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SoundTreks: Alt-Folklorico Across Genres

SoundTreks: A regular feature on the music the other 97 percent of the globe is listening to.

One of my favorite albums of 2008 (so far) has been En Este Camino by Pistolera. I've described this New York band's sound as Mexican regional, Latin alternative and American indie stitched together in a sonic tapestry that is at once comfortably familiar and chicly cutting edge. Rhapsody's Latin editor Sarah Bardeen was a bit pithier: "previously at-odds elements like accordion and indie rock drink a Corona and lime together." The band itself, which has made nice with the likes of Lila Downs, Ozomatli and the Mexican Institute of Sound, gets even more succinct, referring to themselves as simply "alt-folklorico."

[Click the "Continue Reading..." link to listen to a playlist featuring the music discussed in this post.]

Q&A: Ximena Sariñana

Ximena Sariñana has gone from precocious -- acting in films and novelas since childhood -- to prolific -- contributing to movie soundtracks, jamming out with her old jazz band Feliz No Cumpleaños, and surrendering to her emotions like a young Fiona Apple en español on her debut album Mediocre, for which she has received multiple Latin Grammy nods: Artist of the Year, Best Alternative Song ("Normal") and Producer of the Year (along with Soda Stereo collaborator, producer Tweety Gonzalez). The songs on Mediocre (irony noted) have a smokey cabaret feel -- sharp, jazzy, cynical, with a bourbon sting -- but can be equally appreciated crying your heart out over a heap of dirty dishes -- speaking to everyday heartbreak, tapping into the most common of love-related insecurities, and the need to escape from it all. Basically, the heart's inner monologue.

"The album is 100 percent real," says Ximena. "The thing that I wanted the most was to be as honest as I could and not to stop myself from talking about things -- about how I felt. At some point, I felt like I wanted to run away from something, and I was gonna talk about it. And at some point, I felt that I was afraid of being forgotten, and I was gonna talk about it. It's kind of like an experiment. It wasn't all something that I was going through at the time, but it was something that had struck me as interesting. Or something I wanted to put it out in the open. I thought that, the more honest you are, the stronger you are, because there's nothing hiding, there's nothing in the background that people don't know. The more you show, the stronger you are. At least, that's what I thought at the time." Here,  Ximena speaks on becoming an accidental producer, finding her voice, shooting in Iceland and much more.

[Click the "Continue Reading..." link to listen to a playlist featuring the music discussed in this post.]

Soundtreks: Calle 13, Buena Vista Social Club, Bollywood

SoundTreks: A regular feature on the music the other 97 percent of the globe is listening to.

Buena Vista Social Club returned from the dead (almost literally) last week, and this week Puerto Rican rappers/provocateurs Calle 13 took on the living, breathing lyrical fire. (Colombian rock outfit Aterciopelados wasn't far behind on that front either.) Plus, a sneak preview of songs from a hotly anticipated Bollywood flick, and Los Lobos guitarist David Hidalgo goes folkloric ... again?

[Click the "Continue Reading..." link to listen to a playlist featuring the music discussed in this edition of SoundTreks.]

SoundTreks: Curumin, Juana Molina & more

SoundTreks: a regular feature on the music the other 97 percent of the globe is listening to.

Wow -- what a great week for world music. The globalized economy may be crawling into a McMansion-sized hole right now, but you've gotta admit, while globalization may suck for mortgage-backed securities, it's been damn good for music. It's like an all-you-can-eat international buffet this week, only the portions are small and all the food is cooked by those grumpy French slow-food guys who burn down fast food joints while wearing hats set at a jaunty angle. On the menu: indie-pop from Argentina's ardently odd songstress Juana Molina, Ethiopian dub reggae (yes, you read that right) from Dub Colossus, psychedelic '60s Amazonian surf-pop from Juaneco y Su Combo, and a Brazilian who's obsessed with Japan and duets with West Coast underground rappers. Viva cross-pollination!

[Click the "Continue Reading..." link to listen to a playlist featuring the music discussed in this edition of SoundTreks.]

2008 VMA Diaries: Red Carpet Memoirs

by Angela Bruno

The very gracious Paramore.

Objective: Survive. Status: Just barely. [Ha!] As I began to ponder the last few days, I now know why celebs need to be bathed in unicorn's milk and massaged thrice weekly: Parties. Open bars. Free food. Late nights. No-problems-at-the-door. The sense of entitlement. Expensive hotels -- with turndown service and peanut butter cookies. What a tough life. [Sigh.]  Fame (or, well, the mere observation of it, in my case), you are a fickle mistress. But just like that -- the VMAs are over. You watched the show, you be the judge. There will be no VMA punditizing here. Just behind-the-scenes moments of the big day from the Patagonial regions of the red carpet. Walk in my (luckily flat) shoes -- for 12 hours on the Paramount lot.

2008 VMA Diaries: Calle 13, Colby O Rip It for MTV Tr3s

by Angela Bruno

Objective #1. See Calle 13. Status: Achieved. Objective #2: Sidle up next to Kim Kardashian. Status: Pending. Perhaps our paths will cross this weekend, but by the time I had arrived at Level 3 for the MTV Tr3s party, she and the rest of the VIPs that RSVP'ed had already departed (with the exception of possibly some dude from this season of Project Runway, Jade from ANTM, Judy Reyes of Scrubs fame and rapper Malverde -- all of which were on the dance floor).

Foolish, because they missed avant-garde emcees Calle 13. Oh, how I love thee. Let me count the ways: frontman Residente is fly (wife me!) and tatted up in a seemingly illogical way à la Marc Jacobs; their lyrics stand for something; they infuriate my mother with their X-rated euphemisms. And, oh yes, Colby O'Donis performed, too. (Check out his exclusive Rhapsody playlist here.) Semi-grown women stormed the stage. And quivered. The bumpin' and grindin' in my periphery made it impossible to get a good shot of him. A little, um, disturbing, but that is neither here nor there. Read on for few highlights and WTH (what the hell; trying to keep it clean) moments, both good and bad.

Q&A: Plastilina Mosh

by Sarah Bardeen

Despite their sporadic releases and refusal to cleave to one genre, Plastilina Mosh has become known as a major influence on the Latin alternative scene. In the 1990s, they were part of the first wave of rock bands to emerge from Monterrey, Mexico, an industrial city some critics have dubbed the Seattle of Mexico. They innovatively fused rock, hip-hop and electronica in ways that are still influencing newer bands like Kinky. Their standing was only cemented when they recently signed with Nacional Records, home to alternative heroes like Manu Chao and Nortec Collective. We caught up with lead singer Jonaz Gonzalez a week after All U Need Is Mosh dropped. He waxed eloquent on video games (loves them), his favorite bands (many), and who would win a fight to the death -- Plastilina Mosh or new Latin alt sensation Ximena Sariñana, who sings on their new release (guess who wins).

Free MP3s: Fania Meets Ashley Beedle

by Piotr Orlov

Dance music's 21st century rhythmic globetrotting is simply a new-destination update of past travels. There is, for instance, the trip that New York’s Fania label took ‘70s dance-music on, the one that began with a variety of Afro-Cuban- and Caribbean-influenced styles (rumba, mambo and boogaloo, among many); and after mutating into salsa, injected Latin tinges into disco and much of what followed. As is the norm nowadays, anything that was once great is ripe for a remake, and so too is the Fania catalog, on I Like It Like That. But if you want a quick taste, here’s an unreleased remix by Ashley Beedle, adding some bottom to the smooth disco-salsa come-on of Ricardo Marrero’s “Feel Like Making Love.” It’s a late-night thing, once perfect only for the Bronx, but now accepted 'round the world.

Further Downloading:
Ricardo Marrero, "Feel Like Making Love (Ashley Beedle Remix)"
Rhapsody Free MP3s

Q&A: Allá

by Angela Bruno

Allá – multi-instrumentalist and mastermind Jorge Ledezma, brother, found-soundsmith and master drummer Angel and chanteuse Lupe Martinez – are kraut-centric Latin psych-poppers bent on a musical and cultural revolution. Jorge, a longtime kraut aficionado who cut his teeth with the now-defunct Chicago band Defender, became a part of legendary Can frontman Damo Suzuki's network of jam-session fiends after meeting in 2001, fanning Jorge's creative fire.

Allá's debut labor of love, Es Tiempo, took four and half years, an ever-evolving troupe of musicians, studio time in Sweden and about $50K out of Jorge's own pocket (!!!) to complete. Pointing to inspirations as varied as Café Tacuba, Beatles-esque experimentation and Marvin Gaye's message, Allá's hypnotic blend of kraut and Os Mutantes-brand tropicalia is anchored by an anvil of an agenda. Under the pastiche and stardust, the ethereal Es Tiempo honors the band's Mexican roots. With song titles like “El Movimiento” ["The Movement"] and lyrics like “no duermas mas” ["stop sleeping"], Allá’s message is subtle yet palpable.

“‘El Movimiento,’ that’s the old rally cry from the Chicano movement," says Jorge. "We wrap it in a cool psychedelic package and it’s poppy and it’s cute and a little scary at times – but it’s there.” Here, Jorge talks about Allá's evolution, his meticulous-meets-mayhem production tactics, and what the hell really happened in all those years between conception and fruition.

Prima J Do What Santogold Doesn't

by Chuck Eddy

When somebody tells you a new dance-pop album (or really, maybe a new anything album) is mind-blowing because it “mixes up lots of different genres,” take their claim with a grain of salt. Not that mixing genres is bad; it’s just that that’s what dance-pop has always done – usually without making a big whoopdydoo of it. This year, for instance, the self-titled debut by Philly-to-Brooklyn hipster heroine Santogold will inevitably finish the year near the top of critics’ polls. Which is fine, because it’s a pretty good record. But it’s no more “eclectic” than the significantly more lively and songful self-titled debut by suburban L.A. Mexican-American quinceañera-pop duo Prima J, which will struggle to get reviewed in any magazine not targeted at Latin teen girls.