A Latin Decade

These are some of the songs that I really enjoyed in the past decade of listening to Latin music. What you must understand first is that I only listen to mainstream Latin music -- it's incredibly hard to listen to anything else since I live thousands of miles from where this music is created. This is not to say that these are bad song, but they are the songs that are popular enough for me to have heard of.

BACILOS
I'm starting you off easy with some Latin-pop by Bacilos. These guys are actually from Miami, but originally from Colombia. So its something that can be easily be digested by North American culture. My favorite songs are Caraluna and Mi Primer Millon.

CALLE 13
Let's see if you can handle this one: Calle 13. It's one of my favorite bands, but are by no means easily digestible by North Americans - give it a try.

KRIZ Y ANGEL
Normally these guys usually focus on one genre of music called Reggaeton. This song though, has many other rhythms such as Bachata and Merengue. This should introduce you to a few of the Latin American music genres all in one song. The second song is a straight Reggaeton song.

DADDY YANKEE
The most popular/mainstream Reggaeton artist to date. My favorite song by him.

MANU CHAO
Speaking of popular: this is the most popular Latin artist in the world. He sells out concerts all over Europe, North, and South America. If you haven't heard of him, this is a good song to start with. It's most definitely the most main-stream/popular song by him. The second song is another one of my favorites by him and the first song that made him a household name.

ORISHAS
These guys are crazy good. They are hip-hop artists that sample cuban music for a lot of their songs (at least on the first CD). Listen to the first song by them to see what I mean. The second song is a more updated sound by the group.

KINKY
Latin electronic music is actually quite vast. This band is one of the most popular ones around.

MOLOTOV
These guys started off more than a decade ago, and released quite a few great singles. I especially like their protest songs concerning the corruption of government, and the US' immigration laws. Unfortunately the drop quite a few f-bombs so I can't really post them. Here is a cover of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, and a song called Gimme Tha Power. Yep, about corruption in government.

There are countless more genres that we can explore together. Let's see the feedback on this first.

They got me!

They got me – motion of me shaking my fist at McDonald’s.
I’d like to think that I’m immune to advertising, but obviously that is not the case.

Exhibit A:



The commercial is obviously targeted at hungry students who like this type of music -- yes that's me.So after watching this commercial a few times I really started wondering what song was playing in the background, and if it was a song created specifically for the commercial. Turns out it’s a band from France that I had never heard of: Bot’Ox.

Here is the full song: Blue Steel.



I’m ashamed to say that I did buy a McDonald’Quarter Pounder the week I watched this commercial. Now you know the way to my heart: through music. Oh, and through my belly.
Good job McDonald's; don't ever do it again.

Sadly, it’s official.

They had a great run while it lasted; sadly, it’s over. Flight of the Conchords will not be returning to TV. From what I hear, they found that it was a lot of work to write songs, act, and write the show. I heard the news just before the second season ended, and I was hoping that they were all just rumors. However, the bad announced officially yesterday that the rumors are true.

Let's watch one small clip of the show to remind us of the good times we had together.




In case you don't know who Flight of the Conchords are, here is a brief introduction.

Flight of the Conchords is a New Zealand comedy duo composed of Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement. Billing themselves as "Formerly New Zealand's fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo",the group uses a combination of witty observation, characterisation and acoustic guitar music. The duo's comedy and music became the basis of a BBC radio series and then an American television series, which premiered in 2007, also called Flight of the Conchords.
They were named Best Alternative Comedy Act at the 2005 US Comedy Arts Festival and Best Newcomer at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, and they received a nomination for the Perrier Comedy Award at the 2003 Edinburgh Festival Fringe after performing at a venue called The Caves. The duo's live performances have gained them a worldwide cult following. -Wikipedia

"We've noticed the less we say about the future of the show, the more people want to talk about it, so in an effort to reverse this trend we are today announcing that we won't be returning for a 3rd season," said the group on their official website.

The show ran for a total of 11 hours but managed to gather quite the following. What made the show was their dry humor, the witty songs, and the charismatic characters --Bret and Jemaine who both played themselves.

If you happen to like the show you can watch some of the movies that Jemaine and Bret are in: Eagle Vs. Shark is one of them -I'm sure that there are more.

We will miss you!

Winter Gloves - Concert Review

Band: Winter Gloves
Date: November 27, 2009
Venue: The Lo Pub
Rating: Four and a half stars



It was hard to tell if they were going to be able to pull-it-off. Winter Gloves – a Montreal-based band – came back to the city for a second time; but this time they were the main act of the night. The result: they rocked the Lo Pub.

At the beginning of the night, it looked like it was going to be a disaster – it was 9:30 pm and neither the band nor the audience were there – but by ten thirty the opening band Royal Canoe began to entertain the crowd. Little by little, the small pub became more and more crowded. By 12:45 am, Winter Gloves finally came on stage; encouraging those who were sitting down to jump to their feet and make their way towards the stage. The band’s high-energy synthesizer based rock could be heard all the way outside where people gathered to satisfy their nicotine crave; anyone standing outside made their way in and began to gather around the stage – they enthusiastically bobbed their heads to the beat of all the songs.

The band leader – and song writer – Charles F. lead the band in rocking the small room. Pat Sayers’ mustache could be seen from across the room; and kept a perfect drum beat. Vincent Chalifour – the other piano player – complemented the song with even more synthesizer. Guitarist Jean-Michel Pigeon tossed in riffs ad-lib while keeping a little bit of enthusiasm.

Roughly, an hour after the show began the crowd yelled loudly when Sayers left his post – the drums – and handed out free demo CDs to the crowd.

The show took place at the Lo Pub, which generally does not see this amount of traffic unless there is a concert scheduled. The pub has a beautiful mid-century feel, and a very friendly, cozy atmosphere: couches, a gas fireplace, and tables all around. At the bar, a signed photograph by Bob Barker is a frequent conversation starter.

Charles F. is the original composer of all the songs. After the cross Canada tour earlier this year, the band began to sound more like a unit rather than just a collection of musicians playing Charles F’s songs. They adapted several of their songs to include a more complete sound – all the new version of the songs can be heard on the free CD the band gave away the show.

The play-list included all their singles: Let me Drive, Party People, and Piano 4 Hands. In fact, they are such a new band that they played all the music they have ever released. They decided to end the night with the song Factories: a song about a young boy in a big city, and a representation of Charles F’s first experience of Montreal.

Winnipeg is the last Canadian city of the band’s tour. This time, they managed to make some new fans who gladly lined up to purchase the band’s t-shirts and CDs.

Being a student; I was not one of them – although I have already purchased their album and a t-shirt from them. I will most definitely be purchasing the next CD they release, and will continue to support them every time they come back to the city.