Mariachi on Steroids--Chingon's Mexican Spaghetti Western

Mexican Spaghetti Western is an album I picked up only recently by Chingon, an Austin group put together by Director Robert Rodriguez, and their music has appeared on several soundtracks, probably best known from Kill Bill Vol 2, From Dawn to Dusk, the Mexico and Mariachi's comp and Once Upon a Time in Mexico. This is their first album, released in 2004 on some subsidiary of Rounder Records Europe, Continental Song City. Or at least the copy I own is.

If you like Calexico, you will really love this album. It's a stirring, highly energized combination of Mexican music, rock n roll, western balladry, surf guitar and Morricone, with impressively deft guitar runs throughout. This music is big and full of heart, and it's in your face desert rock. En Espanol. Gritty and Fun party music. Great music for a soundtrack or for a road trip. They don't call themselves Chingon for nothing.

The majority of the band seems to be Del Castillo, which include the Rick and Mark Del Castillo on guitar, Alex Ruiz on vocals, and Rick Holeman on percussion. Additionally, you have Robert Rodriguez on guitar, and a host of other musicians like Rafael Goyal, Dony Wynn, Sunny Sauceda, Carl Thiel, Cecilio Ruiz, Alex Ramirez.



The guitar work is both intricate and at other moments simply incendiary with stinging guitar leads. Maleguena Salerosa (La Malaguena), song number 2, is one of the many fine moments on the album. A fairly intense ballad with great guitar interplay. The Del Castillo's definitely know how to play and Alex Ruiz lilterally sings his corazon out. Former Plugz (long overdue for reissue) singer Tito Larriva (who is also part of Tito and Tarantula)cameos on his slow smoldering cancion Alacran Y Pistolero. Nice stuff. Chingon perform the traditional Cielito Lindo starting in an understated fashion to completely over the top. Great stuff--it sounds like a Joe Strummer interpretation of the old standard. Excellente!



Another cameo vocalist is actress Salma Hayek, who sings the sultry ballad Siente Mi Amor and she does a terrific job. Se Me Paro, the opener to Spaghetti Western is a catchy call and response number with effortless guitar licks, a lot of fun. When you hear this first number you will understand clearly what you are getting into on this album. Fideo Del Oeste (Mexican Spaghetti Western) is another great mariachi raveup and a fitting title track. Great lightning fast acoustic leads on this one.

Mexican Spaghetti Western is a smoking hot Mex-Tex raveup that is a great party record. Unfortunately, this one seems to be a bit hard to obtain right now, but it is well worth the effort. I can't help but think that a lot of people over a broad cross-section of tastes would find this appealing. I won't be in Arizona for Christmas this year, so I guess Chingon will be my consolation for no Barrio Cafe this month.

Cotton Mather's Lost Classic--Kontiki--The Fans have spoken with their Wallets

You know what, the music of Austin Texas' Cotton Mather is still fairly new to me. I first found out about this band when I picked up John Borack's excellent Guide to Power Pop, Shake Some Action. It's a great book for fans of melodic pop, and if you don't agree with his choices at least it creates an interesting debate for music lovers.  Kontiki, Cotton Mather's second full-length, was ranked 26th out of the top 200 power pop albums. (Incidentally, Adam Schmitt's extraordinary World So Bright (see my earlier post) was #9 on the list). Cotton Mather sounded like a group that I would enjoy, so I eventually picked up a copy for under $20. And I was mightily impressed with the music, amazingly recorded on 4-Track and ADAT. It's hard to believe music this full and complex could be done that way, though I guess that is what bands like The Beatles and Beach Boys had back in the early 60's. Honestly I believe that they deserve a reward for being a band that basically channels the Beatles without being the least bit imitative.

Of course the fact that these guys put together an album of this quality in a lo-fi way is remarkable, and comparisons to Guided By Voices are inevitable. The album titles are quirky in the style of Robert Goddard, and in some ways they are in the same zone as Neutral Milk Hotel, a band whose popularity has grown tremendously, and deservedly so. When I listen to Kontiki, I feel that this album is on the same level as In The Aeroplane Over The Sea , except that I expect few people know about these guys.

Well, maybe that will change soon, because, unwittingly I just found out that a project has been underway to reissue a deluxe 2-disc version of Kontiki by Robert Harrison. This project has been fan-funded, to the tune of 17,000+ dollars, exceeding the original amount originally asked for. I would say that this is a testament to the quality of this recording, and also to the loyalty and esteem that fans have for Cotton Mather. I saw a blog post that said that they were still sorting out what the tracks would be on the bonus disc. Sounds like good news to anyone who likes interesting pop music like I do.



And I wasn't kidding about what I said about the Beatles. Some of the songs here sound like Beatles songs that somebody found in a vault somewhere that have been lost since the late 60's. But not like the Rutles at all. You could probably play this for your friends and tell them that these are some old Beatles demos that were just discovered, and you could probably fool them.  Songs like Spin My Wheels, or Homefront Cameo.

Cotton Mather were Robert Harrison, Guitar/Vocals, Whit Williams Guitar/Vocals, George Reiff on Bass, Dana Mizer on drums. I'm not sure what else is going down, as there seems to be a lot of keyboards and maybe sitar or mandolin on some of the songs. In addition to the pop chops and great harmonies apparent, there is fairly heavy psychedelic tinge to some of the songs like Aurora Bori Alice and Lily Dreams On.

But for those of us who admire huge hooks, you have amazing songs like the Fab Foury She's Only Cool, and the excellent My Before and After. Password is an equally amazing song, the guitar reminiscent of Big Star's September Gurls. Kontiki is a very special album of the highest quality, another album so surprisingly good that I was shocked that it could have been hidden from me for so long.



Well, maybe this band won't our little secret for much longer. Anybody with a sweet tooth for pop music, or who is one of the huge legion of Beatles acolytes is going to find a lot to enjoy here. (Or if you are a GBV fan who can't wait 2 weeks for the next Robert Pollard release). I'm not sure what the other guys in Cotton Mather are up to now, but Robert Harrison has made a number of highly regarded albums under the moniker Future Clouds and Radar. And let's hope that their other records will receive the same reissue treatment in the near future. But for now, just be happy that an expanded Kontiki will be available soon.