Cafe Tacuba, Mexico's rock 'n' roll survivors

Ever since the Fab Four started playing the Cavern Club in Liverpool, certain rock acts have been linked inextricably with certain cities. It practically defies imagination to picture Lou Reed honing his downtown Manhattan hipster-poet's chops in, say, Yazoo City, Miss., or Kurt Cobain and Nirvana slouching toward grunge-dom while drenched in the sunshine of South Florida, rather than soaking in Seattle's melancholy drizzle, writes Reed Johnson.

For the last 20 years, the definitive Mexico City band Café Tacuba has set a series of high-water marks for progressive Spanish-language rock, collecting critical hosannas along with Grammy awards and other trophies by the truckload.

Constantly innovating while relentlessly assimilating new influences from hip-hop to traditional Mexican regional folk and indigenous music, the quartet — vocalist-guitarist Rubén Albarrán Ortega, keyboardist and guitar player Emmanuel "Meme" del Real Díaz, guitarist José Alfredo "Joselo" Rangel Arroyo and bass player Enrique "Quique" Rangel Arroyo — has shed its musical skin and sprouted new ones as routinely as an iguana.

Read on at Pop & Hiss.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City Video by Deborah Bonello

Cafe Tacuba plays home gig and heads for L.A.

Last weekend, Cafe Tacuba — the definitive Mexico City band — rocked its hometown in a sell-out gig to more than 55,000 people in the Foro Sol venue.

Rubén Albarrán Ortega, guitarist and vocalist, was a bundle of nervous energy, spinning and jumping around the stage, his long curly hair fanning out around him like a skirt.

And the crowd loved it.

Watch the video for an interview with some of the band members and footage of the concert, and stay tuned to La Plaza for more this Sunday on the Mexican rock oufit that is known around the world.

Cafe Tacuba hits Los Angeles on June 24, where they're scheduled to play the Gibson Amphitheatre at Universal City.

— Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Video by Deborah Bonello

Fonseca makes his rounds in the U.S.

  Colombian singer-songwriter Juan Fernando Fonseca already gets the crowds in his native country out of their seats and dancing with his Latin pop songs that blend vallenato and cumbia styles. Now he’s hoping to bring the Fonseca Phenomenon to the States.  He sold-out nine of the 12 dates for his U.S. tour, which wrapped Friday. 

Earlier this week, the 30-year-old singer-songwriter, known by his surname Fonseca, performed seven songs, including "Te Mando Flores," "Gratitud" and "Arroyito," in front of roughly 200 people at the Grammy Museum in downtown L.A., where he took the honor of being the first Latin artist to perform at the venue.

Read more about Fonseca over at our Pop & Hiss blog.

--Yvonne Villarreal

Photo: Fonseca. Credit: Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times

Charge in Chilean singer's death

A judge in Chile has charged a former soldier in connection with the killing, more than 35 years ago, of the popular folk singer Victor Jara, reports the BBC.

The accused man, Jose Adolfo Paredes Marquez, now 54, was an army conscript at the time, the BBC says.

Jara was among thousands of people rounded up in the early days of Gen. Augusto Pinochet's right-wing military coup. He was taken to Santiago's national stadium, tortured and shot.

Read more here.

--Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Travel Tips for Aztlan

 

"These are a few things that you won't hear on 'Travel Tips for Aztlan,' the Saturday-night show of cutting-edge Latin American and Latino music hosted by Mark Torres and Mariluz Gonzalez on KPFK-FM (90.7): Goofy shtick. Canned repartee. Generic Spanish-language pop of the sort that clogs the commercial airwaves and, after the umpteenth rotation, can make enlightened rock en español fans reach for the mescal bottle," writes Reed Johnson in Calender, reporting from Los Angeles.

" 'Unfortunately, Latin radio is 10 years behind. Stop playing Juanes already,' said Torres, who started 'Travel Tips' 14 years ago and has made it the L.A. region's longest-running Latin alternative-rock program."

--Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Photo: “Travel Tips for Aztlan” hosts Mariluz Gonzalez and Mark Torres. Credit: Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

Where did the Mexican earthquake catch you?

Mexico City and Puebla were given a shaking this afternoon by a brief but strong earthquake, sending many people (including us here in The Times' Mexico City Bureau) running into the streets. 

Details on the consequences of the quake are still emerging. Meanwhile, a Mexican friend sent me the following link to a song by the legendary Chico Che called "Where Did the Earthquake Grab You?"

Here in a city that in the last few months has been plagued by a deadly flu outbreak, recession and an equally strong earthquake just three weeks ago, maybe there's nothing left to do but dance.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

`Tex Mex Beatles' song inspired by Times story

The Krayolas, who when they first emerged on the U.S. music scene in San Antonio were known as the "Tex Mex Beatles", recently got in touch with our Mexico City office to let correspondent Ken Ellingwood know that one of his stories inspired a song on their latest album.

"Corrido Twelve Heads in a Bag" on the "Long Leaf Pine (No Smack Gum)" album was written by Hector Saldana because, according to Saldana's note, he was "so affected" by Ellingwood's Dec. 22 report, which chronicled the latest macabre discovery in the ongoing drug war in Mexico.

Brazilian Caetano Veloso takes a tumble

Brazilian singer, songwriter and musician Caetano Veloso wowed his audience at a recent concert in the city of Brasilia, Brazil, but not so much with his tunes. 

Mexican alt-rockers Zoe are tearing down musical borders

If you cross the U.S.-Mexico border with any regularity, you may have experienced an occasional cultural time-warp effect. Visitors who stumble upon a ruined Aztec pyramid in the center of Mexico City realize that the history of the Western Hemisphere didn't start at Plymouth Rock. And Mexicans visiting California, Texas and other border states are likely to discover that certain Mexican rock bands who are superstars back home barely register on the pop-culture radar across la frontera.

Until recently, that's been the case with Zoé, the 14-year-old Mexican quintet that is among the most consistently intelligent and conceptually ambitious of alternative rock en español bands. But the band's current 12-date U.S. tour, its biggest so far, may bring them to a new, deservedly higher level of stateside recognition.

 

The ultimate swine flu mixtape

TimeOut New York takes a light approach to the swine flu outbreak....

"Hey, we’re just as worried as anyone about contracting the swine flu (well, maybe not as worried as the dude I saw wearing a medical mask on the subway yesterday). And we totally understand that this thing is serious and deadly. But what else can you do besides wash your hands until they’re red, accept the existence of the flu and listen to these songs?" writes Colin St. John.

Click the link to see the song selection.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City