Spotlight: Molotov

If Amores Perros -- Love's a Bitch -- then Mexico City's Molotov is your pit bull. The perfect death match: Molotov vs. Belfast, Ireland's Therapy? Opening with the title track's kick to the balls ("patada en los cojones"), that's Molotov's new street fight Dance and Dense Denso, a lethal cocktail of metallic funk, cop-chase tempos, and soccer-stadium chants.

"Our album titles are always an inside thing for us," says Molotov guitarist Tito Fuentes, on his cell from Guadalajara, his Spanish peppered with English. "It's Dance and Dense Denso. The first word in English, 'dance.' And Dense in Spanish is like, 'have at it.' Denso is 'intense.' Slam dancing."

That would explain Denso's splattered graphics, a double-header you never wanna see at a fútbol game.

"Exactly, that's how we see the world now, like a mosh pit," laughs Fuentes. "A big bowl of guacamole. A rather abstract way to put it ..."

There's nada abstract about Molotov's musical volatility, in its current incarnation since 1996, with previous full-lengths ¿Donde Jugarán las Niñas? (1998) and Apolcalypshit (1999) as profane as they were internationally popular. "Frijolero," the first volley off DDD, is not your papa's ranchero.

"That's the most disrespectful word you can call a Latin American in the United States," explains Fuentes. "So, it's a type of confrontational humor in the vein of Sly & the Family Stone: 'Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey' -- 'Don't Call Me Beaner, Gringo.'"

What does "Puñetero" mean?

"It's a spin-off of the word puñeta -- 'jerking off.' Jerk-off."

Could there be a better segue into Molotov's barking, "Who Let the Dogs Out"-style party chant, "Here Comes the Mayo," whipped up with England's Dub Pistols for Alfonso Cuarón's Oscar-nominated Mexi-teen road classic, Y Tu Mamá También?

"We've lived that life," chuckles Fuentes. "Not exactly, but all Mexicans from a certain social strata have made that classic trip to the beach without a peso."

See you on the beaches of Iraq.

"We hate it," spits Fuentes. "Bush is becoming one of the worst leaders in the history of mankind."