Little Monsters under your bed

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After several months of looking for this album, I finally found one at M1. I went berserk when, after visiting 5 music stores at Ayala that hot afternoon, the saleslady handed me the last copy of this cd! I went completely nuts! And my friend was trying to calm me down and bring me back to my senses. I could tell she was trying to guess what the hell got me so fired up about a P150 album of an “unknown” band. Minutes after we left M1, I told her that I just bought Itchyworms’ 1st album. Then she just smiled and said something like, “Wow” or “Great”. Then I started to educate her (again) about who the ‘worms’ were and why the heck should she care about them.

Of course, back in February, she already knew about my addiction to the Itchyworms. We went to UPD’s Feb Fair just to catch a glimpse of them perform. And of course, she knew how driven I was to get my cds signed that night. But I wasn’t able to, and so boo-hoo to me. I’m still tyring to convert her and another friend, who was also with us that night at the UPD fair, to become a ‘worms’ fan like me. And I have faith that sooner or later, I will make them drones as well.

Anyway, Little Monsters under your bed is definitely raw. A bit bare when compared to their sophomore album, Noontime Show, but even at this early attempt, their signature style and vibe we’ve all learned to love was already there.

tracks:
1. Mellow Carousel
2. Happy House
3. Coffee in the gobi*
4. Headlights
5. Paglipad
6. caveman do
7. Isang Umaatikabong kaldero ng mananakop*
8. I found you
9. Kung bakit ganyan si baby ngayon*
10. Happy Birthday
11. Berdugo ng Bulacan (bakal at karne)*
12. Antipara
13. Bituin
14. baliktad*
15. Find and Seek
16. Angry Mob 12 Itch Remix*
17. Minutes
18. Not Much
19. Waterbug
20. At the Tapa Bar*
21. Chocophotoland
22. Sphrgles Lullabye*
(* dialogue inserts or whatever you call them)

I was actually surprised that this album is composed predominatly of english songs. At first, I was trying to sense the ‘worms’ vibe in this seemingly unfamiliar territory. And songs like ‘Chocophotoland’, ‘Waterbug’, ‘I found you’, ‘Minutes’, ‘Happy Birthday’ and ‘Paglipad’ helped me find them here in their first album.

This being their first album, one would note how they’ve become more mature in their second album. Noontime is much fuller in sound and their theme for it is actually solid. But when you listen to Little Monsters, you could actually say that their musical identity is still “being developed”. The humor, the wit and their wordplay were already there, but something still lacked. It was definitely Itchyworms material and sound; I just wasn’t sure if they tried experimenting or something on this album. It’s something I can’t put my finger on, but something inside my head tells me it’s them but not them. Sort of.

But the album is easy to listen to and their sound is still refreshing and cool. I love this album because it was raw and bare and yet they made it seemed like it wasn’t. Their sound may have been “tunog-lata” sort of in this first attempt (much like when the e-heads released Ultraelectromagneticpop!), but their signature classy/funny/energetic/addictive melodies still got the better of me.

And thanks to this album, Chocophotoland is now a looping track in my head. Geez, this song is really good. Actually, this album is really, really good.

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