Lights & Music

You have generally three options for appreciating music from Central America:

1. Get into Latin music.
2. Live vicariously through friends in the states and Europe who can actually go to all the cool festivals and concerts.
3. Make the most of the concerts you get to go to here.

1. Bailamos ... just like Enrique

Bonde do Rolê, Bonde do Rolê With Lasers

Yes, this Brazilian trio is one of the best baile funk bands right now and produced by one of the best DJs out there, but I want to talk about the album cover.

In college, I had a friend who was rather fixated on doom. There was the "practice of doom," "quiz of doom," and the "library of doom." So, when I was studying in Cochabamba, I sent him a postcard of Cochabamba's Cristo, upon which I'd drawn lightning bolts coming out of the Cristo's hands and eyes, big clouds overhead, and the words "POSTCARD OF DOOM" across the top. (And no, it's not sacrilege: It's a statue they made to attract tourists and compete with Rio; it's not God.) When I got back to campus, you can imagine how pleased I was to see the postcard posted on their fridge.

Then a couple months ago, I came across this album, and just about snorted my tea because I was sure they'd ripped their cover art from that postcard. I forwarded it to said friend, and the best part? "Haha -- I still have that post card! I will never throw it away," he wrote.

The album's as tight as the cover art.

No Lo Soporto, Avión
Three Argentinian lady rockers, a sly mix of jaunty riffs and glossy harmonies. "Nunca Iré":



Austin TV, Fontana Bella
Instrumental rock group from, not Texas, but the DF and who deserve much more praise than I'm able to lavish here.

Os Mutantes, Everything Is Possible
The original Tropicália/Latin psychedelia trio. Here they are with Gilberto Gil with "Domingo no Parque" ... tão bom:

2. Thank goodness for co-workers' cousins who go to the Pitchfork Festival, make a mega-mix (read: burned DVD with 400 songs) in preparation, and send it to the cousin for him and his coworkers to rip, resulting in – check it – 30 new albums in one fell swoop. Christmas ain't got nothin' on September this year.

!!! [Chk Chk Chk], Louden Up Now

Definitely was calling these guys "that group with the three exclamation points," until someone told me about the "chk chk chk" part. I'm figuring they had to add the chks because if you put "!!!" in a search engine, you actually get nothing. And if you are not searchable in the Google, THEN YOU DON'T EXIST.

If they can name their band for a palatal aspiration, I might just go ahead and name my band after Josh's inimitable machine-gun sound. He's really good at it, has been since the age of 2. It's pretty awesome.

Caribou, The Milk of Human Kindness & Andorra

Sharp vocalists and adroit instrumentalists and bold musicians. Trifecta [insert: chk chk chk] Here's "Brahminy Kite" off the former album:

And "Melody Day" off the latter:



Cut Copy, In Ghost Colours
Two sick things:
1) this album
2) me, of describing albums.
So just listen to it.

3. You're darn right I gather the rosebuds that are concerts.

Soulwax decided to grace San José with their presence, hopping down from Tokyo via the DF before slingshotting back up to New York. Can we just stop and reflect on this a moment? No one ever stops by San José en route to NYC. A miracle. That being said, I wonder why more artists don't pass by (and not just wait until they're past their prime and can't sell out a tour in Europe or the U.S.), because, the people here who love these shows are starving for this type of stuff and, consequently, eat it up.


Bottom line: it was a rocking show. When it got to the point (after Soulwax's set, when 2 Many DJs were up there) where they pull people up to dance on the stage, I went ... and outlasted everyone else until it was just me bouncing around the stage. Addie swears I was up there for two hours, while I say at most it was 30 minutes. Alex was more diplomatic and said it was probably an hour. In any event, it was a blast. In subsequent days, I was icing my foot, knee, neck, and back from literally jumping around for all the time I was up on the stage, plus the rest of the time when we were all just dancing in the crowd.

One of the photographers from a social website snapped this one of me up there. I didn't realize it at first, but now I'm about 97% sure this is me leading everybody in overhead claps. You can see the various blurred arms in the crowd.

The best part of that night was arguably that those El Alto boots were finally worn to an event that merited their presence. Although Addie's karaoke later was a contender, too.