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NorteñoBlog Pivots to Corridos Tumbados

Fuerza Regida y Junior H teach corridos to tumbado

This post is not about the song “Lowrider Gee”; maybe it should be. We begin with a stoic tale of vehicular death. Fuerza Regida‘s “Descansando” began life a couple months ago as an acoustic memorial to one Arturo Garcia, whose truck, according to the song, was la más chingona in all of Houston. “El Fue Arturo” was strummed and sung by the band’s frontman, Jesús Ortiz-Paz, in a rhythmically…

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Alejandro Fernández and Chayín Rubio ride the mariacheño pony

Alejandro Fernández rides the mariacheño pony, scores his first #1 regional Mexican hit; Chayín Rubio follows at his heels

Of all the 2020 events NorteñoBlog didn’t see coming, the one most likely to affect future generations, change the way untold millions live their everyday lives, and divide modern history into “before” and “after” epochs happened back in early January. That’s when certain U.S. specialists first noticed a particularly infectious agent, previously thought to be contained, dominating one of their…

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Los Tigres y Banda El Recodo en las Noticias

Los Tigres y Banda El Recodo en las Noticias

A couple weeks ago, Banda El Recodo brought their act to the Twin Cities. In response, I brought my “turn Helena Simonett and a bunch of old Billboard articles into a listicle” act to the Minneapolis City Pages: 10 times Banda El Recodo, Mexico’s longest-running brass band, did something first(-ish).

The list runs down their history of firstness, from wearing uniforms in the ’40s to breaking…

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Free Jazz "In the Garden": The Challenge of Music We Can't Stand

Free Jazz “In the Garden”: The Challenge of Music We Can’t Stand

On Chicago’s lakefront one breezy August night in 2014—five days after a Missouri police officer named Darren Wilson shot and killed an unarmed black teenager named Michael Brown—the thirty-nine-year-old saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and “panoramic sound quilter” Matana Roberts led a nine-piece pickup band in a free outdoor concert at a public band shell. At the outset, Roberts ran down a…

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How Kirk Franklin Worked His Way to "Stomp"

How Kirk Franklin Worked His Way to “Stomp”

In 1997, seeing God’s Property’s “Stomp” on MTV was just as weird as seeing Chumbawamba’s “Tubthumping.”

If gospel choirs and anarchist collectives had anything in common, surely it was bashing the video channel and its skin-drenched paeans to mammon. Credit the groups’ shared evangelical impulse. With these two simple motivational anthems — each had a second verse same as the first — the…

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Listen up! (songs as scripture)

Listen up! (songs as scripture)

In the 1970 “Beethoven” issue of Revue L’Arc, the French essayist Roland Barthes tried to figure out what happens when we listen to music. He proposed there were “two musics: one you listen to, one you play.” Barthes claimed music for playing — physical, “muscular,” performed “alone or among friends” — had already vanished in favor music for listening, as performed by professional interpreters.…

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Selena and Ariel Camacho at Remezcla

Read about Selena and Ariel Camacho at Remezcla (and check out the Blog's bonus PowerPoint slide content)

Back in April at Seattle’s Pop Conference, I presented the paper “Selena, Ariel Camacho, and Two Tragedies that Reshaped Regional Mexican Music.” Now I’m happy to report that the website Remezcla has published a streamlined version— down to under 2,000 words, from an original length of 3,000+ — with the new headline “The Tragic Artist Deaths that Reshaped the Future of Regional Mexican Music.” I…

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Julión Álvarez sidesteps his sanction, and other surprises (Desfile de Éxitos 7/12/19)

Raymix is good! Ballads are good! Julión Álvarez finds a way to sidestep his sanction! WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE WORLD

1. Banda Los Recoditos – “Perfecta” (#37 Hot Latin) Billboard reports that this is Recoditos’ fifth #1 on the Regional Mexican chart. The first three of those — the iconic breakthrough “Ando Bien Pedo,” “Mi Ultimo Deseo,”and “Hasta Que Salga El Sol” — were about how the world is ending so we should all get drunk and shout along with Luis Angel Franco. The next two — including this one — represent…

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El Fantasma, Calibre 50, y glitter rainbow hologram Jenni Rivera (Desfile de Éxitos 7/8/19)

New singles from El Fantasma, Calibre 50, y glitter rainbow hologram Jenni Rivera (Desfile de Éxitos 7/8/19)

First up, from the YASSS SLAIN QUEEN file: July 2 would have been the late Jenni Rivera‘s 50th birthday, so her estate celebrated by releasing “Aparentemente Bien,” a ballad she was working on before her 2012 plane crash. Thanks to some skilled studio reconstruction, you can hear the song in banda, mariachi, and pop versions. It’s OK. Inspired, no doubt, by the heavy metaphysical symbology of the

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NorteñoBlog's 41 Esencial Songs Since the Year 2000

NorteñoBlog’s 41 Esencial Songs Since the Year 2000

As a recovering rockist and certified Old, I enjoy listening to the radio station The Current, 89.3 FM, whenever I’m driving through the Twin Cities. Recently The Current held a listener poll to determine the 893 essential songs since the year 2000. This list is a hit of sweet, unfiltered white elephant art. “Seven Nation Army” is #1 — and to be fair, it’s got one of the first riffs learned by…

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Who Invented "Regional Mexican"?

Who came up with the term "Regional Mexican," anyway? Did they know what they were doing?

Los Tigres play norteño, and so does Intocable — Unless they play Tejano, un punto contestable. The bandas all play banda; mariachis, mariachi. Puro sax spews merry tears, norteño’s Pagliacci. Cumbias are acoustic, when they’re not electric. Singers may get richer, once they get eclectic. Christian Nodal will tell you he plays “mariacheño,” Y finalmente everyone starts playing sierreño.

Billboard

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Joni Sandez on sierreño, "Las Mañanitas," and "secrets nobody wants to say"

"Secrets nobody wants to say": Joni Sandez on sierreño music, "Las Mañanitas," and lesser-known norteño recording techniques

“The producer listening is probably gonna hate me — like, ‘No, don’t say that!'”

Joni Sandez is joking, but he’s eager to talk about parts of the norteño recording process usually kept under wraps. He knows from experience. A lifelong resident of southern California, Jonathan Sandez, 26, grew up playing guitar and bass. At 14 he joined the long-running L.A.-based Grupo El Tiempo, playing bass…

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Desfile de Éxitos 1/19/19

Gerardo Ortiz gets high on a plane, Calibre 50 chokes on self pity, and Bad Bunny is EVERYWHERE: this week's Desfile de Éxitos

Puerto Rican trapstar Bad Bunny has pulled a Drake this week, clogging up Billboard‘s Hot Latin chart with 10 tracks from his debut album X 100pre. (The highest charting is, whaddya know, a duet with Drake.) NorteñoBlog has long admired Sr. Bunny’s charisma and barber while having almost no use for his music. The greatest insult? He’s Despacitoing norteño music into near nonexistence on Hot…

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Selena and Ariel Camacho: coming to MoPOP 2019

Selena and Ariel Camacho: coming to MoPOP 2019

Year after year, Seattle’s MoPOP Pop Conference is a great weekend to learn a ton of musical ideas you never imagined you’d need to know, and to meet and befriend a ton of very smart music geeks. This year the conference runs from April 11-14; the theme is death. See you there!

Here’s the abstract I’ll be expanding:

SELENA, ARIEL CAMACHO, AND TWO TRAGEDIES THAT RESHAPED REGIONAL MEXICAN MUSIC

In…

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¡Lo Mejor de 2018!

¡Lo Mejor de 2018!

In 2018, Regional Mexican radio chilled out. Amid the ever-shifting blend of genres that comprises the format, the two “new” styles that commanded the most attention sounded remarkably blase about their surging popularity. In fact, “command” seems like the wrong word for cumbias and corridos verdes, both of which genres sound like they were sitting around in a smoky haze, waiting for audiences…

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¡Nuevo! (T3R Elemento, La Original Banda, Grupo Corrupta, y más)

Rojo y Verde: Christmas singles, the devil, and weed all make appearances on Spotify's "Novedades" playlist

Lo siento, faithful readers. NorteñoBlog has been out of it for the past few months, mired in the wilds of bro-country, Christian rock, King’s X, Pulitzer Prizes, Selena (um, watch this space), and rap songs about cheap-ass wine. Not to mention general garden maintenance. The blog heartily recommends Sugar Rush Peach peppers, which produced like motherfuckers all season long. Use them to liven…

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Coming up: King’s X

Thank you, Claire!

Coming up, we’ll talk about Texas-based hard rock trio King’s X.

Your host for the week is Josh Langhoff. Josh plays the organ and piano and directs a church choir in the Chicago suburbs.

He also writes about music at The Singles Jukebox and elsewhere. Recently he’s written about regional Mexican music for his NorteñoBlog; jazz, classical, and Christian music for The Cresset journal; and disco-country and Tolkien metal for the Minneapolis City Pages.

You can find him on Tumblr and Twitter.

See you in a bit.

– Hendrik

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psyched