Pastiche: Mexican Music
Editor’s note: Pastiche is a bi-weekly column exploring the diversity within the Austin music community. The views expressed in Pastiche are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the outlook or beliefs of anyone else in the IST network.
Mexican culture surrounds us in Austin – the census estimated in 2000 that 30% of the city is Hispanic and in my hometown of San Antonio, the influence of Mexico is even more pronounced. Not speaking Spanish, my view into that world is understandably shuttered thanks to a language barrier. But with so much culture bleeding into another these days – one ugly word to describe the process is globalization, another is gentrification – it really just hinges on each one of us as to how deep our curiosity will lead us from the familiar into the unknown. It also helps to have a guide. My friend Crys, who lives here now but hails from the Valley city of Roma, Texas, kindly escorted me from locale to locale as we dipped into Austin’s Mexico in search of music and more. We visited the flea market east on 290 that now covers what was once a dump (fun fact!), an indoor shopping mall on Pleasant Valley that also swells into an outdoor market on weekends, and the discoteca Furia on Riverside Drive. Other stops included El Taquito, also on Riverside, and the La Hacienda Market on Cameron. The latter two don’t sell much music but do serve delicious tacos.
One of the most notable observations I made during my quest to discover Mexican music was how easy it was to find – less a quest than a quick trip. Music was everywhere; to be experienced live, to buy, to browse. A person could probably count every record store selling rock music in Austin on two hands, but I saw no less than five places where albums were available – genuine storefronts and booths included - in a truncated amount of time. Another observation: unlike your average pop/rock/whatever record store, the most ambitious of which might sell a few t-shirts and DVDs along with albums, Mexican music stores are even more democratically arranged. For example, at Furia a person could pick up an entire outfit, a stack of cheaply-made action-adventure dvds, or even some bizarre cartoon pornography along with a Los Enanitos Verdes album. Multiple music vendors at the 290 Flea Market were flexing their wares next to stands selling knives, tires, piñatas and a fortune-telling booth. I was told that the discoteca at the Pleasant Valley flea market was hopelessly outdated, but I still couldn’t contain my glee at seeing cassettes stacked alongside compact discs, movies, and more as a healthy contingency of customers browsed the racks for an intermixed collection of styles. Overall, music seemed much more integrated into ordinary purchases. Stopping by End of an Ear is a way to indulge in casual luxury, so to speak, but at the flea market and the discoteca, albums seemed like the lower end of the financial spectrum. But so would most things compared to genuine gator-skin boots.
Many old folks tend to complain that all rap music sounds the same, which I reasoned was the result of a cultural/generation gap that said geezers had no interest in bridging. What a surprise it was to learn that I had stepped into the same trap with Tejano music, which I naturally assumed was what was uniformly blaring out of pickup trucks at the Riverside H.E.B. Not so – Tejano, kind of like rock, is part of an entrenched debate as to whether or not said music is still a viable genre or hopelessly passé. But unlike rock, which is declared dead, and then alive, and then dead again with a consistency to only rival the villain in a shitty horror flick, Tejano seems like it may sink before it swims, much like the begotten genres of skiffle or polka.
Crowding out Tejano for the Latin music crown are several other genres. Again, thanks to my friend’s assistance, we were able to pare down the basics. You have pop; this includes annoying American crossovers like Enrique Iglesias and the massively popular (in Mexico) girl group Rebelde. You have Mexican rock; some of the bands that, for instance, crowd the Y Tu Mama Tambien soundtrack like Molotov, Café Tacuba, and Mana. Then there’s the genre Duranguense that originated in its namesake Druango, Mexico, represented by groups like Patrulla 81. Perhaps closest to the forefront of Mexican music these days is Norteña, a genre that includes similarities to Tejano but which is rapidly closing in as the new voice of popular music. Intocable (who do have a Tejano facet to them) is one of the most popular Norteña groups. The differences in these genres can be subtle to the unaware ear, but to fans the differences are obtuse.
One group helping to bridge the gap between the disparate worlds of traditional Latin music and rock are Kanko, a local band whose sharp fusion I can’t recommend highly enough. Initially the project of Brian Ramos of Grupo Fantasma and producer Dusty Oliveira (Kumbia Kings) the group makes “neo-cumbia” music that defies easy classification but stands in as a very welcome exception to the well-worn indie rock route. Opening for the similarly fascinating punk/klezmer hybrid project Golem this past fall, I walked out of the Parish wondering why more shows couldn’t be as equally fun and seemingly educational as the one I had just attended. Maybe more are – you just have to know where to look.
Thanks to Crystaleen Rodriguez for her continued guidance and good humor.
