Aleccia Rocks!

Aleccia---inheritors of the past legends of Pinoy rock

I had a blast three nights ago. This Aleccia rock band is simply outrageous! What's good about this band is their artistry. They are a young band with a very good musical grounding. They have their own unique sound that simply f....ng good. 


Anyway, they performed at the former Mayrics three nights ago. As you know, the former Mayrics is the place where true Filipino musical artistry was born! All the bands that eventually went mainstream performed at that place.


Nearly two decades ago, it was Mayrics and Red Rocks which Filipino artists went to perform. It was at Red Rocks that I met The Dawn. Owners of the joint were my friends. Eventually, Red Rocks went from black to Red. Owners were forced to sell the joint to somebody who turned it into Club Dredd.


From then on, those who think they are edgy or those who believe in what Nirvana and the rest of the grudge bands say, went there full force. It was the time when conos turned into grudge and the style was something black with a little cowboy boots to boot. Death metal was also the rage and it was at that time that the legendary rock band, Rizal Underground and the  fab five of Pinoy rock owe their existence.


Marcus Aurelius metamorphosed into Marcus of The Eraserheads and they eventually abandoned death metal to croon rock solid love songs that don't use love in their lyrics. They became a hit as everybody felt the honesty of their songs and the emotions that went with it. Thousands of upeyans felt alive and remembered those times when they spent the night with their girlfriends at CSSP or drank their woes away at the quadrangle or at the swamps.


Anyway, what am I saying? 


Aleccia, to me, has a bright future. They have a solid musical grounding. They have a full understanding of their music and what's good about it, they are trying to own it. Of course, their music had strains of popular US rock bands, but what's good about a Pinoy rock band is simply their way of adapting those strains as their own. 


And if you're already performing at a legendary place like the former Mayrics (I don't want to call it Santis or anything...I want to call it Mayrics. Period.), then, in my book, you have arrived already. What's lacking is an album. 


THe only thing I want this band to think and remember is simply--don't sacrifice artistry with commercial success. Better to be poor and recognized as an icon than being rich and a sell-out. 

Aleccia--Rockin with rockin sense

Don't get me wrong--Jazz is not just something which I discovered years ago. I love Jazz. It's just that, I discovered rock earlier than Buddha Bar or Angela Bofil.


Fact is, when my mother was rocking my cradle, rock n' roll music waifs in the air. 


Call me traditionalist but I love the thing that The Doors, The Rolling Stones, U2, or AC-DC dish out. These acts ooze with so much talent and they sing their songs with so much passion that creativity oozes from their nostrils. I mean, they're hot. 


These bands started out as younglings with so much funk and so much talent that they re-created the scene. They're the iconoclasts of my age. They continue to spin their magic with music audiences around the world. 


This same feeling I felt when I heard Aleccia. Yes, this is not a foreign act. This is purely Pinoy. And Pinoy rock, rocks!


Their story begins with talent. Not the kind of talent you see in local talent searches and noontime shows, but the kind of talent coupled with passion and desire to create music. Music is something which the boys of Aleccia are not new to.
  
Aleccia is the brainchild of brothers Adrian and Arvin Agulto, an alternative rock band with post-hardcore and pop-rock sensibilities. Aleccia was formed in 2008, Adrian recruited his college classmate Joie Seng to be their bassist. Arvin, later on, invited Jerome Abello to play drums and Jeremy Ilagan joined the group just recently to play guitars.

They are not new to the gig circuit as they had been playing gigs in local clubs and bars, for the past years.


Their influences include Glassjaw, Envy on the Coast, Silverchair, Daphne Loves Derby and Foo Fighters. Hopefully, we will hear them after they finish their album in 2011.

websites:
www.faceboook.com/alecciamusic
www.myspace.com/alecciamusic
www.youtube.com/wearealeccia