Catch me on La Rocka FM
Hi there boys and grrrrls!
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
It’s been a bit longer than usual since my last update, but I’m back with some good news on the scene. First up, I got myself a pretty good gig at a local radio show on La Rocka FM, one of the coolest rock stations in Cordoba city. The show “Si Supieras” (If you knew) is hosted by two absolute wackos: Carlitos Julio and Pablo Daus, who teamed up 2 years ago to bring weeknights to life with a mix of bizarre news, band interviews, and the best impressions of tacky Arg soap actors, all this spiced up with lotsa great rock both new and classic. Back in November I started having my own half-hour “spot” on Thursday nites introducing Aussie and New Zealand rock.There’s not much happenning with Oz music releases in Argentina other than your usual INXS or Silverchair albums, so I thought there’s so many cool bands down under, why not give people the chance to catch up with that scene too. So I’ve been playing stuff like Moler, The Superjesus, Pacifier and Motor Ace, and soon a few classics like Radio Birdman and You Am I…
To follow-up past news, I’m happy to inform that my mates from Juan Terrenal actually won that “Rock en Obras” band competition finals I talked about, held last Nov, meaning they got a record deal with Universal Records! The vibe in Cordoba’s small but busy rock scene is high, with everyone being excited ’cause Juan Terrenal is one of our local credits, so we’re all hoping it could snowball and help Cordoba’s bands make a bit of an impact in the Arg rock scene, usually monopolised exclusively by BA’s bands. The guys in JT are gearing up for a few big summer fest appearances in Jan/Feb, courtesy of their new signed-band status. Check out a pic of their singer Miguel and me at one of our gigs early Dec…
On Oct 18th we @ HYPERSTATIC got the chance to play with Bristol from Buenos Aires’ capital city, and a trio called Klem from Bahia Blanca (a cold windy city in the province of Buenos Aires). While Bristol was the better known name on the bill, it was Klem who took everyone by surprise giving a hell of a great show. They are definitely in the alternative noise pop bracket, with almost all of their set sung in English. Frontman Juan Bouscayrol sings with a tuneful childish voice over a massive wall of noise, coming from his Jaguar guitar which he plays like a total madman. Klem’s set featured both dreamy sonic ballads and in-yer-face rocking tunes, closing with a blistering punkified version of Clapton’s “Sunshine of your love”, complete with deafening feedback and band members falling off stage. So THAT was a good band from the province of BA, while Bristol from Capital city did a poor job at living up to the crowd’s expectations, playing lame indie pop with no atittude whatsoever, it really left all of us wanting to hear more from Klem!
In a year with almost no international acts visiting Argentina -only Red Hot Chili Peppers, and small club shows by Stephen Malkmus, Luna and German punkrockers Die Toten Hosen- punters turned to give a lot more support to the local bands, so we’ve had good shows with all kinds of national acts in town almost every weekend. There’s also been a lot more festivals and big events happenning all around Argentina as well. They say when in crisis people get more creative…I guess it’s true!
On that note, on Sat 7th Dec HYPERSTATIC shared another good night with 2 indie rock household names from BA: Francisco Bochaton (whom I talked about before, check my Aug update) and Massacre. The show was organised by the radio show where I play Oz rock, and the festivities started at noon that day with a BBQ with all 3 bands, so we all got to meet each other prior to that night’s gig. I got talking to Massacre’s singer Wallas about…Aussie rock! As it turns out, he’s a big fan of Oz acts, he even sports a tatt of classic Aussies Radio Birdman on his forearm, very rare to find as I just mentioned Oz bands are virtually unknown here.
Later in the evening, at Casa Babylon us ‘STATICs played a real fun gig -even as a three-piece because our guitarist Ariel was outta town that weekend- it was a blast! Our Kiss cover “Sure know something” is still a crowd favourite, who knew. Then it was Bochaton’s turn to get onstage, they sounded a lot rawer than the last time I saw them, which was an added bonus to his new material, the recently released “Mundo de acción” album.
In spite of their sordid moniker, Massacre are actually quite a life-affirming indie rock band. They formed in 1985, with their self-described mix of “atomic skate punk” and “custom guitar pop” which isn’t far off the truth, they’ve achieved cult-status in this country wether they like it or not. Their fans follow them anywhere they play, singing along every song even if it hasn’t been released, now that’s being a proper fan! Wallas has a fun stage-persona, dancing about like a 10-year-old, at times singing thru’ a blowhorn, at times banging a tambourine against his own belly or dedicating songs to Marianne Faithful. Massacre played songs from most of their career, including a few covers like their glorious version of The Kinks’ “You Really Got Me”, or Argentinean 80′s pop icons Virus’ “El Probador”. In between shows, @ backstage there was much talk about setting up gigs in BA with Hyperstatic and Massacre, and we exchanged CDs and band T-shirts. Also fans were pouring in to get their picture taken with Francisco Bochaton, who patiently posed with a smile. We couldn’t resist the photo opp ourselves, so check it out, from L to R: ‘Statics drummer Alberto, me, Francisco Bochaton and Charlie our bass player.
This just in! Argentinean summer fest “Cosquin Rock” at the summery city of Cosquin (province of Cordoba), is going ahead on its 3rd year on Feb 6-9 2003, featuring the best of both mainstream and alternative Argento rock bands, also featuring unsigned bands from all over the country opening each day. Three bands from Cordoba were chosen out of a total of 21 on Dec 13, 14, 15, by a panel of local media people like radio programmers and music journalists who picked one band from each nite to play at Cosquin Rock 2003. The bands played at Casa Babylon, HYPERSTATIC being one of them, and guess what? WE WON AND WE WILL PLAY AT COSQUIN ROCK FESTIVAL 2003!! YEAH! We are playing on Feb 7th, together with a number of Arg stars like El Otro Yo, Attaque 77, Divididos and lots more. Expect a major update with pics and deets very soon! Can’t help but say: Yay!
Oh! Here’s my list of 2002 favorites, in no particular order: “Last call for vitriol” -Superdrag, “Songs for the deaf” -Queens of the Stone Age, “In my place” song by Coldplay, my Fender Tele’ Custom ’72, making lots of great new friends, and successfully managing to fall for both the irresistibly dark “Six Feet Under” and the goofy “Smallville”…
Happy 2003!!
lotsaxxxxxx Kari
Leave a Reply