Ely not happy with Eraserheads tribute?

Heard that Ely Buendia, is not very comfortable with the idea that his former group, Eraserheads will be given a tribute. Maybe, Ely thinks, it is too early for his former band to be "honored." On one hand, Ely is right, and on the other, can he stop people from "honoring" his former band? In America, legends are lionized and iconized. And in America, you become a legend once you stand the test of time. And that’s when you’ve already grown old. However, there are those who become legends only after an early death like Bob Marley and James Dean who until now are best sellers.

Ely and Eraserheads were the acknowledged flag bearer of Pinoy pop alternative music. After Eraserheads disbanded, Ely formed his own band called Mongols. With the loss of one member, Mongols disbanded and people thought it was over for Ely. But nothing can put a true artist down. Ely, together with the remaining members of Mongols – Yan Yuzon, Dok Sergio and Boks Jugo decided to form a new band.

And as Ely and his bandmates were looking for a new name for their group, several words cropped up like Narcom, Tyrel Corp, Traitors, The Gets. But it seemed like these names did not fit into what they envisioned their group to be. They wanted a name that was short, familiar and most importantly, easy to spell, say and shout. And Ely, the genius that he is, chanced upon the world "pupil" while reading a medical book. And eureka! The band loved the word and "Pupil" was born.

Pupil has come up with an album called Beautiful Machines. It contains eight English songs and six Tagalog songs including, Lost Guide, Mary, Different Worlds which Ely and his wife and manager Dianne wrote, Blow Your House Down, She Talks to Trees, Gamu-Gamo, All This Time, Dianetic, Kalawakan, and Nasaan Ka?, which is the album’s carrier single. Beautiful Machines is under Sony BMG Music Entertainment.

But even after Ely has parted ways with the Eraserheads, and he now has a new band, still the E-heads music continues. It’s all because of their albums that collectively sold more than nine million copies. It is also because of the more than two dozen hit singles and of the awards they have won.

Today, the Eraserheads still serve as an inspiration to new artists. Banking on the viability of E-heads music, Jam 88.3 thought of producing Eraserheads tunes done by an all star-cast of artists in the current OPM scene. Distributed by Sony BMG Music Entertainment, the album is called Ultraelectromagneticjam Singers include Paolo Santos (who did Magasin); Radioactive Sago (Alcohol); Imago (Spolarium); Isha (Torpedo); MYMP (Wag Mo ng Itanong); Orange and Lemons (Wag Kang Matakot); Rico J. Puno (Ang Huling El Bimbo); Kitchie Nadal (Ligaya); Barbie Almalbis (Overdrive); Sponge Cola (Pare Ko); 6CycleMind (Alapaap); Francis M with Hardware Syndrome (Super Proxy); Cueshé (Hard To Believe); Brownman Revival (Maling Akala); South Border (With A Smile); and Sugarfree (Tikman).

Eric Perpetua, associate program director of Jam 88.3 who masterminded the album says, "Pulling together ultraelectromagneticjam was a Herculean task." Thus, when Eric broached the idea to Sony BMG Music Entertainment that owned the band’s catalogue, Sony readily gave their go signal provided that only named bands do the work as befitting the stature of the Eraserheads.

And when Eric spoke to the artists who would sing the Eraserheads songs, "everyone jumped at the idea." "They were all excited and could not wait for the album to happen. And the only question they had was "which E-head song?" Unknown to Eric, the artists already had their own favorite E-heads song even before ultraelectromagneticjam came about.

"People have asked me, Why the E-heads? The reason is simple. No other band has made an impression and impact as big as they have on the music scene. No other band can create musical magic the way Ely (Buendia), Marcus (Adoro), Raymund (Marasigan) and Buddy (Zabala) did when they come together. And no one comes close to the Eraserheads, then and now," Eric adds.

And I agree.