top 100 reasons that El Gran Silencio's Super Riddim Internacional Vol. 1 is the best album of the year, #'s 60-69

60. Great guest rap by Sho, loud rough dude alternating verses with Cano on "Sound System Municipal," he gets the Prince "Let's Get Crazy"/Public Enemy "Bring the Noise" sample behind him, and then Cano gets the vallenato skank behind him, they trade off, it's crazee.

61. Great guest violin on "El Espejo" by Raul Gonzalez, very gypsy, very mysterious, sets up sad-ass acoustic solo by Tony perfectly.

62. Great guest backing vocals on "Ingratos Corazones" and "Buenos Dias" by Cecilia Toussaint. Other than the opening and closing skits, this is the only female presence on what is a very male record.

63. (Usually this would bother me somewhat, but it doesn't.) (Yes that's a reason.)

64. Great drunken ska trombone solo on "Ayer" by Eugenio Rosales. I played trombone for many years, it's a lot harder than it sounds or looks, and it's double-harder to play drunken New Orleans/Jamaican/bandcamp hooch style.

65. This record is SO Monterrey. Monterrey is the holy grail of musical cities. It's like Chicago in many ways: third-largest city in its country, blue-collar aesthetic, far enough away to be independent but not obsessed with us-too-ism, etc. It's better than Chicago, too, because when you say Chicago you sadly think of post-rock or whatever the hell that is, or Smashing Pumpkins (we walked right past Billy Corgan the last time we were in Chi, he was wearing a black outfit -- skinny these days! -- and a black Gilligan hat, no one else looked up, it was just a few days before he sang "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" and cursed the Cubs, Steve Bartman is innocent!), or blooze, or a lot of annoying shit. But Monterrey has these guys and Kinky and Control Machete and Molotov and Genitallica and lots of really fun kick-ass excellent bands, and they all party together and play on each other's records, and it rules.

66. So we're not surprised when Campa sneaks in a quote from a Celso Pina song on his solo, which also rules, because Celso Pina is El Rebelde del Acordeon and must be reckoned with.

67. Monterrey was last year's champions in futbol in Mexico, but they're out this year, as are my beloved Toluca, los Diablos Rojos, it sucks. I'm not sure if this is accurate or not, but I'll say it: you just know los bros Hernandez (these ones, not the ones who do Love and Rockets) have tons of beers every weekend watching Monterrey play, groaning and whooping and carrying on. They just look like big soccer fans, is all I'm saying. Everyone is, down there. My son Sam loves Cruz Azul and bought their jersey when we were in town and all these local dudes were like "Te gusta Cruz Azul? Es mi equipo tambien!"

68. They flash some kind of gang signs in the center photo. It probably means "We Love Our Mom" or something, but it's dead hard like Vinnie Jones crossed with Vin Diesel crossed with Vince Lombardi.

69. Red and yellow on shiny silver: worst color combo ever. Except here. Yow.