Mauro Andres

Archive for the ‘Music’ Category

Jack White Sells Out with Alicia Keys?

In Art, Current News, Music, review on March 26, 2009 at 3:44 PM

I never really liked Run DMC’s remake, if that’s what you can call it, of Aerosmith’s hit “Walk this Way”. Depending on how you look at it, it may not have been a remake as much as a legitimate new creative product. I doubt the latter, as the guitar riff is unmistakably Aerosmith, and for it to be a legit new product, entire and easily recognizable portions of a “song” –if you can refer to rap as “song”– can’t be mirrored in other songs. It can be reminiscent, but not a copy paste scenario.

Setting aside issues of legitimate authorship and musical taste, the remake did have some good effects. It salvaged Aerosmith’s butts, whose career was on its way to being relegated as a “goodies oldies bar band” –whose prospects were probably only seedy truck stops and corresponding bars.

Also in the process, Run DMC introduced good ol’ rock and roll to kids that probably had never seen, heard, and probably hadn’t conceptualized an electric guitar. They also introduced rap to rhythmicly challenged white folks. This might be called a market cross-over ploy.

On the part of Run DMC, I’m not sure if this was a thought out market plan. This might be giving them too much credit. If anything, they got people that would have never bothered to listen to rap to do so –if only to satisfy (morbid?) curiosity.

Having said that, as I’m sit here listening to the White Stripes singer Jack White perform a duet with a R&B female singer named Alicia Keys, I wonder about this obvious marketing ploy. I usually hate these marketing tactics, finding them cheap, predicable, even morally decadent. Read the rest of this entry »

Is David Grohl playing for the Mexican band Café Tacuba?!

In Art, Current News, Music, Photography on January 5, 2009 at 4:53 AM

Chilean cable t.v. is endlessly looping Café Tacuba’s latest music video. It’s by way of this that I came to ask myself, “Is it just me or does David Grohl from the Foo Fighters look like Emmanuel del Real from Café Tacuba?”.

Emmanuel del Real or David Grohl?

Emmanuel del Real or David Grohl?

Read the rest of this entry »

I think icebergradio.com sucks!

In Advocacy, BSD, Computer Stuff, Gnu-Linux, Misc-My "Diary", Music, OS X, Other UNICES on July 21, 2008 at 5:33 AM

IcebergRadio’s OS X support is terrible!

They are resistant to having their service heard on the widest possible range of platforms. This is
ridiculous. It’s like a tv station wanting to be solely watched on Sony television sets, and assuring it stay that way. You’d be out of luck if you had a Toshiba or any other brand tv!! The music was great, but their disregard for maximum interoperability is atrocious, meaning they’ve consistently shown they do not care about having their music heard by Mac users. I don’t have memories of getting it to work on Gnu-Linux, either.

Read the rest of this entry »

Peter Grabriel a la Motown

In Advocacy, Art, Author Legalities-Licences, Computer Stuff, Music on July 12, 2008 at 4:56 AM

And now something on music and technology.

Doghouse Riley has rendered a Motown version of Peter Gabriel’s “Shock the Monkey”, which placed third in a “re-mix technology/music” competition –hosted by www.realworldremixed.com. Comments from the site suggest that it sounds very B-52ish. I disagree. The organ-work, and brass section all sound like something Ray Charles might incorporate. The song also contains a bass line that makes for a marked dance groove, dated albeit.
Read the rest of this entry »

Canadiana Music

In Misc-My "Diary", Music on October 23, 2007 at 4:08 AM

I’m not sure why I started writing this entry (some time ago), but I gather it had to do with being away from my Canadian home for over a year and longing for Canadiana.

Noteworthy in my opinion, is the classic
Stompin Tom Connors

Not so classic but good,
Jim Cuddy

Newer artists include,
Ron Sexsmith
Rufus Wainwright

Read the rest of this entry »

La Oveja Electrika

In Misc-My "Diary", Music on May 16, 2007 at 7:31 PM

I been hanging out with some old friends, one specifically with which I used to play in a pop/rock band name T.E.M. when I was a teenager.

His name is Luis Toledo and known by various aliases such as Bambach, and Viti.

Anyway, I left for Canada –where I worked, finally graduating from university– our bass player Nando Burgos entered the social work force (he also got married had a family), Roco our singer had to repeat school, but at some point Viti regrouped with others and formed La Oveja Electrika (or La Oveja Eléktrica) with Wii Cazanova on guitars and vocals, Luis Toledo on bass and background synths and electronic drums, sometimes including Mauricio Contreras (El Chupete) in on drums. Don’t ask what Wii and El Chupete are short for as few probably recall (I know that a “chupete” is a pacifier in typical Chilean Spanish, probably from the verb “chupar” which means “to suck”. I guess if one were to follow this line of thought, El Chupete, means “Sucker” or “The Sucker”.). Read the rest of this entry »

Tributo a Gonzalo Millán, 2007-Chillán

In Music, Uncategorized on May 10, 2007 at 8:16 PM

K, so have this gig to play a few numbers at a pub called Trece Lunas. I simply got the gig on my rep.. My self appointed manager Luis Toledo, better known as Viti, got me the gig without my knowledge or consent. Rodolfo Hlousek, a writer at the local newspaper La Discusión, the oldest Chilean paper, organized it.

Here is the poster (which is not of my making) with the gig info.

Read the rest of this entry »

Ben Folds Five Sound-a-like

In Music on March 10, 2007 at 4:25 PM

I was trying to recall a piano rock band or singer that was hitting big in Canada a year ago when I was still there. I recall they sounded like Ben Folds Five, but weren’t. I guess this was Ben Folds, but I’m still not sure.

I haven’t heard much of Ben Folds or any piano rock here in Chile. Chile is inundated (or infested) with awful Reggaeton. Read the rest of this entry »