Backstage @ Zocalo w/ BBB

After Balkan Beat Box and Asian Dub Foundation played in front of 50,000 people in the Zocalo in the center of Mexico city, Polka Madre and I got backstage for the wrap party and it's glorious free booze and food.
















Asian Dub Foundation (@ left) are pretty lame as a band. They sounded like a grab bag of passe 90s styles with the kind of "global party" politics that really get under my skin. The singer was reading political messages off a sheet of paper in unintelligable Spanish in between songs, things like "We say 'hello' to Manu Chao!". Yawn.

El Hijo el la Cumbia!

Representing Argentina at the Centro Historico 25 year celebration was El Hijo de la Cumbia, a DJ from the ZZK records/El remelom nu-school Cumbia fusion scene that is blowing up out of Buenos Aires. It was pretty surreal seeing him spin Cumbia rebajada (screwed or slowed-down) and his own remixes that incorporate dub and hip hop into the equation in front of 20,000 Mexicans- hipster and nacos alike, most of whom were scratching their heads. Meawhile El Hijo was scratching CD decks and a few of us were wilding out, hands in the aires. "Boludo!"

No Hay Nadie Como Tu!

I knew Calle 13 were interested in branching out beyond hip hop and reggaeton, but I didn't know that they had gone this far afield! A bit of Puerto Rico/Mexico crossover here, with Calle 13's Residente rapping over some cumbia/folk influenced rock from D.F.'s most famous sons, Cafe Tacuba. Feeling Residente's lyrics as always.

Calle 13 - No Hay Nadie Como Tú (Featuring Café Tacuba) (Official Music Video) - For more funny movies, click here

Bookstore, Coyoacan

Here are some photos from the most aesthetically pleasing bookstore in the world. Coyuoacan, D.F.

Invasion of the Loop Zombies from Mexico

Once again I feel like dem bols from Mad Decent are hot on my trails. This time Paul Devro, Canada's leading ethno-bass-nologist is putting Mexico on blast with Invasion of the Loop Zombies, a mix of whacked-out Mexican Tribal House. I have to admit that while I've heard plenty of Minimal, Psycho, and even Accordion House down here, the only exposure I've had to this sound was back in NYC from Uproot Andy and Gecko Jones at their Que Bajo? night. Anyway, I don't think that sound this is gonna be the next Baltimore House, but it's definitely good to see Mexico get a bit of shine in this new-fangled global blog/club scene.

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Firewater

I definitely slept on this band for awhile, but I guess the press blurb of "jaded New York troubadour travels in the middle east and comes back a world music dervish!" did not sound too appetizing to me. But these songs from "The Golden Hour" are catchy as hell and laced with some heavy Pakistani percussion that brings to mind Timbaland's 90s excursions into exoticism. Plus the album has "aspirations to classic status" written all over it, with it's anthematic melodies that repeat from track to track and the total lack of filler. I can forgive the idealistic, simplistically anti-western lyrics as well. Big ups to my new friend Dan, the sound man from Balkan Beat Box, for recording this..

The Best Meal of my Life?

The day after the Polka Madre anniversary party I walked around Coyuacan in a blissed-out daze, just so in love with that neighborhood. The buildings, the colors, the quiet streets, the people in the square, and the food in the market were all just so sublime. I was hung over and hungry and I went into the market to try these famous tostadas.












































One tostada was shrimp, the other was ceviche. Every ingredient was so fresh and succulent that juice would run down your chin with every bite. Yet, somehow the freshly fried tortilla was just thick enough to support all the toppings. The salsas were face-meltingly hot, the shredded lettuce was cool, the guacamole rich. The fish was flaked, raw and translucent in a pile just seconds before they piled it on to the tostada, added lime and turned into instant ceviche. This was one of the best meals of my life, hands down.

BBB Afterparty/Polka Madre Anniversary

After the first Balkan Beat Box show we had a party at Marina's for the 5 year anniversary of Polka Madre. The DJs were Ruth Selector, DJ Gadjo and myself. The guys from BBB and Asian Dub foundation came, along with tons of kids that hadly anyone knew. Anyway in these photos you can see how things degenerated over the next 12 hours...

Balkan Beat Box, D.F.

We had a pretty sick weekend with BBB here in Mexico City. If you don't know who they are, I highly recommend the new remix album, NuMade. Check out some tracks here.
They played the first night in a museum of Trains, where they weren't selling alcohol, and they still killed it. We got in for free and snuck in bottles so we were chillin.
The guys from Asian Dub Foundation were backstage after the show, too.
Kike was get his drink on.

Sopa Azteca

The new kick that I've been on down here is the soups of Mexico, which are often under appreciated. It took me a long time to work my way around to the soup section of the menu, but I'm glad glad I had the chance. For example, there is Sopa Azteca, which is a chicken soup that contains fried tortillas, avocado, Oaxacan cheese, a whole Chipoltle or marinated onion, cilantro and crema. This soup reminds me a lot of Khao Soi, the famous chicken soup from North Thailand: it's perfection lays in the juxtapostion of different textures in a broth that will render them uniform unless it is served piping hot right away. This and inclusion of the pickles and condiments that make it an individualized experience. There is something about that big ribbon of melting Oaxaca cheese floating on top that puts this out of the realm of mere soup and into a higher realm occupied by well-made chili and the afformentioned noodle soups of Thailand.
I forgot to take a photo of this soup down in Palenque, so I had to turn to google image:



BTW, Google image also produced this at the prompt of "Sopa Azteca", so....

I don't usually fuck with Salsa too much, but this jam is undeniable. If you can catch the words, too, it's great. Plus, check out Hector's style game on the video. Those glasses are so hot right now. This is a track that grew on me from hearing my fellow youtube DJ Raul playing it at every single party down here.

Birria @ La Frontera

You may have noticed that while I was in the south I slacked on the food photography. This is because the food down there really wasn't that exciting. Don't get me wrong, it was still amazing, but the city is really where it's at. Here we are back at Taqueria Frontera with a steaming bowl of Birria (goat meat stew)
And cebollitas- grilled green onions doused with Worcestershire sauce, lime and salt.
Eric and Raul, a Finnish American and a Mexican watch boxing- Caesar Chavez Jr. pounding some guys face. I could write an anthropological study on the their differing expressions.

Back to to the City

I came back up on the bus from the Yucatan, which was a 24 hours I will never get back nor look back on fondly, but it was worth it to see my friends Polka Madre playing in the center of the city as a part of a festival that also included Balkan Beat Box and Asian Dub Foundation.
Polka Madre has their own draw of little Chilango punk kids and hipsters. And girls that swoon over Andrew and Eric.

Marina gets groupie love, too.


Raul and I snuck out at the end to a Spanish bar around the corner to watch Mexico beat Costa Rica to advance toward the Mundial (World cup). Ahuevos~!
At this Spanish place they had pitchers of Sangria and this unhappy fellow on the wall:

My Crocideagle will always win..

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