ITCHYWORMS - AKIN KA NA NALANG [BE MINE INSTEAD]
The Story of Itchyworms
Itchyworms is one of most famous Filipino band of rock genre primarily a guitar-driven rock. Nevertheless, they still have their cute, kilig love songs. They were always a cluster of jolly and funny lads with distinct sense of humor. They wrote songs of deep meanings combined with its catchy music that even the most fickle musican can notice.
The band is composed of four members on its formation on 1996. Its history can be traced from Ateneo as its members were school buddies during their college days. The name suggested because The Scorions, The Beatles and The Crickets were taken. All the members have their own collection of unimaginable insects. Jazz has scorpions, Chino as beetles, Jugs has crickets and Kevin has worms.
Jazz Nicolas, Jugs Jagueta, Kelvin Yu and Hadrian “Haji” Cruz formed the band. However, Cruz left the band and Yu took his place. But the group of three did not last long when Chino Singson played guitar with the group and became a permanent member. Thus, the band solidified its current line-up.
Their debut independent album, Revenge of the Unsigned was released on 1998 as their official CD. The album was independently released because no record label would sign them. Mike Dizon then got hold of Revenge and pushed Viva Records to sign them.
Their first major-label album entitled Little Monster Under Your Bed was released on 2001. It contained songs from Revenge and some new compositions by Nicolas and Jugs. The album contained strong singles as “Happy Birthday”, “Antipara” and “Bituin”. Antipara is probably the most known song of the album.
Another album was released on 2003 entitled And The Worm Jumped Over The Moon. The album was released independently.
On 2005, Itchyworms released their sophomore-label album entitled Noontime Show under Universal Records. The album is relatively successful compared to the first one. Buddy Zabala and Raimund Marasigan co-produced the said album. The first single “Akin Ka Na Lang” is as infectious as flu on July. The song possessed charming melody and witty lyric. Some notable songs from the album are “Beer”, “One Ball” and “Salapi”. The Repackaged album of Noontime Show was released in 2006 under Universal Records.
KFC and Close-Up, both well-known commercial brands used “Akin Ka Na Lang” in their advertisements. Enervon, Close-Up and San Miguel Beer chose Itchyworms to composed original songs for their advertising campaigns.
On 2008, the band released their self-titled album. Now, the album was under the label of Sony BMG Philippines. In addition, Pringles used “Salapi” for the nationwide campaign/songwriting contest on 2008. They also composed “Kabataang Pinoy” which was used for the first season of Pinoy Big Brother: Teen Edition, ABS-CBN’s reality show. The song is widely publicized because of constant exposures on media.
Albums
Revenge of the Unsigned
Little Monster Under Your Bed
And The Worm Jumped Over The Moon
Noontime Show
Repackaged Noontime Show
Itchyworms
Awards
Best New Artist- 2001 NU107 Rock Awards
Album of the Year- 2006 NU Rock Awards
Drummer of the Year- Jazz Nicolas, 2006 NU Rock Awards
Producers of the Year- Raimund Marasigan & Buddy Zabala,2006 NU Rock Awards
Best World/Alternative Music- Akin Ka Na Lang, 19th Awit A