Sponge Cola

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Sponge Cola's debut album, Palabas
Sponge Cola's debut album, Palabas

Sponge Cola is a Filipino rock band founded by Yael Yuzon and Gosh Dilay during their high school years at Ateneo de Manila University.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Early Years

Between 1998 to 2002, Ysmael "Yael" Yuzon, met Reynaldo "Gosh" Dilay through the school's theater guild, Teatro Baguntao. Yael was then the frontman of a rock band called White Chapel together with some talented individuals in Ateneo High School. Nevertheless, he decided to form a band with Gosh and two other members of the theater guild. They named the group Sponge after R.S. Surtee's Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour. The band won in several high school competitions boosting their popularity not just in their school but in other campuses, as well.

[edit] Behind the Name "Sponge Cola"

Some of the members of the old lineup left and were replaced by Christopher "Chris" Cantada and Erwin "Armo" Armovit. The latter is the guitarist of Sponge's brother band Rampqueen. Raymond Fabul another batchmate, began to manage both Sponge and Rampqueen. Later however, they learned about a Detroit grunge band already using the name Sponge. "But we wanted to keep the word Sponge in our band name because people have already associated us with that name," according to Yael. "So we decided to add 'Cola', since it's an easy enough word to remember." Sponge Cola was officially born in summer 2002.

[edit] Publicity

They came up with a self-titled album in the last quarter of 2003 containing five original songs: Lunes, A Tear, Saturn, Cigarette and Jeepney. The two songs penned in the vernacular were what made the band catch the public's attention. Lunes, written by Gosh, begins with a catchy bossa nova-esque beat that suddenly shifts to a heavy rock riff, a nuance in arrangement which surprisingly served the song superbly. Second single Jeepney was written by a classmate for a school project back in 2001 and is a reminiscent piece on young love during simpler, happier times. The song showcases Yael's vocal range; that is, his uncanny ability to shift from mellow to screamo.

Through this album, Sponge Cola got extensive airplay from several local pop and rock radio stations, which helped broaden their fan base across the nation. A bootlegged copy of their version of Madonna's "Crazy for You" even ended up on the Internet and became so big an underground hit, some listeners believed it was a Sponge Cola original. Though this misconception has been instrumental in increasing Sponge Cola's popularity, the band has since aimed to transcend the stigma of being a cover band. They pushed their original songs to the forefront, and public response to the band became better than ever; the magic had already begun.

[edit] Debut Release

Sony Music Philippines managed to sign the boys for record distribution and now release Sponge Cola's full-length debut album, entitled Palabas, thus dubbed in allusion to the band members' theater backgrounds. The album features a definitive voice in unadulterated rock, reminiscent of 90s alternative but mixed with enough sing-along pop sensibility-as based on the band members' individual influences.

[edit] Popularity

During 2004, their songs Lunes and KLSP gained popularity and ended up in most radio stations' charts during that period. Also, Jeepney became popular in the beginning of 2005 along with their own version of Crazy For You. With the uprising of Filipino Rock in the middle of 2005, Sponge Cola gained even more popularity from listeners with their song Gemini and especially the emo-alternative rock song Una. All their singles were able to reach the #1 spot in both Philippines 100 and MYX Hit Chart.

[edit] Members

[edit] Discography

[edit] Singles

Year Single Chart positions[1]
Philippines 100 Highest Position in MYX
2005 "KLSP / Kulang Lang sa Pansin" #1 (2 weeks) #1 (1 week)
"Gemini" #1 (2 weeks) #1 (2 weeks)
"Una" #1 (2 week) #1 (1 week)
2006 "Jeepney" #1 (4 weeks) #1 (2 weeks)
"Bitiw" #1 (4 weeks) #1 (6 weeks)

[edit] References

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