Continuing with more Chicano rockhere's the fifth outing from LA's favourite hijos. You might note a lack of preview tracks above...starting with this post Soundological will be attempting to economise by using pre-existing media (i.e., embedded YouTube vids) as much as possible. Although pleasantly surprised with the popularity of the preview tracks, now that boomp3 is dead and I'm on the hook for the bandwidth being chewed up I must admit I'm not prepared to shell out the bucks necessary to help y'all assess whether you want to grab what's being given away. I also threw a PayPal donation button at the bottom of the sidebar in case anyone feels generous but won't harass you about it - in fact this is likely the last you'll hear on the subject.
You've Been Wrong So Long
What You Don't Know Won't Hurt You
Like the other LPs before, this one's split between covers and originals but on the whole is a touch formulaic and more of a radio-oriented affair. Not that either of those is necessarily a bad thing when the formula is proven and radio is a little loose in programming but beyond a cover of Freddie Hubbard's"Little Sunflower" there's not much evidence on hand of that smokey soul-jazz nightclub influence they wore on their sleeves at the outset of their career. There are the obligatory stabs at salsa with covers of Tito Puente and Ray Barretto and you may recognise the second track above from the repertoire of The Jackson Five. If you check out the actual YT page, someone claiming to be singer Jerry Salas says J5 were covering El Chicano on their Dancing Machine album which happened to be released the same year. However, the fact that J5 had three other tracks on their LP written by the same songwriters doesn't lend much credence to the claim...if someone can support it with more facts, let us know in the comments!
On the whole, another decent effort which will please fans of both the band and the genre. After this LP the quality on the MCA recordings started to slide as formula and the fey factor came to the forefront over the next few years.
Jerry Salas - Guitar, Vocals Michael "Mickey" Lespron - Guitar Brian Magness - Bass Bobby Espinosa - Organ, Synthesizer, Vocals Enrique "Andre" Baéza - Vocals, Congas, Percussion Hector "Rudy" Regalado - Timbales, Percussion, Drums, Vocals Eddie "Yaddie" Rodriquez - Drums, Percussion, Vocals
1 El Cayuco 2 Children 3 You've Been Wrong So Long 4 The Latin One 5 What You Don't Know Won't Hurt You 6 Ahora Si 7 Gringo En Mexico 8 Little Sunflower
Celebrate Cinco de Chicano with SoundologicalHERE. (updated 2012-07-27)
I've seen lots of Malo around (especially over at hippy-djkit's hideout), some Azteca and Coke Escovedo and even more sightings of Sapo than usual these days but outside of "Best Of" comps and their debut release featuring the hit instrumental "Viva Tirado," there seems to be a distinct lack of El Chicano on the blogosphere. Soundological will be dropping three of their discs in a row the next few days and attaching a discog with bonus blog links to the third. For now, here's their second effort and their first with vocals, featuring the powerful pipes of Ersi Arvizu (check the link for news on her recent release with Ry Cooder) in addition to Baéza, who would perform much of the voice duties for the band over the following years.
You'll note a distinct Carlos flavour creeping in here, especially on the preview track above. However, it's kept at a minimum with most tracks coming off as a souped-up version of their instrumental style on Viva Tirado rather than sounding like an ersatz Santana set. There's a lot of solid source material to work with on this one, including Willie Bobo's"Spanish Grease,"Cold Blood's"I'm A Good Woman,"Ray Bryant's"Cubano Chant" and Latin staple "Sabor A Mi" to boot. Andy Kim's bubblegum classic "Sugar Sugar" is also Latino-fied with so-so results while originals make up the balance. Personal faves are the previously-mentioned "Keep On Moving" and the more laid-back "Don't Put Me Down (If I'm Brown)." Definitely one of their strongest outings! Here's a video of El Chicano performing their big hit around the same time Revolución was recorded.
AMG has a fairly informative bio but we highly recommend this interview with founder Freddie Sanchez for a good rundown of their long history. We'd also like to point you towards El Chicano's own well-designed multimedia website where digital versions of a few of these OOP albums are being sold directly by the band.
Freddie Sanchez - Bass, Vocals John DeLuna - Drums, Percussion Michael "Mickey" Lespron - Guitar Bobby Espinosa - Organ Enrique "Andre" Baéza - Vocals, Congas, Percussion Ersi Arvizu - Vocals, Percussion
1 Keep On Moving 2 Cubano Chant 3 Sabor A Mi 4 Make It All Go 5 I'm A Good Woman 6 Viva La Raza 7 Spanish Grease 8 Sugar Sugar 9 Chicano Chant 10 Don't Put Me Down (If I'm Brown)
Viva la Revolución cortesía de SoundologicalAQUÍ! (updated 2012-07-27)
73.8 MB 256+ VBR LAME mp3 Vinyl rip & scans from United Artists UA-LA629-G
Well faithful readers, thanks for your patience. I had originally planned to post this Wednesday before last upon returning from work but it was hard to get up the gumption to do so and things just kinda snowballed from there. How? Well, let me sum it up in a quick list: witnessed a suicide in the subway, worried about friends in Mumbai (I worked there for a while in 2004 and still have connections), a monitor that crashed, two new rush contracts from a client in retail and my lovely wife's birthday.
So by way of contrition, here's Mark Radice's The Whole World Ain't Nothin' But A Party, a nice little obscurity by a successful yet under-the-radar songwriter. Check out he link below to his website for a who's who of pop stars that have covered his songs from Streisand and Cheap Trick to The Muppets and Deodato. On this effort, his 2nd solo shot, he's backed by a budding Brass Construction who lay down the groove on the bulk of the tracks under the tutelage of disco don and soon-to-B.T. Express producer Jeff Lane. If you're a fan of B.C., B.T. or Randy Muller's musical sensibilities, then this one's a no-brainer!
Mark Radice - Vocals Brass Construction - Music (except 5 & 6) Gary Rivenson - Bass (5 & 6) Joe Goldberger - Drums (5 & 6) Jim Kenyon - Guitar (5 & 6) Jeff Lane - Backing Vocals (1 & 2) Di La Rae - Backing Vocals (3 & 4) String Arrangements - Andrew Smith, Randy Muller 1 The Whole Wide World Ain't Nothin' But A Party 2 Here I Go Fallin' In Love Again 3 If You Can't Beat 'Em, Join 'Em 4 Monkey See Monkey Do 5 The Answer Is You 6 Exception To The Rule
Get this party re-started with SoundologicalHERE or HERE.
Just tryin' to put back into the music blogosphere by fillin' in any blanks I can with out-of-print vinyl as well as the occasional mix, remix, re-edit, art or rant. But mostly vinyl. Mostly.
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