Time Flew So Fast!
Hola!
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Hey, would someone please tell me what the hell happened to 2003 that it´s already ending and I just noticed!?? Must´ve been so busy I didn´t realize that this week we got Xmas eve… and it´s that lovely time again when we (don´t) look forward to seeing that flashy-dressed aunt we don´t see all year asking why are you not married at your age, and that dodgy cousin that´s always trying to chat you up, and your sister´s inlaws who look funny at you coz they think you´re too weird and probably into drugs or something coz you play in that rock band, and also struggling to find a taxi after midnight to get the hell out of your place to your friend’s party which always leads to being stuck at home coz there’s no such thing as a free cab on Xmas eve…Gotta love the holidays!
Buy hey, it´s a good feeling to leave a year behind and get ready to rock the new one! So let´s get cracking on what´s been happening in the last months of 
2003 in Argentina´s scene.
We´ve had some international acts like Mexican alternative pop Cafe Tacuba who played back on October 19th in Cordoba. This is a band that´s really hard to put a style tag on, and they´ve just released Cuatro Caminos which is their excellent 5th album that won them international recognition, they are amongst the best 50 albums of 2003 by Blender magazine. Also in Buenos Aires there were hugely sucessful shows by German punk rockers Die Toten Hosen and Canadian techno-punk chick Peaches. Speaking of Buenos Aires, there was a huge spring fest there called Quilmes Rock which brought over 70 bands together over 7 nights featuring the best bands in Argentinean rock like El Otro Yo, Gustavo Cerati, Las Pelotas, Divididos, Juana La Loca, Attaque 77 and special appearances by Die Toten Hosen and Cafe Tacuba, and also some indie acts like Los 7 Delfines and Leo Garcia. The fest had over 110.000 people making it the biggest rock fest in Argentina in a long time.
On the new albums front we got some interesting releases like the brand new InFame by Babasonicos. Their much awaited 7th album was launched live here in Cordoba on Nov 29th to a 5000 bouncing crowd on a hellish thunderstorm night that made it impossible to many advanced ticket holders to reach the venue. InFame follows the lead of previous album Jessico (their 2001 platinum album) adding powerful radio-friendly production (from ex Butthole Surfers Andrew Weiss) and a whole bunch of groovy retro tunes clashed with electronica leftovers in Beck style, but also think of Dick Dale’s surf guitars meet The Music with a touch of cheesy cool disco drum beats and some irresistible acoustic ballads and we’ve got one of the albums of the year. There´s also new records by Los Piojos “Maquina de Sangre” (with a 70.000 crowd on the CD live launch) and La Renga “Detonador de sueños”, both bands are currently the biggest selling acts in Argentina, closely followed by Las Pelotas with their new album “Esperando el milagro” and Attaque 77 with Antihumano. This makes 2003 a big come back for rock music in the country, and I couldn´t be happier to see teenagers getting into rock instead of Ricky Martin-like crap or lame pop reality show “stars” a la American idol.
But enough about them, let´s talk about us! Hyperstatic that is. Well let me say that we´ve had a hell of good year. We released a single last month called Hey, wait! which is now # 1 on various rock radio Top 5 charts in town, this is the preview of our 1st full length album which we´ll be finishing up during the Southern summer, with an April 2004 release if all goes well. We launched our brand new website designed by yours truly and I promise to finish the English version pretty soon too! We´ve also had some great fun gigs over the past few months, like on September 19th we travelled to Ucacha, a town South of Cordoba province, to play at the Primarock Ucacha festival. This is the home town of our pal band Enhola. We had a blast from the moment we stepped on the tour bus at 8am that Friday, Enhola, Hyper and another local band: Herederos. The 4 hour trip was spiced up with hooliganish 70s tacky hits chanting, battle of the worst cover song on a 5 string beat up acoustic guitar and some uncalled for toilet humour…me being the only female in the bus had to try and be brave! Later on there was some jamming and switching of instruments during the laid-back sound check in the afternoon (there I am trying to remember how to play drums), and lotsa food and more beers. We headed down to the local FM radio for an interview, and can you believe we also signed authographs on CDs? Hah! That´s the good thing about playing a small town! They make you feel a celebrity. The show was awesome, about 1000 people came from all nearby towns, and it seems we´ll be doing it all over again in Feb 2004 for the summer edition.
To top a great year off, last night guess what happened?!?!? Anyone remember back in Feb this year we’d won a slot at this huge summer fest Cosquin Rock? Well, this year we entered the band competition with our new single and they pre-selected us again…and we played last night…and we WON AGAIN! yes! We´ll be going to Cosquin Rock 2004 next February for the 2nd year in a row! So, you can expect another major story on the crazy festival´s 4th edition from an insider: me! YAY! And I think we get to play on the same night as the great Mexican band Molotov (see my previous update) alongside the aforementioned Las Pelotas, Babasonicos and many other big ones. Mmmh, note to self: remember to bring the camera and actually TAKE photos instead of getting too drunk to pose with celebrities (like last time).
And before I go, I´ll leave you with my favourites of 2003 in no particular order and for whatever reason: Ryan Adams “Rocknroll”, getting a new cool part time job, finally finding the definitive band line-up, The White Stripes “Elephant”, my weekly radio spot on new rock, Fountains of Wayne “Welcome Interstate Managers”, and as always, my friends.
OH! and I almost forgot to mention Metallica who get the biggest fucking BOOOHH!! of the year for last-minute cancelling their sold-out BA show for being alledgedly “tired” of the tour, and then playing a Japan string of shows instead, that same week. That obviously was more lucrative for them as tickets in Japan, as we all know, are the most expensive ones on Earth. Way to go James and Lars! You can be sure that this lost them 99% of their once loyal Argentinean fans, who have been voting this screw-up as Worst Event of the Year on the Argentinean Rolling Stone and other magazine and website polls. Hah. Talk about Saint ANGER!
And this is it for me! I hope you all have great holidays and stuff yourselves up in food and drink champagne till you learn fluent Danish, and I´ll catch you next year.
xxxxKari
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