joshlanghoff

¡Bandononona! ¡En la Jukebox!

No lo siento por mi “dis” de unas “indie bands” en The Singles Jukebox la semana pasada, cuando escribimos sobre Bandononona Clave Nueva y “Cuál Adiós.” Tal vez era un golpe bajo, pero mi argumento era específico: bandas son grandes, indie rock bands son pequeños, y sus ironías estarán diferentes. (¿Defensivo? ¿Yo?)

Escribí:

I’m impressed: this banda-pop cover of Fato’s mariachi-pop “Ya No Vives En Mi” manages more lushness and luxury than the original (or Yuri’s straight-up pop version, or Samuray’s cumbia, or whatever this future-Tarantino-title-music horror is), while still sounding like the band’s making fun of it. Blame the flutter-tonguer in the back row, or Max Peraza’s bewildered double takes in the video. Not only are bandas perfectly suitable delivery vehicles for pop songs; when they put their minds to it, they can achieve shades of irony your little indie band can only dream of.

October 26, 2015 0

Who’s On the Mexican Radio? 10/23/15

Hay mucha intriga on one of the Mexican charts this week, the secondary one that measures radio spins rather than total audience. It seems La Trakalosa de Monterrey, given to illustrating their humdrum power ballads with dramatic eight-minute videos starring the expressive face of frontman Edwin Luna, have undergone a dramatic name change: they’re now Edwin Luna y La Trakalosa de Monterrey. Wham!

The principles of detection and/or YouTube rabbit holes tell me this revolution began a month ago, with Trakalosa’s humdrum “Pa’ Quitarle Las Ganas.” You’d could easily have missed the name change, which only appeared in the opening credits. With the new humdrum chart single “Pregúntale,” though, the situation comes to a head. As the video starts, the words “Edwin Luna” seem to flash across that expressive face every few seconds: not only is Luna gradually extricating his name from his group’s, he cowrote the song and stars in the video, and receives credit for each task.

As you’d expect from the guys who used their single “La Revancha” to film a mini-novela about crime, fate, and revenge, “Pregúntale” is no ordinary video. This otherwise simple, “Break Up With Him”-style song transforms into a Very Important Message about Not Mistreating Women — can’t argue with that — through the Magic Of Acting. Throughout the video, Edwin Luna points his pained and uncomfortable face at the woman for whom he pines as she gets pushed around by her boyfriend, Luna’s boss. The woman in question, sobbing, flashes back to their schooldays when Luna used to wear attractive red-framed glasses, but she keeps coming back to the abusive boss. Edwin Luna then points his pained and uncomfortable face at us. I, for one, felt pained and uncomfortable.
Continue reading “Who’s On the Mexican Radio? 10/23/15” →

October 23, 2015 3

Fiesta de Aniversario: THE PICKS TO CLICK

NorteñoBlog doesn’t always Pick to Click, but when I do… sometimes I get it wrong and type “Click to Pick.” This made searching for the previous year’s worth of Picks INTERESANTE.

The Pick to Click began as a shameless ripoff from Charles Pierce’s must-read liberal politics blog at Esquire, as did a couple other, possibly subtler NorteñoBlog tics. (Spot them all! Both! Whatever!) It’s a useful way to highlight the song I enjoy the most in a particular post, so that you the loyal reader don’t have to wade through a pool of Banda MS’s tears to reach the good stuff. Of course, if you enjoy the delectable bouquet wafting from Banda MS’s tears, you can always Click what I don’t Pick, though you’ll run the risk of turning Banda MS happy and then they might run out of Art. Besides current singles, the following list includes some older singles and current album tracks.

Most Picked at three apiece: NorteñoBlog’s probable artists of the year Alfredo Ríos “El Komander” and Marco Flores y #1 Banda Jerez. Banda Cuisillos, Noel Torres, and Chuy Lizárraga each scored two Picks. So did Los Gfez, Pancho Uresti, and Ariel Camacho, though one Pick from each of those three was in a “featured” role. Besides norteño and banda, the list includes cumbias and puro sax stomps, reggaeton and ABBA-schlager, Jenny and the Mexicats and Pitbull, and covers of Johnny Cash and — first up — Shania Twain. Happy Clicking!
Continue reading “Fiesta de Aniversario: THE PICKS TO CLICK” →

October 21, 2015 2

Major Corrideros: Enigma Norteño, Lenin Ramírez, & El Komander (AGAIN)

Every once in a while, it’s good for a fanboy like me to get some perspective. I ask myself the tough questions: Is Julión Álvarez really the best singer on the continent, or has Chuy Lizárraga taken his crown? If a dance band from Chihuahua marketed itself as “puro Zacatecas sax,” would any listener be able to tell the difference? And most importantly, how many fans does it take to reach #2 on Billboard‘s Top Latin Albums chart?

The answer according to Billboard: a grand oughta do it. That worked in the case of the corrido quartet Enigma Norteño, whose I-dunno-10th? album La Vida del Rey (Fonovisa) just scraped up to #2 with 1,000 albums sold. Such a low sales tally is nothing new, and it certainly doesn’t reflect on Enigma’s quality — they’re a good little band — but it does remind us that, outside Gerardo Ortiz and a couple others, even the most popular norteño music remains unknown to most of the U.S. music-buying public.
Continue reading “Major Corrideros: Enigma Norteño, Lenin Ramírez, & El Komander (AGAIN)” →

October 20, 2015 2

Desfile de Éxitos 10/24/15

It’s not quite our one-year anniversary — that’ll come next week — but NorteñoBlog has been at this funny business for 51 weeks and in all that time, Billboard‘s Latin charts have always contained a song by either Gerardo Ortiz or El Komander. UNTIL NOW. Well, really until two weeks ago, when Komander’s “Malditas Ganas” dropped off the chart. “Malditas Ganas” entered the chart back in May, hi-fiving Ortiz’s “Eres Una Niña” as it sauntered out and paving the way for Ortiz’s “El Cholo” a week or three later. (NorteñoBlog doesn’t need your fancy “fact checkers.”) And now “Ganas” and “Cholo” are both gone, and NB’s heart is empty, and… ooh, what’s that! New Chuy Lizárraga!

Please note: it’s entirely possible that both Banda MS and Julión Álvarez have been on the charts the entire length of the NB’s existence, much like well-known Methuselan beard “Propuesta Indecente” (116 WEEKS!), but frankly, that last bit of data gathering has plum tuckered me out and I would like to listen to some songs now.

The Hot Latin Top 10 is a complete reshuffle of a month ago. (NOBODY. EVER. GOES. IN. and NOBODY. EVER. COMES. OUT.) So we’ll just skip down to #11, where Bomba Estéreo have repurposed their excellent single “Fiesta” to include a rap by new Bomba Estéreo superfan Will Smith. This isn’t Smith’s first visit to the Latin charts: “Men In Black,” “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It,” and “Wild Wild West” were all monster hits that received Latin airplay and broke the Hot Latin top 40 back when the Hot Latin chart allowed for such things. (Weirdly, “Miami” doesn’t seem to have received the same bienvenido.) This may, however, be the first time someone has tried to rhyme “mamacita” with “beer-a.” Let’s hope it’s the last. Smith’s other intriguing line is this odd bit of post-coital pride: “Woke up behind her/ No gas in me, I’m a Tesla.” Yo homes, smell you later!
Continue reading “Desfile de Éxitos 10/24/15” →

October 16, 2015 0

¡Nuevo! (Indie Label Mini-Roundup)

Banda Cuisillos is a big bunch of brass-playing hippies. According to their useful biography, they got their name by combining the Mayan word “KU,” a sacred space, with the Spanish word “sillos,” which hasn’t appeared in my Spanish lessons but which apparently means “little (or at least diminutive) pyramids.” They dress in “Indian” garb, with a sentimental fondness for the Apaches who populated Mexico and the U.S. in the halcyon days before our two nations were separated by a border, when everyone lived together in peace and harmony. (Must research.) Besides the requisite love songs, every Cuisillos album includes one or two songs about “diferentes aspectos importantes” of being human; these aspectos include drug addiction, ecology, forming a new world, and single mothers. Their February single “Cerveza,” for instance, addresses the modern epidemic of “beer goggles.” Just say no, kids.

But in general you should say yes to Cuisillos, whose independently released albums have featured fine songs, unexpected sonic touches, and cover art puked up by the Luck Dragon. Unfortunately, their new single “Soñando Despierto” (Independent) has none of those things; it’s your standard-issue happy-go-lucky banda lope, not too far removed from something puked up by Luis Coronel. It’s not nearly as good as Willie Colón’s song of the same name. As daydream songs go, it captures all the cloying bits of the Lovin’ Spoonful but neglects the Monkees’ majesty.
NO VALE LA PENA
Continue reading “¡Nuevo! (Indie Label Mini-Roundup)” →

October 13, 2015 3

Pronounced “Jai-Fi”: The Rise and Fall of Hyphy Norteño

After first appearing at the 2014 EMP Pop Conference in Seattle, this article ran last spring at Maura Magazine; I reprint it here with their kind permission.

————————————–
Here’s the story of a band from Modesto,
A small city east of San Francisco.
Led by the brothers Guajardo,
They’re known to the world as Los Amos.

They got started back in the mid-’90s
Playing los narcocorridos,
And over the course of a decade,
Los Amos altered their appearance

From flashy-shirted, big-hatted cowboys
To black-suited, no-hatted tough guys,
Los Amos’ transformation was dramatic,
And their music changed right along with them.

This transition was shaped by two forces:
The demands of their well-structured business,
But also their repeated incantations
Of one magic word from the Bay…

HYPHY HYPHY HYPHY HYPHY HYPHY HYPHY HYPHY HYPHY HYPHY HYPHY HYPHY

But before we get hyphy, we need to answer this question: Why were some guys in Modesto, California, playing corridos—Mexican story songs about the drug trade—for a living in the first place? The answer lies with two names, corridistas you’ve probably heard of, immigrants to los Estados Unidos, legends in their field.
Continue reading “Pronounced “Jai-Fi”: The Rise and Fall of Hyphy Norteño” →

October 12, 2015 10

“El Karma” in Pitchfork: Interviews and Extras

If you’ve read my recent Pitchfork article about Ariel Camacho’s song “El Karma” and you thirst for more, NorteñoBlog is on the case! Besides the helpful label execs quoted in the article, three more people took time out from their busy lives to answer my questions off the clock. I’m grateful for their generosity, and for helping to shape my context of Camacho’s music.

Here’s a full interview with Juan Carlos, who talks about Movimiento Alterado, El Chapo’s second escape, and what certain corridos and rap songs mean in his life.

Here’s a full interview with Manuel, who discusses how he learned to love corridos, prevalent misconceptions about norteño music, and his karaoke best practices. He writes for NorteñoBlog, too!

The journalist Sam Quinones wrote the definitive account of Chalino Sánchez’s legacy in the U.S.; it’s in his first book, True Tales From Another Mexico. Quinones has been busy speaking about his new acclaimed book Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic, but he took the time to craft a detailed and thoughtful response to my questions. Many thanks, sir.

As Mexican Americans play an increasingly large role in the U.S., Mexican music will continue inching closer to the mainstream, if it isn’t there already. To know this music, it’s vital that musical interlopers (like me) learn the stories of those who really know it.

October 11, 2015 3

El Karma Comes Back To You Hard

Alternate headline: NorteñoBlog ~~Steps~~ On Pitchfork

That’s right, my first article at the illustrious music website Pitchfork.com is also Pitchfork’s first article about Regional Mexican music. It’s all about Ariel Camacho’s song “El Karma,” which longtime NB readers know I like a bit. Here’s the opening:

So far in 2015, six different songs have topped Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart. Five of them involved slick, established stars like Enrique Iglesias singing about love or dancing, but the sixth hit was different. It was a corrido, part of Mexico’s century-old ballad tradition about everyday heroes facing impossible odds; according to Salon’s Alexander Zaitchik, corridos are like “contemporary news reports—a Mexican version of Chuck D’s description of rap as black America’s CNN.” With the rise of Mexican drug cartels over the last few decades, corridos have largely given way to narcocorridos, story songs lauding the exploits of illicit kingpins and their employees. But before last March, no narcocorrido had ever hit #1 on the Hot Latin chart.

Then came “El Karma”…

Read all about it at the ‘Fork! You’ll notice the NB has changed our header to mark the occasion: Hats off to Omar Burgos, Los Plebes’ astounding tuba player.

October 9, 2015 0