- Sonido Franko

1. Memo Rios: Technotaco

1. Los Supersonicos Del Ritmo: Escucha Juventud

2. Panamérika.fm: Programa 142 (large file)

1. Memo Rios: Memocotorreo

What I don’t understand  is that this sound is making a bit of a comeback. Remove the whole hipster neon-generation ironic thing and you are still left with music that is hit or miss. But with all negativity removed, maybe I should just take it for what it is – its ok…I suppose? I have friends from Mexico City and Tijuana who usually tend to go ape shit over this kinda stuff. So the nostalgia factor is something that I totally understand – but it’s not for me.

Besides Leo Dan, most these acts hail from Mexico, trying to cash in on some sort of new-wave music hysteria that captured the US in the mid to late 80′s. Byanka probably had the most success with her Madonna cover. It’s interesting to see that Grupo Latino even pooped out the Italo Disco favorite from La Bionda. But probably my favorite cut out of all of these 45′s is Morgan’s Que Bonita Baila (how beautiful you dance) - nice break on that. Anyway, like I said, hit or miss. Enjoy!

P.S. = Tomorrow O-Dub from Soul Sides is dropping an article. Stay tuned - the music is very very nice.

P.S.S. = For Erika

1. Byanka: Chica Material

2. Morgan: Que Bonita Baila

3. Grupo Latino: No Tengo Dinero

4. Naomi: Tocamela

5. Leo Dan: Leo Rap

However, I was even more astonished when I found out that someone actually re-issued this album on CD. The people at Companion Records, a label that specializes in obscure and idiosyncratic private pressing releases, was down with the “Touchy”. Here is Luie Luie’s bio straight from their pages:

_____

Some years ago, a Los Angeles area collector stumbled across an orphaned copy of the “Touchy” in a thrift store. It was shared through tape trading networks and bootlegged on vinyl — now, Companion Records is proudly offering this first official “Touchy” CD release.

Luie Luie has to be the most jaw-dropping one-man-band lounge act found to date. The “Touchy” serves as a conceptual dance album, an experimental album, as well as a sort of healing LP for ’60s burn-outs. What can his music be compared to? Nothing that we know of.

Luis Johnston is a Southern California screenwriter, painter, and musician who’s spent the past 30 years working in almost complete obscurity. But he’s also written and starred in a feature film and shaken hands with Elvis Presley. Luie has been playing live at various restaurants, lounges, and country clubs for three decades and is still going strong. He released a handful of 45s in the ’70s and one full-length LP, “Touchy” in 1974. And he continues to record unknown quantities of yet to be released CDs.

- Companion Records

_____

Anyway, I selected two of my favorite tracks off the album. Oh yeah, this guy talks about random shit before he plays each song …whoa. I personally think his music would have sounded better if he had a drummer and bass player, but when you’re a lounge act, it’s all about the economy of scale I suppose. True microeconomics. Enjoy!

1. Luie Luie: Lost

2. Luie Luie: Lord What A Wonderful World

To be honest with you, I’m not a huge fan of banda music, but these few tracks really stood out for me. Banda is more or less the fusion of Norteño music with larger brass instrumentation, fiery orchestras, larger hats, and matching suits. Techo banda however seems to take it a step further opting for synthesizers rather than tubas. Grupo El Mexicano rock synthesizer guitars. This music got really popular in the early 90′s and with that came a series of dance crazes like the quebradita - a dance, which at times, looks more like gymnastics.  

I tossed in the super fast track from Banda Guadalajara Express, which has a less techno sound than the first. But I couldn’t help think about the similarities between Banda, Merengue, and Perez Prado. Maybe it’s the kinetic break neck speeds and the matching outfits. I’ll definitely explore the Perez Prado influence in the next post. Enjoy! 

1. Grupo El Mexicano: No Bailes De Caballito

2. Banda Guadalajara Express: Anda Borracho El Buey

1. Leo Dan: Yo Se Que No Es Feliz

2. Leo Dan: Mucho Mucho

3. Leo Dan: Porque Jamas Te Olvide

1. Memo Rios: Muy Delgada ( Ice Ice Baby )

2. Memo Rios: En La Discoteca

I ran into this LP today and to be quite frank with you people, I fucking hate this song. In fact, I was going to choose another tune off this album but I had a change of heart.  The reason being that one can’t deny Santana’s Latin rock cover crossover version of Oye Como Va (listen, hey what’s up?)  had a pretty big impact on thousands of crappy bands south of the border. I can’t tell you how many albums I have that shamefully try to sound like the San Francisco based Latin hippie rock group. But to be honest with you I love crossover music, so given that, I have tons of respect.  Purchased this one in Mexico City a while back.

Los Souls played in small clubs and Hotels in Mexico City’s Zona Rosa (red light district) throughout the 70′s. Some members went on to start a prog rock group, some became taxi drivers, one became a principle of an elementary school, and the drummer died in a plane crash (cause that what happens to all rock drummers). Actually I’m totally lying to you. I have no idea what this band is all about but I have the feeling I’m not far from the truth.

I found a website that indicated they were the actual band Mestizo which began in the SF Bay Area in the 70′s. But I’m not quite sure if it’s the same band that’s on this 45.

Irregardless, it appears that Mestizo was riding the coat tails of Carl Douglas’s one hit wonder “Kung Fu Fighting” and “Dance The Kung Fu“. A popular song and/or topic to cover at the time i guess. I’ve heard other Latin American versions, as well as Jamaican reggae funk versions too.     

This is a 45 I pulled a few weeks back from that KRMX collection which I was speaking of in the last post. It’s pretty indicative of the collection as a whole. I’m always getting surprised. It ain’t the best song in the world, but it’s pretty ridiculous and amazing in its own right. Please note that I created by own genre “Queso” (cheese). It’s a pretty subjective category since I tend to stick music that resembles nacho cheese into it. There is so much Latin cheese-ball that a category was warranted.

Please pardon the mess. But about 2 years ago I acquired about 15,000+ Latin 45′s. The person who sold me the lot had told me that they came from the radio station KRMX in Pueblo Colorado.

According to this dealer, the station had changed to a digital format and had gotten rid of all its vinyl in the early 90′s. The collection is comprised of Latin American/Spanish language music from the 60′s to the early 90′s. Although the majority of it tends to be regional Mexican, it pretty much has every genre in there. Anyway, all these boxes were in storage for over 15 years until I was fortunate enough to get my hands on it.

 What the hell does one person do with over 15,000 45′s? Oh man, just the thought of all these boxes in my basement gave me a sense of excitment and at the same time the overwhelming sensation of being totally overwhelmed!    

What was I to do with all this obscure, awesome, horrible, cheesy, unknown, and common Latin American music? Did I have some sort of moral obligation to look after it? Some sort of historical music obligation? Should I get greedy and start selling individual 45′s? 

 With that, my overwhelming sense of excitement started turning into the overwhelming sensation of guilt (yes I am Catholic). And acquiring this amazing collection was probably one of the real catalysts for creating this audio blog in the first place. I felt that I would only be coveting this music in vain if I didnt do anything with it (after all this music really doesn’t belong to me). I felt that I had to give back something and that this music should be shared.  Does that make sense? Or am I being lame again? Yeah, I’m being lame. Anyway, in the future I’ll try to delineate if the 45 came from this collection or not. See my prior Edilio Paredes post, that was one of the many treasures I found in this lot (I seriously almost crapped my pants when I heard those songs). There should be more to follow since I really only scraped by about 10% of the collection so far.

*Just a little side note. When I lived in El Salvador with my aunt we used to pick up radio and television frequencies from Colorado. Back in the day, the “mile high” state could transmit signals into Latin America due to it’s high altitude. I bet you anything KRMX was heard in parts of the Southern US, Mexico, and beyond. Word!

1. Los Bukis: Casas De Carton

I first heard this song while living in Nicaragua in 1993. At the time I probably would never have guessed that is was Los Bukis performing this song, let alone Marco Antonio Solis who wrote it.

It was the romantic ballad like their 1975 debut “Falso Amor” (a. side)  which I am aware of, what made Los Bukis so famous in Mexico, and a style of music that became popular all over Latin America. But Los Bukis really exhibits a progressive side to themselves with the song “Casas De Carton” (cardboard houses).

 This tune is a lament to the people of Mexico (and beyond) who live in shanty towns. Sometimes called ciudades perdidas (lost cities), the inhabitants tend to build their homes with anything they can find: scrap metal, plywood, cardboard boxes.  And from what I understand of Mexican history, it was in the 1970′s where large metropolitan areas began to see this phenomenon on a much bigger scale. Irregardless, the song demonstrates a slightly revolutionary Los Bukis when they first began. The song starts out with the words; “You’ll never believe this, but there are schools for dogs where they recieve an education”

 2. Los Bukis: Necesito Rosas

I threw this one in for good measure. It’s pre-banda romantic love sounds like this that made it for Los Bukis. This song is pretty tame compared to first one. I guess you can’t always be political. Necesito Rosas (I need roses) is an uptempo ballad about a guy who needs roses for his sweetheart. Where is the flower lady when you need her?