PAST RECOMMENDED SHOWS:
12/06/07 @ La Zona RosaCafé Tacuba
Café Tacuba’s previous studio album, 2003’s
Cuatro Caminos (
Four Paths), garnered the Mexico City quartet Grammys both Latin and American; spawned a sprawling multimedia live spin-off,
Un Viaje (
A Trip); and touched off universal parallels to another schoolboy-cell-turned-musical-atom, Radiohead. Album No. 6,
Sino (
Instead Of and/or
Yes/No), out-rocks its predecessor by an indigenous country mile.
“This album is radically different from the sound we established on our first albums, where the eclecticism and influence of traditional Mexican music was more potent,” explains the group’s bassist, Enrique “Quique” Rangel, in silken Spanish. “This album is closest to the rock influences we’ve had since before forming Café Tacuba. It continues the experiment started on
Cuatro Caminos, that of a rock band with a drummer.”
Press has already hailed newbie “53100” as Café Tacuba’s “Baba O’Riley,” though it’s the New Order burst of “Volver a Comenzar” that timelines classic “roc” as the 1980s more so than the 1970s.
“The Eighties is when we discovered music,”
dice Quique. “It was the moment that music separated us from people on the perimeter. That was the moment that all of us thought music could be a way of life. Not a way of life exactly, but something we wanted to do – make music. We didn’t know what type. We played what we liked, and that turned us into musicians. That’s when we got to know each other.”
Eighteen years later, Café Tacuba is global.
“There seems to be a big difference between the people of the United States and the government of the United States. It’s like the government has an idea of the country that its people don’t. And me being Mexican and seeing the way they treat Mexicans, I think the United States forgets that it’s a country of immigrants. I see the last names of people, and they’re English and Polish and Russian and also Mexican and Dominican.
“The [U.S.] has the opportunity to have the best of all countries. And they forget.”
Fivepiece compadre Porter opens.RAOUL HERNANDEZ
07/12/05 @ Stubb'sCafe Tacuba
In the early Seventies, rock was illegal in Mexico. Yet for one quartet from el DF, Cafe Tacuba, currently celebrating their 15th anniversary, the irony is that rock was never all they wanted to be.
“There was always a debate whether we were rock or not, and we would keep saying, ‘No, we’re not,’ in order to find other forms, other influences,” says guitarist Joselo Rangel in his relaxed, nasally Spanish. “People kept lumping us with every other rock band, and now I think it’s all right, because it helps us take risks.”
On their second album, 1994’s
Re, where the band jumps from traditional Mexican
huasteca to regional
banda and Talking Heads-like rhythms within seconds, Cafe Tacuba displayed a stylistic depth unparalleled since
The White Album. Next, they put out a bonkers collection of covers,
Avalancha de Exitos, where they reworked classics into their own brilliant interpretations. Despite their international success, Rangel remembers the dues paid.
“People don’t believe me, but they booed us off stage in Guadalajara back during
Re,” he says laughing. “The trick, I learned, is to continue and keep doing it.”
Rangel, bassist Quique Rangel, multi-instrumentalist Meme del Real, and singer Ruben Albarran went Tortoise for one-half of 1999’s Grammy-winning double album,
Reves/Yo Soy, brainy post-rock instrumentals and whispery strings of the Kronos Quartet versus the album’s more lyrical half, David Bowie and the Smiths rubbing elbows as Albarran’s beautiful voice became a synthesizer.
Last year,
Cuatro Caminos found them back in Radiohead territory, while their latest 3-CD/DVD live knockout,
Un Viaje, has Cafe Tacuba penciled in for a long, colorful, and celebrated future. Which makes Rangel, an avid reader, contemplate what their tale might be called in novel form.
“That’s a tough one,” he says, pausing: “The Interminable, hopefully.”
Austin’s Latin mavens Grupo Fantasma open.
MARTIN DE LEON II
07/14/04 @ La Zona RosaCafe Tacuba, Control Machete, Ely Guerra
Austin Chronicle: How’s Mexico City this morning?
Ruben Albarran [Cafe Tacuba’s singer, in soft, perfect Spanish]: Contaminated!
AC: You guys are good friends with Control Machete.
RA: We’ve played together many times. When they went to Cuba to play with the Buena Vista Social Club, they invited me along.
AC: And spunky Ely Guerra?
RA: Another good friend. She’s got a lot of angel in her.
AC: 2003’s Cuatro Caminos
saw you proclaimed Mexico’s Radiohead.
RA: It’s weird, because if there’s a parallel, it would be with our last album,
Reves/Yosoy. This album is a lot more rock and pop oriented. It doesn’t have the same sophistication as
Reves, but it has a lot more energy. We wanted to make something more direct. Otherwise, we don’t really find the Radiohead comparisons apt.
AC: Is an American fan base important to Cafe Tacuba?
RA: Of course it’s important. We play Central America and Mexico, but the reality of those countries’ situation, economic and cultural, isn’t the best. Playing the U.S. means work for us – an audience in tune with what we’re doing that has the means to buy a CD and go to our shows. And not just us – all the rock en Español from Mexico, Argentina, Colombia. Playing the states is
buenisimo. Not to mention you renew the connection of people to where they’re from originally. The reception we get in the states is always very warm.
AC: How did you like last year’s ACL Music Fest?
RA: I don’t remember.
AC: Last September, at night. Los Lobos were there. Everyone loved you.
RA: [Long pause] Oh, sure – right! It was great – buenisimo, buenisimo. We loved it.
AC: What do you remember of that night?
RA: The audience was effusive. It was a predominantly Anglo audience, I remember. It was fantastic. We loved playing. The festival was great – they had a great lineup. After that, we got to know Los Lobos better. It led to us working on their new album,
The Ride. The whole thing was great.
AC: This bill is buenisimo.
RA: Buenisimo.
RAOUL HERNANDEZ
