Club FonoGRAMMYS - Best Alternative Song

Los nominados al #grammylatino @astrosonidoespa 🌈🌈🌈🌈

A photo posted by JAVIERA 🌹 (@javieramena) on Sep 25, 2015 at 3:39pm PDT

Finally, after years of twisting Carlos's arm, Club Fonograma presents it's First Annual Latin Grammy coverage! Join a few of the crew as we give our thoughts on various categories. And, if you're catching this early, hang around our Twitter account during showtime as Andrew Casillas provides real-time analysis of presenters' hairstyles and identifies which performers sweat more than Patrick Ewing. So without further ado, let's kick off the 2015 Club FonoGRAMMYS!

Category 1: Best Alternative Song

Famasloop — "Allí Estás"

Astro — "Caribbean"

Natalia Lafourcade — "Hasta la Raíz"

El Cuarteto de Nos — "No Llora"

Javiera Mena — "Otra Era"

Zé Garcia: The Alt Record of the Year category shows the expanding spectrum of the Academy's considerations. On the (as expected) terrible end, we have Venezuela's Famasloop with "Allí Estás." Clearly, we can think of dozens of recordings more deserving than what sounds like background music for a Comcast commercial.  El Cuarteto de Nos is not as terrible as the Febreeze pop of "Allí Estás" but "No Llora" is still pretty annoying. Visually, "No Llora" channels the work of Kraft Mac & Cheese commercials complete with cute (read: obnoxious) child. The "Gloria Estefan-but-on-acid" bros of Astro also land a nomination with the pretty cool "Caribbean," but clearly one of our girls is taking home that prize and it's probably the recording industry's darling, Natalia Lafourcade. Yes, "Hasta La Raiz" is clearly one of the finest recordings of the last year, a song whose poetry and strings measure up to the word "epic." But it's going up against "Otra Era," one of the best songs of this young century. "Otra Era," our pick for 2014's best song, would probably land the top stop in a Club Fonograma mid-decade's best list. And why shouldn't it? "Otra Era" is sublime. It contemplates empires--a time-space pop gem composed of an ulterior reggaeton beat, the urge of a disco house piano, and a final climax that sounds like a doomsday siren. Mena's vocals get pitch shifted into a malformed future in the song's final moments and the effects are both terrifying and exhilarating. The transcendent quality of "Otra Era" has the ability to drive a perceptive listener to tears- a recording to match a beautiful & tragic existential crisis.

Andrew Casillas: I legit lol'd at your comment that "Allí Estás" sounding like a Comcast ad. I mean, you can't be mad at El Cuarteto de Nos sneaking in here--I mean, there are way worse dinosaur bands getting Latin Grammy nods. By the way, when did "Caribbean" become Astro's breakthrough? DID NO ONE LISTEN TO "DIMENSIÓN SUPREMA?!" That song's got bars, son. So yeah, it comes down to the CF darlings Natalia and Javiera. I think we can agree that "Otra Era's" mere presence is a legitimate win for the 21st century Chilean pop monolith. And it's certainly the most innovative song in the category. But I'm not 100% certain that "Hasta la Raiz" isn't the better song. I may prefer "Otra Era" as a whole, but Natalia Lafourcade's spent an entire career working her craft to make something as instant and delicate as "Hasta la Raiz." And let's take a minute to understand how difficult it probably was to craft something like that. Is it her best song? No. But is it something worth giving an award to? Damn right.

WHO SHOULD WIN: Javiera Mena, "Otra Era"
WHO WILL WIN: Natalia Lafourcade, "Hasta la Raíz"

Video: Calle 13 - "Prepárame La Cena"

While Entren Los Que Quieren hasn't shed any of its initial criticisms upon release (a few of which you can find here), Calle 13's latest video from the Grammy-hoarding record, "Prepárame La Cena," is a sublime reflection of the album's most sublime track. The calm, almost robust song is greatly enhanced by its parent video. The video contains sanitized, yet undoubtedly powerful images of teenage human trafficking in Latin American countries. Special attention goes to the steady and nuanced cinematography, which walks that fine line between reality and propaganda. So we can sit here and complain about the band's crappy collaborations or how Residente has lost his fastball, or we can just sit back and enjoy one of the band's finer moments. We're hopeful its a sign that great things are still on the horizon for one of the single most influential Latin acts of the past decade.

Latin Grammy Winners 2010: Choc Quib Town Saves the Day, Other Winners Include Ely Guerra, Cerati & Julieta Venegas

The amount of good performances at the Latin Grammys’ gala shrinks every year, but we’re not too cool to watch, it’s a great night to zoom out of our Latin hipster world and see the industry as a whole. The award show (on Univision) keeps boosting its ratings, and those scores are ultimately the determining factors on who gets to perform at the show. Consider this, Univision is firing Despierta America’s hosts one at a time (like every week), they even said farewell to Cristina Saralegui. Why? Deep breath, because they want to appeal to a new generation of viewers (insert skeptic-offended emoticon), I’ll leave it at that. Every year there are a couple of performances to feel proud of, this year, it was all about Choc Quib Town.

The Colombian powerhouse trio might have lost to freaking Alexander Acha last year (for Best New Artist), but they came back for an award, and they got to perform their anthem “De Donde Vengo Yo” on the telecast. To us, they stole the show. They owned the stage like no one else, worshiped the moment with skillful and nonstop energy. Plus, no one looked hotter on that red carpet, ok, perhaps Latin Grammy winner Ely Guerra. All the cool, interesting categories are awarded at the preshow (broadcasted at the Latin Grammys website), the trio received the award for Best Alternative Song (“De Donde Vengo Yo”), flooded in tears, it was simply overwhelming. They emphasized the importance of the award to all the Afro-Latinos in the world; Los Rakas said it a few months ago, “the day you see the Latin Grammys with a lot of black people, ‘cause you know we’ve made it… Latin America is still trying to hide us.”

Other cool winners include Ely Guerra (Alternative Album), Alex Cuba (New Artist), Cerati (Best Rock Album & Song), Mala Rodriguez (Urban Song) and Julieta Venegas (Music Video). Taking a trophy from LARAS shouldn’t be the most significant accomplishment for any artist, but it does great things for emerging talents. As I’m writing this, I’m reading twits from people like Jorge Ramos and Tommy Torres trying to figure about this amazing performers. It’s this kind of moment that makes the Latin Grammys more tolerable, although they will always have a special campy-pleasure space in our hearts, heck, on the red carpet special they even confused ChocQuibTown’s Goyo with Concha Buika!

A couple of notes from the show (we’re not going to lie, we missed much of the show ‘cause it’s NBC’s Comedy Thursday, Community & The Office are just too good to not watch:

• No one mentioned Cerati on the show, epic fail.
• Lucero and Eugenio Derbez are still annoying; Angelica Vale’s segment was way more entertaining.
• Placido Domingo, you classy.
• Winners, I understand the excitement, but realize there’s a microphone, you don’t need to scream.
• You particularly don’t need to scream “Hola Latinos!”
• Did Aida Cuevas really win Best Tango Album? Did she really deserve to have the first Tango spot on the show’s history?
• Skip the Ranchero category, Chente won’t show up, again.
• La Mala Rodriguez, you forgot your lines, but you still rock.
• When are the Latin Grammys going to take place in Latin America?
• The JLO-Marc Anthony royalty vibe a la JayZ-Beyonce actually works.
• Kany Garcia, if you’re gonna be a sore looser and diss on Nelly Furtado, do it right.
• Too much Mexican.
• Remember, if you want to win a Grammy, you must register your album.
• If you’re in the recording business and want better albums to win, become part of LARAS and vote.
• Find the full list of winners at the Latin Grammy’s official website.

Banda de Turistas, Ceci Bastida, Hello Seahorse! Among The 11th Annual Latin Grammy Nominees

Congratulations to Banda de Turistas (2 noms!), Ely Guerra, Hello Seahorse!, Choc Quib Town, Ceci Bastida, Julieta Venegas, La Mala Rodriguez, Gustavo Cerati and others for their nominations at this year's Latin Grammys. These nominees probably come from the same people that nominated Juan Son, Natalia Lafourcade, Choc Quib Town and Hello Seahorse! last year.

This will be the 11th edition of the always controversial gala, to be celebrated in Las Vegas in November. Juan Luis Guerra, Jorge Drexler, Alejandro Sanz, and Camila's Mario Domm lead the nominations with 4 nods each. This is by far, the most boring list of nominees in Latin Grammy history, but congrats on the few for their recognition!

The Latin Grammys are always fun to talk about, and not just for their campy value, LARAS is one juicy union to debate over democracy and revalue the weight of entertainment across its platforms. Despite mostly horrible winners, there are always a handfulof dependable voters that make the Latin Grammys far less embarrassing. Yet again, most of the artists we love don’t even subscribe their albums for award consideration, something important toconsider before calling up the snubs.

Full list of nominees @ LA TIMES.