Sexual Life of the Savage vs. Não Wave

I sorta half did...but that was by chance. Years ago a Brazilian journalist and I briefly corresponded and she sent me a great canned history of the Brazilian rock scene as such over the years, so a couple of the names on the comps rang a bell. To actually have these comps is really a treat. :-) Apparently Simon R. is to review both of these for the Voice.

Akira S Et As Garotas Que Erraram (what a fucking name!) has an A Certain Ratio thing going on.

Fellini is very Factory records influenced

Chance has that sparse, dark synthy, drum machine sound i asked about in this thread

Gueto sound sorta like the Ambitous Lovers

Sexual Life of the Savage has a few funk metal tunes that are super strange.

Haha then this might not be for you.

round 2

maybe now that i've warmed up to this one i can go back and hear some stuff i missed the first few times around.

You can hear some distinct brazilian flair particarly in the percussion but thats the only real distinguishing difference I've noted in 3 or 4 listens to Nao Wave and its only really discernable on a few tracks. I still haven't heard the Soul Jazz comp.

And from what I heard, Soul Jazz did move up their release date due to the release of Nao Wave. Makes sense I bought Nao Wave and have before the Soul Jazz one came out and was wondering if it was overkill to get both.

no, i totally do like factory, but a bit of a switchup was nice. i think Nao Wave is a great comp, really i do, but hearing the souljazz one after really put things into perspective.

These compilations are like post punk cd with specimen and march violets, but with no cure, bauhaus or siouxsie. For me, and I am brazilian, these cds are great because now I have all these tracks in one place. But it is not the definitive brazilian post punk cds.

I may compile something for you all, and it will be much better.

01. legião urbana - ainda é cedo
02. ira! - envelheço na cidade
03. uns e outros - carta aos missionários
04. nenhum de nós - camila, camila
05. rpm - alvorada voraz
06. capital inicial - música urbana
07. heróis da resistência - doublê de corpo
08. camisa de vênus - beth morreu
09. paralamas do sucesso - o beco
10. lobão - vida bandida
11. cazuza - ideologia
12. tokyo - humanos
13. plebe rube - até quando esperar
14. titãs - diversão

Brazilian rock was consolidated in the eighties. That's why the biggest names in Brazilian rock are post punk and new wave bands. Nâo Wave and Sexual Life collects obscure bands. Only Ira! got great exposure. Fellini became a cult band. The rest...

In the 80s, it was difficult to get what was happening in rock around the world. So the Brasilia kids had the advantage of be more up to date. They had more acess to imported lps and they recorded tapes to their friends.

One big difference is that the Brazilian bands not only try to emulate the guitar sounds of the factory bands. They wrote songs, with great lyrics and melody. That was why bands like Legião Urbana, Capital Inicial and Plebe Rude got great exposure in Brazil. Legião Urbana is the biggest brazilian rock band, it still sells huge amounts of cds (i read somewhere that they are one of the 10 best sellings discographies in the world).

Their songs are less wierd than the bands from Não Wave and Sexual Life. But they are so much better... it is like to compare joy division with march violets...

The Brazilian rock bands developed their own style for lyrics and melody, but the sound changes a lot. They are hard to categorize. Titãs, for exemple, first were a new wave band; then, a post punk band; then, a grunge band; had a acoustic fase and now they are an adult alternative rock band.

But the new wave- post punk era were the best for brazilian rock.

And Titãs' early work is pretty damn hard to find. Can't say I've heard all that much of their catalog.

Chance's 'Samba de Morro' is the greates thing I've heard in years. If I ever get around doing a Lynch-esque Club Silencio mix, this wiull figure prominently.

I've been listening to both of these a lot and actually tried to contact Baratos Afins to see what it would cost to import Fellini's albums, but no response so far. I've been finding what I can of that playlist Elvis is Dead posted and it's quite good as well.

weird timing. i pulled out the Nao Wave cd just 2 days ago to listen to. for how much raving i do upthread about sexual life, i can't seem to find the cd. i might have sold it?

Did anyone get that suggested comp from Elvis Is Dead? YSI?

Hmph, if you want something done, do it yourself. Here for your listening pleasure, "Elvis Is Dead And Living In Brazil":

http://www.divshare.com/download/10390111-91e

Now, I have no idea if I picked the correct versions of each track that our long-gone compiler had in mind. If you notice that I picked an alternate version or something, please let me know.

awes. thanks

Many thanks, of course, but to whoever compiled that list: on first listen, these songs are pretty mild; I'm not hearing anything fit to go toe-to-toe with As Mercenarias. Definitely a more commercial sound, and not better for it. Legião Urbana has better stuff, derivative though it usually is (compare their "A Dança" to Gang of Four's "not Great Men"). Plebe Rude and Titãs are ok.

I agree, Michael. The original poster alleged that these were examples of the top tier bands of the day:

These compilations are like post punk cd with specimen and march violets, but with no cure, bauhaus or siouxsie.

This may be true but it sounds like they're closer to Brazilian Top 40 than Brazilian college radio, which is what I expected.

Seems to pretty clearly be a case of those being the bands that music aficionados actually heard and grew up to (and saw live--where maybe they had more power), whereas the Sexual Life and Nao bands were heard by very few people at the time. They probably seemed really marginal to the fellow who gave us the list. I do like the first Legião Urbana LP, though.

And if we're being honest, don't we have to admit that most of the Sexual Life and Nao bands would have been third-tier US, UK, German, or Australian post punk bands? With As Mercenarias maybe a strong second-tier group? I mean, it's interesting that they were from Brazil and all--who knew?--but remove geography from the equation and what's left?

Gerald McBoing-Boing, thanks for doing the work and finding all these songs, but it was pretty unlistenable imo

It was kinda crap, wasn't it? Disappointing, I wonder what the original list creator was thinking.

And if we're being honest, don't we have to admit that most of the Sexual Life and Nao bands would have been third-tier US, UK, German, or Australian post punk bands? With As Mercenarias maybe a strong second-tier group? I mean, it's interesting that they were from Brazil and all--who knew?--but remove geography from the equation and what's left?

I think that's basically true, but it doesn't make it any less interesting than, say, the Messthetics series. I gotta think that those of us deeply into post-punk know all the first and second tier artists and the third tier, while fraught with crap, occasionally pulls up some gems that make the search worthwhile.

The stuff on these comps that DOES sound Brazilian in even the faintest way is the stuff that I've been the most excited about. I heard a few tracks initially upon discovering that Brazilian post punk existed at all, and was psyched to hear Joy Division + bongos. But as I got deeper and found that a lot of them were complete anglophiles, some of it did sound third rate.