Remember Caroline Smith and the Good Night Sleeps from the super fun sidewalk performance they did for us? They’re stopping in Brooklyn tomorrow at Pete’s Candy Store, 10PM. First person to mention “Hooves on the Turf” to Caroline tomorrow will receive a gift from the band.

Photo above by Amanda Johnson.

Download “Closing The Doors”
Download Daytrotter Session (from Daytrotter website)
Download “Sally (Live at Cedar)“

Any Os Mutantes comparisons are well deserved—both groups get real far-out but still come off tropical-drink breezy—but Allá’s palette might be even broader, including bits of everything from Krautrock to hip-hop.

An earlier paragraph does a better job, read it after the jump:

Allá transforms traditional Mexican music—especially the combination of lushly harmonized folk melodies and Spanish-influenced guitar made famous by groups like the legendary Trio Los Panchos—into psychedelic confections, much the way Os Mutantes did with Brazilian and Afro-Caribbean styles in the 60s.

Yet that reasoning seems inadequate and the comparison difficult to swallow. Allá paints luscious cityscapes, mainly of a Chicago where artsy Latino kids hang with white kids without ever feeling like insiders, being challenged by their own kind, in the meanwhile, on the issue of Latino credibility. By contrast, I always imagined Os Mutantes to involve a superhero that rides a strong mule across hills adorned with dirt roads and many thieves. Perhaps I’m just being pigheaded.

Also, the texture that Portuguese words of Brazilian use insinuate are of a vastly different nature from Spanish’s, Mexican or not, and the singing styles differ too much; differences such as that in the earthy strings of the Mutantes compared to the sharp in Allá add up, too. I wouldn’t be surprised, however, if the live show proved slightly otherwise, when the music is stripped of polished studio production.

On the topic of being one of the first Latino bands to appeal to a primarily white indie music audience, the same article quotes founding member Jorge:

 “Besides traditional music,” he says, “there isn’t a lot of good Mexican music.”

That can’t be true! Further research must be posted on this blog.

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If I hadn’t already got Man Man tickets for tomorrow, I’d be certain to go see Christine Fellows at Music Hall of Williamsburg. I’m hoping the city will lure the Canadian at another time. The thickly-layered songs from her 2007’s Nevertheless (especially the opening “Let Us Have Done With The Umbrella Of Our Contagion”) and the rich classical/theatrical roots in her music spell, “We make for a great live show, come see us”.

I didn’t get around to the album when it first came out, or else my November would’ve been that much warmer. Joanna Newsom comparisons are inevitable, but Christine definitely leans towards the more traditional. The two voices roam the same woods, but in the end they leave different impressions. After all, one is an elf and the other simply can’t pass for one. A difference of cosmos.