Soda Stereo & Gustavo Cerati

Their two first albums are fun. They’re sort of the latinamerican Jamiroquai.

But yeah Soda Stereo in latinamerica are big. They might be the seminal latin rock band. As popular as idk Rolling Stones or Creedence in spanish speaking countries. You might not like them but you certainly know who they are.

I just got a reminder of another band that is popular in certain parts of Latin America, The Smiths.

Anyway the guy from Venezuela had not just a passing acquaintance but clearly demonstrated to me that he was a serious fan. Proof is left to the reader, references provided upon request etc.

As a Mexican, I can say that almost everybody within a certain range of ages knows the big hits, dedicated fans know deep cuts of the albums, some of them even follow Cerati´s solo career, and obsessive fans even know his electronic incursions (roken, plan v).

I think Mrs. Mottola's cover album of Latin-American rock classics is deplorable. I don't know who could prefer this to the originals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ufbkpBNFkQ

^cover of a Luis Alberto Spinetta song. Who didn’t usually approve of covers but later had Gustavo perform this song live with him.

I just got a reminder of another band that is popular in certain parts of Latin America, The Smiths.

― Cathy Berberian Begins at Home (James Redd and the Blecchs)

Yeah I think I once read an article that researched how popular The Smiths were in Mexico.

I think the most important band for late 80’s/early 90s music in Spain and Latinamerican music though is The Cure. Early Soda Stereo and important mexican bands like Caifanes were heavily influenced in sound and looks by them before they started developing a style of their own.

OTM. Gustavo had a girlfriend named Tashi who helped them with the look, maybe I already mentioned.

Los sábados, antes de salir a bailar a Fire o Palladium, se pasaban dos horas encerrados en el baño, maquillándose y usando cerveza, jugo de limón o clara de huevo para batirse el pelo y que los peinados les quedaran lo más espumosos posible. Tashi se ponía camisas escocesas, una minifalda, medias de red y stilettos a los que les cortaba los tacos para que las puntas se levantaran. Esa rutina pronto se extendió a los shows y, antes de salir a tocar, en los camarines del Zero o del Einstein, Tashi los asistía con el vestuario mientras le daba indicaciones a una amiga que se encargaba de cortarles el pelo como Robert Smith, de The Cure.

Cerati: la biografía definitiva, por Juan Morris

https://www.sopitas.com/musica/soda-stereo-historia-detras-zoom-influencia-kiss-gustavo-cerati-ace-frehley-disco-tributo/

^points out that Kiss wanted Soda to appear on a Kiss tribute album, which didn’t work out, but the song “Zoom” has a prominent sample from Ace Frehley’s “New York Groove.”

This Soda-centric playlist of Latin American rock seems pretty good:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1oLpr7CRX8GogGMIqJGKuf

61 hours though!

So far so good though.

She seems to have a good bolero playlist too. Only seven hours.

Have now played 50 songs of 61 hour playlist and so far it’s been pretty enjoyable. Lots of Soda album tracks with maybe one or two hits of theirs so far interspersed with other unfamiliar stuff.

“Adiós” has an interesting phrasing of the melody that is difficult to sing without counting or paying extra attention to the drums etc.

Most of the time he starts singing on the 2 of the bar. There is a heavy pattern played by the drums and the rest of the band leading up to it: TWO THREE Four and One!

There’s also usually a crash on FOUR before that.

What’s your opinion on Cerati’s Bocanada?

My father let me use one of his cars for a year and it was one of those cars that let you load 4/5 cds but one of them got stuck and it got fucked and I couldn’t load anything else other than those initial 5 cds and one of them was Bocanada. It ended up being one of my most listened albums of all time. I think due to overexposure it’s the Cerati work I appreciate the most.

i think bocanada is his best work and it's one of five cds stuck in my car by choice

Ha!

I don’t know Bocanada that well– yet! But give me time. I’m sort of backing into through the hits, such as they are, such as “Puente” and “Paseo Inmoral.” Also love that first track, “Tabu.” I believe it was considered some kind of departure for him and that Ahí Vamos was viewed as return to form, to rock.

“Canción Animal” also has the thing of the vocal starting on the two of the bar.

Yet another guest appearance!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ5zn1Vvd2I

This one too!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM7g9wbmjgs

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_lo_Soporto

There's a whole compilation album of this kind of stuff.
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sat%C3%A9lite_Cerati

Wears pretty thin in that context though imho

That No Lo Soporto video is fun. With Gustavo in dual roles!

Don’t think I posted the Bajofondo video yet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FakWEAvZE4g

Upcoming Netflix doc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmnkpeYIrb4

Wonder if I should watch the Fito Paez one?

Really like "Pulsar"!

If anyone's interested I can make a 10 soda stereo 10 cerati songs playlist - keeping in mind you don't speak spanish and his lyrics are pretty much the point - with a selection of his songs.

― Moka, Thursday, September 4, 2014 5:21 PM (eight years ago)

If anyone's interested in putting together something like this, I'd be grateful - Soda Stereo alone have over a dozen compilations in their discography and not sure how they compare.

This comp is one I went to in the beginning although it is missing "Prófugos"! Maybe it wasn't much of a radio hit or something, even though it is a very well-known track.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNxoPtgj98o

Actually there are some tracks on this I still don't know! Maybe Moka can make a better playlist.

This comp is okay too, I’ve also spent time with it, but don’t have it mastered.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me_Ver%C3%A1s_Volver?wprov=sfti1

Problem with the comps, I see now, is that they have some earlier angular post-punk funk tracks (like very early Go-Betweens?) that I don’t really care about that much.

Maybe best place to start is one of the live albums? Although even then they are both double albums, but split into two so you can just focus on a smaller portion for a while.

Ooo wee I forgot I posted that!, it sounds like a gargantuan task nowadays lol

there should be a division between my personal favorites and the ones I think everyone needs to listen to …

Easiest path is to start with Cancion Animal for Soda and Bocanada for Cerati

^This is not a bad suggestion

I’ve been listening to this stuff a ton for the better part of a year now and still haven’t gotten anywhere near the bottom of it.

Like in theory now that my original Gustavo bro-crush is dying down a bit I should be able to just put him up on the shelf, but nope.

Un hombre alado etc

Not to be confused with a Lobo Hombre.

Revisiting his solo career and I hadn’t really contextualized his music on release date and it’s blowing my mind how in 1992 he was so ahead of the curve. I always assumed a song like “Cozumel” was from the mid 90s. Noone in latinamerica understood and implemented as efficiently trending genres like shoegaze and downtempo/trip hop as good as him. It took several years for the rest of the world to catch up with artists as him.

Best I could do for his solo output: 2 highlight, imho, songs per album - with the exception of “+ bien” which is soundtrack work and probably just worth a listen for completion purposes.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7baccsvllKfsimqhRwCmhj

Thank you kindly - great starting points. Always takes me a bit longer to absorb non-English music so having a little more focus is great.

Problem with the comps, I see now, is that they have some earlier angular post-punk funk tracks (like very early Go-Betweens?) that I don’t really care about that much.

― CeeLô Borges (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, June 13, 2023 10:17 PM

Ha, I have the same issue with early Go-Betweens despite liking other bands that exist solely in the angular post-punk funk zone!