Hasta Luego

Sorry to do this folks, but I am taking another little break from the blog. Today I'm hopping on a plane to spend the next three weeks traipsing around Peru, Bolivia and Chile.

I know it is hard, but they say absence makes the heart grow fonder. I am not really sure if that applies to the blog world, but we can pretend, right? Let's make a deal. If you come back in mid-October, I will not write any self-indulgent "my trip was so incredible" posts. I promise - there will be no photos of me standing around Macchu Picchu or any other tacky tourist bullshit of any kind.

I think that is more than fair.

As a reward for your patience, allow me to leave you with a little present.



Remember Diplo? A few days ago I gushed about his music and excitedly announced that he would be coming to Buenos Aires on October 17 to spin at the Zizek 1-year anniversary party. Earlier this month he put together a set for BBC Radio One's Essential Mix. The mix has been floating around the web for the past week (download it here, here or here) and the BBC has put up the massive tracklist. Why not spend the next few weeks pouring over its intricacies as you count down the seconds until Diplo's arrival?

That should certainly help ease the pain of this little blog going dark for awhile.

Elderly Latin Rockers Also Willing to Exploit Nostalgic Fans

With live music in 2007 being dominated by highly-publicized reunion tours from bands like Led Zeppelin, The Police, Van Halen, Rage Against the Machine, Jesus and Mary Chain, Crowded House and more, one could say that a sort of reunion mania has swept the music world. While this is not exactly breaking news, reunion fever has also struck Argentina. Back in June, Soda Stereo announced that they would be getting back together and touring again after breaking up more than ten years ago.

While Soda Stereo is virtually unknown in the English-speaking world, the band was one of the biggest rock acts in Latin America from the mid 80s until their breakup in 1997. (Click here for a more complete bio in English.) Their early work was distinctly 80s, along the lines of bands like The Police and Talking Heads, although their lyrics were obviously in Spanish. Later albums expanded their sound, although if their newly released greatest hits collection Me Verás Volver is any indication, most fans prefer the old stuff. Here's video of the trio performing "Persiana Americana", one of their biggest hits, back in 1987. Their hairdos are especially enjoyable.



The Soda Stereo reunion extravaganza begins October 19 here in Buenos Aires with the first of five scheduled shows at River Plate stadium. The tour will take the band through much of Latin America and even includes a single date in Los Angeles.

Earlier today in San Telmo, Soda Stereo kicked the hype machine into overdrive by appearing on stage together for the first time since their breakup. The event was broadcast live on local television and saw the band perform two songs while commenting "you'll see the rest on the 19th". What they neglected to mention is that people hoping to see them on the 19th or any other night of their tour will have to shell out up to 260 pesos for a ticket. They must have thought fans could figure that part out for themselves.

Refusenik

The onslaught of Buenos Aires DJs continues! After scouring my brain (and the internet) for something to post today, I came across a Myspace bulletin saying that Refusenik had put up some new tracks online. Of course, I had to throw them up.

The first one offers yet another take on "Bombon Asesino", taking Daleduro's version of the cumbia favorite and marrying its infectious notes with the vocals from Missy Elliott's "Get Ur Freak On".

Refusenik - Get Your Bomb On

His second new track mashes up the sounds of digital cumbia producer El Remolón with a dancehall cut from Million Stylez.

Refusenik - Miss Bichera

Although he currently lays his head in Buenos Aires, Refusenik hails from Boston and was actually born in Russia. His DJ sets offer an energetic mix of dancehall, grime, electro, baltimore club, mashups and more. He has also become a sort of international spokesman for Boston bounce, an emerging new subgenre dreamed up by his pals DJ C and DJ Flack, who also run the Beat Research label. Although an exact definition is still being developed, Boston bounce is a bass-heavy, reggae-infused style that sounds something like baltimore house crossed with speed garage. (Click here for a more in-depth description of Boston bounce that DJ C and DJ Flack put together.)

Last weekend Refusenik delivered a blistering set at the insanely-packed Super Zizek. Porteños will have another chance to check him out next month when he gets behind the decks at Revolt.

Count Me In

Yes! Diplo is coming to Buenos Aires. The above image was included as part of the weekly e-mail blast from the fine folks at Zizek, who have apparently snagged Florida's finest for their upcoming one-year anniversary. Further details have not been provided but setting aside Wednesday, October 17 on your social calendar is probably a good idea.

Besides his groundbreaking DJ work as one half of Hollertronix, Diplo has also compiled an impressive production resume, working with artists like M.I.A. and Bonde Do Role while remixing big-name acts like Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Gwen Stefani, Bloc Party and Queens of the Stone Age along with a slew of underground favorites. (Check his myspace page for a complete list of production credits.) Last year Diplo launched his own label, Mad Decent, which also hosts an excellent blog and podcast series called Mad Decent Worldwide Radio.

Anyone looking for a taste of Diplo's current DJ sets should check out the mix he recently completed for the new Pitchfork Mix series. Click here to download the mix (warning: it's a big file) or here to see what he had to say about the various tracks he included.

Get excited. Diplo is coming!

DJ Joven

In my efforts to catalog every cool DJ/producer in Buenos Aires, somehow a proper post highlighting the talents of DJ Joven has eluded me until today. One of the founders of the forward-thinking collective DJs Pedigree, these days Joven works solo, DJing around Buenos Aires and cranking out a steady stream of mash-ups. Many can be found (and downloaded) over on his MySpace page, but I want to put up a couple of my favorites. The first one is a Justin Timberlake mash-up (remix?) that gives "My Love" a particularly cool new feel.

DJ Joven - Justin Pancho
DJ Joven - Esclavos del Hi Fi vs. Princesa

Last week DJ Joven unveiled a new mix he is calling H.I.P.tronica Set 07. Here is the playlist, which I grabbed from his Fotolog.

DJ Joven – Studio R vs The Chemical Brothers
CSS – Let's Make Love (Streetlife DJ's Rappinhood Remix)
Kanye West – Stronger (A-Trak Remix)
Sinden and Count Of Monte Cristal – Beeper
Thunderheist – Sueños Dulces
Count Of Monte Cristal – Lets Do It
Chromeo – Tenderoni (Sinden Remix)
David E Sugar – Onytil (Jesse Rose Garage Pirate Radio Vocal)
Sinden And Count Of Monte Cristal– We Don’t Give A Damn
Trevor Loveys – Organ Grinder

The entire mix is available for download here. Grab it, enjoy it and question why so many clubs play so much bad music when guys like DJ Joven have this kind of heat in their arsenal.

Dick El Demasiado and Super Zizek

Dick El Demasiado, often referred to as the godfather of the Buenos Aires experimental cumbia scene, is back in town. Oddly enough, he is not even Argentinian, but Dutch, and the story of how he became one of the most important figures in experimental Latin music is a fascinating one. After years spent as an artist, television producer and radio pirate in Europe, in the mid 90's he invented Festicumex (Festival de Cumbia Experimental) - literally invented it, because the festival never happened. Yet that did not stop Dick from creating a Festicumex website detailing the entire event, including a lineup of entirely fictional artists. Somehow the site gained a large following, prompting Dick to write and record music for each of the artists and eventually assume the identity of one of his creations. At that point, Dick El Demasiado was truly born.

After coming to Buenos Aires, Dick put together the second Festicumex festival in 2003. This one was real and featured live performances from many of his once-fictional artists. Dick funded and coordinated the entire event, even finding musicians to assume the identities of the artists and participate in what he calls an "incredible organized lie". The festival was a huge success, prompting another Festicumex in 2004. Along the way Dick was also releasing albums as Dick El Demasiado and becoming a notable artist in his own right. He now splits time between Europe and Argentina and constantly thinks up ways to push the boundaries of cumbia even further.

Earlier this week I actually interviewed Dick El Demasiado for Whats Up Buenos Aires. Discussing everything from his childhood (a large part of it was spent in Latin America) to how he discovered cumbia and eventually started experimenting with the genre, Dick was surprisingly candid and open with his opinions, including his thoughts on the developed world's fascination with the music of the Third World. He also detailed some future plans, including an upcoming show at a women's prison and a live cumbia album he will be recording in the Arctic Sea.



This Saturday, Dick El Demasiado is headlining Super Zizek, another large-scale installment of the forward-thinking weekly party. Also performing is El Remolón (whom I gushed about last month) and Refusenik, an expat DJ who not only throws down a mean set but has also taught me the wonders of Serato's internal mode. It should be fun.

No Big Deal

This is Francisco de Narváez, billionaire businessman, national deputy and candidate for governor of the province of Buenos Aires. Like many candidates, his face has been plastered around Buenos Aires for months, although it is odd that so many of his posters have been put up in Capital Federal where residents are not actually eligible to vote for him. Perhaps he is after the commuter vote.

(To clarify for readers outside of Argentina, the city internationally known as Buenos Aires is legally/politically known as Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires. Often referred to by residents as Capital Federal, the city is politically independent from the surrounding province of Buenos Aires.)

Anyways, Francisco de Narváez always seemed like just another political candidate until I saw this campaign commercial on television a couple nights ago.



The guy has a neck tattoo! What is even more amazing is that de Narváez is running as a center-right candidate in union with Mauricio Macri's PRO party. How is this not a major problem for his campaign? Are wacko Christians and overzealous moms across the province not mortified? Just look at it!



To be clear, I am not some anti-tattoo weirdo. (I actually love that show Miami Ink, which for some reason is on all the time here in Buenos Aires.) While I realize that I am being completely ethnocentric by applying inherently prudish American values to the Argentinian political arena, it is not much of a stretch to say that people with neck tattoos are usually not the most viable political candidates. Bonus points to Argentina for not freaking out about it.

Want Drugs? Try Craigslist Buenos Aires.

The internet is just a neverending mountain of fun. (Just ask my girlfriend, who forwarded me all of these ads.) Today we discovered that openly advertising drugs for sale is apparently A-OK on Craigslist Buenos Aires.

The first ad we spotted was put up by some whimsical kids who got carried away with their baking.

Magic Cookies!!! - m4mw - 25

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Hello! We got a little overzelous and made way too many Magic Herbal Cookies cookies this weekend. So, we though we'd offer some to share if you share the cost! One cookie is guaranteed to get you high- 8 pesos for one cookie, 15 pesos for two. They are oatmeal raisin with walnuts- very tasty! Will deliver!

I'm not sure what I enjoy more, their brazen disregard for drug laws or the fact that they misspelled overzealous. At least the guy who wrote this next ad was a little more subtle.

420 Friends - m4mw - 27

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If you like the ...well, you know... then let's get together! I got everything you need, just tell me what you want.

How nice of him to clarify that he's willing to sell the "you know" to both men and women. And stoners love any mention of 420. One question - why did he feel the need to include his age in the title? The ad was posted in the "strictly platonic" section, so maybe this guy is just a little lonely.

That is certainly not the case with this last ad, whose author appears to be some kind of pot professional.

Ganja Therapeutic Services

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We all make choices about our personal health and medications. For those of us who choose alternative therapies, it can sometimes be difficult to obtain our therapies of choice, especially abroad. If you need someone to reach out to, I am here to help.

Please contact for further information. Serious inquiries only please.

His concern for those in need is touching. I think I'm going to cry.

Disco Shawn, Aspiring Vocalist

Um, this is a little weird for me to post because despite my obvious love for music, I have never really considered myself to be much of a "musician". Long ago I realized that I should stick to my strengths (snarky online commentary and behind-the-scenes busywork) and leave the artistry to folks with actual, you know, "talent".

So imagine my surprise when the boys from Lovely Chords insisted that I contribute some vocals for a Mr. Brown remix they were putting together.



As I wrote back in July, this Buenos Aires duo has been making some excellent Ed Banger-style electro tunes, often enlisting the vocal talents of their MySpace friends from around the globe to fill out the tracks. After meeting them when they performed at Zizek, I guess that I should not have been surprised when they sent an e-mail asking me to record a few lines for them.

While it is safe to say that most people don't like the sound of their own voice (except those weird drama club "look at me" types), my voice is undeniably bad. During my many years in radio, I was told more than once that my voice was not ideal for the airwaves. At one point while I was working at a "new rock" radio station during the height of ultra-masculine nu-metal, the program director specifically told the guy in charge of producing commercials not to use me for voiceovers because I sounded too "gay". It did not matter that I happen to be heterosexual or that the station was located in San Francisco - my voice was that bad. (I am happy to report that the program director was eventually fired and last I heard was programming a cluster of stations in Mississippi.)

Despite my concerns, Lovely Chords kept pestering me so I eventually recorded my lines into my laptop's built-in microphone and sent them the files. A few weeks later, they sent me the finished remix. I was not really planning to put up the track, but this past Sunday I saw it posted as part of Remix Sunday on the excellent Palms Out Sounds blog.

If a bajillion people are going to hear the track over there, I figure that I may as well post it here.

Mr. Brown - I Dance for Money (Lovely Chords remix for free)

Take a listen and see if you can spot the Disco Shawn contributions. I should warn listeners that I was asked to say some naughty words, so folks with overly sensitive ears might want to skip it.



Lovely Chords certainly enjoyed what I brought to the track, but even after their enthusiastic response, I promise not to start referring to myself as a "musician" or "vocalist".

Shows You Might Actually Want to See

Like most major cities, Buenos Aires features a wide array of shows and club nights just about every night of the week. The problem is that alarmingly few of these things are events many people want to (or should) attend. Unfortunately the Argentinian capital is plagued by a bevy of bland indie rock acts and awful club nights, a problem only magnified by the lack of quality foreign acts that make their way down here.

Argentina is pretty far from places like the United States and Europe, making Buenos Aires anything but an easy or automatic tour stop. The peso's weak exchange rate does not help matters either. With inflated travel expenses for artists and little pay available upon arrival, often times the only events that can afford to bring in quality foreign acts (especially smaller ones), are the large-scale festivals like PepsiMusic, PersonalFest and Creamfields. While these festivals might be great for fans of public drunkenness and large crowds, they are not exactly ideal places to see or hear a good musical performance.

Thankfully, this year the warming temperatures seem to be bringing more than just another season of overpriced and overcrowded festivals. A few acts are coming to Buenos Aires to play headlining shows in medium-sized venues, presumably for people interested more in their music than getting wasted in the sun.

Here is a roundup of some of the acts worth checking out.

Nouvelle Vague
Wednesday, September 12 at Teatro Opera
I don't love this Parisian band or their bossa nova covers of 80's pop tunes, but Porteños seem to love really fey cover versions of 80's classics, so I imagine this show will be packed.

The Juan Maclean
Thursday September 13 at Inrocks Club, Cocoliche
Reformed druggie makes good with interesting electro/disco/house on the esteemed DFA record label. Me likey.

M.A.N.D.Y.
Saturday, September 22 at Pacha
Normally clubs like Pacha are exactly the kind of places I would recommend avoiding like an STD, but German duo M.A.N.D.Y. make a stellar combination of house, electro, disco and techno while also running the excellent Get Physical record label.

Calexico
Wednesday, October 3 at La Trastienda
This Arizona rock band (which oddly enough features a couple of Germans) has an amazing catalog that sounds like Ennio Morricone's spaghetti western soundtracks updated for the 21st century. Influenced by everything from traditional Mexican folk music to old-school punk outfits like the Minutemen.

Joanna Newsom
Friday, October 5 at Compass, Niceto Club
Granny-voiced harpist from San Francisco brings her delightfully odd songs to Buenos Aires' biggest indie club night. Local hipsters rejoice.

Bjork
Sunday and Wednesday, November 4 and 7 at Teatro Gran Rex
You know who Bjork is. Apparently so does the rest of Buenos Aires, because both of these shows are sold out.

Here are some other foreign acts coming to Buenos Aires that you should do yourself a favor and not see. To further discourage attendance, no links have been included.

Incubus
Thursday, October 11 at Luna Park
Does "bro rock" really need to be supported on an international level?

Tiesto
Saturday, October 13 at Parque Sarmiento
Buenos Aires has enough shitty trance music already. Do people really need to shell out $100 for some imported punchi punchi?

30 Seconds to Mars
Wednesday, October 24 at Estadio Pepsi Music
Jared Leto needs to be told that his Davey Havok impression is not fooling anybody.

Arctic Monkeys
Wednesday, October 24 at Luna Park
How can a band with such widespread acclaim be so uninteresting? Just stay home and listen to your Strokes and Franz Ferdinand CDs. Maybe some mid-90's britpop stuff too. I guarantee that will be better than this concert.

The Killers, Travis, Starsailor
Friday, November 2 at Estadio Velez Sarsfield
Someone should tell the Killers that just because they listened to some Bruce Springsteen records doesn't mean that they stopped sucking. Starsailor will probably be about as fun as watching paint dry. I feel bad for Travis.

The Police
Saturday and Sunday, December 1 and 2 at Estadio River Plate
Tickets start at 80 pesos but most seats are 300 pesos and above. When young people in Buenos Aires are often earning 1000-1500 pesos a month (and that is with a decent job), this concert starts to look like the musical equivalent of an IMF loan.

Matthew Africa

Although this post has very little to do with Buenos Aires, it would be a disservice to keep quiet about this new mixtape.

Matthew Africa has been an important figure in the Bay Area hip hop scene for years, garnering a reputation as a formidable crate digger and a real DJ's DJ. He also gets some major bonus points simply because Matthew Africa is not some fake DJ moniker - it's his actual name.

Besides bringing the heat in the Bay Area club scene, Matthew also pilots a weekly radio show on Berkley station KALX. Last year he jumped into the mixtape game, first with Soul Boulders, a collection of "slow, funky soul burners" he put together with fellow Bay Area DJ B. Cause. Then he teamed up with DJ Eleven (of the Rub) to release Dirty Raps: The Best of Too Short, which chronicling the career of the Oakland hip-hop legend. That tape has been so well received that XLR8R magazine recently invited the pair to sit down for an episode of XLR8R TV to talk about Dirty Raps and the mixtape game in general.

Now Matthew is back with a new solo mixtape, Dirty R&B: The Best of R. Kelly. After assembling 69 tracks of Kells magic, he broke them down into two separate CDs, one full of slow jams and the other loaded with club tracks. Not surprisingly, XLR8R already loves this mix too. Go here for a full tracklist, ordering information and little more backstory provided by Matthew himself.

(At this point you might be wondering where the Buenos Aires connection comes in. Keep in mind that I said this post has "very little to do with Buenos Aires" and keep reading.)

Last year DJ Eleven came down to Buenos Aires to spin and local clubbers are still talking about it. Since Matthew and Eleven are such good buddies, perhaps some Porteños will be inspired to give Mr. Africa a listen. Furthermore, Matthew has actually made some quiet (very quiet) comments about possibly coming down here to play, so I'm doing my part to start the official campaign.

See, I said "very little to do with Buenos Aires". Can you blame me? It is not every day that I can hype something with a song called "I Like the Crotch on You".

More Music Is My Girlfriend

Music Is My Girlfriend, the intermittent Buenos Aires indie rock party, is back. Again.

Starting tonight, the MIMG crew will be taking over Thursdays in September at Club Unione E Benevolenza (Peron 1372). Each week will feature three bands playing live and a DJ spinning records in between.

Although the flyer artwork is a little dodgy, Music Is My Girlfriend is worth supporting simply because events like this one continue to be the exception rather than the rule in Buenos Aires.
Check out the Music Is My Girlfriend website/blog for more information and links to the various bands performing this month.

Sonido Martines (again)

Back in July, I put up a post about Buenos Aires cumbia connoisseur Sonido Martines and the fact that DJ/rupture invited him to put together a mix for the Mudd Up! show on seminal New York radio station WFMU.

Sonido Martines used the opportunity to put together an exclusive mix of cumbias rebajadas, an experimental cumbia style in which the tracks are pitched way down. The mix is called Las Rebajadas Van a Brooklin and the folks at the Word the Cat blog have been kind enough to make the entire thing available here as an mp3 download.

Las Rebajadas Van a Brooklin playlist:

Combo Sampuesano - Cumbia Monteriana
Adolfo Pacheco - Te Espero Morena
Vargas Vil - Como Yo Soy Tan Raro
Luis Enrique Martinez - Cumbia Valledupar
Super Grupo Colombia - Cumbia de Los Estados
Alejo Duran - Vuela Pajarito
La Cumbia Moderna de Soledad - ¿Crees Que Soy Sexy?
Los Mirlos - La Danza de Los Mirlos
Super Grupo Colombia - Pajaro Cenzontle
Lizandro Mesa - Cumbia pa'Oriente
Andres Landero - Cumbia Popular

Just last week, Sonido Martines appeared live on the Mudd Up! airwaves, dropping by the studio for a bilingual interview and the chance to play some more oddball cumbia tracks. WFMU has the entire playist here, along with RealAudio and mp3 links for the entire show along with individual links for each track that was played. Cumbia diehards and anyone interested in experimental sounds is highly recommended to dig in and enjoy.

By the way, major props to WFMU for being so on top of things when it comes to technology.

On Second Thought

After all the talk on Friday's post about the slow diffusion of "indie" culture in Buenos Aires, I feel compelled to point out that Argentina does get some major indie bonus points for this wacky cake commercial that I first saw airing on about 15 different screens at the local supermarket. With bizarre Teletubbies-style costumes, a sugar-fueled dance party on the streets of Buenos Aires and a soundtrack provided by Australian indie darlings Architecture in Helsinki, the spot is certainly cooler than anything Sara Lee has ever done.

By the way, the Architecture in Helsinki song is called "Do the Whirlwind" and the original video is also worth a look.