Among the many genres of music I follow, there’s a special place in my heart for post-psychedelic music.
Last year, I first heard Dungen’sSa Blev Det Bestamt with it’s surprising nod to Turkish psychedelic rock but I hadn’t paid much attention to the rest of the album. Lately, I’ve been giving the album a second listen and I’ve been blown away by some of the songs, in particular Familj (above). It’s the keyboard/organ on this track that’s pulled me in, plus it kinda reminds me of another favorite group, Can (see below). I know everyone thought Caribou’s foray into psychedelia, Andorra was the 2007 record of the year but now I’m liking Dungen’s Tio Bitar much more.
And for the fun of it, I just found this on youtube, one of my all-time favorite songs ever!
I’ve recently taken a small diversion from Flamenco and electronic music to explore the realms of Border music. I think it has to do with my ongoing nostalgia for the Southwest. A few years ago, I took trips to Arizona and New Mexico to do some genealogical research and left feeling connected to that geographic area, the roots trailing behind me on the highway home. Unfortunately, I no longer have immediate family in the region, but I’m sure Tucson is filled with distant relatives I will probably never meet. These trips and my on-going genealogical investigations inspired my new found interest in border music.
These emotions were stirred up recently when I watched the Arhoolie produced video, Chulas Fronteras.
“’Chulas Fronteras’ provides a magnificent introduction to the most exciting Norteña (“Northern” Texas-Mexican border) musicians working today: Los Alegres de Teran, Lydia Mendoza, Flaco Jimenez and others. The music and spirit of the people is seen embodied in their strong family life and sheer enjoyment of domestic rituals preparing of food and eating, celebrating a 50th wedding anniversary, gathering in the backyard with friends. At the same time Blank does not overlook the hardships, in particular the Chicano experience of migrating from state to state with the seasons for work in the fields. He makes clear the role that music has in redeeming their lives by giving utterance to collective pain. For music, politics and life are integrated in this film in a way that is both enchanting and unsettling.”
Narciso Martinez from Chulas Fronteras
The opening scene shows some Tejanos on a make shift ferry (basically what looked to be a raft of wooden pallets) pulling their truck across the Rio Grande/Bravo. Rope is strung between the shores, which the men use to pull the ferry and the truck, across by hand. The DIY ingenuity continues during a scene of a bar-b-que tardeada showing these same men as they prepare, for what looks to be, a fine meal. While one grinds chiles in a molcajete, the other improvises and uses his beer bottle and bucket as a mortar and pestle to pulp roasted tomatoes for his salsa. There’s also a great scene of legendary Lydia Mendoza (RIP) making tamales in her kitchen. This is a music documentary mind you, but these small vignettes of Tejano life are what make the music and the subjects so compelling.
As for the music itself, there’s plenty of corridos, norteños and rancheras to accompany the various life scenes. All the lyrics are translated too. I particularly enjoyed the scenes of the live performances and the dancing couples in Tejano salons and niteclubs. (I consider my life somewhat tragic for never having learned to properly dance to corridos, nortenos or for that matter, any other dance that requires a partner.) Perhaps if I watch the documentary enough, I can pick up a few steps!
I’m grateful for filmmakers like Les Blank who had the foresight to capture these cultural moments in time and create audio visual treasures like Chulas Fronteras.
The video is generally available on the internet and at the Los Angeles Public Library.
Chulas Fronteras with:
Lydia Mendoza, Flaco Jiménez, Narciso Martínez, Los Alegres de Teran, Rumel Fuentes, Don Santiago Jiménez, Los Pinqüinos Del Norte, Ramiro Cavazos (Canción Mixteca)
and others.
My love for cheesy Spanish 70s pop ballads started with this song, one of my all time favorites, Jeanette’s Por Que Te Vas. My introduction to this wistful melody was through the dark and melancholy 1976 film, Cria Cuervos. In the movie, the young girl Ana uses the song as way to escape the dreariness and sorrow of her family life (an allegorical stand in for fascist Spain). Ana’s father, a fascist military man has recently died (she believes she has poisoned him) and her dead mother who died a few years before, comes to Ana as a phantom memory. Her authoritarian aunt and dying grandmother are left to look after her but her real life lessons come from the anarchistic housekeeper. In the midst of this turmoil, young Ana begins to mix reality with fantasy and at times, her older self of the future speaks to her:
I don’t believe in childhood paradise, or in innocence, or the natural goodness of children. I remember my childhood as a long period of time, interminable, sad, full of fear, fear of the unknown.
In this context, the song is transformed and the lyrics “Hoy en mi ventana brilla el sol/ y un corazon/ se pone triste contemplando la ciudad/ por que te vas” take on more meaning than Jeanette could ever have imagined.
The director of Cria Cuervos, Carlos Saura went on later to make a number of fantastic flamenco themed movies.
[As an aside, for another take on childhood-turned-on-it’s-head movies, I totally recommend Terry Gilliam’s Tideland, an all time favorite of mine. Not for those that are squeamish, easily offended or have delicate sensibilities. Coincidentally, in both films the young protagonists have interactions with little critters. In Tideland, Jeliza-Rose is taunted by a squirrel and in Cria Cuervos, Ana is attached to a pet guinea pig. ]
It’s rare when something can move me to tears…okay, not that rare. I’m a regular crybaby but I couldn’t stop the tears after watching this short documentary on a sex workers retirement home (well, despite their age, some have not yet retired) in the Tepito neighborhood of Mexico D.F. It’s produced by Vice but don’t let that dissuade you, it’s very well done.
The other day I was talking to a friend of mine about music, when I made the most stupid remark ever. I said, “I don’t like romantic music.” I regretted it as soon as I said it. I absolutely love Boleros, music that can only be described as romantic. I love Flamenco, heart-wrenching melodramatic Italian arias, Kings of Convenience, Bossa Nova and I love this song! It’s one of my mom’s favorites and she had me sing it on her new karaoke machine the other day (much more fun that it sounds!). I’m familiar with the tune but it wasn’t until I actually attempted to sing it that I realized what a beautiful piece of music it is, very different than other Musica Romantica melodies. Javier Solis’ interpretation is my favorite. Read the rest of this entry »
A photo I took for my 10th grade photography class at Fairfax High School Arts Magnet. Perhaps it need not be said but I had many adventures with these girls, lots of intense experiences for our age.
At school we were sometimes called The Rainbow Brites after the popular kids cartoon. In the punk/hardcore scene we were called The Hollywood Girls, usually by the suburban, OC punk girls who hated us. Yeah, good times.
top row (l to r): Izzy, Alice, Nicole
bottom row (l to r): Silja, Lee, Kali, Lisa, Claudia
Bits of songs float - through the radio, at parties of people who I don’t know very well, in ethnic restaurants while I sit eating, through open windows of cars driving by, and I listen. Sometimes I become so immediately enamored with the song, that I will do anything to discover it’s name or the artist. Other times, like in the case of Rita Mitsouko, I wait 20 years for this information. Luckily for me, Arthur Russell’s Instrumentals 1974-Vol 1 (please click to listen) was immediately findable thanks to internet sleuthing skills.
There are a few songs, like Instrumentals that stir my soul, that resonate in that place in me where music goes to be enjoyed. One day I’ll make a list of these songs and play them one after one until the harmonious nature of the melody and whatever it is that makes me tick, combine into one long joyful audio experience. A little on Arthur Russell:
He was one of those genius musicians who cultivated their art in the heady days of 1970s New York. Like many of his peers, he passed away young but fortunately, his amazing music lives on. The clip above is from a new documentary of his life and work.
For my sixth grade graduation, I was given a small, rectangular camera. It used a sort of film (now extinct) that created photos with no sharp edges.
These are some of the photos I took on my last day in elementary school. Read the rest of this entry »
Ah, the Bay Area! When I first saw this video, I couldn’t help thinking, “This is so San Francisco, kinda lame but sorta cool.” You’ll know what I mean when you watch it.
Cheers to the Bay Area and the folks who live there, I sure never could! (okay, I tried in the East Bay but I lasted less than a year…)
