Unlocking the Mystery of a Bootlegged Rivermaya Best of Album

A Mysterious Bootlegged copy of THE BEST OF RIVERMAYA

So years ago in the year 2000, Rivermaya broke free from their parent record company BMG Pilipinas. The band released a supposed new Studio album that was intended to be released under BMG. That album became the industry shattering FREE album, celebrating their FREEDOM and literally gave the album away for FREE to their legion of fans and to the general public during Live Gigs and concerts. It was also during that time, when Rivermaya’s popularity continued to soar. A year after, BMG sought to capitalize on the band’s continued popularity that they released a Greatest Hits CD of Rivermaya called The Best of Rivermaya under the Himig ng Dekada 90 series of compilation albums featuring bands that were signed under them like Eraserheads, FrancisM, Sugar Hiccup, Yano, and Color it Red. Curiously however, the songs from the album It’s not Easy Being Green were left out. (Fun fact: It was the first Rivermaya album that did not feature Bamboo as the lead vocalist of the band). 

The CD with just a simple Rivermaya print on a plain green CD

So while I was strolling around the public market where assorted pirated CDs were being sold, I came across this curiously labeled The Best of Rivermaya CD that offers a different track listing from the officially released one under BMG. In this version, songs from It’s Not Easy Being Green were included namely, Nerbyoso, Shattered Like, and Rodeo. Plus one more track from the Rivermaya Remixed album Kisapmata (Mayhem 98 Mix). I purchased the album out of curiosity and was surprised that the CD was even made of better quality than the inferior bootlegged ones utilizing plain CDRs. It even has a serial number on the CD. I thought I should have this in my collection just for the fun of it. BMG seemed to shortchanged me with their Best Of Release. This CD should make up for it.  

Track Listing

So for years, I always wondered where this Best of Album was based from. Was this an officially unreleased compilation that bootleggers just compiled for selling? (Something that most bootleggers do) Or was this taken from an officially released one that I somehow missed? So being a HUGE! As in HUGE! Fan of Rivermaya, I held that thought in check for years and scoured various information where I can find the answer to this 20 year long mystery. So while interacting with fellow Rivermaya Fans in their Facebook Group, Leo Givero posted a Best of Rivermaya Album that I don’t have. He said that it was not released in the Philippines and was released in Malaysia only. So that kind of burst my bubble as the chances of owning one would be close to unlikely. 

So then I discovered Discogs. So I did a Quick search and lo and behold, the Best of Album that Leo posted on the Rivermaya FB Group appeared on Discogs. So I checked on the track listing and I was surprised to find out that the album is exactly the same with the bootlegged album I bought years ago. So in the album info, it says that it was released by Pisces Recording Company which if you do a quick Google, it would trace you to a Brazilian Record Company that I highly doubt was responsible for this release. Or has Brazilian Bootleggers suddenly became a fan of Rivermaya? Or does BMG even now mean Brazilian Music Group (BMG for Short)? Okay that last one was a joke. Even with Discogs, the only known release from this company is the Best of Rivermaya album. The Discogs info even labels this album as Unofficial. 

The Album Cover of the best of Rivermaya from Pisces Record Company

Comparing the track listing with the BMG Pilipinas released one, omitted tracks from that album were Luha and the 214 (Tripnotic Mix), while adding the aforementioned Green album tracks and the other remixed track from the Remixed album. Comparing both albums, you'd have a sense that this bootlegged one was a more complete "Best of Album" than the the officially released one up to that point in Rivermaya's Discography. BMG might have probably focused on Rivermaya with Bamboo on vocals songs and conveniently omitted the "Green" album. But the Brazilian Music Group (ok another joke!) did them better by adding the "Green" album in this compilation. This by the way is not the only "Best of" or "Greatest Hits" album released by the band and their record companies. A couple more were on the way under different record labels, releasing their own compilations based on the songs released by the band on respective record labels. But that is for another story.   

I also checked my Bootlegged copy's barcode number since it has one and lo and behold, it shares the same barcode number with this one. So the bootlegged copy in my collection is a bootlegged copy of a bootlegged Rivermaya album (now that too many bootlegged has given me a headache!). Now after 20 years, I have finally unlocked the mystery of this (ok no more b word) album. Maybe I can now sleep better and not wait for something as rare as this Brazilian album to fall into my lap lol!