CAFFEINE

CAFFEINE was a PINOY NEW WAVE BAND that was formed some time in AUGUST 2000 when EDWARD LUNA(vocalist) and ROMMEL GONZALES (bass) thought of forming a band after watching a "BACK TO THE EDGE" or "BTTE" concert at MAYRICS because both were also part of these concerts back in 1997 as a different band named CRUEL TEA. THANKS to Rommel Gonzales, MEL for short, for sharing some INFOS about CAFFEINE for this Blogpost of mine. According to MEL, both of them missed the scene already so they decided to form again a band and thus......CAFFEINE was born. I saw CAFFEINE performed LIVE only once back in 2004 few weeks before they were invited to do some LIVE SESSIONS on 103.5 KLITE's Legendary New Wave Program "LITEWAVE"and I really love their music. Like what I've indicated on my special "LITEWAVE Blogpost" before, CAFFEINE was the second PINOY BAND that was featured by LITEWAVE back in 2004 after a successful Orange And Lemons session of the said show. YUP!! The band made a great impact on that show back then. They performed both cover songs and of course their originals that included "STAY" which for me is a CLASSIC and NEW WAVISH in the true sense. Well, I got to know their vocalist ED because of this LITEWAVE session when he thanked me through text message because of my comment on their great performance that night. I was not in the K-LITE Studio back then, but just a Radio Listener. He He He!! They did an excellent set that night!!

I met the band's vocalist Edward Luna aka. EDWARD MOON/COWBOY ED weeks after their LITEWAVE SESSIONS and he gave me a RAW CDR copy of their "JOHN L.SESSION" EP which for me is an interesting EP. This is without CD cover/label, just ED's handwriting indicating It's a CAFFEINE CDR. On the otherhand, I just got to know Rommel Gonzales over at MULTIPLY and he was the one who gave me this great INFOS about the band for everyone to read in this little blog on mine "The Doctor Is In". MEL was glad and honored when I informed him that I'm interested to feature CAFFEINE here in my blog. THANKS AGAIN MEL!!


So why CAFFEINE? Well, according to MEL, ED and himself made a list of possible band names. CAFFEINE was one of them and they both liked it because it was a short name and definitely simple and easy to remember. It is also in reference to their previous band's name CRUEL TEA which has caffeine as content. Hmmmp!! Now you know the connection KABAYAN. The band's common goal was to put up a band and play only XB and BM stuffs (the obscure, the better) which is in contrast to their previous band which is a mix of 30% new wave and 70% alternative. The two new members back then were informed by both ED and MEL that CAFFEINE should play NEW WAVE and so both of them injected the music to the other two members. They let them do their stuff as long as it's in the line of NEW WAVE. Wheeew!! Talking about TRUE BLOODED PINOY NEW WAVERS. He He He!! Well, like any other bands CAFFEINE also went thru a lot of LINE-UP changes so here it goes, the list of their band line-ups courtesy of MEL.


THE FOUNDING MEMBERS
Edward Luna - vocalist
Rommel Gonzales - bass
Marlon Santos - guitars
Buboy - drums

2nd line-up
Edward Luna - vocalist
Rommel Gonzales - bass
Marlon Santos - guitars
Ludwig Valenzuela - drums

* Buboy left partly due to musical differences and TF issues. Well, sometimes the band play for crumbs just to have a gasoline budget and most of the time each members shouldered their own expenses. It's totally the music that kept the guys to go on with the band. Ludwig was recruited to fill in the gap left by Buboy.

3rd line-up
Edward Luna - vocalist
Rommel Gonzales - bass
Marlon Santos - guitars
Ludwig Valenzuela - drums
Malvin Magnayon - guitars

* Malvin was ED and MEL's guitarist in their former group CRUEL TEA so by joining the band he really put some direction to the sound and music of what they really want to produce. Their song "Call" from the John L.Session EP CD is an original CRUEL TEA song.

4th line-up
Edward Luna - vocalist
Rommel Gonzales - bass
Ludwig Valenzuela - drums
Malvin Magnayon - guitars

*Marlon, who is a rock guitarist just had enough of NEW WAVE so that's why he left the band.


FINAL LINE UP
Edward Luna - vocalist
Rommel Gonzales - bass
Ludwig Valenzuela - drums
Malvin Magnayon - lead guitars
Emil De Leon - rhythm & acoustic guitars

* Emil was recruited to put more ambiance to their sound.

Of course the band's influences goes back to the ROOTS of NEW WAVE Pinoy Flavor. YUP!! The likes of The Railway Children, The Church, Wire Train, The Ocean Blue, Modern English, The Cure, The Chameleons just to name a few. Definitely in the GENRE of New Wave, Post Punk and Jangle Pop.CAFFEINE's First Ever gig? Then, It's got to be Back To the Edge at Mayric's back in September 29, 2000 FRIDAY. Joining the band were other PINOY NEW WAVE BANDS like Dead Pop Stars, Poetic Sparks, Sophiya's Labyrinth, The Late Isabel, Dominion and Joy Frenzy (later became Atomflot). For MEL, the band's Most Memorable gig was Channel V Christmas Party wayback December 21, 2000.


According to MEL the band didn't officially disbanded. CAFFEINE members just drifted away from each other due to their work schedules, commitments, and other priorities. Family first then work. The band just dropped down from everyone's priorities back then. They were actually planning to record some original materials that they were playing at gigs so that they can finally release a full length DIY album but some things were not really meant to be.


I'm featuring right now CAFFEINE's "The John L. Session" EP which EDWARD MOON gave me back in 2004. Well, the CD Cover and Label was created by MEL wherein I just printed it myself for my own collection purposes and nice presentation. He He He!! So why JOHN L. SESSION? Hmmmp!! "JOHN L." was the band's friend who did the EP mixing and production. When I saw the title I thought It was really related to their LITEWAVE SESSIONS or better yet the LEGENDARY JOHN PEEL SESSION. Naaah!! It's JOHN L. okay!! Definitely not John Lennon I suppose. He He He!! My EP CD Copy has two extra tracks coming from their LITEWAVE SESSIONS namely their original "STAY" which I personally uploaded for you guys to listen to. The other extra track in my CD is their rendition of THE RAILWAY CHILDREN's "BRIGHTER" which is an XB classic.

HERE'S MY OWN DIY CAFFEINE's "JOHN L. SESSION" EP COPY:




The DIY CD and Back Cover!!

LISTEN HERE:
STAY (LITEWAVE SESSION)



I just love this song and the lyrics "We love THE CURE, and THE CARE, there's MORRISSEY and the rest of THE SMITHS" would really tell you that they are indeed PINOY NEW WAVERS. How about that last part on the song wherein COWBOY ED included an OCEAN BLUE "ASK ME JON" sequence? YUP!! This OCEAN BLUE song is a POWER105 classic back then. All I can say KABAYAN "NEW WAVE na NEW WAVE talaga ang dating nung song". AYUZ!!

LISTEN HERE:
CAFFEINE's RENDITION of
THE RAILWAY CHILDREN song "BRIGHTER"



I asked permision to MEL if It's okay that I'll upload the EP here in my blog so that you guys could listen to it too and have a copy of the songs. He suggested that I will only upload the two songs namely "STAY" and "CALL" out of the three. So I didn't include the third song entitled "MY TAGALOG SONG" because personally he doesn't like the song and he still wondered why they included it on the EP.Hmmmp!! He He He!! I didn't make the LITEWAVE SESSION Version of STAY available for download because I wanted you guys to just listen to it here in my blog. Well, that's one of the extra cut which COWBOY ED included in my copy.

CAFFEINE
"THE JOHN L. SESSION"
TRACKLIST:
1) STAY
2) CALL
3) MY TAGALOG SONG
-(sorry!! not included on the upload)

CLICK HERE to DOWNLOAD:

PASSWORD: http://docmuzic.blogspot.com/

LISTEN HERE:
MY TAGALOG SONG

According to MEL there were around 150 CDR EP copies without a cover that were given for free during their gigs. Only a few though was given an EP with the DIY cover which MEL created to make it presentable. My personal copy has two bonus cuts from their LITEWAVE SESSION. Wheeew!! My favorite song on the EP would definitely be "STAY" which incidentally landed #6 on the Top 15 Songs Of The Year in JAM 88.3's YEAR END COUNTDOWN back in December 31, 2005. YUP!! I was also able to listen to that countdown back then. Very surprising because CAFFEINE was the only underground artist on the list. KUDOS to you guys!! CAFFEINE was also mentioned on a microscopic article in PULP MAGAZINE too. Do we need an electron microscope to read that MEL? He He He!!



(MEL on the left, COWBOY ED wearing his TRADEMARK HAT while singing)

Right now, MEL wants to go back to the band scene again. The last time I heard about ED was that he was on a Networking Business. I wanna THANK ROMMEL "MEL" GONZALES for helping me out on the INFORMATION and of course the PHOTOS. I also wanna THANK EDWARD MOON for giving me the CD EP with two bonus tracks back in 2004. I do hope you guys liked and enjoyed my blogpost on CAFFEINE. YUP!! It's "The Dr. Stirring Rhod" way again!! Just my own way of remembering back the PINOY NEW WAVE BAND called "CAFFEINE". THANKS for dropping by!!


Take a dose of
CAFFEINE!!
-DR. STIRRING RHOD