Sunday, October 15, 2006 Pinch me! By Cattski Espina
THOSE were the words of James D’Lonsod, otherwise known as Coolie Dread, vocalist of the band CDMC (Coolie Dread and the Microphone Commanders) after winning the Grand Prize at the recent School of Rock Mo ‘To Band Competition by Motorola. For James, the band’s victory was enormously unbelievable, and quite unexpected.
It all started with just a simple gesture of accepting an invitation to join the competition’s elimination round last September 7, held at Club Vudu. The plan was to play a gig and disregard the thought that it was actually a band competition. The mindset was to have no expectations.
To their surprise, they placed first during the eliminations, bringing them to compete in the semi-final round along with four other worthy bands. This particular round was a major outdoor event held at the Gaisano Country Mall Parking Lot last September 9, 2006. The band remained victorious, still placing first after competing with bands like Uno, 3ML, Hatemail and Blood of the Stone. This victory brought them to the National Finals held at the Boardwalk, Ortigas, Quezon City where sixteen semi-finalists battled for the Grand Prize.
As if the two prior victories were still too good to be true, the band members believed they would never win the grand prize, especially since they were competing against bands from Luzon. As per lead guitarist Paul Cañada’s observation, seldom does a Cebu band come home bringing the grand prize trophy. So they left Cebu for the finals with only the promise of representing the South, no promises of coming home as the champions.
After an awesome two-song performance showcasing their strongest dancehall singles Dancy and Gold Digger, the judges, who were in awe, gave them the highest score—baptizing them as the Motorola School of Rock Mo ‘To Grand Champions. And this victory enshrined them as the country’s first Dancehall sensation.
The Motorola School of Rock Mo ‘To Band Competition was Motorola’s way of showing off their latest product, the hip and the very cool MOTOROKR E2 that’s basically a phone and a MP3 player with dedicated buttons that supports up to 2 gigs worth of music. It also has a 1.3 mega pixel camera and Stereo Bluetooth technology.
