Video: Los Niños Estelares - “¿Cuándo va a caer la bomba?”

The paramount track off Los Niños Estelares’ latest EP Tragedias y Esperanzas en Tiempos de Internet has been put into live action by video directors Raul Alexander Marrero and Fernando Castro Alvarez. Earlier this year we highlighted “¿Cuándo va a caer la bomba?” as a song that “tackles the issue of a new Puerto Rican generation unwilling to compromise their lives to a form of totalitarian government.” In the clip, a teenager panics after receiving a collections warning from the Philanthropic Bank, the first of many misfortunes for an aspiring farmer kid whose exposure to mass data has pushed him into a suffocating corner where the only thing left to do is wait for "the drop of the bomb."

The duo’s sense of tragedy, misery, and relief are wonderfully vivid and cynical. The clip, premiered this week by Puerto Rico Indie, starts phenomenally well and it only gets better as it goes along. It flows above the waters of the duo’s quirky aesthetics and both directors seem to understand the Niño Estelar dialect better than all of us. At the end of the video, the kid is liberated from his pain and is given a sword, carrying on with the responsibility of liberating his enslaved peers.

Los Niños Estelares - Tragedias y Esperanzas En Tiempos de Internet

Tragedias y Esperanzas En Tiempos de Internet,
Los Niños Estelares
Independiente, Puerto Rico
Rating: 68
By Carlos Reyes

There are bands that can’t go unnoticed, and then there’s Los Niños Estelares. When we were first introduced to the band, we couldn’t help to think they had escaped from a zoo, or some kind of mental facility (for former intellectuals). In an effort to figure out what was in front of us, we described them as “a Tropical fusion between Calle 13, Tosh.0 and Flight of the Concords.” Many months have passed by us, and we’re still clueless. Any sort of unclassifiable art merits recognition, but when such art allows itself to be appreciated without coming to terms with any genre tags, things tend to get very interesting.

Tragedias y Esperanzas En Tiempos de Internet is the duo’s third release, and their very first short-length. When first approaching this album two things come to mind. First, a critique on their aesthetic disproportion as they’re the owners of one of the worst album covers we’ve seen recently. Second, is my personal agony to try to figure out if these guys are geeks, douchebags, or misunderstood geniuses. It's not particularly bad news, but this new album does very little to resolve my dilemmas. However, this doesn’t change the fact that I’m beginning to appreciate Los Niños Estelares as way more than your average rebels-without-cause, and more as a form of entertainment.

The five tracks on this quirky, genre-defying EP are chapters of social distraction and national destruction. Without falling into the realm of over-sentimentalist ‘theme music’, the EP’s opening track “Cuando Va A Caer La Bomba” tackles on the issue of a new Puerto Rican generation unwilling to compromise their lives to a form of totalitarian government. The 60-day student strike at the University of Puerto Rico resulted in the most significant movement powered by young adults on the island.

As they so explicitly point out, they see poverty as a form of slavery, and eventually have a hard time backing up their humorous argument. Throughout the album they do get very romantic about new media, and that’s where the album’s biggest strengths are (but nowhere near Capullo’s Informatica Romantica Para Avanzados). The rest of the tracks are fun for the most part, “Pari Bus” is particularly charming: who wouldn’t want to become a Party Bus. Also interesting, is their skuzzy cover of “Tatooine” by Jeremy Messersmith, which seems so out there. I won’t give myself another chance to define Los Niños Estelares because certainly, I don’t know. Tragedias y Esperanzas is full of ideas, some are bright, others are more like bad habits… yet again, the duo already knew that.

♫♫♫ "Cuando va a caer la bomba?"
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Video + MP3: Los Niños Estelares- "Alegría Doctor Alegría"

Dr Lacxos has been a loyal ClubFonograma reader since its beginnings, and ever since he launched his tumblr DrLacxos De Este Lao, he’s been a great source of content (especially from his native Dominican Republic). Lately, he’s head over heels with Los Niños Estelares, which he calls his favorite Puerto Rican band. Let me warn you, these guys are hilariously demented, in the most bizarre way. Band members Dario Constain Reyes and Fernando Castro-Alvarez are like the clown cousins of Residente and Visitante, they even look like them. This video is only a chapter of what they got to offer, intrepid humor that actually works. This is no joke, towards the end of the clip I found myself appreciating the creative exaggeration of the music, lyrics and aesthetics. Think of them as a Tropical fusion of Calle 13, Tosh.0 and Flight of the Concords. “Ricardo Alegría atrapó a Héctor Lavoe cuando se tiró del edificio.”

♫♫♫ "Alegría Doctor Alegría"

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