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duelo xmas

New this week:

Dueto Consentido – Con El Pie Derecho (Afinarte): From the same small label as Voz de Mando, this all-string trio plays corridos whose verses seem to ripple without end. Here they are performing “El Rolex” and “El Toro Encartado” live; the bajo sexto player, for one, is having a wonderful time. Informed readers could explain their band name, which doesn’t add up: they’ve got three members. “Dueto consentido” does show up as the last phrase of Rody Felix’s and/or Jesús Ojeda’s corrido “El Gringo,” and “consentido” may be some cartel term of art, but I don’t wanna presume.

Jenni Rivera – 1 Vida, 3 Historias (Fonovisa): Rivera’s latest posthumous release contains a live CD, a CD of friends and family covering her songs, and a DVD of interviews and performances. Side note: she just won the award for Artista Feminina Del Año at the Premios De La Radio, a people’s choice deal, for the fourth straight year.

Duelo – Navidad Desde El Meritito Norte (Duelo): Breezy, seems to meet the minimum threshold of competence for once-a-year music, occasionally sounds like watery Mavericks.

Espinoza Paz – “Si Amas a Dios”: Keyboard strings, real strings, judiciously placed horns, pounding drums, and Sr. Paz sounding like he could burst into tears any moment. He offers sound advice: For the love of God, don’t break open piñatas with your bloodstained guns. Stay alert and don’t shut out the world. He may be preaching to the choir — they come in at the chorus — but whatever, I kind of like it. Then again, my wife makes me listen to a lot of Josh Groban.

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We pause to honor Julión Álvarez…

julion-alvarez-trophy

It’s the end of the year and people are publishing lists of the best singles. You know what that means: indie rock songs heard by several! If the list belongs to PopMatters, it also means soul throwbacks, top 40 hits, and other sundries (like Ambrose Akinmusire! one of my least favorite songs from his album, but still). Also… what’s this?… reputed Best Singer on the Continent Julión Álvarez, in at #48, with “Y Así Fue”, a bounding high five of a song. I may have had something to do with this.

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Lo Mejor De 2014: Banda Los Recoditos

recoditos

I reviewed Recoditos’ most recent album of heavy petting and even heavier drinking, Sueño XXX, at PopMatters:

Today They Smell Dawn.

Finding your way through the catalog of Banda Los Recoditos feels like entering some overstuffed shop full of toys and tchotchkes, every item beckoning brighter and harder than the last. Everything’s shiny and a tad overpriced. This is one of those stores where, to reach the back, you have to keep pushing aside dangling strands of stuff — probably little liquor bottles and sex toys, given Recoditos’ preoccupations. Yes, I am saying Banda Los Recoditos is basically the Spencer’s of the banda pop mall. And yes, that’s a good thing. Up to a point. You know how, after an hour spent enduring smutty jokes and stories about some dude’s wet dreams, you sometimes just need to go outside? Look at the least phallic thing available? And the first thing you see is like a fire hydrant spraying its obscene contents all over the place? The attendees of September’s Values Voter Summit understood: our society is soaked in sex and debauchery, a fact Recoditos also recognizes and exploits on their latest album, Sueño XXX.

Not since O-Town’s “Liquid Dreams” has a pinup band described so brazenly the plotline of a sex dream, especially to actual participants in the dream itself. “Que bien te veías sin ropa te confieso,” sings Luis Ángel “El Flaco” Franco in the forthright title waltz — “I confess you looked good without clothes on.” From there El Flaco’s dream grows more erotic thanks to its authors, the prolific and apparently lascivious Luciano Luna and Omar Tarazón. The songwriters-for-hire know their clients. After years on indie labels, Recoditos went major in 2010 and carved out a niche as regional Mexican radio’s feel-good bad boys, scoring the number one hits “Ando Bien Pedo” (“I’m Very Drunk”) and “Mi Último Deseo” (“My Last Wish”). (Flaco’s last wish is for everyone at his funeral to party.) In real life, the band has advertised Sueño XXX on condom packages. Besides its nocturnal admission, this new album finds the band contemplating whether or not to cheat (“es un dilema…”) and the ravages of alcohol on memory (“tres shots, cuatro shots, y no me acuerdo de nada”). They want cool chicks to poison their bodies with sex, bottles, and cigarettes (“Morras De Accion”). Did I mention they are drunk (“La Peda”)? Or possibly not (“No Hay Pedo”)? Because really it’s all you and your crazy mother’s fault? And maybe Banda Los Recoditos is just sick of your face, you ever think of that?

In the video for lead single “Hasta Que Salga El Sol”, El Flaco and second lead singer Samuel Sarmiento blatantly re-enact The Hangover with their bandmates and some pretty mujeres, though without any tigers or pathos—everyone just wakes up in a heap on the beach, flashes back to the previous night’s revelry, and decides to do it all over again. The song barrels nonstop for two and a half minutes, with Flaco running out of breath at the ends of his phrases and brass lines tangling together like sweaty bodies. The song’s author Rubén Esli got his big break on last year’s Recoditos album with the aforementioned “Mi Último Deseo”, and in a sense Recoditos albums function as a State of the Scene for norteño songwriters. Much like its older brother Banda El Recodo, Recoditos has the power and the chops to put new songwriters on the map, even while commanding songs from proven hitmakers.

Fortunately the band has good taste. Only occasionally does Recoditos slip into the saccharine crap Luciano Luna sells to other bandas — on Sueño, that’d be Luna’s “Me Sobrabas Tu”, a modestly pretty number that nonetheless feels long at three minutes. (The longest running time here is 3:19.) More often the band, led by musical director, trombonist, and sometime songwriter Marco Figueroa, encourages outside writers to give free rein to their untrammelled ids. Take the veteran writer Martín Castro. “Sin Respiración”, his signature ballad for Banda El Recodo, is a smooth talk anthem about amor leading to breathlessness. (It’s actually really good.) Last year romantic heartthrobs La Arrolladora Banda el Limón recorded Castro’s maudlin “Por Confiar En Ti”; like most of Arrolladora’s catalog, listening to it felt like mainlining a slow drip of mush. For Recoditos on the other hand, Castro cowrote “Vida Maniaca”, two kickass minutes of kaleidoscopic brass accents and drunk sex in hot tubs. Come on. You know which Castro you wanna hear.

Lest I paint Recoditos as one-note oversexed buffoons — I’m specifically thinking of the oversexed buffoons in Los Vaquetones Del Hyphy, who’ve been known to dress up as condoms — you should know that this banda employs stellar musicians who in fact have many notes. Sometimes it’s hard to keep track of all the notes. Besides being drunk and insane, “La Peda” and “No Hay Pedo” display mindblowing virtuosity with clarinets shrieking in every direction. “Shot” and “El Mecánico” are the token rocking cumbias — there’s at least one every album — and “Entre Amor Y Tentacion” is gorgeous midtempo pop. The album has a few too many slow songs, but the singers do their best to keep things lively, dragging words behind the beat and belting their highly charged emotions to “la luna, el cielo, y LAAAAAAS ESTREEEEEEELLAS!” Sueño XXX is a cheerful and varied album that ends with three of its wildest songs. Say this for the band with its name on the condoms: It knows what makes a good package.

VALE LA PENA

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Lo Mejor De 2014: Gerardo Ortiz

gerardo ortiz singing

Gerardo Ortiz released his excellent album Archivos de Mi Vida just over a year ago, and it’s fair to say he’s now the popular face of norteño and banda — i.e., of regional Mexican music in general. He occupies the center of radio station billboards, and award shows feature his performances as surely as they do Jenni Rivera tributes. This album didn’t do it alone; Ortiz was already a big deal a year ago when the album debuted at #1.

The editorial hands at Allmusic still haven’t taken down their Thom Jurek review calling this album a “hits collection” — maybe they’re just biding time. Ortiz’s third Archival hit is the pretty “Eres Una Niña,” which we just covered at The Singles Jukebox, giving him his third good score there. I said:

My Thanksgiving resolution is to ignore the patronizing opening line. (For further research: does “Niña” populate banda ballads as thoroughly as “Girl” does bro-country? It seems like “Mujer” shows up more often.) I will also ignore any possible ickiness involving Ortiz kissing JustAGirl’s extremities until she screams his name. (“HAY no más,” Gerardo soothed soothingly.) Starting… now! Because really this song is very romantic, and there’s little precedent for Sinaloan banda incorporating Dominican-via-Bronxian bachata guitar. Plus, Ortiz’s long-lined melody is beautiful, a way better tune than Rod Stewart’s “Tonight’s the Night,” speaking of songs about children letting their inhibitions run wild. Resolution starting NOW.
VALE LA PENA

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Lo Mejor De 2014

nueva rebelion

Part 1 of ?

La Nueva Rebelión – “Me Hicieron Mas Fuerte” – LR Music
Lately, certain corrido bands have rocked harder and wilder than most bands claiming the title. (Like Rockin’ Jack White — his latest is OK, in the way reading someone’s dissertation is OK.) It’s still rare, though, to catch the norteño guys playing songs that would, in any other context, be considered rock music, which makes the title single from La Nueva Rebelión’s latest such a blast. Literally — the video’s body count is high. This manifesto of vengeful resolve opens with a trio texture straight from the Minutemen, and then the accordion kicks in — you always thought the Minutemen needed an accordion, right? The band launches into a power waltz, built on a chord change I think Black Flag once used, with both singer’s voices straaaaaaaaining into the chorus, shouting threats at their haters until the instruments have no choice but to collapse. It’s the most exciting four minutes of music this year. Trigger alert: things don’t end well for the horse.

Julión Álvarez y Su Norteño Banda – “Y Así Fue” – Fonovisa
Julión Álvarez sings his love songs with a scratchy warble that makes him sound twice his age. Makes sense, since this hit — rubbing shoulders with Romeo Santos and Enrique on the Hot Latin chart — could be an ace pre-Beatles pop song, complete with those magic changes and a tune that’s unforgettable because it simply follows those chords around. Think “In the Still of the Night,” only faster, hornier, and hornier — Álvarez and his ladyfriend give it up on the first date, and so they go from there.

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Who’s On the Mexican Radio?

MexicanRadio

I live near Chicago, where we have one country station — or sometimes two, if the cloud cover and solar flares and other relevant factors (airborne toxic events?) cooperate and Milwaukee’s airwaves reach my antenna. Aside from Rick Jackson’s syndicated “Country Classics” show, I don’t trust these stations. They sound programmed by some depressing combination of Billboard and brute force, and when they reach into the past to find some roots, they almost always emerge with some shiny pop country hit from the past decade and a half. The DJs sound like they got booted over from the Hot AC channel. The first time I heard Thomas Rhett’s disco-tinged (and possibly date-rape-tinged) “Make Me Wanna,” the lady punching up the hott traxxx said, “I like that song, you know, it’s so DIFFERENT!” Well, no, not if you’ve been listening to Gretchen Wilson’s really good last album, or ’80s Ronnie Milsap, or even Big & Rich or Toby Keith or Kenny Chesney. (Or Tom Petty’s “Breakdown,” or Lou Christie’s “Lightning Strikes.”) I’m not #Savingcountrymusic or anything, but it’s nice to have a sense that your radio station understands its music and isn’t simply doing what it’s told.

Whenever I visit my grandparents south-central Missouri, they have a ton of country stations. (Also a model of Stonehenge, something called the Mule Trading Post, and a town called Bourbon. “I think that’s really water,” says Grandpa every time we’ve passed Bourbon’s water tower for the past 37 years.) As you might expect, these stations exhibit some expertise. They play the hits, yeah, but they alternate ’em with the hits of several previous decades. Like, I’m sure Bourbon pledges allegiance to the Hag. And possibly vice versa. They also play great minor songs, like Collin Raye’s “Midlife Chrysler,” that I’ve never heard up in my arid suburbia. I won’t even claim I prefer all the songs I hear in Missouri, on balance, to the songs on my citified Chicago country station. But you can tell the Missourians know what they’re talking about. (Their political ads are pleasantly infuriating, too.)

In that spirit, here are the week’s Top 20 Popular (read: norteño and banda) hits in México, as published by radioNOTAS. The only crossover with Billboard‘s top 20 Regional Mexican Songs is at #3, Los Tigres’ “La Bala.” I don’t like every song on this list, but it’s a useful corrective to the stagnant U.S. chart and it’ll be doubly useful to explain some of the differences. For instance, Calibre 50’s topping the Méxican chart with a song that criticizes the laws throughout México banning corridos. It’s a different song than their current U.S. hit. I won’t rule out hearing it up here, but as a protest song, it speaks most directly in its home country. At #6, El Bebeto, a banda leader I’ve enjoyed in the past, hits with a mariachi ballad. While it’s not uncommon to hear old mariachi on Chicago radio, something tells me a throwback like “Cuando Tu Me Besas” is more likely to become an actual hit in México. (I could be wrong about this.) I’m also heartened to see nomenclatural geniuses La Bandononona Clave Nueva in a leading role. I do wonder why boring ballads take up so much more of this chart than the U.S. one. “Dime” is the draggiest song on Julión Álvarez’s latest, though I cut him slack since he’s the best singer on the continent. We’ll continue to check in with radioNOTAS and learn stuff, even if it means learning way more about amor than is necessary or right.

#1. “Qué Tiene De Malo” – Calibre 50 ft. El Komander
#2. “Hombre Libre” – La Adictiva Banda San José
#3. “La Bala” – Los Tigres Del Norte
#4. “Se Me Sigue Notando” – Chuy Lizarraga
#5. “Háblame De Ti” – Banda MS
#6. “Cuando Tu Me Besas” – El Bebeto (his mariachi move?)
#7. “Dime” – Julión Álvarez y Su Norteño Banda
#8. “El Papel Cambio” – Alfredo Rios El Komander
#9. “El Que Se Enamora Pierde” – Banda Carnaval
#10. “En Tu Twitter y Facebook” – Danny Guillen (As you might imagine I went for this one first, and hoo boy, is this a terrible song.)

#11. “Somos Ajenos” – Banda El Recodo
#12. “No Te Vayas” – Fidel Rueda
#13. “Mayor De Edad” – La Original Banda el Limón
#14. “Bien Servida” – Los Gfez ft. Diego Herrera
#15. “Ya No Lo Vamos a Hacer” – Espinoza Paz
#16. “Perdoname Mi Amor” – Los Tucanes De Tijuana
#17. “La Bipolar” – Los Buitres De Culiacan
#18. “Ya No Vives En Mi” – La Bandononona Clave Nueva
#19. “Todo Lo Incluido” – Banda Los Sebastianes
#20. “Broche De Oro” – Banda La Trakalosa

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Desfile de Éxitos

romeo210613

These are the top 25 Hot Latin Songs and top 20 Regional Mexican Songs, courtesy Billboard, as published Nov. 13. Things to note:

The sarlaccian digestion chart count for “Propuesta Indecente” increases to 68 weeks. And it moves UP a notch, to #2! You’ll remember this song already hit #1 more than a year ago, at the end of September/beginning of October 2013. King Romeo’s aptly named album Formula Vol. 2 had the biggest debut week (100k) of any Latin album in eight years. Since then he’s played Yankee Stadium and sold out venues in Mexico, the latter of which might be the more impressive feat for a guy from the Bronx. The video’s at 488 million views.

Nothing against “Propuesta”‘s pretty smarm, but its longevity underscores the lack of turnover on these charts. Nobody’s new or gone this week. On the one hand, this makes catching up with the popular music easy — stick around for a few weeks and there’s a good chance you’ll hear all the songs on the radio. On the other hand, we should wonder why the pace of turnover is so glacial. And why “Bailando” is still #1. At least we have “Soy Un Desmadre,” “Eres Una Niña,” and nomenclatural champs Saul El Jaguar ft. La Bandononona Clave Nueva de Max Peraza around to keep things interesante.

1. “Bailando” – Enrique ft. Descemer Bueno, Gente de Zona, & the word “contigo”
2. “Propuesta Indecente” – Romeo Santos (I just wanna point out this song is 68 WEEKS OLD AND CLIMBING, and that maybe someone’s chart methodology needs tweaking.)
3. “Eres Mia” – Romeo Santos
4. “Ay Vamos” – J Balvin
5. “Y Asi Fue” – Julión Álvarez (#1 RegMex) (Is this man the best banda singer around right now? Or should we forget the qualifier?)
6. “No Me Pidas Perdon” – Banda MS (#4 Reg Mex)
7. “Travesuras” – Nicky Jam
8. “6 AM” – J Balvin ft. Farruko
9. “Odio” – Romeo Santos ft. Drake
10. “Hasta Que Salga el Sol” – Banda Los Recoditos (#3 RegMex)

11. “Tus Besos” – Juan Luis Guerra 440
12. “Soy El Mismo” – Prince Royce
13. “Javier El de Los Llanos” – Calibre 50 (#5 RegMex)
14. “La Bala” – Los Tigres Del Norte (#2 RegMex)
15. “Adios” – Ricky Martin
16. “Yo Tambien” – Romeo Santos ft. Marc Anthony
17. “Perdon” – Camila
18. “Lo Poco Que Tengo” – Ricardo Arjona
19. “Eres Una Niña” – Gerardo Ortíz (#17 RegMex) (Hooray!)
20. “Tenerte” – Luis Coronel (#14 RegMex) (Quite a plummet for young Coronel! You hate to see that.)

21. “El Agüitado” – Jorge Valenzuela (#8 RegMex)
22. “Tu Respiracion” – Chayanne
23. “Plakito” – Yandel ft. El General Gadiel (It’s newish!)
24. “Que Suenen Los Tambores” – Victor Manuelle
25. “Soy Un Desmadre” – Banda Tierra Sagrada ft. Marco Flores y La #1 Banda Jerez (#6 RegMex)

—————–

#7. “Ahora Por Ley” – Los Huracanes Del Norte
#9. “Asi Ya No” – La Maquinaria Norteña
#10. “Zapatillas Ferragamo” – Meno Lugo

#11. “Mi Princesa” – Remmy Valenzuela
#12. “Levantando Polvadera” – Voz De Mando
#13. “La Historia De Mis Manos” – Banda Carnaval
#15. “La Indicada” – Kevin Ortíz
#16. “Al Estilo Mafia” – Saul El Jaguar ft. La Bandononona Clave Nueva de Max Peraza
#18. “El Karma” – Ariel Camacho y Los Plebes Del Rancho
#19. “No Me Dolio” – La Original Banda el Limón
#20. “Me Voy De Ti” – Fidel Rueda

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Banda Lamento Show: Chicago Vive Otra Vez

banda lamento show

The invaluable if annoyingly pop-uppy radioNOTAS alerts me to the existence of a new song, “El Señor,” by Banda Lamento Show de Durango. (I also see they’re playing Waukegan late this Saturday night, roughly a mile south of the church where I play early Sunday morning — i.e., I can’t see them. Have a good time and tell ’em I say hi.) Lamento Show, you’ll remember, were the wildest of duranguense bands and also the happiest, wearing ironic hipster ponchos and hauling around a little boy on a burro for their mascot. Unlike some of the buttoned down heartachers in this genre, listening to Lamento Show felt like getting away with something. True story: when I called their label nine years ago looking for press photos, the PR person I spoke with had no idea who they were.

When you get a chance, listen to their 2005 Platino album La Noche Que Murio Chicago, named after the Paper Lace song covered therein. This album is our generation’s Disco Tex and His Sex-O-Lettes: canned crowd noises, nonstop dance songs running one into the other, and a feeling that, despite the songs’ apparent simplicity on paper, the players can do whatever they want and anything could happen. By comparison, “El Señor” is reined in, but whoever’s singing enjoys his swanky vibrato enough to give it a big
VALE LA PENA

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El Cantar De Los Gallos

komander

El Komander – Cazador (Twiins Music Group)
I’ve got some catching up to do with Alfredo Rios, whose single “Soy De Rancho” and at-least-fourth album Cazador are among the best of 2014. With his aviator shades, fealty to country living, and endorsement of la mota, Rios could almost be Eric Church, if Church had Brantley Gilbert’s vocal range and described gangland killings in gory detail. (Please note: my translation studies don’t yet reveal whether Rios’s latest traffics in the gore. Back in 2011 he was the focal point of one of those “explain corrido violence to gringos” articles. I found it helpful, anyway.) The music on Cazador is wonderfully loose and shaggy norteño, its nonstop guitars frequently augmented by a banda that sounds like it’ll fly apart any second. Overall, the music’s as obnoxious as the tuba fart that punctuates Rios’s voice the first time he sings “Sí Señor, yo soy de rancho.” Despite having about eight notes at his disposal, Rios has charisma to burn; he only fools himself into trying to sing pretty once, on the mariachi ballad “Descansa Mi Amor,” where his ideal of love is a whispering frog.
VALE LA PENA

Rios also appears on Calibre 50’s excellent “Qué Tiene De Malo,” a hit in México but not (so far) the U.S. We covered it over at The Singles Jukebox, where I said:

The artists are indignant. Both Calibre 50, a quartet named for a big-ass gun, and El Komander, who’s designed his “K” to look like a big-ass gun, have recently been fined and banned by certain state and local governments in Mexico. The reason? Their narcocorrido music “promotes violence.” Well, yeah. Wasn’t that the point of all the big-ass guns? The artists retaliate with this pro-freedom meta-corrido, “What’s Wrong With That?”, presenting themselves as working stiffs who’ll drink and party and spend hard-earned money on whatever kind of music they like. (They’re like two steps removed from Toby Keith in “That Don’t Make Me a Bad Guy.”) On their albums, Calibre venture into pop ballads and dangerously close to sea shanties; despite the broadest reach of any norteño band, their grasp sounds firmest when they return to corridos. That lurching waltz beat could trace the arc of a razor sharp pendulum, the tuba fluttering and blatting just out of its reach. During the spoken interlude they quote Komander’s 2012 Youtube hit “Cuernito Armani,” named for — you guessed it — a big-ass gun.
VALE LA PENA

Los Amos – 2014 (Michoacan Records)
Los Creadores del Corrido Hyphy return, and they are… not so hyphy. Not that “hyphy” was ever a guarantee of quality in the norteño field (watch for my hyphy norteño thinkpiece, coming soon to this blog, only four years past its sell-by date!), but in 2014 they’ve amped up the outside songwriters, the ballad count, and the amount of reverb on José Guajardo’s voice. When José lays on some thick accordion, they can be lively and raucous; but more often they sound like old pros politely trying to recapture the raucity of youth. They’re most energized by the songs of Marco Montana, who evidently knows a thing or two about chinga-ing your madre.
NO VALE LA PENA

Banda Tierra Sagrada – Así Te Quiero Yo (Remex)
Despite the minor key tunes “La Loca” and “Máxima Potencia” — have these guys been reading my email’s spam folder? — they never approach the desmadre of their most recent hit. The three different singers are modestly compelling, even if nobody sings as well as duet partner Marco Flores, but the band doesn’t offer much beyond one big brassy idea per song. Ballads like “Lucharé Por Ti” don’t even get that far.
NO VALE LA PENA

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