joshlanghoff

¡Nuevo! (starring Noel Torres, Omar Sánchez Omi, y más)

Well this is the stuff of myth and legend:

Desde el filo de la sierra
Viene la historia que traigo:
Que por esas tierras
Suelta anda una fiera
Entre aquellos pinos altos…

From the edge of the sierra
Comes the story that I bring:
Through those lands
Freely walks a beast
Among those tall pines …

Plenty of corridos begin in a similar manner, of course, establishing their (anti)heroes as larger than life figures. But Noel Torres’s new single on Gerencia 360, “No Andan Cazando Venados” (“Don’t Go Hunting Deer”), opens with knowing mastery of the form. Torres begins by placing himself into the story as storyteller, thus joining the long historical line of corridistas, stretching back not just to Ramon Ayala but to Homer recounting the tales of brave Ulysses. (“Tell me, O Muse…”) Then things get scary. I admit I shuddered when I got to the part about the beast roaming through the tall pines — it’s such a contrast with the folksy opening, and “fiera” arrives at the end of its line with a jolt. Torres reclaims the word’s savagery. (I swear, if I hear one more TV chef tell me he’s “a beast in the kitchen”…) Now I just need to figure out the rest of the song. Something to do with the DEA and big-ass guns. The translation service is limited help in this case.

The song was written by El Diez and Danilo Avilés. El Diez is the shadowy figure who wrote the equally mythic “El Karma,” recorded most iconically by the late Ariel Camacho, but also by Torres and lots of other people. Avilés wrote the second song on Camacho’s El Karma album, and Torres’s arrangement of “Venados” sounds like he’s adapting Camacho’s unusual instrumentation. He takes stripped down passages of requinto guitar solos over lurching tuba, the same dynamic you find in Camacho’s repertoire, and alternates them with full banda sections. Horns replace rhythm guitar. The result is both serious and silly (ay, esos clarinetes), a fitting tribute that also fits with Torres’s swagger. Pick to Click, obviously.

Should you develop a hankering to delve into corrido history, the Freddie label has released a new Ramon Ayala comp entitled Corridos Famosos. Ayala’s muse speaks to him the tales of brave Gerardo Gonzales, Juanita y Miguel, y otros. No idea how this compares with other Ayala compilations out there.

If we’re already talking (probably) unnecessary cheapo Ramon Ayala reissues, you may have guessed it’s a light week for albums. You’re right! The singles, though, they never stop. Fonovisa has recently sent to radio new work from some of its heaviest hitters. Los Tigres are back with their third Realidades single, the midtempo waltz “Hoy Le Hablo El Diario,” which does the thing where the rhythm section rushes the second beat of every bar so the waltz feels slightly nauseating. In a good way. If you like beards and flannel and don’t wanna move to Seattle, Codigo FN has a slow one out called “Pinche Vieja Interesada,” which is less interesante than its title. Better are the new Proyecto X corrido “5 Letras,” reeling off verse after verse like a gold-plated machine gun eating up magazines, and Remmy Valenzuela’s very stripped-down chiquitita ballad “Menti,” in which his accordion seems capable of breath and thought.

But who needs major label distribution when the internet frontier beckons musicians to simply release their own music? Tejano singer Bobby Pulido has been on the scene since the mid-’90s, and his new “Si No Te Hubiera Conocido” is a likable walking tempo number that could’ve come from Intocable — but does Intocable have its own line of Western wear (see top of page)? I submit that Intocable does NOT.

The equally breezy Los Grandes de Tijuana DRANK YOUR LOVE! Just drank it right up. Los Grandes are also ’90s music lifers, and “Me Bebi Tu Amor” has the lazy front-porch-with-squeezebox vibe of Bob Dylan’s Tejano album Together Through Life, still my favorite of his post-’70s catalog.

NorteñoBlog swooned when Gerardo Ortiz mixed up the banda with the bachata in “Eres Una Niña,” and now I hear Omar Sánchez Omi trying something similar on “Tu y Yo.” Rhythmically it doesn’t vary too much from Recodo’s romantic moods, but Sánchez’s voice is husky and swarthy like King Romeo’s and could have some of the same R&B appeal, if enough people hear him. Sánchez used to sing for Chicago’s Alacranes Musical, one of my favorite duranguense bands, and there exists a photo of him dressed up like Santa Claus and standing next to Diana Reyes, so I’m pulling for him.

May 5, 2015 3

Luis Coronel on The Singles Jukebox

If you felt an inexplicable throbbing in your heart earlier today, it wouldn’t hurt to get that checked out, but it could have just been the psychic palpitations that inevitably result when young Luis Coronel appears in the media, since we wrote about his single “Cuando La Miro” at the Singles Jukebox. Of course, if your heart is that affected by Luis Coronel, it wouldn’t hurt to get that checked out either. Sez me. I should probably go easy on the guy for a while:

I won’t sugarcoat it: this won’t be the last you hear from Luis Coronel. Triunfo magazine reports the bilingual Tucson teen plans to eventually “make the crossover and record in English.” His videos feature English-speaking restaurateurs, ’50s diners, and muscle cars, meaning he’s already singing to a bilingual U.S. audience; whether his crossover turns out to be Prince Royce-style assimilation, or the thing that finally drags banda/norteño music into Top 40’s embrace, is anybody’s guess. But no matter what Coronel sings, he needs to do something about his voice. Or lack thereof. Forswearing both the nasal whine and the overwrought (i.e., perfectly wrought) romanticism of his forebears, Coronel sings everything as though he’s reading the phone book. He can barely hang on to his songs. His hapless vocal cords tossed about by his (generally really good) arrangements, he makes even the simplest lines sound hard to scan. “Cuando La Miro” strands Coronel in his midrange; except for that shouted “Chiquitita!” he’s confined to six notes, none of which he projects over the brass. Maybe that’s why people love him? Like his unaffected peers Kevin Ortiz and Jonatan Sanchez, Coronel transforms music that’s often violent and racy into the endearing genre next door. He may someday portray the Pat Boone character in Elijah Wald’s How Calibre 50 Destroyed Narcocorrido.

Most other reviewers liked the song more: common themes included the goodness of the banda players and Coronel’s propensity to hide his vocals behind them. “Cuando” is currently #10 on Billboard‘s regional Mexican chart.

May 1, 2015 0

Who’s On the Mexican Radio? 5/3/15

Last week NorteñoBlog recommended “Cerveza” by the cruel drunks in Banda Cuisillos. It turns out “Cerveza” has garnered one of the 20 biggest radio audiences in México but, due to some chart formulas I don’t quite understand at the website monitorLATINO, hasn’t yet hit the radio top 20, which measures total spins rather than estimated audience. (This could just mean it’s more popular in urban radio markets, where more people will hear its fewer spins…???)

ANYWAY, my point here is not to reveal how little I know about Mexican radio stats, but rather to direct you to two more such songs. The first is “Te Extraño Poquito” by Claudio Alcaraz y Su Banda Once Varas. It’s got breathless banda bombast and Alcaraz moving through increasingly desperate stages of post-breakup grief until, in the video, he goes Lloyd Dobbler on his ex and shows up outside her window with the entire banda. Neither ex nor neighbors call the police; rather, ex turns out the light, so everyone just gives up and goes home. Continuará…

Popular but less-spun song two is the charming “Amanece Y No Estas” by Diego Verdaguer, who splits the difference between mariachi and Jason Mraz-style hippy dippiness. No ukelele though, promise.

But today’s Pick to Click is yet another top 20 single from NorteñoBlog’s album of the year so far, Marco A. Flores’s Soy El Bueno. “Dudo” is more of Flores’s trademark Sinaloan banda played at Zacatecas speed. He uses pop chord changes but avoids sentimentality, mostly because he’s got a voice like a tornado siren playing a wax paper comb. The song lasts all of 2:48. I swear this record’s like the Ramones or someone.

Other newbies include ballads by Saul “El Jaguar” and Luz Maria, and something by Los Titanes de Durango featuring 14-year-old Jaziel Avilez. Being a sucker for such novelty and having once enjoyed Los Titanes, who despite their name play plain old norteño and not duranguense, I so wanted to like this song, but “Padre Ejemplar” goes on way too long. 40 seconds longer than “Dudo,” to be exact. Talk about self indulgence!

These are the Top 20 “Popular” songs in Mexico, as measured by monitorLATINO. Don’t confuse “Popular” with the “General” list, which contains many of the same songs but also “Uptown Funk!”, “Sugar,” “Love Me Like You Do,” and an Alejandro Sanz ballad about scratchy-voiced zombies.

1. “Después de Ti ¿Quién?” – La Adictiva Banda San Jose
2. “Contigo” – Calibre 50
3. “El Amor de Su Vida” – Julión Álvarez
4. “Confesion” – La Arrolladora Banda El Limón
5. “A Lo Mejor” – Banda MS
6. “Perdi La Pose” – Espinoza Paz
7. “Me Toco Perder” – Banda Los Recoditos
8. “No Fue Necesario” – El Bebeto
9. “Tranquilito” – El Chapo de Sinaloa
10. “Indeleble” – Banda Los Sebastianes

11. “Dudo” – Marco A. Flores y No.1 Banda Jerez
12. “Que te Quede Claro” – Saul El Jaguar
13. “Si Tuviera Que Decirlo” – Pedro Fernandez
14. “Padre Ejemplar” – Los Titanes de Durango ft. Jaziel Avilez
15. “La Reina” – La Iniciativa
16. “Ponte Las Pilas” – America Sierra
17. “Y Esa Soy Yo” – Luz Maria
18. “Que Tal Si Eres Tu” – Los Tigres Del Norte
19. “Un Ranchero En La Ciudad” – Leandro Rios ft. Pancho Uresti
20. “Escuchame” – Fidel Rueda

¡Adios!
“Adicto a la Tristeza” – Banda La Trakalosa ft. Pancho Uresti
“Que Aún Te Amo” – Pesado
“Me Importas” – Los Primos MX
“Malditas Ganas” – Alfredo Rios El Komander
“Todo Tuyo” – Banda El Recodo

May 1, 2015 1

El Hyphy (aka The Rise and Fall of Hyphy Norteño) in Maura Magazine

My hyphy thinkpiece has arrived! It’s all about California’s unique genre of corrido music known as “hyphy” — yes, named after the rap style — which flourished briefly last decade. The article excerpts two new interviews, one with Hyphy label owner Jose Martinez and one with producer and engineer Juan Ramirez. If I may say so myself, it’s a fun read.

You can read it in Maura magazine, either by subscribing or paying some nominal dinero for the single issue. Out of respect for the magazine and its paywall I won’t reprint anything here, but I don’t think they’d mind if I reprint my abstract for the conference where this article originated:

Pronounced “Jai-Fi”: California Norteño, the Word “Hyphy,” and the Story of a Movement

Recount the fall of 2008, when everyone in the club was getting hyphy — everyone in California’s norteño scene, at least. A year after the watershed rap compilation Hyphy Hitz, the Modesto band Los Amos de Nuevo León scored a minor radio hit with “El Hyphy,” a galloping two-minute accordion orgy of “locos brincando.” A movement was born, sort of. Los Amos’ producer Juan Ramirez corralled like-minded bands into El Movimiento Hyphy; CDs and videos rushed to market. As hyphy rap faded from the nation’s radar, these norteño bands claimed the word as their own, suggesting fast tempos, California pride, subterranean video budgets, and various decadent and/or inexplicable behaviors. The cover of Narquillos del Hyphy’s album El Burro Hyphy depicts the movement in all its glory: six men in matching black and white outfits stand with a gleaming motorcycle, scowling at the severed head of a donkey wearing a diamond studded grill.

Hyphy Movimiento burned out quickly, but the word “hyphy” lives on. Los Amos’ current label is Hyphy Music Inc., which “has nothing to do with Hyphy Movimiento,” label founder and namer Jose Martinez told me — “‘Hyphy’ to me means absolutely nothing.” But it still connotes plenty: California, kush, and, in Martinez’s view, a mellower strain of narcocorrido. Unlike bands in the more popular Movimiento Alterado, Hyphy’s bands don’t sing the gory details of cartel massacres, except when they do. Through interviews and music I’ll explore the shifting story of the word “hyphy” in U.S. norteño music, and through that story some larger issues of branding, cultural appropriation, and the new wave of corrido fans. (Hyphy sells 90% of its music within the U.S.) I won’t dwell too much on cartel violence, promise — but Martinez, a conscientious former youth counselor, did bring it up.

April 30, 2015 0

¡Nuevo! (starring Banda Cuisillos, Jovanko Ibarra, y más)

In the movements known as Puro Zacatecas Sax and Puro Chihuahua Sax, one of the biggest wasted opportunities is the lack of terrible “sax” puns in album titles. Research reveals the Argentinian Nino Albertelli once released an album called Amor y Saxo, but that’s Argentina’s problem. Where is the Saxo Tántrico, the Saxo En La Playa, the Paga Para El Saxo of northern Mexico? Smooth jazz would’ve had this all locked down by now.

Fortunately the Mexican bands in question play with more lively energy than they use when bestowing titles, and this week sees new releases from two of ’em. In this corner, La Fiera de Ojinaga (“The Beast of Ojinaga”!) represents Chihuahua with the album Como Una Fiera (Azteca); the first spritely single goes by the same title, and from what I’ve heard, the rest of the album promises much much more. Possible alternate title: Saxy Fiera.

In the opposite corner, representing Zacatecas with one half-ton of bounciness, is the sextet (saxtet?) Los Retoños del Rio, whose “Por Qué la Engañe” NorteñoBlog has already recommended. It’s totes Intocablish, and frankly better than Intocable’s last couple singles. Their new album is De Buena Escuela (Goma) (alternate title: Saxo Con Mi Profesora), and NorteñoBlog has slacked by not listening to any of its other songs yet, but these bands are nothing if not consistent.

The kings of this genre, Conjunto Primavera, have a new compilation out this week, because it is the position of the benevolent Fonovisa corporation that no band can ever be compiled enough. La Historia de los Éxitos (alternate title: El Mejor Saxo Nunca) is part of a series that also includes best-of’s by grupos Bryndis, Yndio, Liberacion, y Los Rehenes y Los Traileros. Get it quick before another one comes out next month!

Moving along to banda, the jokesters in Banda Cuisillos have a fine new-ish single called “Cerveza”, which features several of NorteñoBlog’s favorite elements: two different singers trying to outdo one another in the passion department, brass alternating with guitar, and deplorable sexism. Please accept it as this week’s Pick to Click with my apologies, but also with the understanding that, using the late Ellen Willis’s formula, “Cerveza” still isn’t as deplorably sexist as Cat Stevens’s “Wild World.”

Banda singer and former La Voz Mexico contestant Jovanko Ibarra is an extremely handsome man who should wear a helmet when he rides his motorcycle in the video for “No Le Hagamos al Cuento.” Look at it this way: when the Smithsonian moves the Hope Diamond, do you think they just toss it like a football to whichever flunky happens to be standing around? No. The Hope Diamond requires layers of padding and precautions and moving techniques that have been honed over decades, to ensure that the Hope Diamond makes it through the moving process unscathed. My point is, Jovanko Ibarra is prettier than the Hope Diamond. His new album No Le Hagamos al Cuento (Prodisc) has his picture on the cover.

Since we’re speaking of pretty dudes, I’ll turn your attention to Daniel Agostini and his 2003 album Sentimientos Vol. 1 (Magenta), whose album cover depicts him as an angel. Whether the songs bear this out I can’t say, but a cursory listen reveals some charming and very twee electrocumbia. I bring it up because it’s new to streaming services, and also because THE ALBUM COVER DEPICTS HIM AS AN ANGEL.

Banda singer Sandra Chavez “La Comadre” is planning something. Most likely it’s an album or EP release, but the rollout by her label Music Eyes is proceeding in a slow and seemingly haphazard fashion. Earlier today three “singles” hit Youtube, and you can count yourself among the first human people to listen to them. “Sinceramente” is just that; “Me Das Asco” is stately; “Mejor Sin Ti” is heartbroken. None packs the punch of last year’s “Mucha Mujer” and its biker chic video where, I’d just like to point out to my new friend Jovanko, Sandra had the good sense to wear a face-obscuring helmet while riding her bike. Of course, using the late Roger Ebert’s formula, you’d expect that from her.

Finally, three recent albums of corridos:

Los Canelos de Durango sing about El Señor de la Montaña (Pegasus);

Luis Salomon sings about cartel figure Tito Beltran in “Por Encargo de los Viejos (Tito Beltran)” (ICON);

and Los Meros Meros Alteños sing Corridos y Canciones (Hyphy).

April 29, 2015 5

Things I Learned Listening to Javier Rosas This Weekend

Back in March NorteñoBlog was temporarily confused when the benevolent Fonovisa corporation re-released an old album by Javier Rosas y Su Artillería Pesada as though it was a new album.

Otro Golpe originally came out in 2013 on whichever tiny label was releasing Javier Rosas albums at the time. Presumably nobody heard Otro Golpe that way, so Fonovisa gave it a new cover and distributed it to the masses to capitalize on Rosas’s minor radio hit, “Y Vete Olvidando.”

“Olvidando” came out late in 2014 as the second song on Llegué Para Quedarme, Rosas’s official Fonovisa debut. Three weeks after Otro Golpe dropped for the second time, Rosas got shot in an even more confusing scenario near a Culiacán mall. Since then he’s understandably dropped from sight, the better to hasten his recovery.

What’s not confusing is how good Rosas and his band are. I mean, the band’s named “Heavy Artillery”! (Also the best Mr. Lif song, imo.) They’re not as heavy as Noel Torres’s band — the drummer skitters more than pounds — but their dense interplay is similarly hard to fathom. And that density is the musical point. This took me a while to understand. Because Rosas’s songs have melodies and chords, you might expect those melodies and chords to be the point, the songs’ reason for being. As a songwriter Rosas has a welcome fondness for minor chords, and sometimes his tunes will run up to unexpected heights, and that’s all well and good, but Rosas’s corridos — and he’s in his element singing narcocorridos, not romantic ballads — primarily constitute a framework for himself and his band to demonstrate how badass they are. The Artillería Pesada accomplishes its badassery two ways: Rosas sings with amused gravity, because his crime stories intimate more than we’ll ever understand; and the band is a frightening rhythm machine.

How frightening? Like, they keep making me think of James Brown, everything subsumed to polyrhythmic whirl. The Pick to Click is still “Por Clave Llevo El 13,” a math-oriented tale of illicit doings and ne’er-do-wells, and the rhythm section — which is basically everyone except Rosas and the accordion player — achieves some math-rocking triplet-against-duple thing I’m still at a loss to fully understand. (Like, who’s playing the triplets? Is it just the accordion riff, or are those constant skittering snare rolls part of the “three”? The tuba is clearly subdividing in two or four.) Rosas is no Brown, but storytelling is a different task than whatever you’d say James Brown does. Rosas rides the rhythms with authority, without even seeming like he’s trying to ride them. He just tells stories, man; the band plays an audible expression of whatever violent turmoil Rosas won’t allow himself to state outright.

Track-to-track comparison reveals that Otro Golpe is better than Llegué, because Llegué contains a couple slow songs that stretch out and unwind the band’s dense rhythm attack. Not that the band couldn’t put over slow ones, but so far they don’t. The comparison also reveals Rosas is very consistent — the third track of each is devoted to a femme fatale/trap queen figure named “La China”. Both albums close with cumbia medleys — “popurris” — and the one on Llegué goes on way too long.

April 27, 2015 2

Desfile de Éxitos 5/2/15

Some NorteñoBlog favorites are climbing the Billboard charts this week, and so NorteñoBlog is happy, even as “Bailando” doble “El Perdón” continues at #1. Ariel Camacho’s love song “Te Metiste” is either laconic or intense, possibly depending on whether in it you hear echoes of his signature song “El Karma,” which grows stranger with every spin on the radio. “Te Metiste” is at #19 on Hot Latin and nowhere on the airplay list, indicating support from mostly streams and downloads, but give it time — regional Mexican radio knows to respond to listeners’ whims, so all those clicks could yet translate into another weird radio song.

A little further down, Alfredo Ríos El Komander’s shambolic breakup song “Malditas Ganas” is at #24, making it his second biggest solo hit after last year’s “Soy De Rancho.” In fact, in the third verse Ríos offers to serenade his lost love with “Soy De Rancho,” but he still ends the song lonely. The same thing happens to me whenever I serenade my wife with “Soy De Rancho.” This song’s been kicking around the Mexican chart all year, so let’s roll out the welcome mat. And while we’re at it, let’s welcome Los Tigres’ bouncy pickup line “Que Tal Si Eres Tu” to El Norte’s radios. The second single from Realidades is wonderfully spry, especially when you consider Los Tigres are basically at the same career point as the Stones when they released A Bigger Bang.

In non-norteño news, #3 “Propuesta Indecente” is now 91 weeks old; I propose it stick some tennis balls on its walker before it scratches up my floors. And at #5, Wisin et al’s entirely decent “Nota de Amor” would like an order of paella from one clad in yellow underwear. At the Singles Jukebox, Juana Giaimo reasonably asks, “Why don’t you do it yourself?”

These are the top 25 Hot Latin Songs and top 20 Regional Mexican Songs, courtesy Billboard, as published May 2.

1. “El Perdón” – Nicky Jam & Enrique Iglesias
2. “Ay Vamos” – J Balvin
3. “Propuesta Indecente” – Romeo Santos (91 WEEKS OLD)
4. “Hablame de Ti” – Banda MS (#2 RegMex) (snoooooozzzzzz)
5. “Nota de Amor” – Wisin + Carlos Vives ft. Daddy Yankee
6. “Hilito” – Romeo Santos
7. “Contigo” – Calibre 50 (#1 RegMex)
8. “Travesuras” – Nicky Jam
9. “Mi Verdad” – Maná ft. Shakira
10. “Fanatica Sensual” – Plan B

11. “Sigueme y Te Sigo” – Daddy Yankee
12. “Pierdo la Cabeza” – Zion & Lennox
13. “El Amor De Su Vida” – Julión Álvarez y Su Norteño Banda (#8 RegMex)
14. “Me Sobrabas Tu” – Banda Los Recoditos (#11 RegMex)
15. “Qué Tiene De Malo” – Calibre 50 ft. El Komander (#18 RegMex)
16. “Lejos De Aqui” – Farruko
17. “Dime” – Julión Álvarez y Su Norteño Banda (#14 RegMex)
18. “Solita” – Prince Royce
19. “Te Metiste” – Ariel Camacho y Los Plebes del Rancho
20. “Soltero Disponible” – Regulo Caro (#3 RegMex)

21. “Lo Hiciste Otra Vez” – La Arrolladora Banda El Limón (#6 RegMex) (Oh dear, this is not good. Not just sap — meandering sap.)
22. “Juntos (Together)” – Juanes
23. “El Que Se Enamora Pierde” – Banda Carnaval (#5 RegMex)
24. “Malditas Ganas” – El Komander (#13 RegMex)
25. “Inocente” – Romeo Santos

¡Adios!
“Disparo Al Corazon” – Ricky Martin
“Yo También” – Romeo Santos ft. Marc Anthony
—————–

4. “Calla y Me Besas” – Enigma Norteña
7. “Levantando Polvadera” – Voz De Mando
9. “Que Aun Te Amo” – Pesado
10. “Eres Tú” – Proyecto X

12. “Como Tu No Hay Dos” – Los Huracanes del Norte
15. “Se Me Sigue Notando” – Chuy Lizarraga y Su Banda Tierra Sinaloense
16. “Todo Tuyo” – Banda El Recodo
17. “Si Te Vuelvo a Ver” – La Maquinaria Norteña
18. “Bonito Y Bello” – La Septima Banda
19. “Cuando La Miro” – Luis Coronel
20. “Que Tal Si Eres Tu” – Los Tigres Del Norte

¡Adios!
“No Te Vayas” – Fidel Rueda
“Eres Una Niña” – Gerardo Ortíz (#13 RegMex)
“El Karma” – Ariel Camacho y Los Plebes del Rancho (#11 RegMex)

April 24, 2015 0

¡Nuevo! (starring Los Gfez, Laura Denisse, y más)

There are times when NorteñoBlog’s rudimentary knowledge of Spanish becomes an obstacle. One such time is today, as I try to figure out the great new single by Los Gfez, “Hasta Tu Dedo Gordito” (Remex). (Pick to Click!) The subject of this song is plain from all the gratuitous bosom shots in the video: it’s about tu cuerpo and what Martin Panuco would like to do to it. The question comes when we try to determine the identity of the title dedo. At heart a third grade boy, I’ve used my context clues to determine that esta mujer’s dedo gordito is located somewhere below her ombligo; that Panuco is traveling from ombligo to dedo gordito with his lengua; and that somewhere in this scenario, there is a pomo (“knob”) he wants to raise. (“Cien por ciento”! Nothing less will do!) I can only conclude that this dedo gordito is la mujer’s big toe. I implore you not to google images of dedos gorditos unless you get off on toe injuries. No judging. I should mention that the quartet Los Gfez, last seen joining Diego Herrera on a likable Mexican hit, start their search for the mystery dedo fast and, through the magic of time changes, find a way to get faster. Good luck, guys! Send postcards!

Since NorteñoBlog was quiet last week and since this week is all singles, we’ve got a second Pick to Click: Laura Denisse’s good humored banda swinger “Sigo Enamorada” (Fonovisa). Denisse has a big clear voice in the vein of Linda Ronstadt, and she’s been singing a mix of banda and pop since she was a kid in the ’90s. This song, about continuing to love, is her major label debut. The banda arrangement is delightfully spare and snappy — Denisse spends much of the first verse singing over a bed of percussion and tuba, with minimal horn interjections. The big brass riff is simply a series of repeated notes, but the players articulate and syncopate like swaggering jazz cowboys.

Ely Quintero has been releasing her own banda and norteño music for several years now. Her new one, “La Pantera Rosa” (Ely), is only on Youtube as a series of preview snippets; as a lickety split quartet tune, it seems promising. As I catch up with her terrific previous singles, Quintero reminds me of one of the Terrazas sisters from Los Horóscopos, whichever has the brasher attitude.

Speaking of brash attitudes, the fast and furious Alfredo Ríos El Komander goes slow and serious for “Me Interesa” (Twiins), another half-assed single after “Fuga Pa’ Maza.” Only where “Fuga” was half-assed in a gloriously drunken whirlyball way, this ballad is half-assed in a sad slumped-over-the-bar way. I’m half-assedly searching for a parallel from the canon — maybe it’s the “Drinks After Work” to “Fuga”‘s “Red Solo Cup”? Suggestions welcome.

La Trakalosa de Monterrey has thrilled us with Faustian bargains and depressive wrist slitters. Now with Tatiana they are going Broadway, or something. Despite its nonstop barrage of words, “Ser Un Niño Esta Genial” (Remex) sounds like something that skipped off a Luis Coronel album, winking and pointing little finger guns at everyone in the room. The guys in La Trakalosa used to be adictos a la tristeza; now they’re hooked on Zoloft.

Banda Troyana does the small-band-strumming vs. big-brass-assault thing with entertainingly driving results in “¿Y Cómo Crees?” (Azteca). By the end of the song you pity the poor sap ripping through all those spectacular trombone fills — he’s going red and his tongue’s getting tired.

April 22, 2015 2

Who’s On the Mexican Radio? 4/10/15

This week’s two new songs present a conundrum. Do I prefer Los Recoditos’ new ballad “Me Toco Perder,” specifically the heartfelt manner in which the lead singer pronounces the word “estrellllllas,” holding himself back from the crucial high note until his vibrato bursts through like a tear-filled reservoir? Or should I direct you instead to the speedier pleasures of La Iniciativa’s “La Reina,” which has lots of stop-start precision and chewy tuba-vs.-accordion lines? Probably the latter. But there’s a third song that deserves your attention more: Ariel Camacho’s love song “Te Metiste,” debuting this week on Billboard’s Hot Latin chart but not the regional Mexican chart, which means it’s getting most of its listens from streams and/or downloads. This could still be the result of Camacho’s death bump, but I prefer to think people are seeking out this song because of its great melody played by an excellent band. Pick to click:

In other news, Julión Álvarez’s “El Amor de Su Vida” goes top 10 in both countries. Clearly I am wrong about it.

These are the Top 20 “Popular” songs in Mexico, as measured by radioNOTAS. Don’t confuse “Popular” with the “General” list, which contains many of the same songs but also “Uptown Funk!”, “Sugar,” and, sounding like they crashed from all that sugar, Juan Gabriel singing with Juanes.

1. “Contigo” – Calibre 50
2. “Después de Ti ¿Quién?” – La Adictiva Banda San Jose
3. “Que Tal Si Eres Tu” – Los Tigres Del Norte
4. “Perdi La Pose” – Espinoza Paz
5. “A Lo Mejor” – Banda MS
6. “Si Tuviera Que Decirlo” – Pedro Fernandez
7. “El Amor de Su Vida” – Julión Álvarez
8. “Confesion” – La Arrolladora Banda El Limón
9. “No Fue Necesario” – El Bebeto
10. “Todo Tuyo” – Banda El Recodo

11. “Malditas Ganas” – Alfredo Rios El Komander
12. “Indeleble” – Banda Los Sebastianes
13. “Escuchame” – Fidel Rueda
14. “Me Importas” – Los Primos MX
15. “Que Aún Te Amo” – Pesado
16. “Ponte Las Pilas” – America Sierra
17. “Que te Quede Claro” – Saul El Jaguar
18. “Adicto a la Tristeza” – Banda La Trakalosa ft. Pancho Uresti
19. “Me Toco Perder” – Banda Los Recoditos
20. “La Reina” – La Iniciativa