Cueshe: Several reasons to stay

I didn’t get to ask Hale why they chose to call themselves Hale. I had better success with Cueshe, the band said to be giving Hale a big run for its money, thanks to its big selling rock ballad, Stay. I was able to ask the members why they call themselves Cueshe, pronounced q-shay in the French style, just like touché.

The cue comes from banana cue, which, if we are to go into semantics, is a suffix derived from barbecue. In this case, though, it is really banana cue that the group wants to associate themselves with, because the native snack is tasty, healthy, easy to find and easy on the pocket. I refuse to call it cheap. Cueshe says those qualities of the banana cue are what they want people to find in their music.

As for the she or shay, as they want it pronounced to sound sosyal, that was because they wanted to highlight the presence of a female member who has since left the group to pursue other things. "We thought it would be nice to have the ‘she’ in our name to say that there was a girl in the band and it was because of her that we wanted the French touch, shay," say the guys. And that was how they became Cueshe.

Cueshe is how they have been known for the past five years, most of them spent in their native Cebu, where they were an adequately-paid, somewhat-in-demand dance band. "We played anything," they say. Still, Cueshe they have been these past few months as one of the hottest new bands in town, with Half Empty, Half Full, an album of all originals they wrote themselves, including of course the debut single, Stay.

Cueshe is made up of leader Mike Manaloto on drums, Fritz Labrado on bass, Jovan Mabini on guitar, Ruben Caballero on vocals and guitar, Jhunjie Dosdos on keyboards and Jay Justiniani on vocals. Thanks to several years of friendship and working together, they make up a pretty solid group whose playing and interaction is one of the tightest I’ve ever seen. The great thing about it is that they sound as good live as they do in the album, and that is something I cannot say about the other bands around these days.

Expect the cuts Sorry and Ulan to follow in the footsteps of Stay as hits from Half Empty, Half Full. Then there are also Hump Ahead, Here for You, Never Leave, 24 Hours, Sky, Love Me Now, Hate Me Soon, Can’t Let You Go and When I’m with You.

Cueshe is one of the featured performers in the 2005 MTV Pilipinas Video Music Awards which will be held at the Araneta Coliseum on Thursday, Aug. 25. This year’s theme is "A Night at the Boxing Ring." Others set to perform in the boasted-about spectacular numbers are Gary Valenciano, Sugarfree, Hale, Kitchie Nadal, Christian Bautista, Nina, Rachelle Ann Go, Spongecola, Radioactive Sago Project and Junior Kilat. Watch out for more announcements.

For Cueshe fans wondering why the group did not make the MTV nominations, it is because the VMA (Video Music Awards) honors accomplishments for 2004 and Half Empty, Half Full and Stay were all released this year. You can rest assured though that Cueshe will be in the running in 2006.

Meanwhile, the MYX music channel’s hit chart for July 30 to Aug. 5 has Cueshe’s Stay up from number five to four. Expectations are ripe that it will climb higher this week, probably as high or even higher than Hale’s The Day You Said Goodnight which remains at No. 1.

The rest of the MYX list is as follows: Tell Me Where It Hurts by M.Y.M.P.; I Want to Know What Love Is by Sarah Geronimo; Stay by Cueshe; Maling Akala by Brownman Revival; End of Me by Marion Raven; Hallelujah by Bamboo; Cater 2 U by Destiny’s Child; First by Lindsay Lohan; Speed of Sound by Coldplay;

These Boots are Made for Walkin’ by Jessica Simpson; Wake Me Up When September Ends by Green Day; I Know, by Yasmien Kurdi; Incomplete by the Backstreet Boys; Untitled by Simple Plan; Crazy Frog by Axel F; Ass Like That by Eminem; Make a Move by Incubus and That is How a Heart Breaks by Rob Thomas.