‘Noontime Show” is the Best OPM Reissue of 2025

By Joey Salgado

I first saw The Itchyworms at 70s Bistro back when it was still the grungy, dimly-lit home base for the Eraserheads. It was a full house. Fans and friends mingled with beer-guzzling middle-aged regulars. Through the din, someone tinkles the keys of Ely Buendia’s happily stickered piano, the one he burned during the first Heads reunion gig. It sat in a corner, gathering dust and beer bottle stains.

The Itchyworms were one of the opening acts for the Heads, the other being Sugarfree. Both bands have yet to break out but were clearly ahead of their pack. The boys from Ateneo, however, had the fun barkada vibe on stage, reminding me of early Beatles before clashing egos tore them apart. It’s probably why The Itchyworms managed to stay together for decades. They had the hooks, the riffs, but no clashing egos, just music and having fun on stage. And the fun could be infectious.

The Itchyworms delivered pop hooks and harmonies saturated in the glorious glow of sunshine, providing an alternative template to the heavy guitar grunge doom and the codified ethnic rock jostling for following and airplay. They showed that you don’t need to be angry or morose to be in a rock band.

For those who were paying attention beyond the obvious hits, The Itchyworms have been consistently dropping concept albums, or approximations of, all these years. The last one, Waiting For the End to Start, recorded during the pandemic lockdown, captured the fear and anxiety of enforced isolation. The album was among the early releases for the then fledgling indie record label Backspacer Records.

But it all started with Noontime Show.

Released in 2005, The Itchyworms’ second album is a biting, slyly written commentary on popular culture as channeled and filtered through noontime variety programs. It mirrored the hopes, dreams, and desperation of ordinary Filipinos chasing their dreams and economic redemption through singing contests, quizzes, and pageants on air, all set to canned laughter and applause, packaged in gaudy studio sets, slick dance moves, and musical numbers from often musically-challenged hosts and guests. In a way, the album melds commentary with the musical whimsies of The Beatles’ Revolver and Magical Mystery Tour and The Who’s The Who Sell Out. And Noontime Show featured two of the band’s enduring hits: “Akin Ka Na Lang” and “Beer.”

Reissued last year by Universal and Backspacer Records, the limited edition release is excellently packaged, and comes in purple vinyl. The vinyl mastering is, as with all Backspacer releases, topnotch.

Twenty five years after its release, The Itchyworms are still writing and performing, and noontime shows are bigger than ever. Oh, and lead singer and guitarist Jugs Jugueta is now a noontime show host.