Raves: "Boyce Avenue"

Saturday evening and surprisingly nothing good to watch on television. So was just surfing the net and hoping that my serotonin levels dozes me off to sleep.

As I was updating my iTunes playlist, my cousin asked me if I have heard a guy's version of "Bleeding Love". I said, I'm familiar with the Leona Lewis song because my neighbor in Manila would always sing it over at the videoke everyday. So just imagine the horror I've been getting into by just unsolicitingly listening to my neighbors vocal histrionics.

Anyway, a guy doing that song? That I have yet to hear. Then he told me that this band also did acoustic versions of Alicia Keys' "No One", Jordin Sparks' "Tattoo" and Black Eyed Peas' "Where Is The Love", Goo Goo Dolls' "Iris" and One Republic's "Apologize." That really piqued my curiosity as I also love listening to acoustic songs. So I searched for Boyce Avenue over at YouTube and watched how amazing this Florida-based band is.

Boyce Avenue came together in 2000 and consists of the Manzano brothers Alejandro (lead vocals, guitar, piano), Fabian (guitar, vocals), Daniel (bass, percussion, vocals), and later Stephen Hatker joined in as drummer.

Since their performance over an audience of 350 at a Florida high school and finishing their college degrees (Fabian pursued architecture while Daniel has a Harvard Law degree), the music bug still caught up with them. In 2007, they joined and were honored in songwriting competitions and after taking yet another hiatus to write, produce and record additional singles, their debut album, "All You're Meant To Be" was released in March 25, 2008.

I have yet to listen to their album but it will soon follow through as I've been downloading Boyce Avenue's acoustic renditions such as Colbie Caillat's "Realize", Rihanna's "Umbrella", Justin Timberlake/Madonna's "4 Minutes", U2/Mary J. Blige/Beatles' "One" and "Let It Be" medley among others.

I know Filipinos will love this band as we are suckers for acoustic performances. I'm hoping that a producer will bring Boyce Avenue over to Manila for a concert soon.

But for now, I'm still having their songs from their Acoustic Sessions lined up in my iTunes and I'm not yet sleepy.

xxx

Boyce Avenue's physical album is available worldwide exclusively through www.campuscustom.com/boyceavenue, while the download versions can be found on iTunes/ Amazon.com/ Rhapsody/ Napster/ eMusic.

Visit the Boyce Avenue Official Site for more information.