In a country where novelty songs about eggs top charts alongside 70s and 80s remakes (which sound exactly like the originals), it takes a lot for the harder-to-please among us to stop and listen.

The local music scene in the Philippines has been able to offer a steady supply of bands that make you believe there is an actual local music scene. Once in a while, real gems steps out--ground-breaking bands that transform the landscape, like the Eraserheads, whose songs are so full of local nuances and colloquialisms that translating would be like adding subtitles to Sigur Ros: it's just wrong.

Then there are the bands that make you do a double-take: What? They're a local band?

That's exactly what I thought when I first heard Franco.

Touted by their label as a "superband", the members hail from other respected bands. More than anything, it's a side project that has found fast success surprising people like myself, who would quickly dismiss a lot of local acts as derivative if not all together, well, lame.

Granted, rock with a reggae groove is nothing new, but when was the last time you heard it done really well? I give you Franco...