...and the land of rubber shoes and dirty ice cream and debut album and Orange and Lemons and...

It was December 2003 when the very first release of independent label Terno Recordings was unveiled to the public. The initial release was "Love In The Land of Rubber Shoes and Dirty Ice Cream" and the band is called Orange and Lemons.

The band's debut album was only packaged in a simple cardboard type CD sleeve made out of recycled paper but packed with ten melodic-pop goodies. Some might have called this music as new wave, some might call it guitarpop, janglepop, neo-aco by our Hapones friends or gitarrenpop by the Alemans, songs that could have been played alongside mid 80s UK indie guitar music but the songs in the album had the undeniable OPM touch by passing through to the roads leading to the music of Rey Valera and APO Hiking Society while doing a long stretch via, er, Northern England as it was heavily influenced by a lot of 80s bands (i.e. The Smiths, The Housemartins, The Wild Swans etc) and some 60s music (i.e early Beatles).

Although the band has been playing gigs since around 1999, they have always been under the music collectors' radar for most of their early years. With the release of this 10 track album, the simple, wonderful melodies, great vocal harmonies and catchy lyrics and upbeat instrumentations pulled in new people into their musical pop filled world, whether the listeners are from different generations or different nationalities. This is just one of those albums that you have to play and listen to as a whole so you can get some additional practice on your head bopping, head shaking, your unstoppable finger taps, wild air guitar strums and equally fast air drumming and foot stomps.

The band is made up of Clem Castro (Lead guitars-vocals), Mcoy Fundales (Acoustic guitars-vocals), JM Del Mundo (Bass) and Ace Del Mundo (Drums). Clem and Mcoy take turns in filling-in the lead vocals of the songs...one odd and one even...better than doing jack-en-poy (um, rock, paper & scissors for you non-Pinoys...) before shows and recordings! Hopefully we'll be hearing their third album by the latter part of the year.

Check out the DIY video of "Days and Nights". this was was made by one of the band's close friend which captures some of the early gigs (and antics) of the band...this is better than any official video from this debut. Thanks to Tonet M. for making, posting and sharing this!


I also recently saw the Terno Recordings website and the shop section had a picture of the CD but with a different art work, so i'm not too sure if the label had changed it recently for their re-pressed CDs.


Orange And Lemons - Love In The Land of Rubber Shoes and Dirty Ice Cream
(CD/Dec-2003/Terno Recordings/TER001/PH)

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1. A Beginning Of Something Wonderful
2. Just Like A Splendid Love Song
3. Kailangan Kita
4. My Butterfly
5. Armageddon Is Coming To Town
6. She's Leaving Home
7. When I'm With You
8. Isang Gabi
9. Hey, Please
10. Days And Nights (scroll up & watch the video again)

Here's an extra fruit serving...an early pre-Terno radio session...um, about a few years earlier than their debut album...when no one was listening (circa 1999 or 2000). Enjoy!

Kailangan Kita - Live Radio Session