SOUNDTRACK: LOS BITCHOS-“Tripping Party/FFF” (2018).
Los Bitchos are a London-based quintet who play “tequila cumbia instrumentals.”
Although they reside in London the band has an international base, with members hailing from Perth, Montevideo, Stockholm and Croydon. The band is made up of Serra Petale on lead guitar, Carolina Faruolo (guitar), Augustina Ruiz (keytar), Josefine Jonsson (bass), and Nic Crawshaw (drums/percussion).
The band has been around for two years but only have eight songs on bandcamp (spread over five releases). This is their first single. Both songs are terrific evocative instrumentals.
“Tripping Party” has a great Western swing sound, but with a rock foundation. After about a minute the guitars take on a kind of ska vibe with a slinky lead guitar solo. A lower guitar solo comes in after the first one–adding a new dimension to the sound. By the end of the song, the swinging sound returns and ends with a great vibe.
“FFF” is a slower, some what more Middle Eastern sounding song. There’s some great percussion throughout as the Middle Eastern soloing vibe runs throughout.
This is a great introduction to the band whose newer songs are even better.
[READ: July 14, 2020] “The Book of My Life”
This issue of the New Yorker has a series of essays called Influences. Since I have read most of these authors and since I like to hear the story behind the story, I figured I’d read these pieces as well.
This essay is surprisingly dark.
Hemon grew up in Sarajevo and studied under Professor Nikola Koljevic. The course was in Poetry and Criticism and Hemon learned the New Critical method. When he graduated he phoned his professor to thank him. This was unusual, but Koljevic was flattered and invited him for a walk to discuss literature.
Soon after, Hemon began working for an independent Sarajevo magazine and Koljevic gained a high position in the Serbian Democratic Party run by Radovan Karadzic, “a psychiatrist and talentless poet.” He would soon become the most wanted war criminal in the world.
Whenever Karadzic gave a speech on TV, Koljevic was there beside him.
In 1992, Hemon was in the United States for a trip. When Serbia attacked Sarajevo, Hemon stayed here.
He watched Sarajevo destroyed from a continent away. He watched the Sarajevo library burn to the grown–by a poet and a professor.
Kojevic was then always on TV defending his boss’ policies. But after the fall of Karadzic, Koljevic committed suicide.
Hemon couldn’t help wonder if he ever saw any of his genocidal proclivities. Then he tried to unlearn everything that his professor taught him. But you can’t undo the past.
He feels that his professor’s evil had far more influence on him than his literary vision. The book of his life is now full of middle chapters which are full of more bloody death scenes than he could have ever imagined.
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