Laura mentioned this band to me Sunday as we were walking along the riverfront in Hoboken. I looked them up. They're a mariachi band that loves heavy metal, so they combine the two. Of the songs I sampled, this one seemed to do the best of including elements of both genres. I remember the video for this Van Halen song being all over MTV when I was in college.
Link to Metalachi, Hot for Teacher
Posted on Monday, July 1, 2024
So, for reasons I can't disclose, Laura and I were discussing Homestar Runner, which led me to go to their site, which led me to doing a web search for "fhqwhgads", which led me to this, this little bit of brilliance, this mashup of Bruno Mars' deracinated funk with Strong Bad and The Cheat's pop. Everybody to the limit!
Link to Bruno Mars vs. Strong Bad, Uptown Fhqwhgads
Posted on Wednesday, June 19, 2024
Rachid Taha's cover of the Clash song "Rock the Casbah" is a thorough mixing of punk and Algerian rai music. The iconic chorus is sung in English, but the rest of the song is rendered in Arabic, and rock beats and guitars mix with Egyptian-style strings. The result is amazing. Taha famously met the Clash in Paris in 1981 and handed them a tape of his band's music, which they seemed interested in. A year later, their next album included "Rock the Casbah". Coincidence? Taha thought his tape may have influenced the band. So this cover is kind of him returning the favor, bringing things full circle.
Link to Rachid Taha, Rock el Casbah
Posted on Saturday, May 25, 2024
I know absolutely nothing about this band. But my wife and I were laying in bed and she started playing this on her phone and I thought, "That could go up on Chocolate Tuba". And now it has. It doesn't particularly mesh the styles very well, but it may be more interesting for that failure.
Link to Hakim e Cleopatra, Walk Like an Egyptian
Posted on Friday, May 24, 2024
The band that Talking Heads evolved into by the time the movie Stop Making Sense was made was the epitome of Chocolate Tuba, taking the angular minimalist punk the three- and four-piece versions of the band were known for and bringing in a healthy dose of R&B. Not something you would think would work, but boy did it ever, creating something unique.
Link to Talking Heads, Once in a Lifetime (Stop Making Sense extract)
Posted on Thursday, May 16, 2024