Urbandub

Urbandub

Urbandub is a Filipino rock band from Cebu, Philippines. Since its inception in 2000, the band's line-up has consisted of Gabby Alipe (lead vocals, guitar), John Dinopol (lead guitar, vocals), Lalay Lim (bass). The band's current drummer is Jan Mendoza, who has been with the band since 2003. Since their emergence, they have come out with a completely infectious and original blend of dynamic song structures and hurricane-force rhythms that made them a sure thing to break out of the pack, but even the band could not have imagined how far.

Touted as the “Heroes of Indie Bands”, Urbandub is the first indie band who has released albums nationwide thru EMI’s help. EMI also featured Urbandub with the unique and not to mention—heaviest compilation of Pinoy rock entitled FULL VOLUME with a remake of Sade’s NO ORDINARY LOVE. Urbandub is gaining more recognition around the nation like never before, and is garnering the attention of fans throughout Southeast Asia with recent a tour in Singapore.

History:

Birth (2000)

Urbandub was first forced to be independent due to the lack of support coming from major record companies. They released their debut album, "BIRTH" in 2000. Off of this album, the hit tracks “Come”, “Give”, and “Would You Go” would serve as surprise hits in the Philippine music scene. BIRTH is raw and heavy, with obvious influences of Deftones and other experimental rock bands. Unique, timely and yet experimental, it was something that entertainment scenes around the Philippines needed: a kick start into the future of original music.

Influence (2003)

With the release of their sophomore effort, INFLUENCE (Lighter Records), Urbandub took on a new form, changing their sound with a new drummer (From Jed Honrado to Jerros Dolino). Jerros continued to record tracks with the band, but left sometime in 2003 when he decided to leave for undisclosed reasons. The band then recruited Jan Mendoza. It was the sound in this album that clearly defined the steps that Urbandub would start to take. INFLUENCE includes radio-released singles such as “Gone” and, their most famous release to date, “Soul Searching”, which won the award as Best Song of the Year in the NU107 Rock Awards 2003. The album also won as the Album Of The Year Award in the NU107 Rock Awards 2004. They also released a single called “A New Tattoo”.

Embrace (2005)

With the 2005 release of the album entitled 'Embrace', Urbandub has proven that there is hope for the struggling artist. With help from their community and the noise they have created, they were able to grab the attention of EMI Music Philippines. Not one to take chances, the band has kept Lighter Records as their management arm and guide. In line with their ideals, EMI allowed them the creative freedom to record their album on their home soil of Cebu. Added to that, they have been able to maintain their independent principles while taking major steps into the scene that has awaited their new sound. Embrace’s singles, “Alert The Armory”, "Frailty", "Endless, A Silent Whisper" and the pop anthem “First of Summer” culled from the third album Embrace, became one of the most played songs on local radio. Serving up the band’s usual host of poetic metaphors through guitar riffs and screaming drums single after single came rolling like Urbandub’s name is glued on top of the charts.

Under Southern Lights (2007)

After more than 10,000 albums sold, thousands of miles traveled around the country and some dizzying highs and lows, an energized Urbandub returned with Under Southern Lights in 2007.

“We experimented a lot on this album. We also tried to write songs far from the specific genre our fans are used to hearing from us. On this album we challenged ourselves musically in terms of creativity with the riffs, beats and melodies,” Alipe says. “The past albums we worked with a formula, writing songs inside our musical comfort zone, but for this album we tried to personally push the envelope a bit.”

Under Southern Lights, the latest album, boasts 10 tracks of Urbandub’s new approach to their own brand—their brilliance shines throughout a melodious rock tune and diverse songwriting. Alipe shares “We retreated to Cebu City for 2 months just to focus on writing. Then came back to Manila, did some fine tuning to the songs before recording them.”

“The recording was a great learning experience for the band. It was our first time to record with 2 inch tape rather than digitally which we were used to when we were still recording in Cebu. We also were privileged enough to be able to use specific types of equipment that we felt were needed for the songs, like different kinds of amplifiers or synthesizers,” Lalay Lim shared.

Asked about the album title, “The name is our tribute to Cebu City where we come from and where we did most of the writing for the album. It’s also a metaphor for our families in Cebu, being that they’re our inspiration and guiding light,” Alipe said.

The album starts with a shot, with that first single “Guillotine” – an indelible guitar hook and ferocious drums charge forth as Urbandub’s trademark mix of airtight vocal harmonies.

If you have compiled all Urbandub songs into your own greatest hits album, you probably get the impression of “change.” For a band like them, change is never that good. Urbandub is growing but not changing. They may be going to perform in a bigger arena, but they’ll still going to sweat the same. And still be going to produce the songs like we’ve known them for. “We wanna try to reach out to more people with this album,” says Gabby. [1]

Discography

• Birth (2001)

1. Boy
2. Breakdown
3. Would You Go
4. Dissect
5. Eating Me
6. Little by Little
7. Picture
8. Give
9. Come
10. It's Over
11. Two Things (bonus track)
12. Apart (bonus track) (a collaboration with Dice & K9)

• Influence (2003)

1. Fallen On Deaf Ears
2. Under Crisis
3. Soul Searching
4. Runaway
5. Versus
6. Gone
7. Sailing
8. Quiet Poetic
9. A New Tattoo
10. Lover Among Ruins

• Embrace (2005)

1. Alert The Armory
2. Frailty
3. First of Summer
4. When Heroes Die
5. Reveal The Remedy
6. The Arsonist
7. Endless, A Silent Whisper
8. Safety In Number
9. A City of Sleeping Hearts
10. The End of Something

• Under Southern Lights (2007)

1. An Invitation
2. Anthem
3. The Fight Is Over
4. Guillotine
5. Cebuana
6. Life Is Easy
7. Evidence
8. A Method To Chaos
9. Inside The Mind of A Killer (a collaboration with Kat Agarrado of Sinosikat?)
10. She Keeps Me Warm

Singles

Year	Single	MYX Hit Chart Position	Album
2001	Come	—	Birth
	Give	—
	Would You Go	—
2003	Gone	—	Influence
	Soul Searching	—
	A New Tatoo	—
2005	Alert The Armoury	—	Embrace
	Frailty	—
2006	Endless, A Silent Whisper	11
	First Of Summer	7
2007	Guillotine	1	Under Southern Lights
2008	Evidence	3

Videography

• From Birth
  • "Come" [2]
• From Influence
  • "A New Tattoo" [3]
• From Embrace
  • "Alert the Armory" [4]
  • "First of Summer"[5]
  • "Endless, A Silent Whisper"[6]
  • "Frailty" [7]
• From Under Southern Lights
  • "Guillotine"
  • "Evidence"[8]

Awards:

NU107 Rock Awards

• "Best Song of the Year" - "Soul Searching" (2003)
• "Album of the Year" - "Influence" (2004)
  • Vocalist of the Year - Gabby Alipe (2006)

Trivia

- "When we were just starting out..urbandub was supposed to be a reggae band...we were suppose to play reggae mixed with dub, ska, dancehall, hiphop, and rock. A perfect example of what urbandub would have been--is the song "sailing" and "eating me" --that was the style we were suppose to be playing around with--since we were suppose to be a reggae/dub band, hence the name, urbandub. But becuz of the series of line up changes--and new influences--we became what we are today! The name just kinda got stuck and we never bothered to change it. Soo there you go..the story behind the name "urbandub". - Gabby Alipe [9]

- Urbandub's music video First of Summer is about a girl rebelliously going out with her boyfriend. The band later released Endless, A Silent Whisper which shows the events that happened before and after what was shown in First of Summer. Both videos were directed by Marie Jamora and were shot in 3 days.

- The woman in their music videos' "First of Summer" and "Endless, A Silent Whisper" was also the same woman in their music video "Guillotine". The name of the girl is Abbie Antaran. She's from the University of the Philippines, she's the cousin of Lalay, their Bassist.

- Urbandub was interviewed in Animax and later on performed in a show aired on animax called "Mad Mad Fun".

- The scar on Gabby Alipe's right eye was never scratched intentionally by the band members or himself. It is a Tattoo that means 'cat lady' in Maori.

- Some of Urbandub's songs such as "Evidence" have an Emo genre but don't consider themselves and their music as such.

- In their sophomore live performance on MYX, Gabby Alipe stated that the Urbandub way of making their album is to put exactly ten songs.

- For a short term of their name, they are labeled as "Udub", short for Urbandub.

- Udub played for free last April 19th in Alabang Town Center.

- It is rumored that Gabby Alipe has a twin brother, named Benjie Alipe. Aside from this, it was rumored that Bobby Lee of MadTV is related to Gabby Alipe.

- Urbandub have some noticeable similarities with Coheed and Cambria, particularly their Indie Rock and Alternative Rock approach.

External links

• Urbandub songs and lyrics
• Urbandub profile at EMI Music Philippines
• Urbandub at MySpace
• Urbandub's official site.