A Preview of My Favorite Albums of 2010 List (Budos Band edition)

Sure to rank pretty darn high:



I haven't started writing my Favorite Albums of 2010 list as of yet, though I do hope to have in done by Christmas. I have a pretty good idea of the top 15 spots, but I am not sure about the order on a number of them.

What He Said

Just When I Thought I Couldn't Dislike Bono Any More Than I Already Do (Sorry Spidey edition)

This atrocity falls close on the heels of the mental anguish caused by my repeated accidental viewings of this advertisement on the back covers of The Economist and The New Yorker over the last few months:

Why won't a lawyer take my case? Please message me if you are an attorney willing to help me sue Bono for all the pain and suffering he has caused me in the last decade or so. He has to be stopped.

Today is a Day for "New Garage Explosion! (Part I)" [View Out the Jams edition]

A couple of days back I watched part 1 of an entertaining and quite well-crafted documentary by Scion on the recent years (and historical context) of "garage rock" across the country. This first 25 minute segment contains live footage and interviews with bands that I was already familiar with (Jay Reatard, Black Lips, The Dirtbombs, and The Oblivians) and numerous bands that I had not heard about prior to viewing this documentary. The short explorations of the local Memphis and Detroit scenes are fantastic. The kids are alright, mofos.

Play it for free on the production company's site:


The promo description:
To find out what American garage rock looks like (and to know what it’s like to be in an independent band) right now, VBS toted a bunch of cameras around the USA and found a scene that was vibrant, loud, eloquent, effed-up, and nearly impossible to define. The musicians, artists, writers, deejays and label owners that we talked to could only be united by a single common thread—their commitment to music that they enjoyed, on their terms, at whatever cost necessary (or, in some cases, unnecessary). We met nice, smart, funny people who love rock and roll, don’t traffic in B.S., and had the wherewithal to pick up a guitar (or complementary instrument) at some point in their young lives, put their face to a microphone, and manage to not think too hard about what was going to come out.

Join us for Part One of New Garage Explosion!! With a nod to the genre’s founding fathers (bands like The Lollipop Shoppe and MC5), we travel first to Memphis to mind-meld with Magic Kids and to go head-to-head with Jay Reatard in the last interview he filmed before his death in January of this year. Next we hit Detroit, where watch The Dirtbombs wreck a bowling alley and talked to Dave Buick about the power of the hand-printed record.

I am very much looking forward to Parts II & III, mofos.

Tonight is a Night for Guateque Estelar by Matoraalman (2010)

Matorralman is led by Mexico City musician and producer Miguel Rizo.



You can stream the entire album for free on their label's website here.

Information from the offical album promo materials:

Nacional Records is proud to announce the release of the U.S. debut album from Matorralman. ‘Guateque Estelar’ is a collection of songs that fuse electronic lounge music with surf rock and retro sounds like go-go, ye-ye and psychedelia. It’s a tribute to those classic times of science fiction and foxy ladies. The sensational destiny that is so unavoidable and ruthlessly ironic.

Matorralman is a project created by Miguel Rizo, a selector, composer and producer from Mexico City. “Back in 2000, I bought my first computer and made my first trip to Europe,” Rizo says.

“I came back with a suitcase full of music from the films of the 60s and 70s which used to dazzle audiences with so-called ‘sexploitation.’ These were times when orchestral conductors would help color the plots of feisty teenagers in search of parties and wildness. The beats were mostly instrumental, giving sophisticated and loutish environments where the girls are without a doubt the visual attraction. That’s how the search for Matorralman’s sound began.”

The album name ‘Guateque Estelar’ translates to “stellar party.” “That is what we imagine to hear with our music,” Rizo says. “It’s a party without end – complete with music to lose your manners to - and all with style.”

While Matorralman began as a solo project experimenting with computers, samplers, keyboards and effects in Rizo’s studio, it soon evolved. “After a couple of years, I began working with Armando Vazquez on the keyboards and the true sound of the songs became more defined,” Rizo explains. “Our process is to find a good groove and develop it through structures– the adequate kind of sound, intention and melody for each musical cut. While looking for the right musicians to form a live band, I invited Gustavo Murillo on guitar and Benjamin Vázquez on bass and trumpet.”

Matorralman’s live setup has now developed into somewhat of a mini-orchestra highlighted by background visuals. “Why not?” Rizo asks. “Playing along with clips and images from the 60s and 70s helps create that audiovisual experience that completely encapsulates the concept of the group.”

I Just Don't Understand the Music Marketplace (Beatles on iTunes edition)

I'm sure you've heard the news by now, oh boy. The Beatles catalog is now going to be on iTunes.

I don't care if you are 16 or 64, you should be ashamed of yourself and renounce your Beatles fandom if you purchase these on iTunes. To every potential purchaser, young and old, I ask you this: why are you going to pay upwards of $1.29 a song (DRM-free) for sub-par, sonically-diluted, lossy music files of some of the richest studio work of the early rock era?*

You'll be paying yet more money for less. You will be downloading music of lower quality than what you can already get--Beatles vinyl records and CDs. Buy yourself a turntable (again or for the first time) and spin the wax, or buy the Mono box. Or rip FLAC or even 320kbs MP3 files if you really have to. But please don't listen to downloads that just don't sound as good (even over headphones on your iPod or iPhone or whatever).

I am sorry to say this, but iTunes downloads sound like crap. Yes, I know I riffed on this back in January, but these "finally, the Beatles are on iTunes!" stories are driving me insane.

*I would assert the same thing about music from more recent times. It still shocks me that people will listen to bands like Radiohead or Animal Collective via low-quality MP3's.

This Morning is a Morning for "Fuego" by Bomba Estereo

I have been on a real LA rock/electronica/fusion/neo-cumbia/neo-tango/neo-tropical/rap-en-espanol jag in recent weeks. I'll post some of my favorites here in in the near future. Bomba Estereo is from Bogota and their second album was released in Colombia in 2008, with a U.S. market release of Blow Up (re-titled) in 2009. They are one of numerous bands in the traditional-music-meets-electronica sub-genere that has been pretty popular in Latin America for the last decade or so.

This movement has gone in numerous different musical directions and a few groups have had crossover success in the U.S. (see Nortec Collective as a prominent example). "Electro Tropical" is how Bomba Estereo describe thier own music. It is good stuff, Maynard. CD's and downloads at all the usual places, mofos.

This Morning is a Morning for "Amar y Vivir" by Tonino Carotone (Day after Halloween edition)

Sometimes you just have to start your day with a song by the Spanish, Italophile singer-songwriter (and former punk rocker) Tonino Carotone: