MY RIZAL UNDERGROUND ADVENTURE

(A story by Stiff Lu – Night watchman of KASBAH BORACAY, proprietor at Loudhouse MusicEnterprise, lead vocalist of the Rockoustic Blues Experiment, gatekeeper of TheRizal Underground and a musical voyager touring the U.S. for this first time this June, 2018)

As I embark on my first international feature shows this June, lemme share with you my best years in rock and roll - with the powerhouse quartet THE RIZAL UNDERGROUND. We were formally introduced with the release of the independently produced compilation album ALERT LEVEL that featured TROPICALDEPRESSION, COLOR IT RED, THE BREED & us. It is the biggest honor to have had the privilege of forming this band with some of the most talented set of musicians in the underground back then namely – MIKE VILLEGAS, ANGELO VILLEGAS & HARLEY ALARCON.

The 80’s were a big struggle for underground rock bands. The only salvation back then was the rise of THE DAWN, AFTER IMAGE & IDENTITY CRISIS. Meanwhile, bands like DEAN’S DECEMBER, VIOLENT PLAYGROUND & such struggled to get off the ground during the domination of RICK ASTLEY & disco in general, which gave rise to LOUDHOUSE MUSIC ENTERPRISE - a recording studio and artist management company, whose primary purpose was to support up and coming bands and produced ALERT LEVEL.

It was this project that propelled me to form a new band from scratch to complete the 4 band lineup. Production date was 1992, the power crisis years, when we had 12-hour long power outages. That’s when I met the late hard core/punk bassist JAY DIMALANTA of the Filipino legendary punk band DEAD ENDS that the RIZAL UNDERGROUND was born. During this time, we convened with 2 other guys from the Malabon/Navotas area that didn’t make the final cut. Fortunately, by this time, the brilliant guitarist/singer/songwriter MIKE VILLEGAS was also starting his musical journey and decided to join us.

Soon after, we connected with the legendary rock drummer HARLEY ALARCON, who had just returned from a 6-month stint abroad, connected through Jay, as they were former band mates with DEAD ENDS. Not long after, the group was formed and an intensive on the job training ensued to coincide with the recording for ALERT LEVEL. With 3 songs in tow, we took the show on the road and the incredible success of the ERASERHEADS changed the whole picture for bands and before you know it, several major label record companies were knocking on our door.

Sadly though, JAY DIMALANTA had decided to pursue a more personal musical journey and we soon parted ways amicably, luckily, another journeyman, ANGELO VILLEGAS was also in the midst of change and decided to join us from THE JERKS.

And then the Golden Era of Pinoy Rock in the 90’s came about, the rise of the ERASERHEADS dominated radio and soon after several bands broke out into the mainstream – paving the way for alternative radio stations like NU107, LA105.9 & other stations with adapting the new format. Arena rock was born, more concerts in cities & towns all over the Philippines were abundant and there was so much room for new signings that brought about the 90’s rock movement.

Not long after, we signed with POLYCOSMIC RECORDS and on we went to produce our debut album. Those were fun times, we had our regular Thursday spot at MAYRICS and we all came home to LOUDHOUSE and stayed till Sunday for the song arrangement and demo recording sessions. After a month of sessions, we were ready to hit the studios and that's where we met RENE GARCIA, who was then writing the jingle for the SAN MIGUEL BEER “concept” ad campaign “SABADO NIGHTS”.

As luck would have it, this was the break that propelled us to become a household name in this business, when RENE asked me to lay down the vocal track for the demo. With the clients’ approval, we were well on our way. It was a massive nationwide ad campaign that brought us to every region here in the Philippines. We did motorcades, radio interviews & live performances in every major city, every week and on occasion joined by the lead star of the ad INA RAYMUNDO.

The exposure surely helped promote the brand and with the inclusion of the track to the cassette album, an additional track was needed to maximize the tape on side B which prompted us to record an alternate “acoustic” version to our favorite track “BILANGGO” and these developments surely added to the spike in album sales. With 2 major “hits” in tow, the band continued on its path to success - touring the entire country, out on the road for 18 straight days in the Visayas (this prolly caused my itchy feet), that also led to a sophomore album DISKARIL. By this time though, there were several hundred more bands signed - radio plus MTV, which were the only available outlets, became saturated with everyone vying for air time.

As the struggle went on, Harley soon left to form POT - several drummers took over the chores, the longest stint of all was ANTON GARRIZ who also contributed to DISKARIL and we went on touring. With the lukewarm success & mild reception to the album, the boys explored different avenues individually, that led to a band hiatus in the late nineties. As each member found success in their respective fields of endeavor, we all took our different paths more seriously that led to a longer hiatus. But we stayed in touch, doing a few gigs here and there during the 2000’s. Celebrating birthdays and special affairs - In 2017, we got together to celebrate the 25^th year anniversary release of ALERT LEVEL with an online digital release and a get together at THE ROADHOUSE AT MANILA BAY to celebrate this event. Photos here.

As the years go, I still get goose bumps every time we get together and I continue to aspire and pray for a grand reunion with the core group intact and performing in large venues as we did back in the mighty 90’s. Please LIKE our page for updates about the band and give our debut album a listen on SPOTIFY here.

I would personally like to thank my RIZAL UNDERGROUND mates for the privilege and here’s to hoping for that grand reunion of sorts. Cheers!

Several music videos were produced in line with the promotions of the albums, which you can find here;

SABADO NIGHTS

SATISFACTION GUARANTEED

KASAMA’T KASABAY

Here's a collection of PHOTOS for this blog. Please LIKE our page for more info about the band and would appreciate your support by also hitting LIKE on my personal page STIFF LU. See you soon in some of the most exotic destinations in the world.