I always enjoy going to the Rock Awards—at the very least, there are always a few great performances, some laughs, lots of eye candy, and if the audience is lucky, one or two unscripted surprises, like the time Rosanna Roces flashed her mammarian assets while presenting an award, or the time the audience almost lynched Diether Ocampo for calling them jologs. At last year’s awards, there was an air of excitement, of near-giddiness—not just because NU had the good sense to make me one of the judges, but because bands were still riding high on the resurgence of rock, labels were still making good money on CD sales, and fans were enjoying releases by well-known favorites like Sandwich as well as fantastic new acts like Up dharma Down.

There were plenty of reasons to rejoice at the 2006 awards ceremony: Up dharma Down won for Best New Artist, Urbandub’s Gabby Alipe received a nod for Best Vocalist, Sandwich’s “Sugod” won Best Video, Kamikazee grabbed a trio of awards including Best Live Act, and of course, the Itchyworms took home a well-deserved award for Album of the Year, for their remarkable Noontime Show. Having been around for over a decade, the NU 107 Awards had been established as the only reliable, noteworthy rock awards show, and last year’s winners seemed to cement the show’s credibility, much to the relief no doubt of sponsors and fans. So, did this year’s awards ceremony measure up?

First things first: the people behind the NU Rock Awards are to be commended for putting on a fine show, especially in a year plagued by uncertainty regarding the future of the scene, and in a week marked by turbulence, political and otherwise. Despite the recent Trillanes hijinks and an oncoming storm, the Rock Awards proceeded as scheduled. The show was tight and ran as smooth as ever, and the extras—several short funny films starring Ramon Bautista, and the animated bits announcing the nominees—were very well done (especially the little animated bits, which used hand-drawn animation). The people presenting the awards were the usual mix of rock stars, NU people, and showbiz faces. Best of all, the performances this year were on the whole very good— my favorite numbers included Sandwich’s electrifying “Procrastinator,” a song from their upcoming album; a Kjwan performance of “One Look” that got the tougher than usual crowd jumping; a frenzied rendition of the appropriately-titled “Wasak na Wasak” by Radioactive Sago Project; and a mesmerizing medley by the soulful band Sino Sikat. The problem was with the actual awards.

Bamboo utterly dominated the Rock Awards this year, winning a staggering six times. Now, Bamboo is a great band, but We Stand Alone Together is the weakest of their three albums so far: a set of songs popularized by other people, rendered in a technically adept but somewhat underwhelming fashion. Or, as the vocalist of another band put it, “This year, NU gave the awards to a cover band.” Chicosci, who blazed through 2007 with insanely energetic live performances (not to mention strong album sales and audience appeal), won absolutely nothing. Sugarfree, whose last album was arguably the best in a winning streak of three amazing releases, all critical and commercial successes, was nominated for six awards (including Album of the Year, and Artist of the Year) but won nothing. And Radioactive Sago Project, who released what was widely acknowledged among local music critics as the best album of 2007, lost… to Orange and Lemons.

Seriously? A band known for pseudo-British affectations, alleged plagiarism, and ugly infighting, a band whose very name makes me want to kick things— those guys won for Album of the Year? They defeated Radioactive Sago Project, and Sugarfree, two enormously accomplished acts nominated for the best work of their careers so far? Unbelievable. (Hell, Orange and Lemons even won for Best Album Packaging, which should by all rights have gone to the independently-released Travelogue by Bagetsafonik. Yeah, I know it wasn’t nominated. It should have been; it’s a freaking work of art.)

On the plus side, Kat Agarrado of Sino Sikat won for Vocalist of the Year, Hilera won for Best New Artist, and Lourd and Francis de Veyra of Radioactive Sago Project won for Producers of the Year, at least. So I was sufficiently mollified and ended up not taking an NU jock hostage at gunpoint and demanding a recount. The thought did cross my mind, however.

MRT Music. Rock Ed is “a volunteer group working to provide venues and events for alternative education” through music and the other arts. This year, for the third time, they’re holding Rock the Riles, which will transform eight Metro Rail Transit stations into eight performance spaces to hold “a visible stand for Human Rights.” It’s happening this December 9, Sunday, 2 to 7 PM—a ton of artists will be involved, but am especially looking forward to performances by Up dharma Down at Ayala, Bagetsafonik at Boni, and Chicosci at Shaw. Visit rockedphilippines.org online for details.

More Manox. In 2003, The Purplechickens— known to their fans as the “Manox”—released their debut album, a collection of smart yet heartfelt material which featured what I described at the time as “some of the best lyrics ever to grace a rock song.” (Comparisons to Radiohead and R.E.M. were not uncommon.) This December 13, Thursday, 9 PM, they’ll be launching their highly-anticipated second album, Girls, Et Cetera, at Club Dredd in Eastwood. The new album is all about… well, girls, and reportedly showcases a more aggressive sound. The launch will also feature sets by Imago, Duster, and The Lowtechs.

LUIS LISTENS is a new column devoted to music. Luis was a staffer on PULP and MTV Ink, the first Editor-in-Chief of the online music magazine Pulse.ph, and is the cofounder of BURN Magazine.