This band is exciting! Lead singer Ali Gau Gau moved from Mexico to Buenos Aires wanting to start some kind of new cumbia with punk influences. After coming up with the killer name "Kumbia Queers," the band formed and started doing cumbia covers of Sabbath, The Cure, and Madonna.
Everywhere you go in South America, homes, restaurants, etc., they have calendars of beer ads with very scantily clad women on them. I have seen one directly next to a photo of the Virgin Mary, too. Here´s a little homage to them:
Kumbia Queers - Chica De Calendario
With the Cure´s "Lovesong" as the backing track, Kumbia Dark got me laughing:
Some wild, electrocumbia and dub mash ups here, with jams from Buju Banton, Prince, Marvin Gaye and some modern cumbia. Got in touch with these guys through my main point of contact here, cool fellow who runs La Cigale bar and a friend of DJ Dub Insurgent from back in New Orleans.
They have some electrocumbia parties at Club 69 and they´re having another one tonight at Niceto Club on Nicete Vega 5510. Get down if you´re in town!
Upon arrival in the town of San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina, I sought out chomp on some famous Argentinian steak. Steak and wine, I thought, would be my diet for the rest of the month. So far on this trip, every expectation I had of each country has been wrong. I thought that the loathing Chileans whad for former dictator Augustus Pinochet would be so viscous that I´d be able to swipe it off the walls of La Moneda (the Presidential palace), where his army overthrew and killed democratically elected President Salvador Allende on September 11th, 1973. That wasn´t the case - most Chileans still hate him, but they´re over it; they´ve got a progressive woman president in Michelle Bachelet. They´re looking into the future and not dwelling on the past.
I thought Bolivia would be more dangerous than it was, as well. My friend and I went to an Iron Maiden tribute show in La Paz and most of the guys with nicks and cuts on their faces wanted to give us some beer, not take our wallets. So one thing this trip taught me is to never have preconceived notions about anything while travelling. That was until I discovered the magic of Argentinian steak. It certainly lives up to its rep.
Another thing I noticed is that radio here only plays Argentinian music. In Peru and Bolivia, I heard everything from Rick Astley to Pearl Jam, with only a few songs in Spanish on popular radio. There are several reasons for this. Argentina is quite larger than other countries down here and has quite a booming music industry. The 80s music at almost any club in South America is probably from here.
Argentina´s pride and joy is a fella named Charly Garcia. Charly, fresh out of rehab, has a new single about all the folks who wear Che Guevara shirts. Charly says, "Hey, if you wear the shirt...You should know why."
Sorry for fewer updates! The jams are still here, but the connection is daaaaaaaaaaang slow. Like, I tried uploading a zip file to megaupload and it failed three times.
I have been asking around about this guy in Peruvian record stores when I first hear him and finally found the answer why I can´t find much info on him: He´s from Colombia.
This fella can hold a note, I must say that. I picked up this disc in Cuzco and found some choice cuts for you. Calixto combines accordian cumbia with some full throated vocals and has kept me happy on many busrides. Attached are three jams that I´ve felt exclusively.
I´m deviating from the cumbia path a little bit and introducing Violeta Parra, one of the early pioneers of Chilean folk. I´ve been a fan of her brother, the poet Nicanor Parra, for a good while and was learning Spanish with the assistance of his "Poems & Antipoems." Unfortunately, that book was lifted from my bag in Cuzco by some no-good Peruvian crook, but he´s pretty celebrated here and his books are widely available.
Violeta moved to Santiago to live with Nicanor in 1929, when she was 15 years old. There, he encouraged her to form the group Las Hermanas Parra and she found some local success, becoming good friends with local Chilean artists like Pablo Neruda.
Violeta Parra - `Miren Cómo Sonríen`("Look How They Smile")
She moved to Paris in 1961 and her kids Angel and Isabel joined the group. She enjoyed a good bit of success there, being the first person from Latin American to display artwork at the Louvre. She moved back to Chile in 1965, seeking to start a commune based on the idea of sparking a revival of Chilean folk called La Reina. She wasn´t really welcomed back and ended up commiting suicide in the commune after she suffered a broken heart when Swiss musician Gilbert Favre and lover left to Bolivia. She was 49.
Peru´s Princess of Folklorica May 6, 1959 - June 23, 2009
Two days before the King of Pop passed on, Peru lost its Princesa del folklore. Like Mike, Alicia Delgado was also 50 years old when she died and the details of her death are pretty chilling, but a bit murky. Alicia was stabbed nine times and hung with a leather belt by her ex-chauffer Pedro Mamanchura, after a love triangle of sorts came to light.
Delgado was in lesbian relationship with fellow folklore singer Abencia Meza for 8 years before her death. The couple had a history of domestic violence and, after it emerged that Delgado was having an affair with her harpist, Meza paid Mamanchura to kill her.
Abencia Meza and Alicia Delgado
Of course, the news of Alicia´s death was overshadowed by the death of Michael Jackson, but it´s quite significant for Peruvian music. She was quite popular in the cities of Cuzco, Huancayo and Tumbes, but not very much so in cities like Lima or Arequipa. Most people in Peru would describe it as country or mountain music. It´s a pretty grisly story and details continually emerge on the situation. Mamanchura admitted to the crime, but Meza is kinda saying "I was just playin!!"
Below are 6 tracks in a zip file of Alicia´s music. It´s her beautiful voice over a bit of harp playing, with about 30 seconds of drums at the end. Pretty interesting stuff and I think that Joanna Newsom lady totally stole her act. Cop it!
