Las Comadrejas MP3s

Who?

(jump the flip for a full album's worth of mp3s)

Did you know there was a musical freak scene in Mexico City?  Apparently Ira Kaplan, Jonathan Poneman and Alan McGhee knew this, but I did not know this.  On our Irwin's last visit, a freak named Carlos handed him his band's CD.  The band was Las Comadrejas, and they're at the center of a thriving psychedelic scene currently shaking that fair megalopolis, just 556 miles south of that very secure fence currently in the works.

"We Are Ugly, but... We Have The Music", no delicate object of whimsey, is actually named after a lyric from Leonard Cohen ("Chelsea Hotel No 2", to be exact - the one about Janis Joplin and, well... you know).  This is their second album, and track 9, "da Kinx" (Realaudio archive), is the thing that first blew most of our minds here.  It was lunchtime on a Wednesday, and a relentless blast of Tiger Mountain-era Eno up against some Amon Düül II-isch aggression came through WFMU's inhouse speakers, allowing us to experience the aural equivalent of getting beat up by the lunch-money bully.  I mean this in a good way.  The rest of the album takes in doses of surf twang, looping drunkard's guitars, hillbilly goofiness, and a bit of flamenco and blurts it all out with a minimalist pounding heaviness that's more invigorating and smelly than much dressed-up Rock Music you hear now'days.

Jump the flip for a bit of bio straight from founding member Carlos Icaza, links to others on the scene, some context, and 10 fat pumping mp3s.

Says Carlos:

Las Comadrejas born the day George Harrison died, after the split up of one of the seminal underground freak bands from Mexico City: Los Esquizitos. They did 3 records and were a big influence for the actual scene in the country. Las Comadrejas begun with the 3 members of Los Esquizitos: Carlos Icaza, Nacho Disorder and The Young Alex. The singer Uili Damage did a proyect wih his girlfriend called Flanger Garden. Las Comadrejas did its first record in 2001. It was a desolating record where minimal rock and roll meets reggae, country and bluegrass and lots of heavy humor. We did 500 handmade copies that sold out in the presentation party. Then, Joolz join us (he played in several exciting bands like Los Fancyfree, Evil Hippie and Roc and Robots), and El Cusak, a Spanish flamenco lover with an attitude.  We did a tour in Spain in 2003 and Munster Records gets the distribution for our second record that was called "We Are Ugly But We Have The Music", after a Leonard Cohen line. This record is totally sold out, but maybe the guys from Munster still have a few, check it out and ask them!  We are working on a EP proyect that will be out only on vinyl. It's a single with 6 songs on 33 rpm.

Here's where you can hear Las Comadrejas on WFMU.

And here's "We Are Ugly, But... We Have The Music" in its entirety, as mp3s for you to download:

Butsi  |  Consolitos  |  Lou Ferringo |  D.J. Angos  |  Oaxacátelas  | 
Alex Rolex  |  Kusturuko  |  Ivi S.A.  |  da Kinx |  Absolutal Bastard

Comments

[K]

Ouch, if that first track you recommend is any indication, I'll take a pass at the rest. Eno? Please...

[Scott]

Hey K, I never said "Music for Airports". Listen to "Third Uncle", I think it's almost uncanny, and I got Kelly Jones backing me up. Anyway, sorry you didn't like it.

[K]

Yeah, oddly enough I was just listening to "801 live" which is about as "psychedelic rock" as Eno gets, so I know what you mean. Is "Third Uncle" like "da Kinx"? OK, I did a side by side as you suggest, and point out the follow. Notice how Turringtons clean bass line mixes with Manzaneras fuzzy and constantly changing guitar parts to give the song a strong and moving texture. I'm not sure whether Wyatt or Smith does the percussion, but it adds further complexity to the rythym without overwhelming the piece. On "da Kinx" everyone is pretty much plays right on top of the bass line, and so it seems to go on forever before the break. There's just a hell of a lot more musically going on in "Third Uncle", and my ear never gets tired. No need to apologize, thanks for trying and keep looking for the needle in the camels eye (wink).

[Puny]

Yes, Mexico City its exploding with this kind of bands.

[Dan Willems]

This is great fun! Thanks for the post.

[Mcspicious]

.....man, so touchy 'bout Eno we all are ("thanks for trying"? Damn.)....nobody's crying over the Amon Duul II ref! I'm with ya Scott, keep it coming.

[Cal P]

Great stuff, exactly what I keep coming back to this blog for.
thx,CP

[Peecat]

I live next door to Mexico yet knew nothing about this burgeoning underground music scene. Thanks for the tip off. As for Eno, he and I happen to share the same birthday: shouldn't that make us related in some way?

[JT]

This is worth listening to as an entire album. And it's a really, really good album. Some of these songs in the wrong context could leave me cold, but altogether I love this rec. It's very heavy psych with lots of weird tangents.

If there's more stuff like this brewing down SotB, we're in for a treat.

[Emile]

Great stuff, thanks Scott!

[carlos icaza]

hi, this is carlos from las comadrejas. thanx to wfmu for playing us. and cheers to good irwin chusid for not leaving the cd in his hotel room at mexico city!
check out at myspace for comadrejas related projects and the underground scene in mexico city.

www.myspace.com/lascomadrejas
www.myspace.com/losfancyfree
www.myspace.com/evilhippiemex
www.myspace.com/elpanblanco
www.myspace.com/rocandrobots
www.myspace.com/orquestasilenciosa
www.myspace.com/mikiguadamur

and about the Eno issue.... when we did that song (da kinx) i was having in mind a kinks line, and the bass player was thinking about a violent femmes song. that answers about the title. the drone stuff came more of blue cheer! anyway we are big Eno firs 4 albums fans and Roxy´s first two. hope it´s not to late to post this hahahah....
saludos desde mexico.

[alex garrick]

Cerdo...

joi joi

saludos a la bandaaaa
http://www.myspace.com/alexgarrido

[Salvapop]

Comadrejas in Ebay, diablos