tributo a the clash

llama a tu viejo, llama a tu vieja
y todo, todo, todo va a estar bien
escúchalo, no lo ignores
y todo va a estar bien

: revolution rock


barbican in london is bringing together some musicians (rock en español ++) for a tributo en vivo a the clash.

it's called spanish bombs: tropical tribute to the clash. and this is the description :

In a highly-anticipated world-premiere concert, appealing to fans of both The Clash and Latin music in general - the legendary band’s repertoire is brought to life by guest vocalists and musicians from some of the hottest Latin bands on the planet.

god. really? i'm not gonna lie, if i was in london right now, i would be going to this show. i love the clash, i love clash covers. and how cool to see rubén albarrán (café tacuba) singing joe strummer (sigh...)?!

but... "latin" is a dead language not a musical style, and spain (nor austin, texas nor monterrey, mexico) is not in the tropics, ok?

**


revolution rock : los fabulosos cadillacs (original, the clash)




this is radio clash : the clash

¡¡¡rock en árabe!!!

we saw rachid taha last night! i don't have time now to write very much except to say : 

1. i absolutely loved the show, every single minute of it. he is very roquero, very dramatic, very hilarious, and really an excellent performer. and the music was sooooo good. 

2. he plays again tonight. i would go again if i could, but i can't make it :( if you can swing it you really should! 

3. la pachuquita danced with him!! 

she took a few pictures & video so we'll add to this post later but for now here is the info & a little taste...

rachid taha 

tonight! 

friday, april 24th

yoshi's in sf @ 8pm

$30 

rachid taha : ecoute-moi camarade

¡Fuga! celebrates new CD and bids goodbye to the Bay

“Si vas a ser un ritmo, que sea peligroso” sings the opening track of Fuga’s new album Relatos Rebeldes. Listening to Fuga play live Friday night at Slim’s in San Francisco, I wondered, which ritmo are they referring to? Fuga has a rhythm all their own. But is it ska? Mambo? Cumbia? Whatever you call it, Fuga’s rhythms are infectious, danceable, and, as the CD title indicates, rebeldes.

I first caught up with Fuga four years ago when, recently relocated from Tejas, they opened for Quetzal at La Peña in Berkeley. I appreciated the fact that they had a female the lead vocalist/rhythm guitarist (Tania Rodriguez) and enamored by the way co-vocalist Kiko Rodriguez’s head bobbed around oh-so-adorably whenever he laid down those irresistible accordion riffs. Add to that that los Rodriguez are, yes, brother and sister (I love family acts!), and I was ready to purchase the first CD Desde La Frontera then and there.

As all good musicians should, Fuga has matured during their short Bay Area stay. As they set off now to tour Relatos Rebeldes and then to settle in a yet undisclosed new location, they take with them a fuller sound and more profound lyrical content. Their repertoire of new songs has no doubt been influenced by their time in the Bay, as evidenced by the song “Blvd Internacional,” a tribute to the working class immigrant communities who live and work along the Oakland strip. The song is characteristic of Fuga - minor tones that bear witness to the heavy realities of the borderlands, a beat that puts your feet into action, and lyrics that put your actions into motion.


"Blvd. Internacional" - ¡Fuga!

My friends, I will tell you about a famous boulevard
A street of good and bad reputation, it’s norotious and everyone knows
It’s where everyone gathers to look for work
It’s called International Boulevard…

Poverty, wealth, sadness, joy
I earned it all, I lost it all that day
but this rhythm is vibrant and full of sound
and look how good this outdoor dance is getting..."
(translation by Fuga)

Also playing Friday night were South Bay tropicalistas La Colectiva and La Misión’s very own “bilingual punk with horns” a.k.a. La Plebe. While La Colectiva warmed up the dance floor with traditional salsa, cumbia and vallenato, La Plebe got the mosh pit going with their ska-influenced punk revolucionario and a chorus of “¡pinche frontera!” Both bands gave solid performances, and Fuga brought it all home with the Rodriguez siblings sporting pachuco hats while alternating between cumbia induced booty-swinging and punk-style on-stage jumping. By the end of the 3-hr show, I was exhausted, exhilarated, and once again eager to stop by the merch table to drop an hour’s wage’s on the new CD.

If you’re reading this and you’re not from the bay Area, make sure to catch ¡Fuga! when they come through your town.

the fox

wow, i can hardly believe it. the old fox theater in downtown oakland (built in 1928) is finally scheduled to re-open on february 5th for the first time since 1966. am i a little weirded out by the orientalist architectural details ("the architecture...has long defied definition, being variously described as indian, moorish, medieval and baghdadian")? yes. unsettled by the gentrification looming around every corner in downtown oakland? yes!!! on the other hand, this is one gigantic beautiful old theater building which is not being converted into a church. hurray for that.

the first concert scheduled at the new old fox is social distortion, february 6th.

aww, punk rock boys with eyeliner ;)


**

and i went down my old neighborhood
the faces have all changed
there's no one there left to talk to
and the pool hall that i loved as a kid
is now a 7 eleven

i went downtown to look for a job
i had no training, no experience to speak of.
i looked at the holes in my jeans
and turned and headed back.

...

good times come and good times go,
i only wish the good times would
last a little longer.
i think about the good times we had
and why they had to end.

so i sit at the edge of my bed
i strum my guitar and i sing
an outlaw love song.
thinking' 'bout what you're doin' now
and when you're comin' back.


the story of my life : social distortion

el rock nacional

oh my goodness, had quite a time trying to see a rock en español concert in argentina! first, divididos. the singer called in sick, show was postponed. then ska-p. after all these days of south american summertime heat, out of nowhere came all this rain, an electrical storm complete with flooding on that exact night. umm, no concerts in outdoor ampitheaters :(

so our last chance was to see attaque 77 in temperley, about 45 minutes outside buenos aires. we had to go to three different roquero ticket outlets before we found one with tickets for that show. on the day of the concert we were convinced that the forces of the universe really were conspiring against us because, while the singer was in good health and the skies were clear, there was a nationwide one-day paro of gas station workers (¡adelante, compañeros!), resulting in almost no available fuel for 24 hours. the car we were planning to take, of course, had an almost empty tank. mariana's tío negro to the rescue! he's very sweet, resourceful, and a mechanic. luckily, he was working on a friend's car with a full tank of gas. off we went!

so the show... was great!! the audience was filled with super-fanáticos de attaque. i think probably 75% of people who attended were wearing attaque t-shirts or had attaque tattoos. it was one of those very affectionate latin american audiences that sings along with every song. my favorite was this little boy who spent most of the evening perched on his parents' shoulders, arms outstretched, singing at the top of his lungs. something particularly delightful about a tiny roquero reciting...

¿ellos o nosotros?
¿quién es más criminal?
¡policía federal... la vergüenza nacional!

;) have to teach them young! in between songs, the audience would start up these futból-style chants to the band:

¡soy de attaque!
olé olé olé. olé olé olé alá,
olé olé olé cada día te quiero más
yooo soy de attaque,
es un sentimiento...¡no puedo parar!

jaja, sweet. and so much better than the tendency around here to fill up any silences with calls of "culero". for their part attaque 77 responded to all that love with lots of noisy affection of their own. i believe this is their que 21 años no es nada tour. but 21 years is actually quite something! musically they're maybe a little less punk, but they still play hard and their lyrics are politically relevant as ever. throw in some of those rock en español tormented love songs which i so adore, plus an encore with the guy from ska-p joining them on stage to sing a cover of i fought the law / yo combatí la ley and really what more could you ask for? thanks to attaque for an excellent recital! and victory to the gas station workers!

here's a video from that night that someone posted on youtube:



on a side note: one thing i noticed about the rock en español situation in argentina was it's availability via tv. similar to mexico (or lots of other places i imagine) there is actually still music on their music-television channels. here's a good one we came across while watching videos with the abuelitas... hurray for rock + cumbia villera!

fabulosos cadillacs : padre nuestro

Los Enanitos Verdes rock the Fillmore

After Wednesday night’s Enanitos Verdes show La Cumbiambera could die happy for three reasons:

Reason 1: The show opened with “Houdini 2”—one of my favorite songs—the haunting experimental tune from Pescado Original that is about a Houdini impersonator who fails to escape his chains and drowns in the bottom of a river. The recorded version also features Orishas rapper Yotuel. I never thought I’d hear this song live.

Reason 2: Felipe Staiti finally brought his son Juan Pablo to Northern California. Juan Pablo has accompanied the band in certain L.A. shows (he lives and studies guitar there) and has played with his dad in some Mendoza shows, but this time Juan Pablo assumed his position as the Tour ‘08 rhythm guitarist. He is a beautiful and talented young man, and besides, what’s more enjoyable than a good family act?

Reason 3: I shared a microphone with Felipe Staiti.

La Cumbiambera singing “Luz de Dia” (photos & video compliments of La Pachuquita)

I won’t go on here about how Felipe is one of the best guitar players on the planet, but I will say that experiencing one his solos live has all the breathtaking emotion and climatic qualities of good sex, but since music lives somewhere both inside and outside of the body, a Felipe solo is a thousand times more intense. Case in point, this solo from the jazz lounge version of Amores Lejanos. At some point (which doesn’t come through well on the video), Felipe made his SG ‘72 sound just like a sax. He once blogged on MySpace that this guitar “es cada vez más un piano...” I can understand why.



But Felipe, of course, is only one third of the band. Felipe, Marciano, and Daniel have been actively making music together for the past three decades, and it shows both in their musicianship and in their on-stage chemistry. At various points in the show, Marciano put Felipe to the challenge by improvising melodies on the mic and then stepping back for Felipe to replicate them on his instrument. Of course Felipe hit the exact notes every time.

The truly amazing thing, though, is that Los Enanitos continue to have successful tours. They come to the U.S. at least once a year, and every show I go to—whether in L.A. or Sunnyvale or Sacramento—is packed. This year they didn’t even have new material, but it didn’t matter. They combined some classics with some lesser known tracks from Pescado Original (their 2006 album) and threw in a resurrection—the 1992 ballad “Amigos,” which Felipe and Marciano performed as a duet. Add to that a bit of improv and Felipe’s constantly changing guitar solos and what you get is a band that, even after nearly thirty years, offers its fans an original show every time.

Dime, Jaguar

In order to catch los Jaguares on their 45 tour—the album so named for the 45 million people living in poverty in Mexico—I found myself once again at the Nokia Theater in Times Square (doesn’t anybody in New York ever book anywhere else???). The first bit of news, which those of you who have been watching TV know, is that Saúl has cut his hair. It makes him look, um, old, and as some audience members suggested, fresa. But he is still the same Saúl with that same entrancing voice which deftly sneaks in poetic quotes and political observations between songs in order to encourage audience members to get off their asses and do something to improve the world (that is, after they recover from their hangovers). As usual, there was a mix of responses from the audience. One guy next to me shouted out, “¡Que no se olviden de los compadritos del ’68!” and others just made their annoying “culero” calls while demanding particular songs.

* The Set *

Mostly Caifanes and early Jaguares songs and just a few from the new album, which nobody sang along to, although according to a People en Español interview with Saúl, the day after its release 45 made the “no 1 spot on I-tunes,” whatever that means. The encore consisted of a wonderful Caifanes set of 4 songs that ended with “No Dejes Que,” which may have been meant to slow things down, although if that was the intent the locos in the mosh pit didn’t seem to notice.


“Me salvé del mundo y de su furia pero no de ti…”

* The Mosh Pit *

Let’s begin by saying that the venue was so crowded that it took a good half a dozen songs for the moshing to even get started. There was simply no room. But when it did get going, it was, well, crazy. I was one of maybe, maybe, four women in there. I can’t remember the last time I was in a mosh pit that was so overwhelmingly male. The gender imbalance made for some interesting near-death experiences. After a certain point, it seemed like the slower the song tempo, the harder the moshers worked to keep things riled up. I’m a bit ashamed to admit that I spent most of my time on the sidelines, but considering the overrepresentation of shirtless moshing dudes, I feel justified in my self-preservation tactics.

* The Verdict *

The show was awesome. The popularity of the 80’s and 90’s compositions, it seems, will never die. They just get better with time, and the band still performs them with all the love and electrified energy they deserve. And while the merits of the new songs is a subject of debate among fans, nearly all the songs on the new album are composed by Saúl, which is to say, they can never really be bad.

* P.S. *

The chisme mill here in Brooklyn has it that the new 4th member of the band is a paisa who used to work at a restaurant in Manhattan. The band used to invite him to play live with them whenever they came to town until they finally picked him up and gave him a new (and presumably better paying) job.

tu eres para mi, julieta

there's just something about a girl with an accordian, que no? she plays tonight at the warfield in sf, part of her presente tour.

el presente : julieta venegas



con el mundo como va
se nos acaba todo
ay ay ay ay ay
la tempestad y la calma
casi son la misma cosa
ay ay ay ay ay

...

el presente es lo único que tenemos
el presente es lo único que hay
es contigo mi vida con quien puedo sentir
que merece la pena vivir


**

with the world going as it is
we run out of everything
ay ay ay ay ay
the tempest and the calm
are almost the same thing
ay ay ay ay ay

...

the present is all that we have
the present is all that there is
it's with you my love (my life) that i feel
it's worth the trouble to live

random fan notes...

Went to see Julieta (again) in Nueva York, and guess who was playing keyboards for her—Horacio “Chicho” Gomez, who has also been doing teclados for Los Enanitos Verdes ever since Big Bang (the 1995 album, not the explosion). Seeing him on stage with Julieta was like seeing an old friend in the company of one of your other great friends unexpectedly on a street corner. Although, of course, the circumstances aren't that random. Julieta and Los EV have been musical pals ever since Tracción Acústica (1998), a live album recorded in Mexico City and for which Los Enanitos invited Julieta to play her accordion. As for Chicho, during the last few Enanitos shows I’ve been to, his fellow argentinos always give him a solo in which he busts out some good old Argentine tango. And as for those little green guys, a fellow fan and close friend of the band told me that they are planning to release a new album (their 15th!) next year. In the meantime, they are doing their yearly tour EE.UU. in October, but haven’t announced Bay Area dates yet. Come on Barcelona, hurry up and confirm!

What do Alejandra Guzmán and tamales de mole have in common? - New York

I find myself in New York a lot these days and last night went to see Alejandra Guzmán at the Nokia theater in the commercial madness known as Times Square. The show opened with a mini-documentary about none other than Alejandra Guzmán while the real Ale G. hung out towards the darkened back of the stage under a black hooded robe. Um, yeah. As you can imagine, once the show started and the robe came off it was one gran espectáculo. There was something different for every song, everything from huge silver balloons that floated out from backstage during “Hacer el amor con otro,” to an acoustic set played on guitars with amazingly intricate sound holes, to an on-stage lap dance performed on a (male) audience member who had been strapped to a chair. The lap dance was, of course, executed by Alejandra as she sang “soy la diosa de la seducción.” Alas. To Guzmán’s credit, she can sing and she definitely can perform. She can even strum some chords and bang a cymbal while signing, which she did before tossing the battered drum stick (which I am now in possession of) into the crowd.

I must say that at first I couldn’t believe I was actually seeing Alejandra Guzmán on stage. My disbelief was not due to fan fever but rather to the fact that I have been watching Alejandra Guzmán perform(ed) in drag shows from San Francisco to Guadalajara for the last ten years. So when she came on stage last night at Nokia, I had to really struggle to come to terms with the fact that 1) I was not in a gay club and 2) Alejandra was not in drag. She might as well have been though. As I studied her inches-thick make-up, square frame, gold sparkly chonies, and her chichis bouncing around in her bra I began to feel the lines between drag show and live concert show growing wavy all around me. As if to reassure me that I was not in the twilight zone, two bear couples appeared in front of me. They held each other’s hands and waists as they belted out all of Ale’s top hits along with her. Everything, they seemed to say, is as it should be.

P.S. What do tamales de mole have to do with all of this? If you’re ever on la 5a Avenida in Burklin (also known as Brooklyn) near Sunset Park, pop into any Mexican restaurant there. You will not only find tamales de mole, but also quesadillas de huitlacoche and lots of other regional yumminess whipped up by the ex-residents of Puebla, Tlaxcala, and of course, México, D.F.

Julieta Venegas - Unplugged & Uncompromised

OK, we all know that Julieta used to be a rockera and then she went pop. That being established, there are still many reasons to love her, perhaps even more, as now she has been able to pursue her own musical trajectory, part of which I was privileged to share in last Sunday at a free concert in Central Park, NYC. (Incidentally, there should be more free music in the world, more access to art, more public & private monies to pay the artists so the public’s access isn’t so restricted.) As you may know, Julieta recently recorded an MTV Unplugged album, and though I have not yet watched the YouTube videos, I got a taste of her latest project at her concert, as she is now touring the unplugged versions of her songs. Let me start by saying that Julieta had 14, yes, 14, musicians on stage with her playing everything from orchestral strings to brass to keyboard to congas. The bass player was even doubling as a tambourine player (the tambourine was played with his foot while he plunked away on an upright bass). What an orchestration! Clearly Julieta’s compositional skills are not lacking. Neither is her musicianship. During the concert Julieta sang, and played guitar, and played piano, and of course, played her sparkly red and black accordion (red and black...how cool is that). Then there were her shoes, low silver pumps that were decorated with little purple lighting bolts to match her purple dress. Needless to say, I was in love.

But no concert is complete without it's público, and no city is complete without its Mexicans, which, in New York, are hard to locate if you don’t know where to look. Of course, it wasn’t just the paisas that came out.
I happened to be standing next to a group of rasta-colombianos and some Peruvians. I was also standing next to a Mexican woman and her daughter. The little girl looked about nine years old. She stood there, gripping the front security fence for three hours while we waited for the line-up to start, for the first two acts to do their thing (DJ Bitman & Pastillina Mosh), for the set change to be completed, and then for Julieta to finally come on stage. When Julieta emerged, the little girl was soooo excited. She was singing along with the songs, and whenever Julieta walked towards our side of the stage, the little girl reached her arm out, as true fans do, trying to get as close to her beloved idol as possible. It reminded me of the Selena craze, and I thought, isn’t it awesome that this little girl has female star to look up to—an artist who does not allow herself to be sexualized in the gross ways that other female artists often are, a singer/songwriter/musician who came of age in the Tijuana rock scene and who gives her fans a wealth of true talent to admire.