I will make you a compilation tape and/or CD including songs from this kick-ass 2003 list if you email me and give me a compelling reason that I should continue this blog in 2004 when I'm trying to divest myself of responsibilities that don't really do me or the universe any good
"Ahora," Control Machete
"Up, Up, Up," Rose Falcon
"Venus and Serena," Super Furry Animals
"Hate," Cibelle
"T.I. vs. T.I.P.," T.I.
"Cornbread, Fish, and Collard Greens," Anthony Hamilton
"Elvis," Pat Green
"Don't Wanna Try," Frankie J.
"Danger," Erykah Badu
"Intuition," Daryl Hall and John Oates
"Professional Daydreamer," Over the Rhine
"Evo Sniffer," Klute
"Half Shiva Half Shakti," Susheela Raman
"Rhythm Bandits," Junior Senior
"This One's for the Girls," Martina McBride
"Pass the Dutch," Missy Elliott
"No Tengo Dinero," Kumbia Kings featuring El Gran Silencio y Juan Gabriel
"Balance," Akrobatik
"Que Lastima," ZZ Top
"Back Door Slam," Robert Cray Band
"Hollywood," Los Lonely Boys
"Fell in Love With a Boy," Joss Stone
"Roun' the World," Nappy Roots
"Going Under," Oranger
"Break Before I Bend," Allison Moorer
"Baltimore Oriole," John Mellencamp
"Febre," Celso Fonseca
"U Know I Love U," Killer Mike
"Analog Mood Swings," Karsh Kale
"2 Horns and 2 Wings," Michelle Malone
"Gonna Be Better," Shelby Lynne
"Black Jack Mama," Townes Van Zandt
"Salta-Lenin-El-Atlas," Kinky
"Lovin' All Night," Patty Loveless
"Lamento de Exu," Virginia Rodrigues
"Fado Arnauth," Mafalda Arnauth
"The Math," Hilary Duff
"Suga Suga," Baby Bash featuring Frankie J.
"Destination Girl," The Finishing School
"Shut Up," The Black Eyed Peas
"Mississippi" (Screwed and Chopped version), David Banner
"Come Together," Macy Gray
well, that's a starting place, anyway. I'm not trying to hold any of you hostage or anything, but hey I'm just sayin'.
29.12.03
27.12.03
and he's back. what has he learned.
walking by myself
sometimes you walk with me too:
late December wind
One of the things you learn about yourself is that you are always learning things about yourself. It's also the first thing you forget about yourself. Probably all the better to remember it later. To make it sink in. You have to forget it over and over to make it sink in.
Turn around, discover what's behind you, in front of you, looming in the background. Of course it's you you idiot it was always you. Who else would it be.
I exit the movie theater, my brother's just started his cigarette, I've decided not to stand in line just to piss, I'll just wait until we get home. There is an ocean I want to say to him, maybe he wants to say something to me too. Luckily, all we talk about it is the movie.
The movie was about honor and sacrifice and bravery and inspiration, about how the little guy can make a difference after all, about how evil must be defeated by any means necessary. I know what the evil is and so do you, it's looking over your shoulder, it's the space between, it's the shadowy place where the king has no dominion. It's the basement it's the human heart.
But we don't go there, me and my brother, we talk about the movie. Not even the themes. We talk about special effects, characters, dialogue, story-arc, we compare it to other movies we've seen. I get home, my wife's still up while my brother's pissing, she's still mad at me because I was an asshole before I left, I apologize, she pretends to forgive me, she asks me how it was. I criticize the acting of one of the actors. The space between the space between.
The chef so skillful that his knife never gets dull. He cuts in the invisible space between.
The directions on the Barbasol can, the way it used to be: "To avoid irritation, use gentle strokes with a sharp razor."
The way only the Shadow knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men.
Stop it, Marlowe.
walking by myself
sometimes you walk with me too:
late December wind
One of the things you learn about yourself is that you are always learning things about yourself. It's also the first thing you forget about yourself. Probably all the better to remember it later. To make it sink in. You have to forget it over and over to make it sink in.
Turn around, discover what's behind you, in front of you, looming in the background. Of course it's you you idiot it was always you. Who else would it be.
I exit the movie theater, my brother's just started his cigarette, I've decided not to stand in line just to piss, I'll just wait until we get home. There is an ocean I want to say to him, maybe he wants to say something to me too. Luckily, all we talk about it is the movie.
The movie was about honor and sacrifice and bravery and inspiration, about how the little guy can make a difference after all, about how evil must be defeated by any means necessary. I know what the evil is and so do you, it's looking over your shoulder, it's the space between, it's the shadowy place where the king has no dominion. It's the basement it's the human heart.
But we don't go there, me and my brother, we talk about the movie. Not even the themes. We talk about special effects, characters, dialogue, story-arc, we compare it to other movies we've seen. I get home, my wife's still up while my brother's pissing, she's still mad at me because I was an asshole before I left, I apologize, she pretends to forgive me, she asks me how it was. I criticize the acting of one of the actors. The space between the space between.
The chef so skillful that his knife never gets dull. He cuts in the invisible space between.
The directions on the Barbasol can, the way it used to be: "To avoid irritation, use gentle strokes with a sharp razor."
The way only the Shadow knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men.
Stop it, Marlowe.
19.12.03
best albums of 2003 according to me can be found right here.
and I'm out for a couple days. screech at me or something, tell me why I'm wrong or right, make me feel like you care.
by the way my new friend Juvenal G. from Monterrey sez I should now be considered "El Chuntaro Gringo" for my EGS love. Aw yeah boo-ya Cibula gone like a cool breeze till next week.
and I'm out for a couple days. screech at me or something, tell me why I'm wrong or right, make me feel like you care.
by the way my new friend Juvenal G. from Monterrey sez I should now be considered "El Chuntaro Gringo" for my EGS love. Aw yeah boo-ya Cibula gone like a cool breeze till next week.
17.12.03
okay what does it mean if someone used to link to you and now they don't anymore? and if you cannot actually think of anything wrong or bad you did? does that mean that you (by which I mean me, natch) are a boring bad person who's no longer linkworthy? [this post edited]
and okay what does it mean that the PopMatters Best of 2003 fills me with dread at its whiteness and ookiness, and yet I still continue to write for them and love them and feel like it's one of the best sites in the world?
and okay what does it mean that I've been obsessed by my top 10 lists all year and now I'm just bored by them, and by music criticism in general, and my own tastes and limitations, but I still love getting free shit too much, and then I get nice emails from musicians like the great Jose Marquez (damn I gotta figure out how to do diacritical marks if I'm gonna write about music) from Pepito, whose album Migrante should have stayed on my 2002 list for shizzy but I dropped it inexplicably...
...and okay what's up with how I always feel like I screwed up my lists the next year? last year, I had Common, Blackalicious, Stew, Tabla Beat Science, Jaguar Wright, Stella Chiweshe, Gomez, Cee-Lo, Buffalo Daughter, and Trio Mocoto. Actually, that's a pretty good damned list. Never mind.
and okay what's up with Manu Ginobli suddenly deciding that he should be the Spurs' fourth weapon? The LaRue Martins are slipping bad in the fantasy league, thanks to him. We're still first though, so I'm not worried. I am kind of curious to see what Shep thinks of this article on the 'Sheed, though.
and okay what does it mean that the PopMatters Best of 2003 fills me with dread at its whiteness and ookiness, and yet I still continue to write for them and love them and feel like it's one of the best sites in the world?
and okay what does it mean that I've been obsessed by my top 10 lists all year and now I'm just bored by them, and by music criticism in general, and my own tastes and limitations, but I still love getting free shit too much, and then I get nice emails from musicians like the great Jose Marquez (damn I gotta figure out how to do diacritical marks if I'm gonna write about music) from Pepito, whose album Migrante should have stayed on my 2002 list for shizzy but I dropped it inexplicably...
...and okay what's up with how I always feel like I screwed up my lists the next year? last year, I had Common, Blackalicious, Stew, Tabla Beat Science, Jaguar Wright, Stella Chiweshe, Gomez, Cee-Lo, Buffalo Daughter, and Trio Mocoto. Actually, that's a pretty good damned list. Never mind.
and okay what's up with Manu Ginobli suddenly deciding that he should be the Spurs' fourth weapon? The LaRue Martins are slipping bad in the fantasy league, thanks to him. We're still first though, so I'm not worried. I am kind of curious to see what Shep thinks of this article on the 'Sheed, though.
15.12.03
best of 2003 according to me: country music
ALBUMS
Anthony Hamilton, Comin’ From Where I’m From
Marty Stuart, Country Music (Columbia)
Michelle Malone, Stompin’ Ground (Daemon)
Sara Evans, Restless
Charlie Robison, Live (Sony)
Allison Moorer, Show
Pat Green, Wave on Wave (Universal)
Robert Earl Keen, Farm Fresh Onions
Brooks & Dunn, Red Dirt Road
The Del McCoury Band, Here Comes the Night
SINGLES
Gary Allan, “Songs About Rain”
Mindy Smith, “Jolene”
Bubba Sparxxx, “She Tried”
Montgomery Gentry, “Hell Yeah”
Martina McBride, “This One’s For the Girls”
Franky Perez and the Highway Saints, “Something Crazy”
Terri Clark, “I Wanna Do It All”
Kenny Chesney, “There Goes My Life”
Over the Rhine, “Show Me”
Brad Paisley, “Little Moments”
ENLIGHTENING COMMENTARY
um, later, maybe. this has been kind of like The Year Of Country Re-Introduction for me, but right now I'm pressed for time and inspiration. Go listen to your local c&w station for a while; there's good stuff there.
ALBUMS
Anthony Hamilton, Comin’ From Where I’m From
Marty Stuart, Country Music (Columbia)
Michelle Malone, Stompin’ Ground (Daemon)
Sara Evans, Restless
Charlie Robison, Live (Sony)
Allison Moorer, Show
Pat Green, Wave on Wave (Universal)
Robert Earl Keen, Farm Fresh Onions
Brooks & Dunn, Red Dirt Road
The Del McCoury Band, Here Comes the Night
SINGLES
Gary Allan, “Songs About Rain”
Mindy Smith, “Jolene”
Bubba Sparxxx, “She Tried”
Montgomery Gentry, “Hell Yeah”
Martina McBride, “This One’s For the Girls”
Franky Perez and the Highway Saints, “Something Crazy”
Terri Clark, “I Wanna Do It All”
Kenny Chesney, “There Goes My Life”
Over the Rhine, “Show Me”
Brad Paisley, “Little Moments”
ENLIGHTENING COMMENTARY
um, later, maybe. this has been kind of like The Year Of Country Re-Introduction for me, but right now I'm pressed for time and inspiration. Go listen to your local c&w station for a while; there's good stuff there.
12.12.03
top 100 reasons that El Gran Silencio's Super Riddim Internacional Vol. 1 is the best album of the year, #'s 1-10
1. Because in a messed up year of disappointments, uncertainty, craziness both internal and external, anger, depression, and loneliness, this album was the only thing that never let me down. (Okay fine some of my friends and some of my family too, you got me. But the earlier statement stands.)
2. Because in a great year of wonder and joy and happiness and love and hope, this record was a perfect soundtrack to my life.
3. Because inside the CD they promised that Super Riddim Internacional, Vol. 2 would be coming in Octubre 2003 and it gave me breathless months of anticipation to look forward to.
4. Because when the damn thing didn't come out, I felt really really disappointed, and that told me something. I'm still holding a spot on my top ten for it in case it somehow just SHOWS UP on my doorstep.
5. Because it reminded me that guitars were okay things to have and use and enjoy, especially when teamed with accordions.
6. Because it provides the exception to the rule that Third Albums Always Seem Like They Should Rule But Never Do. (I'll explain this later sometime.) (Actually, Super Furry Animals, whose Phantom Power is almost as good, also disproved this with Guerrilla. Hmmm.)
7. Because when every hip-hop and reggae producer in the world was geeking out over diwaali beats, EGS hit it and quit it on "El Espejo," confining it to a little tiny part of the song and therefore making it work rather than making it the entire focus and running the risk of it sounding like total ass in a few months when everyone's all jacking Inuit snowshoe samples or some shit like that.
8. Because it sounds A LOT like the stuff being pumped all over L.A. Mexican radio stations, which sound good while you're being held up in traffic on the 405 in your brother-in-law's car in 98 degree weather, except BETTER. So you end up cursing your (absent) brother-in-law for not loaning you his really freakin' nice SUV for your business trip instead of his wife's car, which is nice enough but you left the CD in his car. EGS is like other cumbia groups but on steroids that actually make your genitals grow rather than shrink.
9. Because, the night before that, this record sounded like the best thing in the world while you and your brother-in-law (by which I mean me and my brother-in-law) go driving around with the stereo shredding the valley, while the bass pounds its way into your solar plexus and he looks at you and goes, "Fuckin A, this is excellent," and he's right, and you both know it.
10. Because the Cee-Lo record isn't out till January 2004.
1. Because in a messed up year of disappointments, uncertainty, craziness both internal and external, anger, depression, and loneliness, this album was the only thing that never let me down. (Okay fine some of my friends and some of my family too, you got me. But the earlier statement stands.)
2. Because in a great year of wonder and joy and happiness and love and hope, this record was a perfect soundtrack to my life.
3. Because inside the CD they promised that Super Riddim Internacional, Vol. 2 would be coming in Octubre 2003 and it gave me breathless months of anticipation to look forward to.
4. Because when the damn thing didn't come out, I felt really really disappointed, and that told me something. I'm still holding a spot on my top ten for it in case it somehow just SHOWS UP on my doorstep.
5. Because it reminded me that guitars were okay things to have and use and enjoy, especially when teamed with accordions.
6. Because it provides the exception to the rule that Third Albums Always Seem Like They Should Rule But Never Do. (I'll explain this later sometime.) (Actually, Super Furry Animals, whose Phantom Power is almost as good, also disproved this with Guerrilla. Hmmm.)
7. Because when every hip-hop and reggae producer in the world was geeking out over diwaali beats, EGS hit it and quit it on "El Espejo," confining it to a little tiny part of the song and therefore making it work rather than making it the entire focus and running the risk of it sounding like total ass in a few months when everyone's all jacking Inuit snowshoe samples or some shit like that.
8. Because it sounds A LOT like the stuff being pumped all over L.A. Mexican radio stations, which sound good while you're being held up in traffic on the 405 in your brother-in-law's car in 98 degree weather, except BETTER. So you end up cursing your (absent) brother-in-law for not loaning you his really freakin' nice SUV for your business trip instead of his wife's car, which is nice enough but you left the CD in his car. EGS is like other cumbia groups but on steroids that actually make your genitals grow rather than shrink.
9. Because, the night before that, this record sounded like the best thing in the world while you and your brother-in-law (by which I mean me and my brother-in-law) go driving around with the stereo shredding the valley, while the bass pounds its way into your solar plexus and he looks at you and goes, "Fuckin A, this is excellent," and he's right, and you both know it.
10. Because the Cee-Lo record isn't out till January 2004.
10.12.03
top 100 reasons that El Gran Silencio's Super Riddim Internacional Vol. 1 is the best album of the year, #'s 11-19
11. Because it is proof that not every great Latin record has to be produced by Gustavo Santoallalo.
12. Because it is almost 64 minutes long and this is a perfect album length to me these days. Some people like their albums to come in under 40 minutes, but those people are high.
13. Because they really know how to END a song. This is the problem with a lot of other albums these days, either the corny fade or the shamble to a stop or the repeat and then blam...every song ends differently, every ending is perfectly appropriate here.
14. Because, like Mama Said Knock You Out, this is a hard-sounding record that contains no profanity whatsoever. (As far as I can tell...but no, nothing objectionable. And it's in Spanish, mostly, so even if there were bad things here, I probably wouldn't understand them. Well, I would, but my kids wouldn't.) Don't get me wrong -- I love swearing. But you don't have to, and EGS chooses not to, and they still sound tough and rrrrrrrrrrready to rrrrrrrrrrumble.
15. Because half of these songs sound like covers but none of them are. Instant classics, more like it. I know that cannot be, it's a tautology, but screw it.
16. Because none of you have heard it, almost none anyway, so it sounds cool when I say it. I've been saying it on ILX since the spring, but no one else there has heard it. No one at any music site has reviewed it, except Billboard -- hell, even AMG has no review up for it. But they hardly ever do for Latin albums. NO ONE EVER DOES, just about, unless they're known quantities. But how, after Chuntaros Radio Poder are these guys not known quantities? Why are they not famous all over the US and world? Well, it OBVIOUSLY ISN'T ANY KIND OF PREJUDICE AGAINST MEXICANS AND/OR MEXICO. Because we know that doesn't exist.
Don't we know that? Don't we? ...
17. Because "Cumbiamuffin" is an excellent songtitle, and (as Chuck E. pointed out in the V.Voice) it also has a nice little sexual reference part to it. I of course didn't get this at first. I am as innocent and pure as the driven snow.
18. Snow is flying around outside even as I publish this, probably three inches or so, not sure. In weather like this, it is VERY IMPORTANT to be bigging up a record that sounds like it's 100 degrees outside. In fact, when I get home, I'm going to put on shorts and blast this record and make dinner for everybody. Then I'm going to put on sensible layers and shovel all this innocent pure driven crapola. Damn, I am SO moving out of here.
19. Because this dude found Haibun because of this really long project, which will be over soon I swear to God. Once this is done I am going to start writing a series of haiku about NBA players, as a kind of challenge, so maybe I should stretch things out a bit. Nah, I won't.
11. Because it is proof that not every great Latin record has to be produced by Gustavo Santoallalo.
12. Because it is almost 64 minutes long and this is a perfect album length to me these days. Some people like their albums to come in under 40 minutes, but those people are high.
13. Because they really know how to END a song. This is the problem with a lot of other albums these days, either the corny fade or the shamble to a stop or the repeat and then blam...every song ends differently, every ending is perfectly appropriate here.
14. Because, like Mama Said Knock You Out, this is a hard-sounding record that contains no profanity whatsoever. (As far as I can tell...but no, nothing objectionable. And it's in Spanish, mostly, so even if there were bad things here, I probably wouldn't understand them. Well, I would, but my kids wouldn't.) Don't get me wrong -- I love swearing. But you don't have to, and EGS chooses not to, and they still sound tough and rrrrrrrrrrready to rrrrrrrrrrumble.
15. Because half of these songs sound like covers but none of them are. Instant classics, more like it. I know that cannot be, it's a tautology, but screw it.
16. Because none of you have heard it, almost none anyway, so it sounds cool when I say it. I've been saying it on ILX since the spring, but no one else there has heard it. No one at any music site has reviewed it, except Billboard -- hell, even AMG has no review up for it. But they hardly ever do for Latin albums. NO ONE EVER DOES, just about, unless they're known quantities. But how, after Chuntaros Radio Poder are these guys not known quantities? Why are they not famous all over the US and world? Well, it OBVIOUSLY ISN'T ANY KIND OF PREJUDICE AGAINST MEXICANS AND/OR MEXICO. Because we know that doesn't exist.
Don't we know that? Don't we? ...
17. Because "Cumbiamuffin" is an excellent songtitle, and (as Chuck E. pointed out in the V.Voice) it also has a nice little sexual reference part to it. I of course didn't get this at first. I am as innocent and pure as the driven snow.
18. Snow is flying around outside even as I publish this, probably three inches or so, not sure. In weather like this, it is VERY IMPORTANT to be bigging up a record that sounds like it's 100 degrees outside. In fact, when I get home, I'm going to put on shorts and blast this record and make dinner for everybody. Then I'm going to put on sensible layers and shovel all this innocent pure driven crapola. Damn, I am SO moving out of here.
19. Because this dude found Haibun because of this really long project, which will be over soon I swear to God. Once this is done I am going to start writing a series of haiku about NBA players, as a kind of challenge, so maybe I should stretch things out a bit. Nah, I won't.
9.12.03
top 100 reasons that El Gran Silencio's Super Riddim Internacional Vol. 1 is the best album of the year, #'s 20-29
20. Because this guy agrees, and he is an actual real live Latino!
21. I am not an actual real live Latino, despite my somewhat ambiguous last name: I am Irish and Slovak and Swedish and unspecified Slav (probably Serb, same family last name as Darko from the Pistons). But I have always had a deep kinship with Mexican culture and music, somehow. Some of it stems from my mom having grown up in the Mission District in San Francisco and dating a ton of dudes with Z as the last letter of their last name -- I was probably just one heartbreak away from having a name like that. [Insert philosophical argument here.] Me and Mom went on an "Old Boyfriends Tour of San Francisco" one time, she showed me where they all lived and where they hung out and stuff. It was classic. We also got drunk in this dive bar in the middle of the day and had to sit there for a while drinking coffee before we could get back into the car so she could show me where this guy named "Speedy" Gonzalez lived. It was a tough-ass neighborhood indeed, me and my mom rollin' pimpinela-style through there. My mom gots the illest gangsta lean.
22. Another part of it is that I grew up in the Willamette Valley where there is a HUGE Mexican-American presence, former migrant families who've settled down; not so much when I was in high school (although we were all in love with the Godinez twins and Edna B., and Henry Gonzalez was a stud of a linebacker for the beloved Cougars) but now it's like up to 10,000 people in Canby and a lot of the growth are Mexican families. Which rocks in a major way and I love it. So this is me reconnecting with my roots, baby.
23. Plus a high school girlfriend who was half Colombian and used to sweet-talk to me en espanol. This should happen to everyone.
24. Plus when we were in Mexico this summer we went into a little shop in Playa del Carmen and the only two CDs I recognized were Cafe Tacuba and this one.
25. Plus my favorite musical moment of the year: when you're down in that area in Mexico, the best way to get around is to wait on the side of the highway for the Colectivo vans that cruise around and pick people up for 150 pesos each. This one day, it was like 95 degrees (August in Mexico, we're smart!) and we catch this van and squeeze in amongst all these people going to and coming from work and the radio is on and I'm absorbing all this great cumbia music, it's pumpin', can't understand it never heard it before or since no idea who it was by but it was all brilliant. Suddenly, "Cumbiamuffin" comes on the radio! I'm all excited, I'm all bouncing around inside my head but I can't dance there wedged into my seat beside this 60-year-old woman and this HUGE guy, and I look up to the front seat and there's a teenager sitting there nodding his head to the music and mouthing "hey!" right at the right time, he's obviously a fan. I felt like screaming in triumph. It was too perfect to have actually happened. But it did. I swear to God and Jimmy Webb.
26. Because it sounds dope in the car, dopest car record of the year. I played this on road trips to Iowa and Minnesota and Illinois and far northern Wisconsin, and was convinced that this was the first time such vibrant joyful music had ever been played in these remote outposts of the world. I travel a lot now, mostly in spring to schools and stuff, so roadtrip music is important to me; Super Riddim Internacional is perfect because it alternates the fast bouncy stuff with the slower mellower stuff, you need both for a road trip, usually you have to alternate the discs, this is like a mixtape for ME on the road. Aural coffee.
27. I used to love records where it was clear that the artist had a firm grasp of rock and pop history but weren't trying too hard to let me know about it. Then I decided not to care about stuff like that. Now I do again. EGS have encyclopaedic knowledge about all kinds of music, but they do it all from a fan's perspective, rather than as showoff musos.
28. Unlike, say, OutKast. Andre in particular. Is there any question at all that Speakerboxxx/The Love Below isn't going to rule the Pazz and Jop poll this year? Is there any question at all that a lot of critics are choosing it because they think it revolutionary that rap guys want to make non-rap music? Or to incorporate other styles in a hip-hop context OH MY GOSH HOW REVOLUTIONARY that has to be my #1 album of the year because come on, dude, it makes me look great to have that one on my list! Plus, "Hey Ya" is like the Pixies! O Andre, our poor misunderstood genius, it's okay to break free of the hip-hop ghetto and let your freak flag fly...high...like a bird in the sky... And yeah, the other one's pretty good too. (Alternate corny critical reading: Andre's disc has higher highs but lower lows, Big Boi's is more consistent, harrumph, this means I got soul and see more deeply.)
To be serious about this, though: it's a really good album, but it's fatally flawed in a way that I totally predicted. I wasn't all wild about Stankonia, because it sounded rushed, overbusy, too eager to show us how catholic their tastes were. Plus, it seemed that Boi was forcing the whole "player" thing too much, a thankless task that made for some ugly moments (the "dick all in her mouth" line in "Ms. Jackson" spoiled that song for me, and I kind of suspected that Andre put him up to it so that he could ride out that 'sensitive' thing himself) (oh and that "throat baby" line too) (and some other stuff, I don't remember all of it, I sold that disc). And a lot of people are salivating over the whole "now that they've separated themselves out it's pretty clear that Andre's a genius and that Boi is better than I thought he was" critical opinion.
Me, I think Andre's disc is too diffuse LYRICALLY; I dig all the stylehopping just fine, but he doesn't really have a central personality to go along with all that glitz. Boi is who he is, a slam poet with more funk than usual (and some surprising political chops), gully but enlightenedly so, finally free of the need to be the hardass to Andre's poet. But Andre doesn't really live up to that rep anymore, either: "Hey Ya" is about NOTHING, the closing song threatens biography and then peters out because he doesn't really know his own mind, and some of that stuff is so misogynistic and unfeeling that I don't trust the "oh God is a woman, just let me find a good bedpartner, guys are self-critical too" parts. It's all hogwash and I ain't buying it...except that I do like Boi's disc and I do think Andre's has good moments.
29. Because I haven't heard Dizzee Rascal or Richard X or anything like that, and they wouldn't make my list anyway.
20. Because this guy agrees, and he is an actual real live Latino!
21. I am not an actual real live Latino, despite my somewhat ambiguous last name: I am Irish and Slovak and Swedish and unspecified Slav (probably Serb, same family last name as Darko from the Pistons). But I have always had a deep kinship with Mexican culture and music, somehow. Some of it stems from my mom having grown up in the Mission District in San Francisco and dating a ton of dudes with Z as the last letter of their last name -- I was probably just one heartbreak away from having a name like that. [Insert philosophical argument here.] Me and Mom went on an "Old Boyfriends Tour of San Francisco" one time, she showed me where they all lived and where they hung out and stuff. It was classic. We also got drunk in this dive bar in the middle of the day and had to sit there for a while drinking coffee before we could get back into the car so she could show me where this guy named "Speedy" Gonzalez lived. It was a tough-ass neighborhood indeed, me and my mom rollin' pimpinela-style through there. My mom gots the illest gangsta lean.
22. Another part of it is that I grew up in the Willamette Valley where there is a HUGE Mexican-American presence, former migrant families who've settled down; not so much when I was in high school (although we were all in love with the Godinez twins and Edna B., and Henry Gonzalez was a stud of a linebacker for the beloved Cougars) but now it's like up to 10,000 people in Canby and a lot of the growth are Mexican families. Which rocks in a major way and I love it. So this is me reconnecting with my roots, baby.
23. Plus a high school girlfriend who was half Colombian and used to sweet-talk to me en espanol. This should happen to everyone.
24. Plus when we were in Mexico this summer we went into a little shop in Playa del Carmen and the only two CDs I recognized were Cafe Tacuba and this one.
25. Plus my favorite musical moment of the year: when you're down in that area in Mexico, the best way to get around is to wait on the side of the highway for the Colectivo vans that cruise around and pick people up for 150 pesos each. This one day, it was like 95 degrees (August in Mexico, we're smart!) and we catch this van and squeeze in amongst all these people going to and coming from work and the radio is on and I'm absorbing all this great cumbia music, it's pumpin', can't understand it never heard it before or since no idea who it was by but it was all brilliant. Suddenly, "Cumbiamuffin" comes on the radio! I'm all excited, I'm all bouncing around inside my head but I can't dance there wedged into my seat beside this 60-year-old woman and this HUGE guy, and I look up to the front seat and there's a teenager sitting there nodding his head to the music and mouthing "hey!" right at the right time, he's obviously a fan. I felt like screaming in triumph. It was too perfect to have actually happened. But it did. I swear to God and Jimmy Webb.
26. Because it sounds dope in the car, dopest car record of the year. I played this on road trips to Iowa and Minnesota and Illinois and far northern Wisconsin, and was convinced that this was the first time such vibrant joyful music had ever been played in these remote outposts of the world. I travel a lot now, mostly in spring to schools and stuff, so roadtrip music is important to me; Super Riddim Internacional is perfect because it alternates the fast bouncy stuff with the slower mellower stuff, you need both for a road trip, usually you have to alternate the discs, this is like a mixtape for ME on the road. Aural coffee.
27. I used to love records where it was clear that the artist had a firm grasp of rock and pop history but weren't trying too hard to let me know about it. Then I decided not to care about stuff like that. Now I do again. EGS have encyclopaedic knowledge about all kinds of music, but they do it all from a fan's perspective, rather than as showoff musos.
28. Unlike, say, OutKast. Andre in particular. Is there any question at all that Speakerboxxx/The Love Below isn't going to rule the Pazz and Jop poll this year? Is there any question at all that a lot of critics are choosing it because they think it revolutionary that rap guys want to make non-rap music? Or to incorporate other styles in a hip-hop context OH MY GOSH HOW REVOLUTIONARY that has to be my #1 album of the year because come on, dude, it makes me look great to have that one on my list! Plus, "Hey Ya" is like the Pixies! O Andre, our poor misunderstood genius, it's okay to break free of the hip-hop ghetto and let your freak flag fly...high...like a bird in the sky... And yeah, the other one's pretty good too. (Alternate corny critical reading: Andre's disc has higher highs but lower lows, Big Boi's is more consistent, harrumph, this means I got soul and see more deeply.)
To be serious about this, though: it's a really good album, but it's fatally flawed in a way that I totally predicted. I wasn't all wild about Stankonia, because it sounded rushed, overbusy, too eager to show us how catholic their tastes were. Plus, it seemed that Boi was forcing the whole "player" thing too much, a thankless task that made for some ugly moments (the "dick all in her mouth" line in "Ms. Jackson" spoiled that song for me, and I kind of suspected that Andre put him up to it so that he could ride out that 'sensitive' thing himself) (oh and that "throat baby" line too) (and some other stuff, I don't remember all of it, I sold that disc). And a lot of people are salivating over the whole "now that they've separated themselves out it's pretty clear that Andre's a genius and that Boi is better than I thought he was" critical opinion.
Me, I think Andre's disc is too diffuse LYRICALLY; I dig all the stylehopping just fine, but he doesn't really have a central personality to go along with all that glitz. Boi is who he is, a slam poet with more funk than usual (and some surprising political chops), gully but enlightenedly so, finally free of the need to be the hardass to Andre's poet. But Andre doesn't really live up to that rep anymore, either: "Hey Ya" is about NOTHING, the closing song threatens biography and then peters out because he doesn't really know his own mind, and some of that stuff is so misogynistic and unfeeling that I don't trust the "oh God is a woman, just let me find a good bedpartner, guys are self-critical too" parts. It's all hogwash and I ain't buying it...except that I do like Boi's disc and I do think Andre's has good moments.
29. Because I haven't heard Dizzee Rascal or Richard X or anything like that, and they wouldn't make my list anyway.
top 100 reasons that El Gran Silencio's Super Riddim Internacional Vol. 1 is the best album of the year, #'s 30-39
30. Because Susheela Raman's Love Trap is a really great record but not as punchy as it needs to be to hit #1 on Cibula's list. (I realize it's hard to do "punchy" when you're doing int'l-pop versions of 400-year-old Carnatic hymns to Shiva, but still.
31. Because Allison Moorer's Show and Charlie Robison's Live kinda cancel each other out, great live records by great songwriters (Moorer's more of a pure singer, Robison growls somewhat but it fits his stuff) but I'm already too familiar with the tighter studio versions of their best stuff. Shame, really, woulda given me some serious cool points to have a lot of country records on my list.
32. The one country record that DID make it onto my list, Country Music by Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives, is a skillful and soulful thing...but if any Stuart record was gonna be #1 for me, it would have been his last one before this, The Pilgrim, which accomplished the amazing feat of being a concept record with cinematic sweep that DIDN'T SUCK. That one, had it been released this year, mighta hadda shot. But this one is fun/goofy mixed with deep/resilient crossed with reverent/irreverent, a great thing, but not better than something that doesn't worry about categories like this at all.
33. Actually, I think Anthony Hamilton's album Comin' From Where I'm From is the best country record of the year. But I can't actually say that, especially now that I've been invited to vote in the Country Music Critic's poll. Yep, you heard me right, you sad bastards -- I have arrived! They must have read this, which I'm really proud of, or maybe this, or something. Anyway, the easiest way to get my ass kicked off the list would be to give Hamilton the nod here. And yet, even though Hamilton is a major talent and I love him, it's just his first album. No #1s for first album, methinks.
34. And I wish Lyrics Born hadn't ended Later That Day... with two kinda boring reggae traxxx. That kinda screwed him for #1 status--he still ended up at #5 on my list.
35. My number two this year is pretty much a perfect record: Phantom Power by Super Furry Animals. But although it's perfect, I picked Guerrilla as the best of that year, and I don't revere bands enough to give them two #1s in five years. So they were out.
36. I love year-end lists, but they kill me. But EGS was due. Since Guerrilla, my favorites have been Erykah Badu's Mama's Gun, the Circulatory System record, and Common's Electric Circus, so we were due for some Latin fire at the top of my personal chart.
37. And the records that I regret NOT choosing for #1 (Bersuit Vergabarat's Hijos del Culo, for example) are always Latin records, so I didn't want to make the same mistake.
38. So running to the east side Circuit City last weekend and buying Celso Pina y su Ronda Bogota's Una Vision wasn't stupid after all. And it was okay to buy Control Machete's uno,dos:bandera too...I just didn't wanna slight the Mexican market.
39. And the fact that Cafe Tacuba came back pretty but soft helped to make my choice super-easy.
30. Because Susheela Raman's Love Trap is a really great record but not as punchy as it needs to be to hit #1 on Cibula's list. (I realize it's hard to do "punchy" when you're doing int'l-pop versions of 400-year-old Carnatic hymns to Shiva, but still.
31. Because Allison Moorer's Show and Charlie Robison's Live kinda cancel each other out, great live records by great songwriters (Moorer's more of a pure singer, Robison growls somewhat but it fits his stuff) but I'm already too familiar with the tighter studio versions of their best stuff. Shame, really, woulda given me some serious cool points to have a lot of country records on my list.
32. The one country record that DID make it onto my list, Country Music by Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives, is a skillful and soulful thing...but if any Stuart record was gonna be #1 for me, it would have been his last one before this, The Pilgrim, which accomplished the amazing feat of being a concept record with cinematic sweep that DIDN'T SUCK. That one, had it been released this year, mighta hadda shot. But this one is fun/goofy mixed with deep/resilient crossed with reverent/irreverent, a great thing, but not better than something that doesn't worry about categories like this at all.
33. Actually, I think Anthony Hamilton's album Comin' From Where I'm From is the best country record of the year. But I can't actually say that, especially now that I've been invited to vote in the Country Music Critic's poll. Yep, you heard me right, you sad bastards -- I have arrived! They must have read this, which I'm really proud of, or maybe this, or something. Anyway, the easiest way to get my ass kicked off the list would be to give Hamilton the nod here. And yet, even though Hamilton is a major talent and I love him, it's just his first album. No #1s for first album, methinks.
34. And I wish Lyrics Born hadn't ended Later That Day... with two kinda boring reggae traxxx. That kinda screwed him for #1 status--he still ended up at #5 on my list.
35. My number two this year is pretty much a perfect record: Phantom Power by Super Furry Animals. But although it's perfect, I picked Guerrilla as the best of that year, and I don't revere bands enough to give them two #1s in five years. So they were out.
36. I love year-end lists, but they kill me. But EGS was due. Since Guerrilla, my favorites have been Erykah Badu's Mama's Gun, the Circulatory System record, and Common's Electric Circus, so we were due for some Latin fire at the top of my personal chart.
37. And the records that I regret NOT choosing for #1 (Bersuit Vergabarat's Hijos del Culo, for example) are always Latin records, so I didn't want to make the same mistake.
38. So running to the east side Circuit City last weekend and buying Celso Pina y su Ronda Bogota's Una Vision wasn't stupid after all. And it was okay to buy Control Machete's uno,dos:bandera too...I just didn't wanna slight the Mexican market.
39. And the fact that Cafe Tacuba came back pretty but soft helped to make my choice super-easy.
6.12.03
top 100 reasons that El Gran Silencio's Super Riddim Internacional Vol. 1 is the best album of the year, #'s 40-49
40. Because Shelby Lynne's Identity Crisis slows down a little too much.
41. Because Nappy Roots have no sense of humor.
42. Because Daude's record is less fun than Cibelle's album, and EGS is more fun than both.
43. Because Trap Muzik is the best hip-hop album of the year but has no range, really, no stretchability. Plus too many swears to play often.
44. Because, for me, Kish Kash gets more credit than it should. Yeah, it's great dance music, and I don't mean to slight dance music as a genre, especially when it's as rubbery and bouncy as Jaxx makes it. But I'm more into organics this year, I guess, kinda...no, I'm not. Not really. I'm not sure exactly why I'm not swooning for Kish Kash the way everyone else is. Oh, probably just perversity, or old-fogeyness-to-be-specified-later, or "wanting to seem cool," or something. I liked it from the moment I first heard it. But that was it: just like, not love.
45. Whereas I LOVED this baby from the first time I rocked it.
46. Did I ever tell you about how I first heard this record? Well, first it will be helpful to have you read this thing in which I discuss how rockin' Chuntaros Radio Poder is.
47. So when I found out that Super Riddim Internacional Vol. 1 was coming out, I started searching all around. (By the way, it IS Vol. 1, not Vol. 2 like I somehow wrote down at first here, that was stupid and hopeful and wishful, I've changed it, full admission.) My local indie stores? Nah. Barnes and Noble, which sometimes has world stuff that no one else has? Nah. Only Circuit City reps the Latin music well up here in frozen Wisconsin, my friends, and that's where I went. Any Mexican CD that I've loved, I've bought there, I think. (Except maybe for Nortec.)
48. It was an afternoon, I took off early from work because I had to go to an evening speaking gig in West Allis in my other life. So I didn't have much time. I waltzed into CC, grabbed the thing, paid cash (no credit card paper trail, baby), waltzed out already unwrapping the thing, tore that top stickery thing off with no residue, popped it in, and was on my way. Is there any greater feeling than the anticipation of a new disc? Maybe the anticipation of great sex, or the culmination of great sex, or the moment between. But I get a lot more CDs these days than sex. (Haha "these days".) So for me, backing out of my stall in the parking lot of CC hearing the Intro track with the bells and the spoken voices, and then the pumping of the bass on the first real track as I pulled out onto Mineral Point Road and then the quick right onto the Beltline, to connect with 90/94 North by which point we were probably already at "Ingratos Corazones" to that quick offshoot to 94 East to Milwaukee by which point I have no idea what song was on but I was bouncing up and down in my seat, oh yeah baby, this is completely living up to expectations, it's EXACTLY what I hoped it would be, I'm the happiest boy in the world.
49. And the disc lasted, improbably, exactly as long as my drive, with "Ya" and the Outro track pumping as I sat in the Starbuck's parking lot across the highway from the school. Really the most perfect listening experience since I used to sit and listen to Electric Light Orchestra's A New World Record or Stevie's Songs in the Key of Life on rainy Oregon Saturday afternoons while eating four-layer peanut butter and raisin and banana sandwiches and drinking very large glasses of milk and dreaming of being an adult and being able to listen to music in my car someday, some new exotic music I'd never dreamed of or heard before, something that would blow me away completely.
40. Because Shelby Lynne's Identity Crisis slows down a little too much.
41. Because Nappy Roots have no sense of humor.
42. Because Daude's record is less fun than Cibelle's album, and EGS is more fun than both.
43. Because Trap Muzik is the best hip-hop album of the year but has no range, really, no stretchability. Plus too many swears to play often.
44. Because, for me, Kish Kash gets more credit than it should. Yeah, it's great dance music, and I don't mean to slight dance music as a genre, especially when it's as rubbery and bouncy as Jaxx makes it. But I'm more into organics this year, I guess, kinda...no, I'm not. Not really. I'm not sure exactly why I'm not swooning for Kish Kash the way everyone else is. Oh, probably just perversity, or old-fogeyness-to-be-specified-later, or "wanting to seem cool," or something. I liked it from the moment I first heard it. But that was it: just like, not love.
45. Whereas I LOVED this baby from the first time I rocked it.
46. Did I ever tell you about how I first heard this record? Well, first it will be helpful to have you read this thing in which I discuss how rockin' Chuntaros Radio Poder is.
47. So when I found out that Super Riddim Internacional Vol. 1 was coming out, I started searching all around. (By the way, it IS Vol. 1, not Vol. 2 like I somehow wrote down at first here, that was stupid and hopeful and wishful, I've changed it, full admission.) My local indie stores? Nah. Barnes and Noble, which sometimes has world stuff that no one else has? Nah. Only Circuit City reps the Latin music well up here in frozen Wisconsin, my friends, and that's where I went. Any Mexican CD that I've loved, I've bought there, I think. (Except maybe for Nortec.)
48. It was an afternoon, I took off early from work because I had to go to an evening speaking gig in West Allis in my other life. So I didn't have much time. I waltzed into CC, grabbed the thing, paid cash (no credit card paper trail, baby), waltzed out already unwrapping the thing, tore that top stickery thing off with no residue, popped it in, and was on my way. Is there any greater feeling than the anticipation of a new disc? Maybe the anticipation of great sex, or the culmination of great sex, or the moment between. But I get a lot more CDs these days than sex. (Haha "these days".) So for me, backing out of my stall in the parking lot of CC hearing the Intro track with the bells and the spoken voices, and then the pumping of the bass on the first real track as I pulled out onto Mineral Point Road and then the quick right onto the Beltline, to connect with 90/94 North by which point we were probably already at "Ingratos Corazones" to that quick offshoot to 94 East to Milwaukee by which point I have no idea what song was on but I was bouncing up and down in my seat, oh yeah baby, this is completely living up to expectations, it's EXACTLY what I hoped it would be, I'm the happiest boy in the world.
49. And the disc lasted, improbably, exactly as long as my drive, with "Ya" and the Outro track pumping as I sat in the Starbuck's parking lot across the highway from the school. Really the most perfect listening experience since I used to sit and listen to Electric Light Orchestra's A New World Record or Stevie's Songs in the Key of Life on rainy Oregon Saturday afternoons while eating four-layer peanut butter and raisin and banana sandwiches and drinking very large glasses of milk and dreaming of being an adult and being able to listen to music in my car someday, some new exotic music I'd never dreamed of or heard before, something that would blow me away completely.
4.12.03
top 100 reasons that El Gran Silencio's Super Riddim Internacional Vol. 1 is the best album of the year, #'s 50-59
50. How 1971 they rock it during the 20 seconds of heavy metal madness that erupts in the middle of “Huapanator,” otherwise a perfectly lovely little slice of fairly traditional instrumental (accent on “mental”) cumbia.
51. The title of “Huapanator.” It doesn’t mean a damn thing, but it’s fun to say. You should try it. Wherever you are, jump up from your computer and yell “Huapanator!” It’s pronounced like it’s spelled. Just scream it, as loud as you can. Scream it over and over, even into the teeth of your boss slavemaster overseer when he and/or she comes to order you to stop, just screech it, wail it, use it as your resignation letter, “Huapanator! Huapanator!” This will be remembered longer than anything else you actually did at your job. Plus, the next week when you realize the economy is shit and you can’t get that other better grassisgreener job you’ve always wanted but there’s a reason you can’t get it, it doesn’t exist, crap on a stick you should have known that you dumbass—you can always go back and blame it on me, say “I read that I should do it on this blog.” Then she and/or he and/or it will fire you all over again for reading blogs at work, what are you stupid?
52. How sexy and jazzy the horns are in “Recordar Es Vivir”!
53. How hardcore they sound when they totally spaz out on “Ya,” which is only 1:14 long but more exciting than the entire albums of Elephant plus Elephunk put together. Plus the Gus Van Sant movie, I’m guessing, although I haven’t seen it and don’t want to. It’s been a really long time since he made a good movie, innit? Was he ever really that good, other than his ability to use really cool shots of Portland all the time? And don’t be talking about Good Will Hunting, that movie was shite, Damon and Affleck were fine, Robin Williams was great, actually all the acting was great, he’s okay with actors is Van Sant…but I’m sorry, the Minnie Driver character barely existed outside of the blowjob joke, there was no way she’d love him that much when he treated her like that, I call bullshit on that, Damon was just mad that his own girlfriend with the same name left him for Lars Ulrich, and personal revenge by a screenwriter is something a good director would have filtered out. Anyway, this record is better than that too.
54. How these songs all follow each other at the end of the album, helping to dispel all that “this album kind of peters out at the end but otherwise blah blah blah” crap. There is no petering out on an El Gran Silencio album.
55. All the Bollywoodism that has infected the hip-hop and dance communities is here too: “El Espejo” starts with that diwaali beat, kind of, played entirely on Mexican percussion instruments.
56. “Recuerdo y Lluvia” starts out like “House of the Rising Sun,” which we played in junior high jazz band (yes me on 1st chair trombone) without knowing that it was about a brothel.
57. Best moment on that song, maybe the whole album which is saying a lot, comes at 3:45 after the drum/guitar breakdown, where Tony and Cano rap in unison for 14 measures straight, not really rap but sing-songing regular eighth-notes, without breathing or rhythmic variation, 21 seconds which doesn’t sound like much but you try it, I have, it’s really really tough, it sounds really tough.
58. When that’s all done, they break into “Ay, ay, ay, ay,” which is completely earned.
59. They are clearly the best band in North America and also the world.
50. How 1971 they rock it during the 20 seconds of heavy metal madness that erupts in the middle of “Huapanator,” otherwise a perfectly lovely little slice of fairly traditional instrumental (accent on “mental”) cumbia.
51. The title of “Huapanator.” It doesn’t mean a damn thing, but it’s fun to say. You should try it. Wherever you are, jump up from your computer and yell “Huapanator!” It’s pronounced like it’s spelled. Just scream it, as loud as you can. Scream it over and over, even into the teeth of your boss slavemaster overseer when he and/or she comes to order you to stop, just screech it, wail it, use it as your resignation letter, “Huapanator! Huapanator!” This will be remembered longer than anything else you actually did at your job. Plus, the next week when you realize the economy is shit and you can’t get that other better grassisgreener job you’ve always wanted but there’s a reason you can’t get it, it doesn’t exist, crap on a stick you should have known that you dumbass—you can always go back and blame it on me, say “I read that I should do it on this blog.” Then she and/or he and/or it will fire you all over again for reading blogs at work, what are you stupid?
52. How sexy and jazzy the horns are in “Recordar Es Vivir”!
53. How hardcore they sound when they totally spaz out on “Ya,” which is only 1:14 long but more exciting than the entire albums of Elephant plus Elephunk put together. Plus the Gus Van Sant movie, I’m guessing, although I haven’t seen it and don’t want to. It’s been a really long time since he made a good movie, innit? Was he ever really that good, other than his ability to use really cool shots of Portland all the time? And don’t be talking about Good Will Hunting, that movie was shite, Damon and Affleck were fine, Robin Williams was great, actually all the acting was great, he’s okay with actors is Van Sant…but I’m sorry, the Minnie Driver character barely existed outside of the blowjob joke, there was no way she’d love him that much when he treated her like that, I call bullshit on that, Damon was just mad that his own girlfriend with the same name left him for Lars Ulrich, and personal revenge by a screenwriter is something a good director would have filtered out. Anyway, this record is better than that too.
54. How these songs all follow each other at the end of the album, helping to dispel all that “this album kind of peters out at the end but otherwise blah blah blah” crap. There is no petering out on an El Gran Silencio album.
55. All the Bollywoodism that has infected the hip-hop and dance communities is here too: “El Espejo” starts with that diwaali beat, kind of, played entirely on Mexican percussion instruments.
56. “Recuerdo y Lluvia” starts out like “House of the Rising Sun,” which we played in junior high jazz band (yes me on 1st chair trombone) without knowing that it was about a brothel.
57. Best moment on that song, maybe the whole album which is saying a lot, comes at 3:45 after the drum/guitar breakdown, where Tony and Cano rap in unison for 14 measures straight, not really rap but sing-songing regular eighth-notes, without breathing or rhythmic variation, 21 seconds which doesn’t sound like much but you try it, I have, it’s really really tough, it sounds really tough.
58. When that’s all done, they break into “Ay, ay, ay, ay,” which is completely earned.
59. They are clearly the best band in North America and also the world.
3.12.03
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.
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.
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