Hiccups with Sugar Hiccup

Hiccups with Sugar Hiccup

by rick olivares

In summer of 1995, I was hanging out with members of Parokya ni Edgar outside Club Dredd. I had just signed the band to a two-album deal with Universal Records.

At that time, I was handling a classical music label for Universal when a few notable Filipino alternative bands slipped through our fingers to score massive hits for other music labels and I decided to take matters into my own hands. After all, it was I who went to Club Dredd and Mayrics. No one else from Universal did. Besides, I had played in bands in high school and for a bit, in college. We had one guy who was into alt music in Universal but it was of the foreign kind. Their first actual stab of the company was signing the Weedd and forcing them to record a song that was entirely different from their repertoire.

I first got Datu’s Tribe, a hard rock band from UP Los Baños that was managed by my Ateneo classmate Patrick Reidenbach. That got me into trouble as the company didn’t think hard rock would sell. They wanted to tear up that contract after hearing the first two songs that we recorded (and they didn’t like). Of course, I was upset but asked what would it take for us to stay the course. I was told that if Triggerman of WLS will play it on his show, then we could proceed. I first called up Reidenbach about the predicament we were in and then called up Milo (Triggerman) who I made him listen to the demo over the phone – that’s a landline to those who aren’t familiar with that contraption. He liked them offhand and invited us to play on his Sunday acoustic show. Which we did. The station was bombarded with calls and Universal management was kind of upset that I had jumped the gun on promotions which was a stupid assertion to begin with. Anyways, the album did very well and I soon had the leverage to get Parokya ni Edgar which was first managed by another old Ateneo classmate, Ricky Santillan. He left for Singapore and asked if I wanted to handle the band. I couldn’t because I had my desk job so it was offered to the late Richard Tan who did a fabulous job.

Now Parokya wasn’t a hard sell to the Universal Records powers-that-be. In fact, during a special demo at Club Dredd (the band performed on a night when it was closed to the general public), my boss wanted to sign them on the spot.

Flush with confidence, I listed three other bands I wanted to get – Fatal Posporos, Indio I, and Sugar Hiccup.

And that leads me back to Sugar Hiccup.

I was hanging out with Darius Semana and Buwi Meneses when I heard this band perform the Sunday’s “Here’s Where the Story Ends”. The vocalist nailed Harriet Wheeler’s vocals and I dashed inside Dredd, transfixed upon Sugar Hiccup for the first time in my life. I introduced myself to the band right after who expressed appreciation. I even recall Dredd tech, Romel Cajayon who also played bass for shoegazer band, Sonnet 58 telling me that Sugar Hiccup was a good band to sign. Rommel earlier gave me a CD-R demo of Sonnet 58 – he knew I was also a label/A&R manager – but he said that if I didn’t get his band, then I should get Sugar Hiccup. I took his word for it.

Only I never got to sign the band as they went to BMG. I was devastated but remained a fan and bought their albums and continued to watch them.

When Melody Del Mundo left for the United States and she was replaced by Bea Alcala, I remember watching Sugar Hiccup at 70’s Bistro where I reconnected by Czandro Pollack. I bought three CDs that night of their new album Of Tongues and Thoughts. Only one copy now survives (I do have all their albums including the compilations of the Alpha Numeric Sampler where they first appeared under Alpha Records to the 1896 Ang Pagsilang tribute to the Philippine centennial as well as the NU 107 Rock Awards CDs).

I was happy seeing the band again except they had internal problems. Bea left with Czandro soon in tow.

Years later, I reconnected with Czandro during a show by Prank Sinatra and after he performed with Bea’s new band, Narcloudia which I love dearly and am working with for a new release). And he told me of the plans of a reformed Sugar Hiccup, this time with his Prank Sinatra cohort, Iman Leonardo on bass. And a new album in the works which I wrote about for ABS-CBN.

One time during a Prank Sinatra gig at Route 166, Czandro invited me to listen to “Saturnine Nevermore” inside Japs Sergio’s car. I was blown away. I tried to organize a listening party and communicated with Czandro and Melody del Mundo. It never materialized and instead there’s the album launch this December 30^th at 12 Monkeys.

I never got to sign Sugar Hiccup. My consolation is I have become friends with the band and I got to write some scoops about them. I chat a lot with Czandro while Iman is a vinyl record buddy who I also chat and dig a lot with. And it’s great reconnecting with Melody! I even have the vinyl of The Ghost of Manong where her US-based outfit, Stella’s Notch appears.  Plus --- this may sound mababaw but I'm fine with it -- I got to be the first person to purchase their new album, Closure, after interviewing them for a new story on ABS-CBN. And, I'll be hosting their December 30 show at 12 Monkeys! It’s not bad because I have a front row seat to one of my all-time fave bands.

It’s not bad at all.

The Alpha Numeric Sampler contains the first recordings of Sugar Hiccup that sounded very different. Sort of a New Wave-ish sounds with three songs: Someday, Barn and Trust. The latter two were re-recorded for of Tongues and Thoughts with Bea Alcala on vocals. The NU Rock Awards 1997 featured the live recording of "Moden De". The 1896 compilation featured the band's only Tagalog song, "Awa" which also appeared in the NU Rock Awards 1998 as well as 2000 sampler.