Ahh so today is Easter! Last weekend I went on and on about the Christian celebration of death and resurrection thinking it was actually Easter. That goes to show you my commitment for up keeping the Christian calendar. It’s not entirely my fault though I must admit, I had an invite by the always inexplicably persistent Mormons to come visit their pageant of lights, food and creepy family values – creepy because they’re so squeaky clean in their appearance, so much so that it can’t possibly truly that happy of a family – that is if no lobotomies took place to make it that way.
The meek and mild savior of all mankind supposedly spent the past three days in Hell chillin’ with Lucifer and has now returned to leave all his failed unfortunate sheep that he loved so much behind amidst the lakes of fire and demons equipped with tools primarily used for forced sodomy (nothing like prison rape to scare the misled and confused straight).
So what, three days, that’s it? Come on Jesus – actually pronounced in true Aramaic closer to “yeshwa,’ which to my Latin language-rooted ears sounds more closer to Joshua than Jesus, and for the life of me have absolutely no idea why the Latin translators went with the latter in the end (unless they had a premonition that Spanish would be a successor to Latin and Jesus would be commonly mispronounced by rude, annoying, vulgar and often overweight Americans when addressing their new friends named Jesus as “Jeezus” instead of “Heysoos” with the most annoying of all smirks upon their chubby American faces – and if this is the case, fuck those translators.
So okay three days in Hell with the fallen one and his flock the forced-to-be homosexual prisoners (because there’s nothing worse than being a homosexual, well at least nothing worse that being forced to be one anyway). Three days? Ha! I’ve been walking around in Hell for almost thirty-three years and you don’t see me complaining… ahem well most of the time anyway. It’s not so bad, the gates are wide open, no need for a secret code to enter in. You get to stay up as late as you want. Where unlimited hours of pornography is viewable no matter your fetish. I mean it’s not all bad but it’s not all good either. We have to deal with “reality television,” have the majority of the world suffer from malnutrition and other horrors due to poor infrastructure run by corrupt gluttonous government officials, and all the racists with their rants and cruel behavior – you know before they ascend to heaven to converse for eternity with the meek and mild Joshua and his jealous father who had him murdered to “teach” us how much the cruel bastard “loves” us.
Happy Easter everyone, and if you stay on the straight (both meanings of course) track you too can ascend to the exclusive clubhouse of – as the late great Christopher Hitchens so enjoyably yet perfectly put it – North Korea in the sky!
Now to the Cumbia shall we?
Ah the Lonely Guero. This is where I start. The first track is not Cumbia but the following two are so making it a 2/3 majority Cumbia set, or even EP if you prefer, it makes the cut for Funky Friday Cumbia (yeah I know it’s Sunday but more about that later).
I was compared to Calexico with the first track. I think that is fair. Calexico is a band from Tucson, Arizona just a few miles south of me on the border. They and I both are inspired by our geographical residences. But they go more of the Mariachi route while I take the Cumbia one. I think beyond that, it’s our melancholy inspired melodies and tremolo effects on our guitars. Though I strongly cite another Arizona native musician for my inspiration on the tremolo effected guitar, the great Duane Eddy.
We have similarities but there is always room for more.
Writing of culture related to geographical location, Sonidera falls into that conversation concerning Mexico, primarily around Mexico City. Sonidera was the sound that official made me fall for Cumbia in the first place.
Sonido Erre shares his Sonidera Cultura with us.
Who doesn’t remember the good old days when Gangsta Rap was all the rage, the music our parents despised and told us not to listen to but we did anyway. Well I guess you have to be at least thirty on the lower end of the age spectrum to remember this exactly. And that includes me of course. Dr. Dre was the real deal and before he was a Lion from Zion, Snoop was a Dogg. Fricci and his friend Jesus Estrada brings us thirty and up-year olds back with this little refix.
Janes Addiction was also hitting the Hollywood underground during the age of Gangsta Rap. Pushing the dead bodies of long haired 80’s glamorous metal bands and their equally glamorous fans, to the sides of the Whisky A Go Go and The House Of Blues, the new generation of rockers would make their way to the stage to see the bizarre Perry Farrell dominate the new scene.
4:20 Music Flavor takes the thirty and up-year olds once back again to SoCal.
As stated earlier it was Sonidera and Colombiana that brought me into the world of Cumbia. Kumbia Beats celebrates the Colombiana side of things with this lovely little refix.
My good friend for life Pedrolito is back with yet another bend excellent Cumbia mixtape for his Dale Amor A La Cumbia Que La Cumbia Te Lo Devuelve.” The reason why Pedrolito receives so many plays on his Mixcloud sets isn’t only due to the fact that he selects and mixes great tracks, but it’s because you can always count on him to deliver them. He never ceases to show his love for Cumbia and all things tropical. Pedrolito is a legend!
Dale amor a la cumbia que la cumbia te lo devuelve #49 by Pedrolito Radioglobal on Mixcloud
Here is something wild and new for Funky Friday Cumbia, Awililx is the name and they bring Cumbia in a lo-fi Techo (if there is such a thing) format.
Pa Kongal the remix maestro is back and this time in bird form! This is a funny video edited together featuring Pa Kongal’s remix of “Paloma Quebrada.”
The final thing on my list this week is a mixtape that covers a wide variety of Cumbia in its many forms. From modern sounds to old school to classic modern reincarnations. All thanks to SSDSS and KONN Recordings.
Well once again I let it all out of me when it came to my views on Easter and Christianity. I promise these rants aren’t planned out, they just come out on their own, even without aid of alcohol or narcotics. Sure a bit of depression and serious lack of sleep might have some effect but regardless of the aid I sure do enjoy them. Though I promise to tone down a little in the future as I am not here to offend even though it may seem otherwise.
Quickly and lastly I mentioned it not being Friday and this being Funky Friday Cumbia, well I do have more to say about that. You might remember last week when I was asking about what I can do with Nu Cumbia Experience, since it is such a successful Facebook Cumbia group and the domain is still owned by me. Well earlier this week I couldn’t believe it took long for this revelation to occur but why do I favor alliteration in the title of a weekly Cumbia round up post? Is it because of my old days with Sexxy Saturday Cumbia (I always was annoyed with the two “xx’s” I was forced to use every week when typing out the title)? Why not make it exactly what it is… Nu Cumbia Experience?? Every week let’s go with Nu Cumbia Experience and then it will correlate with the already existing Facebook page! What do you think?
Peace