Mano Negra, "Mala Vida"

"Dime tu porque te trato yo tan bien
Cuando tu me hablas como a un cabrón"

This song is punk as fuck. If I were more than four years old when it first came out I'd be wearing a shirt that says "mano negra theonly band that matters."

What I want from this thread is for someone to tell me that this song changed there life.

1...2...MIC CHECK...

Hahahhahha...K...
*ahem*

I didn't want to go through the trouble of registering right about now (I'm feeling a very nice shade of lazy, brudda man). As for who am I (Petey Pab, muthafug!), I'm a lurker who discovered ILM by chance a couple of months ago. And I must say that within, I've found all that makes me joyously excited about music, and adversely, everything I hate about it. Thus, I love ILM/ilxor. And I can't help it. So yes, this is the first time I've posted on here. Let it be my love letter to youse, child of the Intraweb. No butterflies here as I already feel part of the family (if I may be so daring). So yes, please be gentle, I'm ranting like a muthafug. I've been stoned since yesterday and I just want to let Adam know he is not alone, goddammit! I love "Mala Vida"! Thank you and to all a good night!

So does that make me the token stoner or wha?! 'Cuz I KNOW I missed a couple of letters here and there!

If memory serves me well...this one's from the heart...

Tú me estás dando mala vida
Yo pronto me voy a escapar
Gitana mía por lo menos date cuenta
Gitana mía, por favor
Tú no me dejas ni respira'
Tú me estás dando
MALA VIDA

¡Cada día se la traga mi corazón!
Etc...

MTV Latin America is all about chart-pop by the way, thats why i watch it so much

Aren't they all!

no all other mtvs are about rubbish actual shows where MTVLA basically only shows videos all the time

Welcome token stoner!!

Chupa, I only saw a, like, two hour show of rock videos and their TRLesque show, which featured, approximately, 5 latin rock videos and 5 videos you would see on MTV America. The other 21 hours = chart pop?

The horns are perfect. That whole album is really a major high point. Someday it'll get its due.

But it seems like you're posting about more than Mala Vida. There's this whole American guilt trip there. That's cool, I'm sympathetic, but I don't really think guilt trips are gonna get us anywhere. Learning to speak Spanish would be a better move all the way around. (no, I don't speak it, I'm just saying...)

Yeah, thanks for picking up on that, haha. The plan was to post about what brought me to the song, then come back to it with how I've been enjoying it. Got distracted, though.

I've been learning Spanish, actually, for a few years. I was a pretty confident scholar, but this trip really put it in perspective for me. Sure, I can communicate with my teacher or watch a movie with Spanish subtitles, but I know fuck all about conversational Spanish.

The song is so intense. Passionate rock songs aren't the type of thing I'd usually listen to on repeat, but obviously I've been feeling a bit differently lately. And anyway, it's got a bounce and rhythm that you're not going to find in Audioslave or some shit. I just wanted to know that this song was to someone else what, say, Nirvana was to me and lordknowshowmanyotherpeople.

I KNOW Spanish. Does that make me cool or wha? J/K. I happen to be a native speaker. Yes, he of the name Watlington.

BTW, have any of y'all seen the Manu Chao DVD that came out everywhere but in the US? I ordered it on EBay like a month ago. It is, simply put, THE shizznit.

I learned all the Spanish I know on Sesame Street. Makes me feel illiterate in New York; I know so many people who speak two or three languages. (I do speak some French, but not often.) I don't understand why all American children (at least, the ones who don't already know Spanish) aren't taught Spanish from kindergarten on. Somehow our nation has made monolingualism a point of pride.

Manu Chao's great. Sergeant Garcia is worth checking out too.

You're a good man, Jesse. :D

"Well listen to the beat beat beat of the song song
It's banging in my head head head like a bongo...."

Great, GREAT stuff; the first thing that really turned me onto "Rock en Espanol" / Latin Rock; and of course you're right Adam, there isn't anyone else (at least, not that I've encountered) who sounds quite like them (and spot on with the Clash reference too I reckon - assuming it was intentional).

The nearest thing I *have* found 'though is a band from Mexico called Maldita Vecindad (.... Y Los Hijos Del Quinto Patio to give them their full name). You might want to check them out starting with their first / self-titled album and the second "El Circo" (or I believe there's also a good 2CD best of available).

Yeah, but I like this song as much as I like anything by the Clash. Calling on the Clash as a personal reference point.

I'm downloading a Maldita Vecinidad song now. Thanks a lot!

If you're downloading one song to try 'em, go for "Pachuco" (see? even the song titles sound like Mano Negra!)

mano negra was great, and live their were like a fucking storm.
'mala vida' meant a lot to many young people over here (i'm in spain), as did 'king kong five' and many other songs. manu chao is still a demi-god over here, and his solo albums are even more popular than mano negra ever were.
by the way, although manu has spanish origins, mano negra was a french band.

This is true.

on the manu chao live album "radio bemba sound system" about half the album is mano negra songs and the energy level is def. 'mano negra play the music of manu chao'

I own all 3 Manu albums and the DVD. You should really check out the DVD, though. It features that performance almost in its entirety. It's even more complete than the album. It's not available in the US, though. I got it from Canada through EBay.

Manu Chao's 'Clandestino' probably changed my life in a similar way. It was the perfect album for a time and place for me, a time when I absolutely needed it, to reaffirm a certain idealistic worldview I had. It bounced me *like that* out of a cynicism that I had developed after returning several years earlier from a semester in Belize that was rooted and coated in a similar white liberal guilt (I guess it's what it is -- I was embarrassed and confused at being back at an expensive college with too much stuff!). In retrospect, Manu Chao sounded global at a time when I needed global, the end of a century, the shrinking by way of technology and, adversely, a choking off of communication, it seemed to me, by the powers that be. It just fit. Manu Chao represented what I thought music should sound like and be: DIY, from the ground up, effortless and full of simple truths. I have a similar (very personal) response to the Clash and a lot of early punk rock, and this kind of feeling is I think in some way why I'm obsessed about listening to records -- to locate that feeling.

I went and bought 'Puta's Fever' and it didn't do anything for me, which was a colossal disappointment at the time. I'll have to try again.

We were separated at birth! ;D
Same here with "Clandestino", although my situation is quite different. But I can mos def relate. And Teh Clash are my favorite band evah. I get really defensive when people badmouth them for reasons very personal to my ideology/life philosophy. As for Mano Negra, the only records by them I have brought myself to love are the Best Of, and Casa Babylon. I'm kinda lukewarm about the rest, because in all fairness, their albums were spotty and weak compared to their live shows. They were far better as a singles band, which is why their anthology is probably their strongest set.

i'd that the mano negra best of is the way to go

yeah, but puta's fever shouldn't be taken out of context. it might sound a bit dated now, but when it came out it was the best party album you could imagine. or so it was for me, so DON'T dis this album!!!

ay, we not hatin'! ;)