29, 1975) is a Filipino musician, nationalist, songwriter, and producer. He is currently the bassist, vocalist and one of the founding members of Filipino rock band Rivermaya. He was also a member of the ...

, lead and rhythm guitarist

Ira Cruz Ira Cara Cruz is a multi-awarded Filipino musician, composer and producer. He was a founding member of Filipino rock bands Hijo, Bamboo, Introvoys, Passage and Kapatid. Professional background Introvoys (1987-1991, 2001) Introvoys was formed ...

and drummer Vic Mercado.

Band origin

Francisco "Bamboo" Mañalac serves as the band's frontman. Ira Cruz, the band's guitarist claimed that the name of the band was not just derived from their vocalist's name but also from the word ''bamboo'', the characteristics of which are associated with strength and durability with an island feel to it. Also, it's very Filipino and Asian at the same time. Two of its members,

and

, were formerly part of

Rivermaya Rivermaya is a Filipino alternative rock band. Formed in 1994, it is one of the several bands who spearheaded the 1990s Philippine alternative rock explosion. Rivermaya is currently composed of original members Mark Escueta and Nathan Azarcon ...

. The other two members,

and Vic Mercado, were former instrumentalists of another band, Passage. Cruz and Azarcon were also former members of the band Kapatid during that time. Four years after their departure from

, Mañalac and Azarcon caught up again with each other, during which Azarcon introduced him to Cruz and Mercado.

Music career

Bamboo's debut album, ''As The Music Plays'', was released in February 2004, where it received positive response from fans and critics alike. The album also won numerous awards at the AWIT Awards, NU 107 Rock Awards, and

MTV Pilipinas MTV Pilipinas Music Awards was the MTV Pilipinas' annual music video awards event. Award categories * Video of the Year * Favorite Male Video * Favorite Female Video * Favorite New Artist in a Video * Favorite Group Video *Favorite Indie Video ...

2004. and a repackaged version release on October 25, 2004. Their second album, ''Light Peace Love'', which was released on June 4, 2005, consists of ten songs with differing moods and subjects, and took only 3 months to record. This album has a softer sound with both its lyrics and delivery. For this album, the band added more strings and a variety of other instruments, including trumpets. The band admitted that this album had a personal feel to it. They experimented with several new styles that may please new listeners, at the risk of disappointing fans of the more conventional rock of their first album. on 2005, the band represents the Philippines at EMI Music Southeast Asia three-day annual regional conference in Singapore Their third album, ''We Stand Alone Together'', was released on February 16, 2007. It contains covers of local songs such as Buklod's " Tatsulok" and international songs such as

Paul Simon Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and actor whose career has spanned six decades. He is one of the most acclaimed songwriters in popular music, both as a solo artist and as half of folk roc ...

's "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover", from different generations. It also includes bonus tracks like unplugged versions of their hit songs from previous albums such as "Mr. Clay", "These Days", and "Hallelujah". Once again, opting to do away with the conventional rock image that was attached to them, they produced sounds which were more jazzy than expected.

Star Records Star Music (stylized in lowercase as starmusic; formerly known as Star Records), is a record label in the Philippines owned and operated by media conglomerate ABS-CBN Corporation. It was formerly a separate company operating as a wholly owned ...

—backed up by

ABS-CBN ABS-CBN (an initialism of its two predecessors' names, Alto Broadcasting System and Chronicle Broadcasting Network) is a Television in the Philippines, Philippine Commercial broadcasting, commercial broadcast broadcast network, network tha ...

TV Production and

MYX Myx (, stylized as MYX or myx) is a Philippine pay TV channel based in Quezon City, owned by Creative Programs Inc., a subsidiary of ABS-CBN Corporation. The channel is targeted to youth audiences and primarily airs music videos. It was intr ...

—produced and created the official soundtrack for the tele-epiko " Rounin", wherein the title track "Argos" was performed by Bamboo. A new avenue was opened to the band, as "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 was also part of the "Days of Peace" Campaign by

UNICEF UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Devel ...

with

Gary Valenciano Edgardo Jose Santiago Valenciano (, born August 6, 1964), also known as Gary V., is a Filipino singer-songwriter, dancer, musician, actor, music producer and television host. Valenciano has released 39 albums, and won the Awit Award for "Bes ...

. The band's fourth album, '' Tomorrow Becomes Yesterday'' achieved platinum status on September 28, 2008 - just two days after its release.

Past members

– vocals *

– bass guitar, backing vocals *

– lead guitar, backing vocals *Vic Mercado – drums, percussion

Break-up

News circulated on January 9, 2011, that Bamboo had "allegedly disbanded". DJ

KC Montero Casey Wyatt Miller (born June 17, 1978), known professionally as KC Montero, is an American radio DJ and actor currently based in the Philippines. He is currently the Vice President of Marketing and Head of Content at Kumu. Personal life He wa ...

of Wave 89.1 confirmed the breakup on Wave's The KC Show and via

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

. Montero clarified that all the members of the band "have decided to move on," and that he does not know why they called it quits. The group has not released an official statement on the issue, according to ABS-CBNNews.com. On January 11, 2011, Bamboo's lead vocalist Francisco "Bamboo" Mañalac finally confirmed the breakup of his band in an official statement posted on the group's website. Bamboo's breakup confirmed by an official statement

Aftermath

A few months after the band disbanded, the group reformed without the vocalist (

) and formed the band Hijo composed of Nathan Azarcon (vocals & bass), Ira Cruz (guitar), Vic Mercado (drums), Junji Lerma of Wahijuara (guitar) and Jay-O Orduña of Cauio (keyboards and backing vocals). The band's frontman Bamboo Mañalac pursued a solo career and released his first album as a solo artist in November 2011.

Discography

Albums

*''As The Music Plays'' (2004) - Double Platinum (A 2-disc Repackaged Version was released in 2004) *''Light Peace Love'' (2005) - Platinum *''We Stand Alone Together'' (2007) - Gold *'' Tomorrow Becomes Yesterday'' (2008) - Platinum (A 2-disc Repackaged Version was released in late 2010)

Compilations

*''Full Volume:The Best Of Pinoy Alternative (2005 Polyeast Records)'' :''includes As The Music Plays (Jam Version)'' *''Rounin OST (2007 Star Music)'' :''includes Argos'' *''Astig...The Biggest OPM Hits (2008 Universal Records)'' *''Platinum Hits Collection'' (2011 Polyeast Records)''

Singles

Awards and nominations

Other media

Commercial Endorsements

*Smart *

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*Colt 45 *Pepsi *Yamaha Motors *Tanduay Rhum T5 (with 6cyclemind, Chicosci, Kamikazee, and

Sandwich A sandwich is a food typically consisting of vegetables, sliced cheese or meat, placed on or between slices of bread, or more generally any dish wherein bread serves as a container or wrapper for another food type. The sandwich began as a po ...

)

Footnotes

References

Bamboo Official Site

Vic Mercado - ZildjianVic Mercado - Gretsch
*https://web.archive.org/web/20060325045329/http://www.philmusic.com/blog/index.php?p=114

External links

Rock Music Updates
Bamboo on Rockstar Bembang!Bamboo PinoyBanda ProfileBamboo Yahoo! Music PageBamboo
profile at EMI Philippines {{DEFAULTSORT:Bamboo Filipino rock music groups Musical groups from Metro Manila Musical groups established in 2003 Musical groups disestablished in 2011