Miercoles Musical: Wednesday morning Café

One of the most popular and well-known rock en español groups of the past two decades is Mexico’s Café Tacuba. What makes them tick after twenty years in the spotlight? The Los Angeles Times’ Deborah Bonello checks out the band during their recent performance in front of a raucous crowd in Mexico City:

Café Tacuba’s tour stops in Los Angeles tonight, Chicago on Friday, and New York City on Sunday.

Online Sources- Los Angeles Times, Café Tacuba's website

De Musica Ligera: Vamos a Coachella!

Yesterday the official lineup was announced for this year’s Coachella Music Festival. Paul McCartney, The Killers and My Bloody Valentine will headline the three-day event to be held in mid-April in California.

Bonde Do Role and Café Tacuba were two Latin American groups who performed in 2008 yet other artists from the region will be presenting this year. The following are some of those artists:

Mexican rock/hip-hop band Molotov has been around for fourteen years and will perform on the first day of Coachella. The group typically rails against establishment and social injustice such as abuses against immigrants.

• Molotov – Frijolero (YouTube)

Thievery Corporation specializes in lounge, downtempo music which sometimes carries a political message. Their 2000 album The Mirror Conspiracy includes some bossa nova and lovely vocals from the late Pam Bricker.

• Thievery Corporation - Air Batucada (MP3)

Ex-The Smiths frontman Morrissey is not Latin American yet he has developed a cult following among Latinos (including yours truly). “The First of the Gang to Die” is an ode to his Latino fans, especially Chicano youths.

• Morrissey - First of the Gang to Die (MP3)

Formerly known as the Bajofondo Tango Club, Bajofondo hails from Uruguay and Argentina. The group’s music combines electronic beats with platense music such as tango.

• Bajofondo - El Anden (MP3)

We’ve featured Calexico in our best music of 2008 post and described their music as having a “great folkloric Mexican sound.” In reality, their music is not easy to categorize; just listen for yourself.

• Calexico - Convict Pool (MP3)

Mexican Institute of Sound is one of the premier groups specializing in tube fusion of Latin alternative rock and electronic music to form “Latintronica”. MIS will be featured on the last day and I cannot think of a no better way of finishing Coachella than with them.

• Mexican Institute of Sound - Lala Meda (MP3)

Image- BBC Radio 3 (Southern Cone group Bajofondo will be one of several Latin American musical ensembles to perform at Coachella this April)
Online Sources- Too many to list!

Juanes, Nortec Collective get Grammy nods

Nominations for the Grammy Awards were announced in a glitzy, overhyped ceremony live last night.

Rapper Lil Wayne led the field with eight nominations, closely followed by Coldplay with seven and three artists including Kanye West with six. In addition, John Mayer received five nominations and the Jonas Brothers even got a nod.

(Despite such choices I haven’t totally lost my faith in humanity…yet).

Colombian Juanes- who dominated the Latin Grammys last month- was nominated for Best Latin Pop Album. That same category also included Mexico’s Luis Miguel (he’s still around?) and Argentine Jorge Drexler (who I thought would be snubbed).

Speaking of snubs, there were some surprise non-choices made in other Latin music categories. Puerto Rican singer-songwriter Kany Garcia won best new artist at the Latin Grammys but was shut out last night. Mexican rockeros Cafe Tacvba won two Latin Grammys but didn’t get a nod in the Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album category. (Nortec Collective and Locos Por Juana were deservedly picked in that category).

You can check out all the nominations here; could Lila Downs or Gilberto Gil upset Youssou N'Dour in Best Contemporary World Music Album?

Image- AP (“Singer Juanes accepts the song of the year award at the 9th annual Latin Grammy Awards on Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008 in Houston.”)
Sources- Chicago Sun-Times, New York Times, Reuters, AP

Daily Headlines: October 20, 2008

* U.S.: According to a recent study 39.3% of Latinas in their 50s have osteoarthritis while roughly 42% of Latinas are obese.

* Latin America: Colombia’s Juanes, Mexico’s Café Tacuba, and Chile’s Kudai were among the winners at the MTV Latin America awards held last week. (Katy who?)

* Spain: In an unsurprising note, officials who served under ex-strongman Francisco Franco are angry at crusading judge Baltasar Garzon.

* Panama: Authorities have removed Chinese candy and cookies that were found with traces of an industrial chemical called melamine.

Image- abc.net.au
Sources- IHT, AFP, newsday.com, Reuters, independent.ie, The Latin Americanist

Today’s Videos: Café Tacuba and Bonde do Role @ Coachella

The ninth edition of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival will take place this weekend with over 120 acts participating including Portishead, M.I.A., My Morning Jacket, and Roger Waters.

Below is a pair of music videos from two Latin American groups performing Saturday at Coachella- Mexican rockeros Café Tacuba and Brazilian funksters Bonde do Role.

In case you can’t make it to Coachella, then please click here to access live webcasts of the entire festival!

• Café Tacuba – Como Te Extraño

• Bonde do Role – Solta O Frango

Sources- Brooklyn Vegan, Café Tacuba, myspace.com, Coachella, YouTube

Video of the Day: Adios 2007!

Just a quick note that we’ll reveal the results of our top headlines of 2007 poll on Tuesday.

We want to thank everyone who voted and made it one of the blog’s most popular polls ever. For the most part the results were very close except for your choice as top news story of ’07. (Can you guess what it is?)

In the meantime, here’s the video for one of our favorite songs of 2007:

Thanks for reading this blog and may all of you have a Feliz Año Nuevo!

Video of the Day: “Volver a Comenzar”

As we mentioned on Monday, Mexican rock quartet Café Tacuba will start the U.S. part of its tour with a concert tonight in Charlotte. The tour will last for exactly one month and will include stops in New York, Los Angeles, San Antonio, and Miami. Below is the music video for the complete version of “Volver a Comenzar”, which is one of the songs on their latest album entitled “Sino”.

Have a great weekend!

(Video link):

The short version of “Volver a Comenzar” can be seen here.

Sources- cafetacuba.com.mx, The Latin Americanist, YouTube

De Musica Ligera: The return

It has been months since the last time we wrote our post exclusively on music. Let’s take a quick a look at some recent music news that has caught our attention:

* Dominican singer/songwriter Juan Luis Guerra was the big winner in last week’s Latin Grammy Awards after winning an award for each of his five nominations. Other award winners included Calle 13 and Pepe Aguilar, along with personal favorites Aterciopelados and Manu Chao.

Fellow contributor Maegan la Mala was at the event last Thursday in Las Vegas and she gave her two cents from the press room in this blog post.

YouTube: Juan Luis Guerra – “La Llave de Mi Corazon”

* Mexican rockeros Café Tacuba are set to begin a U.S. tour starting this Friday in Charlotte, North Carolina. In this brief interview, vocalist Emmanuel Del Real admits that their latest album is “more rock-oriented” than previous efforts and expressed pride at the group’s fans.

YouSendIt: Café Tacuba – Arboles Frutales

* An article from Billboard notes the change in music tastes in Spain as a result of the boom in immigration from Latin America to that country. For instance, music sales for Latin music have soared since Spain's foreign-born population uses cellular phones and roughly four out of five digital sales are done via cell phones.

YouTube: Alejandro Fernandez and Beyonce - “Amor Gitano”

* Another piece from Billboard notes that crossover Spanish-language hits in the U.S. have been far and few between. Moreover, the only songs that do crossover and become hits in the mainstream music scene are those that are “tied to an uptempo, easy-to-dance-to track” according to Leila Cobo.

YouTube: N.O.R.E. featuring Daddy Yankee - “Oye Mi Canto”

* Famed Brazilian musician Gilberto Gil is going to quit from his post as culture minister next year. Local media reports said that his resignation will be due to a polyp on his vocal cords which may sadly put a halt to his illustrious music career.

YouSendIt: Gilberto Gil – "Bat Macumba"

* Lastly, just for the hell of it, an ode to Mexican-American singer Hope Sandoval - Mazzy Star’s “Fade Into You”:

Sources- YouSendIt, YouTube, Wikipedia, Associated Press, Wikipedia, Reuters, Scientific American, VivirLatino, Boston Herald