If you have managed to get a ticket for Eraserheads’ Huling El Bimbo reunion concert, regardless if that’s a mosh pit privilege or a gen ad consolation, then you are assured of hearing a collection of the band’s greatest hits to be performed live right where the action is. What you shouldn’t expect is to hear and see them play that deep cut from their discography.
It’s one thing to proudly post that you’re a fan of Ely, Raymund, Buddy, and Marcus, it’s another thing to know by heart even their relatively obscure songs. If you do, then you are a true blue disciple and not just some poser jumping on the bandwagon. Because of fans like you, I came up with this list of songs that are categorically album fillers, not necessarily bad cuts. These Eraserheads songs just didn’t enjoy the exposure their singles that became major hits did nor were able to get off their unheralded space in the band’s recording releases.
Having spent much of my teenage years and early 20s during the 90s, and becoming a musician and music journalist myself, I can say I grew up with their songs and to some extent have seriously dissected the musicianship in them.
Coming up with this list of 10 deep Eraserheads cuts is quite tricky because there are a number of their tracks that even if not released as singles became popular in their own right. To narrow it down quickly, songs on the two-volume Eraserheads Anthology couldn’t qualify. Here they are, in alphabetical order.
1. “Ambi Dextrose” – On the album Sticker Happy, Ely Buendia wrote “Kaliwete,” “Kananete,” and this track which mentions “Aloha Milkyway,” later the name to a compilation with Asian edition bannered by “Julie Tearjerky.”
2. “Back2Me” – Hardly there’s a filler on the band’s best-selling album Cutterpilow that even a short piece called “Fill Her” is an acoustic gem. That the singer here is asking for his tapes of Nirvana and Yano makes this frenetic rock sound deliriously old school.
3. “Christmas Morning” – It’s a pity that this charming, final song from Fruitcake didn’t become as well known as the title track and “Christmas Party.”
4. “Easy Ka Lang” – This is the first song on the band’s debut album. Why “Ligaya” is not the opening track is puzzling.
5. “Insomya” – This fast-moving narrative on restlessness segues into the gentle “With Smile” in desirable effect.
6. “Kahit Ano” – Bassist Buddy Zabala delivered three good compositions on the album Natin99, including this, and even confidently lead-sung on all of them.
7. “Omnesia” – This one’s a typical late-run Ely track trying to get out of his radio-friendly shell and into the obliviousness of heavy rock.
8. “Sino Sa Atin” – While Raymund Marasigan wrote this one, Ely sings it on live performances like it’s one of his own. Proper channeling.
9. “Sticker Happy” – Few may have realized that there’s a title cut to what may be labeled as the best of the band’s post-Cutterpillow album.
10. “Ultrasound” – It’s the heavy, very telling opener of the band’s last album Carbon Stereoxide.