By Erwin Oliva
INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines–Following the news that Rivermaya has parted ways with its manager Liza Nakpil, a controversy over who owns the Rivermaya trademark has started brewing.

A check with the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) website shows that former manager Liza Nakpil has applied for the trademark “Rivermaya” on July 7, 2008 under the “Entertainment” classification of goods.

According to the IPO, the trademark application of Nakpil is “for updating,” which, according to intellectual property expert and lawyer Jun Rodriguez, indicates that the application is awaiting publication.

Meanwhile, the same search on the trademark “Riverymaya” produces another applicant, Mark Edward Escueta who is a member of the band. A closer look reveals that his application is still “pending.”

Escueta applied for trademark application on October 10, 2008, and has classified the trademark name “Rivermaya” under “clothing, footwear, headgear” and “entertainment.”

In all trademark applications, the rule of thumb is “first to file,” Rodriguez added.

As of this writing, officials at the Bureau of Trademarks of the IPO are unavailable for comment.

Breaking news: Filipino rock band Rivermaya has left their manager Lizza Nakpil.

Excerpt:

MANILA, Philippines—(UPDATE) More than a year after Rivermaya front man Rico Blanco left to pursue a solo career, it’s now the other members’ turn to take drastic action.

No, none of them is about to leave the band again. Instead, they have decided to part ways with manager Lizza Nakpil. One band member was said to have consulted with a songwriters’ group about record contracts that Rivermaya has entered into since its inception.

One of the major issues at hand, according to a source, is the unauthorized collection of royalties due the band.

More details can be read here.

By Clarence Yu

With news of the imminent release of Guns N’ Roses’ new album setting the rock music world on fire, I thought it apt to write something about one of its members — to be specific, an ex-member, Slash.

To most of us growing up in the 80’s, Slash was the epitome of the cool, tough, classic rock guitar, refusing to use a whammy bar in an age where ala’ Eddie Van Halen tapping was en vogue, and keeping mostly to Gibson Les Paul’s as his main guitar of choice. He (along with Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi) brought the talk box back to life (a device, when connected to a guitar can make your voice and guitar sound cool and robotic — listen to the intro of “Livin’ On A Prayer by Bon Jovi).

Unknown to most of us then (well, at least to me), Slash wasn’t really that cool at all (at least in my opinion), and he really didn’t bring back classic rock guitar playing (it never really left). In fact, after many listens of their landmark album “Appetite for Destruction,” Izzy Stradlin (the rhythm guitarist) perhaps contributed much more with his sparse, rhythmic playing, and his songwriting (Stradlin wrote most of the good songs).

[Read the rest of this entry »]

It took 17 years, but finally classic American rock group Guns N’ Roses is launching “Chinese Democracy,” Agence France-Presse reports.

The band released Use Your Illussion I and Use Your Illusion II albums in 1991, which were the last original recordings of the band before some members including guitarist Slash left the supergroup. After that, the band has gone through a lot of changes, with frontman Axl Rose remaining as the only original member to date.

Songs like “Sweet Child o’ Mine” and “Paradise City” are now classic tunes that emerged from the hard rocking band from Los Angeles. Of course, who can forget their acoustic composition, “Patience,” which also became a hit.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

One-word album titles still sound cool no matter what and those eager to find out Up Dharma Down’s next album sound like must take heed.

The one Manila band BBC radio DJ Mark Coles thinks most likely to sell in the Western hemisphere is releasing what is by now described (us included) as one of the highly-anticipated albums by any local artist.

As described by Toti Dalmacion, the band’s manager and Terno Recordings head honcho, the songs on the new album are like yin-yang, plus-minus, Obama-McCain … well, something like that.

[Read the rest of this entry »]