11 posts tagged “spanish”
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10/15/09 BELLY UP*, SAN DIEGO, CA
10/16/09 Troubadour*, LA, CA 10/17/09 Solar Culture TUCSON, AZ 10/24/09 930 Club*, Washington DC 10/28/09 SOB’s*NY, New York 10/29/09 Sala Rosa*,Montreal, Quebec 10/30/09 Rivoli*, Toronto, Ontario 10/31/09 Schuba’s*, Chicago, Illinois 11/01/09 Schuba’s*, Chicago, Illinois 11/03/09 Varsity Theatre*, Minne, MN 11/13/09 Womad Festival, Palmas 11/28/09 BLACK NOTEA, Valencia 12/11/09 Sala Plateruena, Vizcaya 12/12/09 La Faktoria de Arts, Barcelona *with Federico Aubele |
DEPEDRO
depedro.net ♥ myspace.com
While searching for shows coming to Minneapolis, I noticed that Jairo Zaval, aka DePedro, will be playing here with Federico Aubele, in early November. He's probably most famous for being the touring guitarist for Calexico, but in the Spanish world, he'll probably be known for being the frontsman for the rock group Vacazul, blues band 3000 Hombres, and surf group Los Coronas. Well, his self-titled debut album was released last August via the National Geographic Music Label.
Since I only have basic high school Spanish, I really couldn't tell you what many of the songs mean. There are a few English songs that I did understand (and enjoyed, particularly "Two Parts in One"), but the majority of his songs are written and sung in Spanish.
There are some welcomed surprises, including incredibly poppy song "Te sigo soñando", a latin-bluesy "¿Qué puedo hacer por ti?", and a partial duet on "Llorona".
His single and radio song that they seem to like is "La Memoria" (the Memory), which, if you can understand Spanish, it might convey how he felt about poverty and injustice when he visited Mexico. The song was a free giveaway on natgeomusic.net, but I couldn't figure out where on their website.
PUTUMAYO PRESENTS ESPAÑA
www.putumayo.com
Read More |
Beyond DePedro, of course I did not recognize any of these Spanish artist on this release. But that's okay, I trust Putumayo to do a great job compiling the best of the best, as they say. After all, they've been doing this since 1993.
Most of these songs are on the upbeat side. Sometime I feel these songs are mixture of traditional with modern mix. The stand-out tracks that does that traditional/modern thing is "Cumbia Caimanera" by El Combolinga, a band from Madrid. Judging from the translated lyrics, they are singing about "real life" of the state of things in Cuba.
The lone woman singer on this whole compilation, Uxía, certain stood out for me. According to her biography, she grew up very close to Portugal, so she's long felt kinship with the Portuguese culture. Her song, "Danza Ritual" (Dance Ritual) sings about a dance, describing it as a spider spinning the web of fate.From the other side of the river, where there are no streetlights
Foundtains are dry and we don't put foot to ball
That's where we the caimans live
Without a job or glamor
We have big mouths and our eyes are looking south
That's why we sing looking towards the south
While I did mention that most of these songs are very Flamenco/Spanish, there is a surprisingly vaguely reggae song on the album called "Te Estás Equivocando" (You Are Getting it All Wrong) by Gecko Turner. I believe the chorus music might be stolen from "The Tide is High" by the Paragons (who was made famous by Blondie), by the way.
Also, this must be a reoccurring feature, but in addition to music, there's a few recipes for Bread Pudding and Torrijas de Natillas, by chef Eva Arguinaño. And as always, buying Putumayo means they will donate a portion of their profit to a charity. This release proceeds will go to Intermón Oxfam.
Look for their two upcoming release in late October, A Family Christmas and Jazz Around The World.
10/13/2009 19:17:48 ♥ vu (
) ♥weheartmusic.com♥twitter.com/weheartmusic♥news.weheartmusic.com
You know, the festival is only four days, but it really seem like weeks.
While having every band in the world merge at one place might sound like a great idea... sometime their appearance conflicts with other artists that you also want to see. So one of the biggest problem I had was sacrificing who to see.
Music happens from daylight (probably closer to 10am start) until two in the morning, or even later.
I usually started my day around 8am, working out my schedule for the day. Sometime it's logistics, sometime it's time-issues, but usually I have a full day's worth of stuff to do. I don't follow my schedule to a T, but there are certain items that I absolutely cannot miss (scheduled interviews takes priority over shows).
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- Offline gmail. This worked! I read/did most emails offline and when I was connected, all emails were sent, marked as read, etc.
- iPod Touch, worked like a charm. I was able to grab onto various (free) wifi to receive emails or websurf (maps), etc.
- Austin Convention Center's SXSW wifi stayed up most 99% of the time. Wonderful!
- Cash (ATM) availability
- Blocking off 6th street for pedestrians
WHAT SUCKED
- AT&T Network, apparently everyone in Austin had an iPhone
- Walking......
- Sony Memory Stick not supported on my laptop
- Bands playing 30 minutes or less
- Badges are ridiculously expensive ($600-$700). I think they should make it more affordable, especially since most places don't bother to check for a badge and/or were free. If there was a cover charge, it is usually under $10.
I guess my problems are not really that bad.
DAY ZERO (Tuesday)
Travelling… nothing too exciting. My least favorite state was the one with the road tolls (I think this was in Oklahoma). We did stop in Oklahoma City to see Blackwatch Studios (myspace). We got to hear a few songs from Minneapolis' Cedar Avenue (official/myspace) band from their forth-coming long playing record. The few songs we heard were incomplete, but it sounds really layered with a variety of tracks.
By the way, if the name Cedar Avenue sounds familiar to you, it is because Kristin reviewed their debut album a while back.
DAY ONE (Wednesday)
Getting my barring was hard. I didn't know where any of the streets were. So when people text me: come over to (name of venue), I replied and ask what the cross streets were. Since walking around was my main means of transportation, I ended up crossing out outlier venues immediately.
Wednesday was evening-only, so I mostly went to see some British acts over at Friend's. These guys were all from the London area, with the exception of Liverpool's Wave Machines (official/myspace). These guys creeped me out with their masks that they wore on stage - however, due to heat and comfortableness, they took them off half way into their short set. Also caught a bit of Jay Jay Pistolet (myspace), whose singing voice is very peculiar... it's like he sounds like he's sing out the side of his mouth.
When Mumford & Sons (myspace) took the stage, it was very, very, very crowded. The audience loved them and it's apparent that these guys are going to blow up this year.
The Havana Bar had some Spanish showcase, featuring mostly Mexican bands such as Songs For Eleonor (myspace), Satin Dolls (official), Cosmopolitan (myspace), and Los Fancy Free (myspace). With the exception of The May Fire (official/myspace) and Spain's Capsula (official). We like Spanish acts, so be sure to read more Mexican Summer and my coverage of Los Fancy Free.
DAY TWO (Thursday)
I think this was the big press day, I got to meet & greet Victoria who setup the interview with Solid Gold (myspace). She was kind enough to have me in the Myspace Music event, featuring some artists that I really enjoy: Kate Tucker, Meiko and Ed Harcourt.
To kick off the party was The Real You (myspace), a power-pop band from Seattle, Washington. According to their biography, they've been on constant tour since forming in early 2007 - so I'm sure you'll run into this young band eventually.
I haven't been keeping up with Kate Tucker (official/myspace), but apparently her latest project is with a band called The Honeydove (myspace) - who debuted at SXSW! Unfortunately, I had prior commitments, but I would've liked to have seen her new band play at the Beauty Bar.
Anyway, the nicest bit about her set was that she wanted everyone at the event to get a copy of her last album, "I want to give you my music!"
So if you weren't at the event, you missed out. Hey, maybe you can stop in and say hi to her in Washington:
- 04/05/09 Sunset Seattle, WA
05/21/09 Chop Suey as honeydove Seattle, WA
Meiko (official/myspace) had a guest trumpet player on for most of her set (she requested him on for the rest of show because I guess she felt more comfortable with having someone else with her). She actually started her set with "Piano Song", which ironically just her and her guitar... She made some funny comments, such as "I've never played to a bunch of porta potties before".
You get the impression that she was happy to be there, and maybe it's yellow-iest dress combined with her orange/red dyed hair, but she looks gorgeous.
Ed Harcourt (official/myspace) was very engaging…. During "Until Tomorrow Then", he got down to the audience and walked around, singing and putting his hands around people while everyone was filming and taking pictures. Enclosed is a video evidence.
Harcourt is releasing a new six-track EP called Russian Roulette out on May 5th, but SXSW audience were privy to some of his new songs courtesy of Dovecote Records and Directv. Pay close attention to "Caterpillar", as this is a personal song about his newborn daughter being placed in an incubator as they helpless sit and wait.
Went to an open-door new talent showcase, this was not an official sanctioned SXSW event (you'll find that there are many, many unofficial events), so I don't have a listing of who played at what time. They were all giving away their CDs, but I couldn't bother to pick them up (this would require me to carry around stuff, and I didn't have a hand bag ready). Reminder for next year: bring a man purse.
Also went over to check The Elevaters (myspace) and Rumspringa (myspace) at the Hi-Lo venue. While Elevaters were fun and energetic, it seems the drums/guitar duo of Rumspringa had a lot of problems with their equipment. They had to cut their southern-sounding melodic set short after four (?) songs, quote from the singer, "my shit ain't working."
DAY THREE (Friday)
The busy day. Walked all over town basically. My only out-of-the-way venue was at 3 o'clock to see Superdrag (official/myspace) at Guero's, which I thought was far walking there. I ran into one of our RV family, who we'll call Rose because she looks like a pint-sized Pippettes, complete with dress and all. We walked back across the river so I can make it to my Asteroids Galaxy Tour (official/myspace) interview (this was delayed because of some miscommunication).
Afterward, headed over to Beauty Bar to see Solid Gold play, mustache and all. I can tell the audience was having a good time, especially the girl at the backstage.
Then snuck over to see this punk(ish) band that MTV was covering. I didn't catch their name, but it sounded something like Dirty____ Something. The singer had bleach blonde hair and eye shadows.... and likes to walk around with no shirts on.
Evening was spent mostly at the Scotland show: We Were Promised Jet Packs (myspace), Dananananaykroyd (official/myspace), Camera Obscura (official/myspace), The Proclaimers (official/myspace), Glasvegas (official/myspace), Primal Scream (official/myspace). I was in-out so I did end up missing Glasvegas & Primal Scream, but thanks to Bob for sending in some pictures.
DAY FOUR (Saturday)
Saw a few bands in the daytime at the Press Here Garden Party at the French Legation Museum across the Freeway (this is actually closer than it sounds). The walk there was interesting, and I discovered a no-seating Wendy's on the right side of 7th Street. Yep, I ended up having dinner there since they were making these chicken things that's not available in Minnesota.
I got to the Garden just in time to see Jeremy Jay (myspace), and enjoyed the most of the day with The Soft Pack (myspace) and Diane Birch* (myspace) before heading over to 900 Red River to see Jeremy Jay again.
Listened to Camera Obscura afterwards with those Peelander-Z, as I previously mentioned.
Headed back to the Garden to see Melissa Auf De Maur (official/myspace), who started her set with three cover songs: Nancy Sinatra's "Bang Bang", Danzig's "Devil's Plaything", and The Smiths "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before". Although the first two went off pretty well, she totally messed up on "Stop Me" - which is understandable because that song has a lot of Morrissey's lyrics and also they had only practiced it the night before in their hotel room.
It wasn't long before people started filling up the seats at the Garden to see Laura Marling (official/myspace). She was joined on stage by Marcus Mumford, I think. He played percussions and sang backup, although I have to say that Marling would've done just fine with her lovely voice and acoustic guitar.
Saw Late of the Pier at the Bat Bar later that night. Since it was being broadcast live on Directv, I think the pressure got to the band and it was just embarrassing to watch. Towards the end, they seem to not be so nervous, and the (rather long) setlist ended with men in death masks coming on stage to carry the band offstage. I don't have Directv, is there a way for non-subscribers to watch this?
Honey Ryder (myspace) was really happy to be Austin, I think this was their first ever US appearance or something. I believe also that their name came from a James Bond girl ? I don't know much about them, but they seem to have a wider audience and following in the UK, where their single "Fly Away" entered the UK Top 40 at #31.
GoldieLocks (myspace) is 75% English and 25% Swedish from Croydon (South London). She raps to DJ Sports (?), who is wearing this Skeletor T-shirt. After the show, she wanted to give everyone in attendance her EP, which actually went pretty fast. As I previously mentioned, keep an eye on this one.
There's no denying that The Gin Riots (myspace) have quite a few hardcore fans here, as evident by a bunch of Gin Riots T-Shirt in the audience.
It's been a few years since The Crimea (official/myspace) toured in the US, so I was happy to be there for them on their second and last SXSW appearance. They were the last band on my list, so it was kind of a relief when it was all over.
And as corrected by superfan Christopher, Tara Blaise shared the stage to sing backup for the band.... Highlight of the show was then Davey Macmanus stepped down and sang in the center of the audience.
* A note on Birch is that she has these incredible legs, but too bad they were well-hidden behind her piano on stage.
03/29/2009 17:50:12 ♥ vu ()
♥weheartmusic.com♥podcast.weheartmusic.com♥news.weheartmusic.com
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02/27/09
Feria Tapachula Tapachula, Chiapas
See Also
03/04/09 Guadalajara Guadalajara, Jalisco 03/06/09 Leon Leon, Guanajuato 03/07/09 Palacio de los Deportes D.F., Distrito Federal 03/09/09 Gorningen Groningen, Groningen 03/10/09 Bruselas Bruselas, Brussels-capital 03/11/09 Londres Londres, London and South East 03/12/09 Paris Paris, Ile-de-France 03/13/09 Zurich Zurich, Zurich 03/14/09 Nuremberg Nuremberg, Baden-Württemberg 03/15/09 Berlin Berlin, Berlin 03/16/09 Hamburgo Hamburgo, Schleswig-Holstein 03/17/09 Colonia Colonia, Rheinland-Pfalz 03/18/09 Amsterdam Amsterdam, Zuid-Holland 03/19/09 South by SouthWest Austin, Texas 03/21/09 Cumbre Tajin Tajin, Veracruz 04/18/09 Miami Miami, Florida 04/19/09 New York NY, New York 04/21/09 Washington Washington, Washington 04/24/09 Chicago Chicago, Illinois 04/25/09 Los Angeles Los Angeles, California 04/26/09 San Diego San Diego, California 04/28/09 Show Anaheim Anaheim, California 04/29/09 San Francisco San Francisco, California 04/30/09 Houston Houston, Texas 05/01/09 Dallas Dallas, Texas 05/02/09 Mcallen Mcallen, Texas 05/03/09 Laredo Laredo, Texas |
Since then, she's been appearing regularly on Mexican television on María Isabel, and eventually starting appearing on movies. The most important movie in her imdb will probably be Amar te duele, where she also composed some songs for the soundtrack.
Obviously, music's been a huge influence on the very young Sariñana (she is, after all, only 23 as of this writing). After being part of a short-lived Mexican funk/jazz band Feliz No Cumpleaños, she signed with Warner Music.
Mediocre quickly reached #2 on the México Top 100 Album charts, quickly turning the record to certified gold. With the success of Mediocre in Mexico, it was quickly released to the rest of the world, including its neighboring country US on the Warner Latina Label.
All the songs on Mediocre are in Spanish, which makes it hard for me to review since I don't really speak the language, although that haven't stopped me from writing a bunch of articles on Spanish artists. What I can tell you is that the music style is in the pop/jazz genre. The song writing also sounds like it's influences are from the 50s, perhaps due to the cover art of showing Sariñana in a variety of vintage dressups. I was drawn to her hit single "Vidas Paralelas" (English: "Parallel Lives") and "Normal" for their saucy jazz vocals and a bit of scat.
My favorite song is her cover song "Gris" (English: "Gray"). I was so intrigued, I keyed in the lyrics into babelfish to get a better understanding of the song:
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"Gris"
Cuando el cielo se torna gris Las luces no entienden que hora es Sentir asi no es la cuestion No distingo el corazon de la razon Todo ilusion Quiero escapar Gris es todo lo que hay Quiero escapar Gris es todo Siempre hay cosas ara hacer Pero hoy todas me aburren No distingo el corazon de la razon Todo ilusion |
translation courtesy of jaklumen:
When the sky turns gray And the lights don't know what time it is It's not a question of feeling My heart doesn't know the difference It's all an illusion. I want to escape All is gray, it's all there is I want to escape All is gray. There's always something to do But today all of it bores me My heart doesn't know the difference It's all an illusion. |
Maybe I shouldn't be that surprise, but Sariñana speaks fluent English, check out this interview with her on MTV Tr3s. She looks a bit like like Jessica Alba in the video, I love her big round glasses.
You can find Mediocre at most record stores, amazon and Deep Discount to name a few, and of course, there's always iTunes.
02/16/2009 02:00:04 ♥ vu ()
♥ ximenamusic.com ♥ myspace.com/ximenamusic
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7-Oct UK Brighton / Komeda
Read More
8-Oct UK Manchester / Rubys Lounge 9-Oct IE Dublin / Crawdaddy 10-Oct IE Galway / Stress!! @ Club De Burgos 11-Oct IE Cork / Cyprus Avenue 14-Oct BE Leuven / Stuk 15-Oct BE Antwerpen / Arenbergschouwburg 16-Oct CH Fribourg / Bobine @ Fri-Son 17-Oct CH Winterthur / Kraftfeld 18-Oct IT Modena / Aquaragia 20-Oct AT Vienna / B72 22-Oct CZ Prag / Lucerna Music Bar 23-Oct DE Berlin / Centre Francais 24-Oct DE Hamburg / Prinzenbar 25-Oct NL Amsterdam / Paradiso 27-Oct FR Paris / Fleche díor 28-Oct SP Barcelona / Sidecar 29-Oct SP Madrid / Moby Dick 21-Nov La Trastienda Montevideo 27-Nov Billboard Live Tokyo 28-Nov Billboard Live Tokyo 12-Dec Teatro ND Ateneo Buenos Aires |
The interesting thing that I found out about her, was that her family lived in exile in Paris for six years, before returning back to their home country of Argentina. She's possibly better known for being a comedic actress on the television show Juana y sus Hermanas (Juana and Her Brothers).
Un Dia is entirely in Spanish, much like her previous releases (with the exception of Insensible, which is entirely in French), fans of melodic, folk, and world music will not mind this. Although, I will have to admit, it makes it hard for me to write about her music since I don't understand the lyrics.
My best description of her music is that it is sometime ambient music (but done with acoustic guitars) and some of the lyrics are there to just sound good... Maybe I'm oversimplifying it, but it is the impression I got the first time I listened to it.
There are enough odd percussion, traditional instruments, and sweet harmonic vocals on this album that reminds me of later, more experimental Bjork.
My favorite song on this album is "El Vestido" (The Dress), followed by "Quién?" (Who?), followed by "Un Dia". I think "El Vestido" stood out because of the strange electronic ambient and acoustic rhythm.
If you like what you heard and want to check out more, she is offering the title song at juanamolina.com/tourdownload. The album is currently for sale at her record label, Domino Records, as well as online stores. Juana Molina is currently in the middle of touring through Europe and eventually landing over in Japan.
Links:
www.juanamolina.com
myspace.com/juanamolina
| Candy wrote: Tue, Oct 7, 2008 at 8:44 AM |
[this is good] eso digo yo, a ver si llueve! ; ) good track / good singer (that I say, to see if it rains! ;))
| jaklumen wrote: Wed, Oct 8, 2008 at 1:51 AM |
[this is good] Her vocals are very breathy, which makes it very difficult for me to understand her at all; otherwise, I would try to attempt some translation. Then again, I still have a lot of difficulty with sung Spanish (not to mention if it's not a regional accent I'm comfortable with).
¡Qué llueva!(¡Que llueva, que llueva, la vieja está en la cueva, los pajaritos cantan la vieja se levanta! - Cancion infantil popular)
El tiempo está mal Llueve sin parar Hay
que ir a comprar leche agua y pan La vieja
está en cama
Hace frío y La vieja está
ahí Siempre calentita en su cama blanda No
se levanta
Pero, Hay que salir Tiene
que ir Y oye que los
pajaritos cantan La vieja se levanta
Llega la familia Muy pedigüena No se da
cuenta De que la vieja se está muriendo
-¿Dónde está el
café?- -¡Quiero más
paté!- -Eso no está bien, ¡Se
quemó el pastel! ¡No servís
para nada!-
Y el ángel viene a buscar a la vieja de la
cueva Y oye que los pajaritos
cantan, la vieja se
levanta.
(Oh how it's raining, how it's raining, the old woman is in her cave, the birds are singing that she's waking up-- popular lullaby) [English equivalent: Think of the sing-song chant "It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring, he went to bed, and bumped his head, and couldn't get up in the morning."]
The weather is bad
It's raining and not stopping
I need to go buy some milk and bread
The old woman is in bed.
It's cold
and the old woman is here
It's always warm in her (cozy?) bed
She's not getting up
But
I have to leave
I have to go out
And listen! the birds are singing
The old woman is getting up
The well-bred family is coming
They don't realize
That the old woman is dying
Where is the coffee?
I want more pate!
That's not good
The pastry is burnt
It won't do at all.
And the angel comes
and looks for the old woman of the cave
and listen! how the birds are singing
that the old woman has gotten up.
Many apologies if my translation is poor.
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Where we last left off in my series of a Spanish Summer, Ocote Soul Sounds and Adrian Quesada brought a mostly instrumental Spanish soundtrack and Natalia Clavier brought such a lovely Argentinian voice. With this entry, I am hoping to introduce you to the psychedelic 60s sounding Mexican pop music of Los Fancy Free. I like how their name actually sounds like a bastardized version of 'footloose and fancy free'.
Nevergreens Vol 1, Los Fancy Free's third album, is only the first of a series of what singer Martin Thulin describes as a journey by train: "You leave the downtown station... travel though suburbs and industrial areas.. Suddenly you reach the countryside; open landscape... a forest, a lake... a village... the sea and then maybe a new city."
The second volume promised to be released later this year and will include a 10 minute version Dire Straits' first single, "Sultan of Swing".
Anyway, it seems that the band's primary fan base are in Mexico, but I think most of the songs on this new album are in English, they have more international appeal.
I thought "Beatle Suit & Purple Boots" was very catchy, but instrumentals like "Bona's Psychedelic Breakfast" seems to only serve as transitional arcs. As Thulin described this as a musical journey, I would have to agree. Destination "JAJAJA" is my favorite location, it sounds like a big cultural-clash party big city.
Check out the video for "JAJAJA", the audio is slightly different at the end when his head goes into the pot. It is directed by Volver:
Also, judging from the various live photographs of the band, they seem like a pretty wild band, especially Thulin, who seems to like to undress on stage. It's too bad I do not see any live concert listing as of this writing.
I couldn't find any listing for Nevergreens Vol 1 online, so I'm assuming it's in limited release. According to the band's label, siliconcarne.com.mx: "la primera mitad de 2008" (first half of 2008). You'll notice that Silicon Carne is also currently the home of my favorite Stereo Total[W♥M] in Mexico.
Links:
www.myspace.com/losfancyfree
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06/20/08 Greek Theater Berkeley, CA*
See Also
06/22/08 Hollywood Bowl Los Angeles, CA* 06/26/08 Central Park Summerstage NY* 06/28/08 Merriweather Columbia, MD* 07/07/08 Ottawa BluesFest Ottawa, Canada* 07/11/08 Balaton Sound Zamardi, Hungary* 07/11/08 Kalamitsi Thessaloniki* 07/12/08 Petra Open Air Theater Athens* 07/24/08 Nice Jazz Festival Nice, France* 08/01/08 Big Chill Festival United Kingdom* * with Federico Aubele |
Instead of cramming all of my "Spanish Summer" articles, I will be spreading them out in the next few days. Here's the first one, which I had written nearly two months ago, I had to just go in and make some updates:
Argentinian singer/songwriter, Natalia Clavier is releasing her album Nectar next Tuesday. Fans of world, jazz, and trip-hop would love this Spanish album.
How Nectar came into existence was that she was helping fellow Argentinian Federico Aubele record his album Panamericana for ESL Music in Washington DC. She met Eric Hilton of Thievery Corporation and gave him a ten track demo that she recorded with Aubele's help. Hilton loved it so much that he pulled some strings and had ESL sign her right away.
I don't have her demos, but if it sounds anything like the finished Nectar album, I can see why Hilton was very excited about it.
Most of the songs demonstrate Clavier's beautiful voice, especially on her version of legendary Argentinian folk singer Atahualpa Yupanqui's "Tu Que Puedes Veulvete". I felt most of the songs were a bit loungey, but backed with typically trip-hop elements. Check out my easily favorite track "No Volvera".
Since yo no hablo ingles, I couldn't tell you what these songs are about. What I can tell you is that Clavier's voice is really gorgeous and the music backing her up are a combination of both organic and artificial sources. Here are some quick notes on the songs I really enjoyed: "El Arbol" (note record scratching), "Azul" (orchestra with dance beats), "Confusion" (pianos & low cello bass; sad tones), and "Tiempo" (just really liked this one).
It looks like she'll be doing some US & UK dates with Federico Aubele. Nectar will be out this Tuesday, June 10th, you can pre-order the album on ESL Music.
I have a ton of news I need to get to, but obviously still playing catchup because of my illness from last week. As I have previously mentioned, many of these news items can be found on our press.weheartmusic.com website, so if you have music-related announcements, please let me know, maybe even twitter me?
First off, is Stereo Total return to the USA for one BBQ show!. This is for May 31st, in Brooklyn, NY. And if I lived in New York, I would be out all the time... especially because everyone seems to tour and/or are in New York. Plus, I love Stereo Total!
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I don't normally announce other people's contests, but I felt this one is too good to pass up: Win a Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus Terabyte Hard Drive. It is for a Terabyte drive from Maxtor. As you know, my HD is fast depleting, so I entered into this contest. Don't worry, I never win at these things anyway, so I thought perhaps you guys might have a better luck at it.
What makes his contest music-related is that it includes MP3s and videos (?) and music content from The Sickest Kids, Be Your Own Pet[W♥M], Between The Trees, Story of the Year[W♥M], Black Gold, etc.
Winners will be contacted the week of June 9th from www.thesyn.com/blog.
Jason is reviewing Samantha Crain's album, The Confiscation, so I thought you might want to check out Samantha Crain - "The Confiscation," a music novella, out July 22 on Ramseur Records.
Reading her mini biography, it seems that she's a Native American folk singer, so the obvious "earthy and spiritual" was used to describe her music.
It should be interesting to read the review and hear some of her music here.
She's also doing a ton of tour dates, so head over to her myspace for the latest information.
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Also, a few brief mentions: Grupo Fantasma Serves Up Sonidos Gold For June 17th Release and Bad Religion to Release New Maps of Hell (Deluxe Edition) on July 8th.
These titles are pretty self-explanatory. It seems like we just reviewed Grupo Fantasma's Comes Alive, but this new CD, Sonidos Gold, is a studio album with new material.
From my brief listen to this new album, it's really good, with a fusion of latin and dance/pop music.
Also, briefly, my favorite, Bad Religion is re-releasing New Maps of Hell, in a "deluxe edition". This is pretty cool, considering that this legendary punk band have never released any deluxe or repackaged their albums before.
I will assign someone to review their album, but in the meantime, read my previous article on Bad Religion.
Links:
weheartmusic.com
Oliver Urdaneta currently has one of the hottest song in the blogsverse, "Por qué no te callas".
If you haven't heard about this phenomenon, it's from a televised conference between Latin American, Portuguese, Spanish, and Andorran leaders, in Chile.
Hugo Chavez kept interupting Spanish Prime Minister Rodríguez Zapatero
(despite Chavez's mic was turned off) and eventually lead to Spain's
King Juan Carlos telling the Venezuelan leader "Why don't you shut
up".
This little statement instantly became a huge ringtone hit, generating about 1.5m euros practically overnight.[1]
It wasn't long before mashups and this song by Oliver Urdaneta appearing on the internet.
So there's little information about this guy, I don't think he's even released music (at least in the traditional album releases). I think he's also currently living in Italy since 2005. You can read more about him on es.wikipedia.org and perhaps someone can translate his biography for me (but only if it's interesting).
Here's the chorus:[2]
Por eso se oye con afán, ¿Por qué no te callas?
y siempre te recordaran, ¿Por qué no te callas?
la gente canta con ardor, ¿Por qué no te callas?
el rey está cambiando su color, callado estás mejor
Urdaneta's music video for "Por qué no te callas" have generated over 1.5 million views on youtube, and you can download the MP3 version off his website.
11/24/2007 08:44:38
vu
my♥posts
www.olivercontigo.com
| Cristina wrote: Nov 24, 2007 7:10 PM |
[this is good] Hahaha. I saw the awful video on Youtube the other day.
The composer's biography is a bit dull. He started his singing at a vocal school as a child. He competed in regional and national contests. He belonged to a couple of bands, then released a solo cd. He toured all-over Latin America and the US. In 2003, he wrote the theme song to a Venezuelan soap opera. It became a hit in Venezuela and parts of Europe. In 2005, singles from Simplemente Oliver topped the Italian charts and were club hits in other Euro countries. After Chavez made a fool of himself for the millionth time, Urdaneta wrote this song to the tune of "Y Viva España". He'd like to write songs in as many styles as possible. His last release featured Bachata, Salsa, Reggaeton, Cha Cha Cha and Balada compositions. And, he can dance, too!
BTW, Chavez was interrupting the current prime minister, Rodríguez Zapatero, to badmouth the former one Aznar.
The story that was told to me[1] about Buena Vista Social Club is that this was a very famous and important album. The CD was largely organized by a famous musician, Ry Cooder, basically assembled all these musicians that used to perform at the members-only Buena Vista Social Club to record on this 1997 album.
So after listening to this album several times now, I've decided to look up more information on the album. This album was recorded in just six days, this was a huge task, considering the size of all the musicians involved.
The album have sold more than five million copies, won a Grammy in 1998, and is listed in Rolling Stone's Greatest Albums of All Time[2].
|
Footnotes
[1] Conversation with Dave [2] Link: rollingstone.com [3] Link: wikipedia.org Please note that I have made some minor improvements to W♥M Directory. There were 88 entries for June, so it's taking me a long time to index that month. |
Although all the songs are worth checking out, I have settled for "El Cuarto de Tula". I think it means a quarter of Tula (an ancient Mexican city). Originally the song was composed by Luis Marquetti in 1945. This new recorded version is sung by Eliades Ochoa. The section where Ibrahim Ferrer and Manuel Licea steps in to help singer, I've read are mostly improvised[3].
Please note our previous entry for Rhythms del Mundo.
August 25, 2007 3:50 PM
vu
my♥posts
vu@weheartmusic.com
www.nonesuch.com
BZ Jam is from Vancouver, Canada, but his rap style is rooted in his Greek heritage. He's released three LPs: Welcome to Honkysville (1993), It Ain't Greek to Me (2002), and My Big Phat Greek... (2006).
Even if some may say that it's just a novelty act, you have to admit it's pretty cool to hear someone rap in Greek or even hear traditional Greek instruments such as the bouzouki!
I'm not an expert in religious stories, but obviously this song is in reference to the Bible story. The story is about how a unified mankind decided to build a tower to reach the heavens. God was angry at their arrogance and so he made all the Babylonians speak with a different language, thus preventing them from finishing the tower. For some reason, I've always thought God made the tower collapse?
What's kind of cool about the BZ Jam song, is that it's sung in English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Armenian, and, least of all, Greek. I have no idea what the rest of the song is saying as I only understand the English section... although I'm almost certain I heard "Ricky Martin" in the Spanish section of the song.
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