2022 is said to be the Year of the Tiger, but in all likelihood this is supposedly the year of The Jerks.

Yes, the Jerks. The first of those local bands to emerge from the blues riff-based Pinoy Rock of the 1970s.

The Jerks of Chickoy Pura, Nitoy Adriano, Heli Umali, Boy Matriano, Flor Mendoza, as well as later additions Jun Lopito, Edwin Aguilar, Angelo Villegas, Paul Benitez, Jong Cablitas, Gils Diwag, Rene Tengasantos, Brutus Lacano, Rey Abella, Pino Fernandez, and Loy Biscaro.

The band will see their previous works – unreleased and released – hit the market on vinyl format.

Underground label Mutilated Noise Records will release those first songs – “Romantic Kill” and “Big Deal” that were first played on DZRJ-FM on seven-inch vinyl while Backspacer Records is putting out “The Jerks … Live” on 12-inch vinyl this May. Could their award-winning “Star Records” debut be on the horizon any time soon? After all, this year is the 25th Anniversary release of that album.

There is unbridled excitement not felt since the mid-1990s. The vinyl release of “The Jerks … Live” has sold out via pre-selling with the seven-inch EP awaiting only the announcement before it will surely sell out. A reunion show to celebrate and promote the vinyl releases is said to be planned.

Yet somehow, this was dampened by the untimely passing of guitarist Lopito due to a variety of ailments last March 30. Lopito is the second member of the famed band to pass away after original drummer, Flor Mendoza.

It has given pause and cause to recall this highly influential band.

It has been 41 years since the Jerks’ “Romantic Kill” hit the bandwidth of DZRJ-FM ushering in a new era of independently produced Filipino rock music. Although the band did not release anything publicly, it did pave the way because soon after, Ocean Zoo and then Twisted Red Cross produced their own music on vinyl and cassette.

By 1981, the Jerks exchanged zip codes from Manila to Olongapo as they began a three-year stint in the bars and clubs around the giant American naval base stationed there.

The band went their own ways after the exhausting Olongapo sojourn. They reunited in the early 1990s just as Filipino alternative music took the country by storm.

It would take 14 years later before they released their debut, “The Jerks … Live” under Gary Granada’s Backdoor label and two years later, their sparkling debut, under “Star Records”. Their music in the 90s saw the band outgrow their punk and new wave roots into something more blues rock based with the band wearing their influence of the Doors, Jimi Hendrix, and the Rolling Stones on their blue-collar sleeves.

“The Jerks … Live” at Mayric’s saw the reformed unit (Pura, Adriano, Benjie Santos on drums, and Pino Fernandez on bass) performing many of the songs that would form its “Star Records” debut later on. For a band that cut their eyeteeth playing live first at the famed and defunct On Disco to the clubs in Olongapo, it stands to reason their first ever official release would be a live album.

It follows the tradition of the Yardbirds (Five Live Yardbirds in 1964) MC5 (Kick Out the Jams in 1969), the Blues Brothers (Briefcase Full of Blues in 1978), Husker Du (Land Speed Record in 1982), Jane’s Addiction (self-titled debut in 1987), and the Dave Matthews Band (Remember Two Things in 1993) to name but a very few.

“The Jerks EP”, on the other, hand features the original lineup of Pura, Adriano, Umali, Matriano, and Mendoza.

Fans old and new will get the classic sound and their newer sound, both stark contrasts thematically and sonically. It shows how the band evolved with the times and became an influential crew with a virtual all-star crew.

Why wait for another anniversary to celebrate? Even with Lopito’s passing, this is the perfect time to remember one of Filipino music’s finest bands. And 41 years after their songs first hit the airwaves, they will be reintroduced to a new generation of fans. And immortalized on wax.