The best of Rakenrol
It’s here! ‘Rakenrol,’ the much-anticipated new film by boyishly brilliant writer/director Quark Henares, began its theatrical run in local cinemas on Sept. 21. This is our celebration of that time — and of the labor of love that is ‘Rakenrol,’ a coming-of-age film years in the making: our picks for the best songs of the Rakenrol era.
Thanks To The Moon
Sandwich
At the time, it was big news that Sandwich had gone indie with their third release. As always, it was the music that really mattered, and I just remember Raimund Marasigan dangling from a low beam in the now-defunct Millennia, belting this one out with his bandmates while everyone in the audience had a temporary yet immortal moment of rock euphoria.
You And Me And The Devil Makes Three
The Bitter Pill
It begins with a simple piano and electric guitar back-and-forth, then builds and repeats and builds and repeats until somewhere near the end when the guitars get all urgent and near-frenzied you can imagine the audience howling and breaking all the furniture in the bar, and then it quiets down and fades out. This short-lived band’s live sets were amazing, and I miss them.
Dance Lessons
Ciudad
I was working at a music magazine in the early 2000s when the second Ciudad album (“Is That Ciudad? Yes, Son, It’s Me”) came out, and when I took it home to review it, I could not believe my ears. Every damn song on it was good: a rarity, then and now. This was arguably the best — a heart-stirring crunchy-sweet guitar-pop masterpiece. 
Dito Tayo Sa Dilim
Pedicab
Before the album proper came out, the local rock crowd was going nuts for this Diego Mapa-fronted band, that was quirky and fun and catchy as hell. Instant dance parties would erupt wherever they played, whether it was in crowded mainstay Big Sky Mind or at that bar on the ground floor of Galleria whose name I’ve forgotten. This song still gets the blood pumping and the audience jumping, judging by recent Meiday gigs.
Fallen On Deaf Ears
Urbandub
Urbandub’s “Influence” turned out to be appropriately named, as it had a huge impact when it came out in 2003. Lots of anthemic excellence on display, but this one was my favorite, hooking you from the beginning and then hitting you in the gut. In a good way.
Ang Mitsa
Narda
Many prefer the earlier, sweeter incarnation of the band Narda to their subsequent sonic makeover, but I loved them both. This is what I wrote about this song in 2006: “Catchy and ferocious, laced with surf guitar, synth stabs and rapid-fire bursts of drumming, this track can give you a case of Last Song Syndrome that you wouldn’t believe.” Though the band has since broken up, it still applies.
Unang Araw
Sugarfree
Good music becomes even more intense when it attaches itself to a certain time, certain emotions, certain memories. I first heard Sugarfree perform this song in Mayric’s, at a benefit gig for some students who had been hit and hospitalized — one of them killed — by some drunken asshole in a BMW. This song took the emotions burning in the air and spun them into something bittersweet and shared and redemptive.
The Blackout
Taken By Cars
Driven by relentless drums, revving up from laid-back cool to guitar-fuelled intensity, this is my favorite song off Taken By Cars’ much-applauded debut. It just sounds like the soundtrack for reckless automotive adventures in a neon-lit city.
