Last Post This Year
Hello all!
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I’m back just before the end of the year! In time to tell you what’s been happenning in the Argentinean scene lately, and what’s in store for 2005 summer.
Back in August Hyperstatic invited a really cool band from Rosario (Santa Fe province) called All The Hats to play in Cordoba city. They have one EP and a brand new album “No Signal”, and have a tight punk sound in the Social Distortion/Hot Water Music direction. The ‘Hats played with us on Aug 27th in Cordoba for their 1st time here, together with another one of our fave’ local bands SMILE. It turned out to be a good night with all 3 bands showing their different approach to the same kinda style and sound, and we are now invited by the “rosarinos” to go and play in the city of Rosario after the summer. In the meantime, the All The Hats-owned label Basstard Co. have released a punk compilation “Vive Le Punk” featuring bands like All the Hats, Murio de Asco, Nitrominds, Hyperstatic and Arruinado pero Felíz.
As mentioned before, we had an international visit during September, as our good friend Monique from Melbourne, Oz group Band Camp came to Cordoba for holidays, a bit of rockin’ and lots of great coffee…so she says. Mon spent 2 full weeks in between Cordoba and Buenos Aires, and played a couple of acoustic shows where she did some new songs plus some old faves. The 1st show was with Sullivan (Charlie’s – ex Hyperstatic bassist own band) in Villa Allende near Cordoba, and the second one with Hyper in a club in the Abasto area in the city. She also did a radio appearance, co-hosting my usual New Rock segment on Wednesday nights on La Rocka 97.5FM where Mon introduced some cool Aussie rock, and then played a mini unplugged show (Check out the pics with show host CJ, and a photo of the gang out and about in Cordoba).
In the local album releases front we have some good news: Cordoba bands are actually releasing music in a proffesional non-indie, non CD-R copy way! Yeah! We couldn’t be happier, as we are always struggling to be heard among the avalanche of crappy Buenos Aires’ bands who get released just because they are based in the capital city, where all the big labels are. No offense, I mean, there are some good bands there like Smitten, Massacre, Shaila etc, but lately our bands are just way better.
For one, Juan Terrenal, one of the bands with the biggest fanbase in Cordoba, have released their second album Nuestraforma a few weeks ago. The guys have a bit of a cult following, with kids knowing the words to their every song, sporting hand-made JT T-shirts and hanging the band’s logo banners around the clubs where they play and all. The album features 17 songs, it comes in a cool original package, and has a solid rock sound, showing influences from a range of 90s alt-rock bands, and includes a Spanish-sung version of The Cure’s Boys Don’t Cry which has become a big radio single.
Also another growing band who are about to release an album is punk rockers 250 Centavos. I’ve mentioned them before as playing Cosquin Rock together with Hyper earlier this year. They just got signed to the new label Pirca Records (from Cordoba but co-owned by some big BA promoters) and it’s being pressed as we speak, the CD goes by the name of SONRIE..mañana será peor. This is the 1st release from Pirca Records and several other Cordoba bands are said to be signed right after the summer as well…look out for that!
Speaking of recording albums, Hyperstatic just started recording the debut CD! It’s about time, isn’t it? We went to Los Angeles Estudio in Nono, province of Cordoba, at the end of October to lay down drums and bass tracks. The studio is actually owned by Las Pelotas (one the big selling bands of Arg) and we had a blast recording there, as it’s a house in the middle of the mountains, with so much peace and quiet that you are almost afraid of making noises with your guitar! We are currently in the process of travelling to Buenos Aires to finish recording guitars and vocals, if all goes well, with one of our favorite producers. The album should be out in March/April 2005, and we have 2 good solid offers from labels to release it…when it’s all decided, signed and done, you’ll hear it first here!
In the meantime I can tell you that on October 22nd we played at another big festival called La Voz Rock 2004, with Las Pelotas headlining our night, in the new arena-like venue Orfeo Superdomo with am 8000 capacity.
The 1st night Thu 21, the fest opened with Mexican alternative pop from Café Tacuba, classic artists Fito Paez and Spinetta and Ely Guerra also from Mexico.
On Friday 22nd, unfortunately for us, we had to play as a 3 piece as our guitarist Perro had a huge personal problem that same afternoon which made it impossible for him to make it to the show. But we came out, played loud and had lots of fun, plus a good response from the crowd which was almost to the arena’s full capacity at that time.
Right after us, Carajo from BA rocked the stage, showcasing their brand new sophomore album Atrapasueños. The nu-metal trio are luckily shying away from the old nu-metal cliches and are sounding more rock and melodic than before, a welcome change even for the hardcore fanbase.
Then latin rockers Arbol took the stage, giving the most energetic and succesful show of the festival as far as crowd-response goes, with both their singers managing to get the entire Orfeo crowd to sit down and then jump back up all together at their will! They closed their set with all five Arbol members singing a cover of cult band Los Redonditos de Ricota with Carajo playing as the back-up band…impressive.
Kapanga are not to be taken seriously…or are they? They mix rock with latin with cumbia with pop and everything in between. Their singer Mono is one of the most charismatic frontmen in Arg rock. They invited musicians from Arbol to play with them. Las Pelotas closed the night to 7000 raging fans.
On Saturday, Sullivan opened the last date of the festival to a warm crowd, then classic reggae 9-piece Los Pericos proved there is life after surviving the departure of lead singer Bahiano in 2003 after 15 years of career, with guitarist Juanchi Baleiron taking on the vocal duties and doing a great job at it. Babasonicos brought the 3 day fest to an end with their new found fame among commercial radio listeners who only know their hit singles…the rest of the show goes out to us….the real longtime fans!
Oh, I didn’t go for lack of money and, eeerr…days off from work, but on November we had the 2-day Personal Fest in Buenos Aires, with great international acts like the Mars Volta, PJ Harvey, Primal Scream, Morrissey and many others proving the days of no good overseas live concerts in Argentina are gone, thank God for that! The next weekend also in Buenos Aires Creamfields landed in Argentina for the 2nd time, featuring Groove Armada, Paul Oakenfold, Carlos Alfonsin, and Adicta among many others.
In Cordoba, we had a cool intimate acoustic show from former Pavement leader Stephen Malkmus a few weeks ago, and last night we went to see Living Colour, I’m not a fan, but hey are those guys good at what they do!
In the meantime, looking ahead I must report the famous Cosquin Rock as we know it has changed location, after a much publicised war in between 2 of the most powerful live show promoters.
The company who owns the Cosquin rock name (the same organisers of the past 4 years) are moving the event to a big open field near the city of Carlos Paz, Cordoba and it will take place on Feb 4-7, it will feature a main and a smaller stage, merch stands, more food, more toilets (to avoid last year’s embarassment and…stink) and are already announcing some international acts like Café Tacuba and The Wailers plus the usual big names in Argentinean rock.
The other company is having their still-unnnamed festival in the old venue in the city of Cosquin, the weekend after the “original” Cosquin Rock, and promises a more commercial band line-up to differentiate themselves from the other fest. We’ll see how this goes, and if punters will have the money to opt for one or both events, being so close to each other…
OK grrrls and boys, I have to go for now. I’ll be back during the summer to tell you what’s happenning and what’s hot in the scene, till then take care, I wish you all great holidays…
Love
Kari
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