June 2016

Who’s On the Mexican Radio? 6/23/16

cuisillos

Sorry for the relative radio silence; NorteñoBlog has lately been norteñobogged down in real-life work and living changes. But you know where the radio ISN’T silent? (Wait for it…)

That’s right: in Mexico, where faith in the police is sky high and noted Chapo trollers Los Titanes de Durango can talk themselves out of speeding tickets by Knowing A Guy. I refer of course to their speedirific “Rumbo a Maza,” already a small hit in El Norte and a previous Pick to Click, now at #18 on la patria’s radio chart.

Also big on the radio this (and every) week are ballads stained with tears. At #17, the nomenclaturally gifted Bandononona Clave Nueva de Max Peraza demand “Dime Cómo” from the mujer who broke their collective heart. The only sadsacks sadder are Banda Cuisillos at #12, who demand “Utilízame” from the mujer who keeps getting her heart broken by some douchebag. (In the circus-themed video, said douchebag is a smoldering trapeze artist. Trigger warning: SAD CLOWNS ENSUE!) NorteñoBlog often enjoys Cuisillos, who veer wildly from ’80s-style pomp banda to raucous drinking songs, but the generic ballad “Utilízame” doesn’t utilize their strengths.

The real action is at #15, where the Calibre 50 splinter group La Iniciativa has teamed up with the swanky bros in Recoditos for a tongue-twisting tune about wingmen and the women they share at the club. (Standard translation caveats apply.) Like “Dime Cómo” and “Utilízame,” not to mention three of Taylor Dayne’s first four singles, “Convidela” issues demands; like Dayne, the combined norteño+banda ensemble actually sounds urgent about it. I’m also a big fan of throatiness in my banda singing, and Ariel Inzunza and Luis Angel Franco turn the tune into a total throat-off. Pick to Click!

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June 24, 2016 3

Alacranes Musical and Los Grandes del Pardito Bring the Noise

alacranes_musical

Alacranes Musical was notable for being one of the best bands, duranguense or otherwise, of the ’00s. After the duranguense boom of the mid-to-late ’00s, Alacranes lay low while battling over the rights to their name; the suit was settled in favor of the Urbina family of instrumentalists. (Singer Omar Sanchez has gone on to release his own music.) In the meantime, Durango fever has never left Chicagoland — there are still plenty of cars driving around with scorpion stickers on their bumpers. In 2014 Alacranes released the single “Zapateado Encabronado #3,” the single best pro-cockfighting video of that year, although my cousin in Waukegan shot some in his backyard that were chilling.

The octet returns with the new album Una Nueva Era (Terrazas). Lead single “Amor Que Nace” mixes the classic duranguense sound — keyboard brass oompahs at Sousa march speed, sax riffs, rattly percussion-as-lead-instrument solos — with some of Alacranes’ trademark experiments in tone color. In this case, they give their singer a shot of Autotune and push some lovely guitar arpeggios way up in the mix during the verses. The results are sleek, clean, and indelibly Alacranish. But I know what you’re thinking: did they continue the “Zapteado Encabronado” saga? Yes they did, and #4 is this week’s Pick to Click. No official video yet, and so no word on whether they’ve renounced cockfighting in this their Nueva Era, but the song itself is a wild kaboom of tambora madness, itchy keyboard brass fingers, and shoutouts from primo to primo. Somewhere horses are dancing.

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June 14, 2016 2

Desfile de Éxitos 6/18/16

regulo caro

With a weary sigh of resignation, NorteñoBlog supposes it’s time to discuss “CicatrIIIces.” (That particular alternate spelling is cooler than the official “Cicatrices”; it also beats YouTube’s “Cicatriiices,” which just looks like someone at DEL was pisteando when they typed it.) The song is already Regulo Caro’s biggest U.S. chart hit, up this week to #11 on the Hot Latin chart and #2 on Regional Mexican airplay, where the DJs hit the “CicatrIVces” button more often than they should. That’s the same radio peak as Caro’s previous, superior hit “Soltero Disponible.” Both songs come from the lovelorn imagination of Omar Tarazón, who wrote “CicatrVces” in collaboration with new songwriter Maria Fernanda Diaz. (Here she is dining with Regulo’s cousin Gerardo Ortiz.)

“CicatrVIces” is fine for what it is: a swinging midtempo “don’t kiss me ’cause it’ll hurt” ballad, along the lines of Jake Owen’s “Alone With You.” The brass chart uses colorful and elaborate shifts in a way that fairly screams “POST-TWIINS BANDA.” But “CicatrVIIces” doesn’t spark and pop like the nasty “Soltero.” Its lyric and jaunty swing rhythm are too polite, so the normally badass Caro sounds like he’s licking his wounds rather than showing off his scars. He seems to recognize this — the action-packed “CicatrVIIIces” video shows him and his mujer robbing a diner Pulp Fiction-style, as though to compensate for the song playing overhead. It beats the Chili Peppers’ “Scar Tissue,” but praise doesn’t get any fainter than that.

“CicatrIXces” = NO VALE LA PENA Continue reading “Desfile de Éxitos 6/18/16” →

June 13, 2016 0

la edicion

Back in college we enjoyed an annual orgy of fun and hurt feelings called “Songfest.” Fraternities and sororities would spend weeks preparing brief musical programs of three or four popular favorites. The entire Greek community would then gather in the campus chapel, where each house in turn would perform their musical revues on the steps leading up to the altar, defiling the great Christus Rex statue who peered over our heads. After eyebrows were singed, winners chosen, and false compliments paid, we talked some smack about “giving back to the community” before returning home to play Nintendo and drink. Seek the noblest!

I thought of Songfest while watching the video for “Los Ninis” by Banda Renovación de Culiacán Sinaloa. Renovación is a brass band of young guys, including a dedicated acordeón player, Mike Zapata, who is also an actual student. “Los Ninis” is a popular corrido favorite, sung by both Banda Carnaval and Revolver Cannabis, that takes a neologism for young ne’er-do-wells — “ni estudia ni trabaja” — and transforms the youngsters into rifle-toting killing machines in the service of Ivan Archivaldo Guzmán.

Like any great sociological exposé, this song is full of details. The ninis turn to crime because they’re bored with Nintendo. Some of the ninis wear beards while others are clean-shaven — “the full Tony Montana.” The song itself is happy and poppy and it sounds like a joy to sing, especially the way Renovación do it: with hand motions. Hand motions were the default choreography back in my Songfest days, and the members of Renovación follow a similar impulse. When the singers sing about being fuerte, the trumpet players flex their muscles. Later they turn their horns into guns. When talk turns to cerveza, Zapata pulls his fingers off the buttons long enough to make the universal sign for “drinky drinky.” The message of “Los Ninis” is clear: avoid honest work, get drunk, and kill people for the cartel. Grow a beard if you must. NorteñoBlog, being a teetotaling hairless farm boy, obviously does not endorse any of this, but those tempo and chord changes are making me rethink my ways. Pick to Click!