I know it’s quite late in the game to be citing the best albums of 2010, but at least you can be assured that this list was well thought of. Besides, most of these great albums are sadly overlooked and unheralded. With NU107 gone and with misinformed naysayers asserting that underground music and rock bands are out, coming up with this list became a sort of silent crusade for me. The question of how well these releases and artists actually are is anybody’s call; the reader is free to form his or her own opinion over these things anyway. Anyway, without further ado, here it goes.

1. Loonie: The Ones Who Never Made It (Clay). Loonie, self-designed “half-gangsta, half-genius”—also, former Eat Bulaga! Rappublic of the Philippines participant, Francism hypeman, and one half of the rap duo Stickfiggas—exudes wit and attitude and practically spits forth lyrical fire in his solo outing. Whether it’s in English, Filipino, or Cebuano, or whether it’s in the form of a love song or a vitriolic attack, his material manages to come off as being generally streetwise. And with him getting recently signed by Sony Music, there should be some hope for forward-thinking music to get back in the thick of things as far as the mainstream goes.

2. Bloodshedd: Spare No One/Cog: Culling (Tower of Doom). These are metal releases that push the envelope in terms of musicality, but without losing the ferocious bite that defines its genre. The former is relentlessness exemplified, while the latter is a collection of songs which segue into one another as if interwoven into one grand epic.

3. Hannah+Gabi: Haha Yes (self-produced). “Would it be better if we sleep forever?” Mikey Amistoso asks in “Waiting for the Rainfall,” a sweet yet poignant number which, it could be argued, is representative of this short album that’s made for the emotionally weary and, well, those with good ears. You’ll wish it would go on forever. Love, longing, and escapism in one compact package.

4. Franco: Franco (MCA). Finally, a proper mainstream release from the person regarded as the central figure of the Cebu rock scene. Aided by his stellar bandmates, Franco Reyes dishes out almost a decade’s worth of reggae-tinged combo of metal and grunge.

5. T.S.A.: Back to Kindergarten (RoughDraft)/Throw: Believe (Counterflow). “We never needed to be cared for, all we ever wanted was to believe,” Throw proclaims in their album’s title track, and this may very well be the creed of old-school (you may also say “true”) punk music stalwarts who refuse to stop pumping their clenched fists. The band, well, throws this album and a must-find online EP (‘Wag Kalimutan ang Ingay) as their final salute. T.S.A., on the other hand, reimagines local punk anthems past and present (even covering the latter’s “Akin ‘Yan”). The one quality that makes Believe stand out compared to their other releases, however, is the fact that the old guns open up more here, lyrically speaking, offering up sentiments of reassurance, positivity, and fond farewells without losing the rage and ferocity.

6. Francis Magalona and Ely Buendia: In Love and War (Sony). How can two men who faced death (one finally succumbing after giving a good fight, and the other rocking on like he never did) create such a wonderful pop album brimming with life?

7. Johnoy Danao: Dapithapon (Wombworks). The songwriting and the musicianship are both excellent, but the one thing that carries this album is that voice that can pretty much sing its way out of anything. It kind of makes you wonder: if Johnoy sang his way to the U.N., perhaps there’ll be no more wars. Dear major labels, with the breakthrough platinum success of Noel Cabangon’s recent record, don’t you think it makes perfect sense to sign this dude? (On a related note, check out Johnoy and Kakoy’s equally incendiary stuff. I’ll give you an idea: click here. – Ed.)

8. Good Leaf: Dub Pilipinas (Dub Explosion/Inity)/Pasta Groove: Ill Primitivo (PG/Terno). New adventurous grooves from the underground. PG returns with deeper hip-hop vibes in his soul pastiche while Malabon’s Good Leaf carries the flag for dub music with their hard-to-find debut. Urban Pilipinas is quivering in childbirth.

9. Sleepwalk Circus: Great Secret Show (Terno). No album was more grandiose, more ambitious, and pulled more stops than this one. A “swirling musical vortex,” says Cat Cortes of Arigato, Hato! in an earlier review, and I couldn’t agree more.

10. Gaijin: Welcome Back, Earthling (Locked Down). Jesse Grinter brings his folksy lyricism and frames it with constantly moving, dynamic rock that’s straight from the gut. (Cris O. Ramos, Jr.)

Gaijin photo via their Facebook; Franco photo courtesy of MCA. The second and final installment of this list is here.

RJ Underground Radio 105.9 spent the last few weeks roaming the metro, wreaking musical havoc, and celebrating three years of on-air madness. Three consecutive weekend nights were filled with awesome bands and endless alcohol courtesy of Emperador Light Brandy and The Bar.

The rock jocks of UR—Nick Zinger, Memphis, The Mole, Billy B., and their newest addition, John Hamster, as well as the DJs of UR’s special shows—were present to make sure that craziness ensued and gave away prizes each night.

The tour opened on July 23 at the Eastwood Central Plaza, where Franco, Archipelago, Doki, Sleepwalk Circus, Musical O., Kjwan, Kenyo, Peryodiko, and the ten-year-old guitar wonder Luis Galang blew everyone away.

Then we headed over to Pasay to take over Uno Pizzeria at By the Bay. Even if the rain poured down hard, the music blasted on harder! Paramita, Juan Pablo Dream, Tanya Markova, Top Junk, Lady I, Luna, Soul Republic, The Powertones, and Cheeba gave the people a good reason to brave the crazy weather.

B-side was definitely flipped over during the last leg of the tour, where the sonic sounds of Identikit, Enemies of Saturn, The Out of Body Special, Sugar Hiccup, Reklamo, December Avenue, Salamin, and Turbo Goth satisfied our ears until the wee hours of the morning!

It’s been an awesome three years and the celebration was even better! We’ve got more things coming, so you all better keep on listening to UR 105.9! (Pulse.ph)

On July 15, 2007, a tiny radio station on the FM band started broadcasting. Since then, it has unsuspectingly built a quiet but steady reputation, as well as an avid, discriminating listenership. This month, they are celebrating their third year on air. And not without the appropriate rock ‘n’ roll shindig. This Friday, July 23, 2010, troop over to the Eastwood Central Plaza ‘round 7PM and party with RJ Underground Radio 105.9—with a little help from Franco, Kjwan, and Kenyo, as well as Peryodiko and Archipelago, and, my oh my, those ultra-talented Terno kids Musical O and Sleepwalk Circus! Doki will also be playing. Take those hands out of those pockets, ladies and gents, because entrance is, yes, free! The more awesome thing is that the Eastwood show will only be the first of three shows happening around the metro.

The R U Listening Tour of 2010 is made possible by RJ Underground Radio 105.9 and Emperador Light Brandy, and brought to us by Draven, Gweilos, Club Dredd Eastwood, No Seat Affair, Inc., and Eastwood City Walk, with media partners Uno, Pulp, Pulse.ph, Rakista.com, and Odysseylive.net. (Pulse.ph)

The kids are alright, all right.

But apparently the cops don’t think so. In at least two separate occasions on the same night, random saGuijo habitués who’ve trickled onto the street with beers in tow have incited the wrath of the authority. They’re technically not vagrants but I guess that’s what they were being made out to be. I saw the drummer of a popular pop-rock outfit small-talking the cops (presumably) about leaving the “kids” be; I saw one or two other music-scene kuya figures attempt to do the same. The itinerant cop-mobile visits were apparently mini-witch-hunts masquerading as public service. Allegedly, this happens every so often; and allegedly, such matters get resolved fairly quickly (read: via “mabuting usapan”). Part of the reason why the kids that night turned into temporary vagabonds (if you may) is the increasing miniaturization of everyone’s favorite Makati rock bar: it’s not that it literally shrank with the passing of time; it’s just gotten bigger than what it first set out to be.

And also—and I’m guessing this is the more qualifiable explanation—a bright “new” band of relative old-timers have come to grace the stage, and their newly-congregated faithful was there to witness every pulsating moment.

The band is called Franco, and they are insanely good. And no wonder: Queso’s 8 Toleran is on guitar, Parokya ni Edgar’s Buwi Meneses is on bass, and Urbandub’s Gabby Alipe and Janjan Mendoza are on guitar and drums, respectively. To cap things off is the most low-key but, hands-down, the most seasoned/revered/emulated guy in the band, no questions asked: Franco “Frank” Reyes, from whom the group takes its name (duh). This writer only caught the band once before—at last year’s NU Rock Awards, performing “Song for the Suspect”—and was an instant convert. They’re riff-rock with a dub kind of twist, and they do it very well. You can say they’re all cock, but in a good way: a cock that delivers (please pardon the incidental imagery). And all that supergroup-this, supergroup-that talk? You can throw that out the window. Because, even with hockey masks on, this is one band you should damn well be listening to.

And so the story goes that 8, Buwi, and Janjan wanted to form a band together, since they were hanging out with each other a lot anyway. “Isang bato lang kami sa isa’t isa, eh; hindi talaga maiwasan, eh,” the Queso axeman shared. Alipe joining in afterwards was but natural, since he’s also buddies with the rest. But it will all get better: Janjan will pitch the idea of asking Franco Reyes (who was then on a musical-career gamble in the U.S.) to be their frontman. Now, this may seem like so-so to Manila rock fans, but Reyes banding together with Mendoza and Alipe—stellar Cebuano musicians in their own right—is something short of nirvana. “Growing up as a musician in Cebu, you hear bands like Sheila and the Insects and, at the time, Frank [Reyes’ regionally successful seminal Cebu outfit]. Those were the bands that were established in the scene. Sila lagi pinapanood namin. Pumupunta talaga ako sa mga shows, lalo na kapag Frank [ang tumutugtog]. And now that I’m in a band with [Franco], feeling ko, as a musician, I’ve come full-circle,” Alipe beamed.

You can call it glowing respect and you can call it seething adulation. But, you know, you can also call it a man-crush. Take the best bits of Urbandub’s Influence, for instance, and then go on over and listen to InYo, Frank’s U.S.-based musical baby. To say that Alipe and company are operating in the same idiom as Reyes would be a gross understatement, I think. The decision to christen the band after its singer is one manifestation of this idolatry, and it came easy. “We tried a few names before sticking to this name. We would have called it ‘The Janjans,’ pero kay Janjan na ‘yun. [And] everybody decided that it’s the name to use, kasi nag-stick [na]. There [are] also a handful of people who already know that we’re forming this project,” Reyes offered a tad shyly. Also, when his bandmates interpret his material, they defer to him in deference/reverence. “Lahat kami, we all try to work around [Franco], just to level us down and keep us grounded. I know where I’ve been, but it’s not like I’m taking it to this band,” Toleran, in no measure merely tolerant of all this, explained. They all profess to a warm, shared feeling: that sensation of being in a new band again. “Back to zero,” Gabby said. Beer bottles clinked against each other like the sound of early Christmas.

The songs on the band’s debut sound like the sort of songs that have been standing around for a while and silently accumulating power. The reason for this is simple: they have been standing around for a while and silently accumulating power, but with a different band. “Castaway,” “Memory Kill,” “A Mass for the End of Time,” and so on: you know, to file them away at the department of forgotten songs (apologies to Jens Lekman for the phrase) would be a crime, especially since the gospel of “one love” and good vibes populates the songs. “Everybody’s good, [though] we had problems, too,” came the few words of the man of a few words, Franco, about his erstwhile group. “We’ve been beating around the bush,” Alipe teased, “but, sorry, guys…” 8 filled in jokingly, “Ninakaw namin siya, in short.” No uncomfortable silences, just more beer-clinking sounds.

And if there are allusions to a certain “plant” in the material (most glaringly on the aforementioned “Song for the Suspect”), it’s not because they’re out to be potheads. No, no. A pothead stays at home and laughs his head off and gets nothing done. Clearly, penning songs of multi-layered grace and sheer genius doesn’t fall under “getting nothing done.” “I could probably say that maybe the government is afraid that everybody would smoke, because it opens up everybody’s minds. So, if I was a new smoker, I would think, ‘Why am in this state?’ ‘Why is my country poor?’ ‘What the fuck is the government doing?’” Reyes asked with purpose in his eyes. “Nandu’n ‘yung sense of responsibility with how [Franco] wrote his songs; it’s not like you’re out and you party your head off and you disrespect everyone along the way. We’re trying to explain what this plant can do. There are so many things. Obviously, it’s stupid if you don’t see the good points,” Toleran added, putting emphasis on the creation of new jobs and the medicinal benefits one would enjoy from the herb. “It’s all about truth and non-violence. Like Bob Marley said, ‘Why would people take that away from us?’” Reyes added further.

As night slowly turned into day on Guijo St. (and as kids continued to dodge the ridiculously unreasonable police), there was a light that never went out. (Aldus Santos)

Get high on Franco’s self-titled debut under MCA. Images courtesy of said label.