Vicente Gayo - Despierta y Vence

Despierta y Vence, Vicente Gayo
Terrícolas Imbéciles, México
Rating: 73
by Andrew Casillas

So where does a band go after its “flavor of the month” tag expires? Lots of times it goes straight into the bargain bin. A few others escape the peril and become quite the trailblazer in their own right (think TV on the Radio). And then there’s the unsung groups who persevere, making good records for years and years, accumulating some serious fans, yet never really break through. Vicente Gayo is sitting comfortably in this last spot at the moment of their latest release, Despierta y Vence.

First things first: Very happy these guys got the more annoying math-rock tendencies out of them. The hallmarks remain in some places (see opener “Mismo Loop,” and its angular keyboards and dissonance), but for the most part these dudes sound more like Out Hud than anything. A lot of these boils down to straight confidence, really. Case in point: “Interpretacions Sin Razon,” which is any other band’s best the Rapture-rip, which the Ortiz boys embed with enough sneer to make Liam Gallagher clap. And the one-two punch of “Circuitos Doblados” and “Crash,” two of the loudest yet intricate album tracks of this year, will deservedly own your speakers.

All-in-all, this is a very fun, fluid affair. It’s not life-changing or anything, but it’s certainly something to take note of going forward. Vincente Gayo certainly has the tools to break out into that next echelon, but it’s going to take more time. Next time, watch out on the Austin TV-sound-a-likes, and keep working on those effects. But certainly worth the hype.

Video + MP3: Natalia Lafourcade & Various Artists - "Un Derecho de Nacimiento"

It’s been crazy in Mexico ever since the electoral campaigns began. Sick of manipulated information and biased content generated by Latin America’s largest television network, Televisa, which has manifested an evident tendency towards presidential candidate, PRI’s Enrique Peña Nieto, the movement #YoSoy132, led mostly by young people and students, has grown into a consolidated cause over the whole Mexican republic, demanding impartiality in information and condemning the imposition of a presidential figure by corporate media.

Aware of this alarming climate, many Mexican musicians (#MúsicosConYoSoy132) have joined the movement. Brilliant composer Natalia Lafourcade has been a strong supporter. On May 9^th, through her Twitter account, the songstress announced her followers she would write a song “asking for positive things in the country” and invited them to contribute ideas. One month later, “Un Derecho de Nacimiento” was born. Originally premiered at a #YoSoy132 concert on June 16^th at Distrito Federal’s main square, this first take had Lafourcade hypnotically looping her vocal melodies into a raw, conscience-awakening, awe-inspiring chant. The final version, featuring some of our favorite artists (Carla Morrison, Juan Manuel Torreblanca, Marian Ruzzi, Vicente Gayo, among others) is more conventional without losing any ounce of impact that the first live recording transmitted. In fact, hearing all these figures collaborate together in such a uniting manifesto, results in something hopeful and deeply touching, despite what certain outspoken bands may think about the authenticity of their endorsment.

Today is the elections day, and “Un Derecho de Nacimiento” came in the perfect time, resounding as an awakening anthem for this transcendental date. Myself, being a Mexican, living in this beautiful country and having the chance to vote today, feel profoundly moved by this hymn and, with all my heart, expect the change our beloved country deserves, finally arrives. Today’s citizen's participation is decisive for Mexico’s course. And, as the song’s chorus affirms, “Yo no nací sin causa/Yo no nací sin fe.” Let’s make our voice count. It’s truly a birth right.

♫♫♫ "Un Derecho de Nacimiento"

Vive Latino 2012: Day One

by Claire Frisbie

Hello there. I went down to Mexico City last week and this blog's lovely editors were kind/foolish enough to let me share my first Vive Latino experience with you all. I'm not one for official bios, but here are some things about me: full-time melómana, part-time "foodie," aspiring accordion player (in theory, not in practice), and bike enthusiast. Co-founder and former editor of Remezcla.com. Proud Brooklynite by way of Costa Rica, Mexico, Germany, and Chile. Long-time reader of Club Fonograma, thrilled to contribute for the first time, and tickled to bear the same initials. Hello.

Mexico had a busy week last week. The biggest earthquake since ’85 shook things up for a couple days, Pope Benedict XVI made his controversial visit to León, and then, of course, there was Vive Latino, which was why yours truly was there.

As hundreds of thousands made the pilgrimage to Guanajuato to see El Papa, tens of thousands of us crammed into metro cars and inched along in endless DF traffic towards Ciudad Deportiva for a weekend of worship of a very different variety.

We arrived just after Vetusta Morla had finished their set on the main stage and proceeded to roam around aimlessly and feel generally overwhelmed. I knew Vive was going to be big, but Foro Sol is massive—and without a map or functioning smart phone, I felt more than a tad lost.

by Marlon Bishop

First up (for us): Chilean darlings Dënver, who helped appease the initial confusion/vastness of the fest with their easy breezy pop. The crowd sang along to “Olas Gigantes” as singer Mariana pouted and posed and pranced around the stage. Nothing mind-blowing, but that was fine; it was nice. We bought some beer and danced a bit before wandering off to catch the end of Antoine Reverb’s set. Which we missed.

There’s a rhythm to Vive, and any mega-festival I suppose, that is key to a good time and has absolutely nothing to do with music and everything to do with planning. Four stages is a lot to juggle and with infinite distractions in between—merch! mohawks! mezcal! movies (courtesy of Ambulante)! piercings! pashminas! parkour! a mobile library (why not?)! some dude jumping into a trash can! wait, another dude jumping into a trash can…?—trips between stages easily took 15-20 minutes. (Almost) all the sets started right on time, if not a few minutes early, so I was forced to go against my nature and attempt to be punctual. It wasn’t until day two that I really got the hang of it.

We made our way to the Carpa Intolerante (the smallest stage at Vive, curated by Discos Intolerancia) to see Ruben from Café Tacvba’s side project HopPo! Hair long and messy, skirt long and hippy, Ruben was as beautiful and charming as ever, but forced to hobble around with a cane as he’d injured himself the night before (while performing at some concert protesting violence against animals, bless his heart). Made up of Los Fancy Free drummer Carlos Icaza, several Chilean musicians, someone on a sitar, and at this performance, the bassist from Santa Sabina, HopPo! performed experimental Eastern-tinged covers of Latin American folk classics by the likes of Victor Jara and Violeta Parra, along with some originals off their upcoming album.

Next was Vicente Gayo, who put on a super-energetic show to an overflowing and enthusiastic crowd, giving me my first real taste of rrrrock at this festival, replete with obligatory crowd surfing and chants of “oé oé oé oé, Gayo, Gayo” under the glow of a huge rooster.

Then I made my first bad decision of Vive Latino. According to the schedule, there was a big break at the Carpa Intolerante. ("Why would there be an hour and a half break?" I should have asked myself. Oh, hindsight.) I suggested we grab some food and check out Los Ezquisitos because I liked their name. Halfway through my first moist taco de canasta, I knew we’d made a mistake, one of the generic hard rock variety. Whoops. By that point Rubén Albarrán had somehow made it over to the Escenario Indio Blanco to join the band for a painful (heavy metal-ish) rendition of “Esa Noche.” But what I’m mad about is that back at Intolerante, none other than Torreblanca was performing a surprise show. The one artist not on the Vive lineup who I really hoped to catch while in Mexico City.

Luckily, we have YouTube for situations like this. Check out that fox around his neck!

The big draw of Friday night was Enrique Bunbury, an artist whose appeal I cannot wrap my head around for the life of me. But there were thousands of leather cowboy hats and Heroes del Silencio t-shirts crowding the Escenario Indio Verde from early on in the day, reminding me that I was very much in the minority. About ten minutes before 9, we squeezed and “permiso”-ed our way into the crowd to catch our first main stage show of the festival: Zoé.

Every time I see Zoé live I’m reminded of what quintessential rock stars they are, and I mean that as a compliment of the highest order. Say what you will about their Unplugged album (I say good things!), their talent is undeniable and man, do they put on a good show. They had so many musicians on stage (around 10, I believe)—including Chetes in what looked like a bedazzled dashiki, Pipe of L.A. band The May Fire, and, of course, Denise, aka Lo Blondo, of Hello Seahorse!

León and orchestra made their way through the Unplugged repertoire, which worked surprisingly well in the stadium setting, thanks to really incredible sound. That is, when it wasn’t drowned out by the chorus of the audience singing along to every word. The din surged to a massive roar/squeal when León invited Señor Bunbury out to reprise their duet of “Nada,” which made for the perfect transition into the plugged-in, full-on rock half of Zoé’s set: “Polar,” “Memo Rex,” “Últimos Días,” “Vía Láctea,” “Miel,” “Labios Rotos,” and the descent of León into the crowd as he walked amongst and sang to the fans, flanked by security guards.

With the final applause and a splash of some unidentifiable warm liquid from above (that was totally beer, right?), we called it a night, eager to get some rest before the most anticipated day of #VL12.

MP3: Vicente Gayo - "Cosas Que Encontrar"

You might not notice it because we strike to be ‘selective’, but in the last week there has been a storm of new singles popping out of Mexico. Yes, just in time for 2011’s Vive Latino. Vicente Gayo is one of the bands making this smart step forward, and they’re hoping that at least a fraction of the El Vive’s massive crowd will be singing along to their brand new single “Cosas Que Encontrar.” We’ve always been attracted to the band’s energy and its fixation with technicality, and there’s plenty of these qualities in the new track. In the other hand, we’ve also pointed out Vicente Gayo’s lack of direction in the dance-punk circuit, and here’s where the new track shows improvement. This is not to say they’ve made a better song than “GAYO” or “Fin de Transmision”, but they’ve come to terms with their songcraft. They no longer sound like outsized kids running away for no reason, now they’re after something (schizophrenia).

♫♫♫ "Cosas Que Encontrar"
MySpace

Video: Vicente Gayo - "GAYO"

We may not buy the -breakthrough band of the year- tag many of our friends are giving them, but we do love “GAYO” and its video makes it even better. Truth is, Vicente Gayo is a very cool band with a bunch of cool ideas that need a bolder execution. Nonetheless these kids stand out, they’re so energized and up-to-the-beat it’s hard to not like them, no wonder everyone praises their live shows. Last time we heard they were going to release part of their self titled LP (reviewed here) through The Poni Republic and I get the feeling I will go from like-to-love because these kind of high-voltage youth is better conceived in minimized doses. The video is a knockout, visually and in its concept, hopefully it transcends over to MTV although it’s clearly framed for the virtual window.

.

Vicente Gayo, Vicente Gayo

VICENTE GAYO, VICENTE GAYO
Independiente, México ***
Rating: 66
By Carlos Reyes

Several blogs and bands among them Austin TV told us that Vicente Gayo was the one Mexican band to watch for in 2009. On a first impression I was in total lost in to what’s so interesting about them to justify the anticipation; maybe their name in response to the American multifaceted artist that is Vincent Gallo, the entirely blue colored album cover (in its digital release) or maybe their presence in a lack of dance fuel in Mexico’s current rock scene. But letting the overstated expectancy aside, these guys are able to hold a first album and especially their influences aboard. The band does distance itself from its fellow teenage-oriented punk/rock bloody-wannabe bands (Panda, Insite and Finde), instead the band gets closer to the more pleasant sound of The Rapture and Bloc Party, embracing the electro-sheen and stirring beats to round up what they call punk, quite similar to Division Minuscula, Los Implantes and 60 Tigres.

The self-titled album never reaches uncharted musical grounds, but it is the owner of absurd raw energy that is nicely engineered and goes on parallel with its glossy lyrics. I’m a bigger fan of its outlying participants than the front hip stuff, like in “Rec Play Stop" where a clumsy song about a recording device doesn’t allure me much but the background accompaniment and response do, giving the song a sense of return and arrival (like in Bloc Party’s amazing debut). “Vas Bien” is a memorable piece, although clearly an interlude, it’s one of the album’s soaring moments as it is part of the process getting back into the process of learning, it’s such a gratifying moment whenever a friend says “you’re doing well.”

There are some songs in English that are fundamentally interesting in trying to understand the band’s influences and aspirations. “Conversion” is ultimately the only one that gets it right even if it sounds like Panic at the Disco, you just can’t go wrong with precise and sophisticated rhythms. It is however “G-A-Y-O” that becomes the heart of the album; it’s a headrush of all sorts, finding glory in sonic moderation rather than in musical exploration, a song that should serve them plenty of confidence on their shows and that sustains its capital letters with all merit. There’s a need for better sequencing, a lack of ingenuity with lyrics, and the lack of a strong theme to uphold these songs. But there’s clearly something special about them and it’s not a hidden quality like I thought, Vicente Gayo elevates its form due to its endless force within each song and its poignant, almost heroic objective to keep the sound moving.

♫♫♫ "G-A-Y-O"

MySpace