ONE MONTH AFTER THE REUNION that plunged legions of music lovers into a bipolar disorder--swinging from breathless anticipation to defensive incredulity--that ended only with a mad scramble for tickets at the 11th hour, it's surprising how calmly the Eraserheads fans have gone back to their lives. Due perhaps to its lack of proper closure, the concert failed to generate more enduring ripples of peace, love, and rock 'n' roll extending long after the last song of the last set that, for now, will have to remain in the realm of fantasy.
In any case, it was just another pyrotechnic-free night at mag:net Katipunan when Markus Highway performed last weekend, something which frontman Marcus Adoro gamely added to his indie cred. Considered by many to be the wild card of the fab four, Marcus Adoro's post-Eraserheads adventures include a fabled comic book collaboration, various limited edition releases and, of course, surfing--the last earning him the "Bronze Surfer" moniker. The limited edition releases, wrapped in torn-out pages of glossy magazines, and featuring music and videos by Adoro--with the special appearance of characters such as The Sunken Gardener, Inday Chuwapz, and The Sayoteman--should be collector's items by now. How I got my copy of Kamonkamon v.2.3 some years ago is still shrouded in a purplish haze. Giving it another listen reveals, in fact, that it is a precursor of Markus Highway's first release, tongue-in-cheekily yet aptly named Behold, Rejoice! Surfernando is Hear Nah.
From the album title alone, one can tell that Adoro is still up to the ludic wordplay that gave us "Punk Zappa" from the 1994 CiRcuS. After an escape from the music scene (comparable only in recent Pinoy rock history to Dong Abay's long hibernation), Adoro returns with a strong sense of place that makes Surfernando stick out from most current output, almost all of which are suffering from the homogenizing and neither-here-nor-there influence of MTV. Yes, Surfernando might just be the Philippines' first surfer album. And yes, it has all the brashness of the 90s when local airwaves were still to be wrested from Casey Kasem's clutches. But there's more.
Avoiding the well-beaten path which might be called middle-of-the-urban-road pop--still the shortest way to the CD-buying public's heart--Surfernando takes another tack and goes back to the folk sources of Pinoy rock, and just about everything else since. The result is a mind-boggling cross-genre romp. (As an aside, the band members' styling on the album back cover displays sartorial influences from what might be called glam with Aviators and tiger stripes, KISS, Juan Dela Cruz, and rude boy. Throw in a surfboard and a bright yellow tuba and you have a rather alarming bunch seemingly waiting for a tricycle in front of a suburban electric post.) "I Remember," the tenth cut from the album, begins with a surfing intro that blends seamlessly into reggae which eventually slips into funk before resolving into a chorus of Ayayayayayeah's.
As might be expected, Adoro does not spare the camp in almost stream-of-consciousness fashion. The first cut, "Lala", begins with a harana that momentarily swerves into "Midnight Blue" then straight-facedly goes on to be one of the sweetest desiderata for a musician's life set to reggae that is also an hommage to Apo Hiking Society. "Batch 88" alludes to, among other things, the infamous "Ocho-ocho" as well as Yano's "banal na aso." Markus Highway's take on the obligatory call to "rakenrol hanggang umaga" occasionally bursts into a hilarious Devo-ish register (or is it The Cars?) and a chorus of "Bonfire!" complete with Jim Morrison drawl. The bonfire reappears in the suspiciously mellow "Weekend Warrior Blues" with its acoustic guitar and tambourine arrangement, so cheesy in its mellowness that one has to laugh out loud with something close to relief to hear the beloved described as: "Kaylakas ng dating/Daig mo pa ang pating/Kaylakas mo ring tumawa at fumudtrip/Sa bonfire." All throughout, the humor is a perfect blend of satirical and stoner that is patently Adoro's. What adds to the album's complexity is that there is no detectable trace of escapism. Besides an unabashed enjoyment of our cultural quirks (as in "American Gurl"), Surfernando's undercurrent is a love of nature that, perhaps, can only be learned from riding the waves.
As a whole, Behold, Rejoice! Surfernando is Hear Nah is an irreverently fun album and the ideal soundtrack to sand, surf, and bonfire high-jinks. Beyond the fun, however, it is also a zany musical experiment that challenges the listener to take a walk on the sunniest of wild sides. (Sofia Guillermo)