Well, for some reason, it's food that keeps introducing me to music these past few months. Lately, I have a chef named José Andres to thank. He has this cool cooking show on PBS called, Made in Spain. He's a really funny and food-passionate chef traveling all over Spain showing this American the best food she's ever be-boobtubed. He does that great rolling-eyes-back-into-his-head-ecstasy move every time he puts a bite into his mouth. And every time he expels this sort of sigh-grunt unnnch! He mutters that while I fan myself from the flames of . . . ok, you get the idea, but I have to, he makes talking with your mouth full extremely sexy. uuuunch!

Anyway, what the hell that has to do with music is that he uses great music for his show which is kind of rare for PBS cooking shows, so while my food-porn sensibilities were piqued, I was also completely enthralled by one of the bands, a group that calls itself Macaco. As I'm typing this in a very groggy state, I just can't imagine that someone hasn't already beaten me to the punch and posted on this band. I am not nearly as on top of pop as EVERYBODY else here, so if this is a been-there-done-that post, forgive me and send me to the original post so I can learn learn learn from my betters. Until then, I have to put up a few tunes for you from a couple of albums because I love them so much. Only this band was able to pull me out of a deep funk (and not the good kind) this month.

Macaco formed in 1997, and though they are based in Barcelona, their ingredients are as varied as their music. Sometimes fusion just doesn't work for me, but in the case of these guys, oh man, it really really works and, by that, I mean it totally works my shit. The band members are from Brazil, Cameroun, Venezuela and Spain, so sometimes they sing in Spanish, but other times Portuguese, French, English and Italian. My favorite songs are when one of them sounds like a ska toastmaster on speed. God, what else to say though?

No, I have a better idea. Just found this short interview from NPR. Under that, I'll post a few songs for you, and here's their web site if you are into them. I start with Crece la Voz because my coffee is failing me, but this fast talkin' track is easing me out of my coma. (by the way, Mama Tierra is probably their most famous track, but I'm not as crazy about it as other stuff)

http://www.macaco.to/

All Things Considered, October 27, 2007 - On the inside cover of his new CD, Dani Carbonell waxes epigrammatic. He quotes the Polish poet Stanislaw Jerzy Lec: Translated, it reads, "Learn languages. Even the nonexistent ones."

The Barcelona-based Carbonell, also known as El Mono Loco (The Crazy Monkey), is the lead singer and songwriter behind the Spanish pop outfit Macaco. And on the band's new Ingravitto, he sings in French, English, Portuguese, Spanish and Italian.

Such easy fusion of international references and funky rhythms has propelled Macaco to the top of the European charts for years. On the eve of the band's first U.S. tour, Carbonell discusses his genre-crossing music — in English.

Carbonell is a globally minded artist, but his musical ideas are rooted in the local community of Barcelona and the Catalan-speaking regions of Spain. He says he derives his rhythmic roots from the rumba catalana — "the groovy part of flamenco," he says.

Slow down the guitar riffs, though, and Carbonell says it begins to sound something like reggae. "People say that the way I sing is a mix of the reggae and rumba catalana — but it is something natural," Carbonell says. "I don't know why and how I started doing that."

For Carbonell, fusion comes organically. His father spoke Catalan and his mother spoke Spanish, his name is of Gypsy origin, and he has spent many years in the internationally minded port city of Barcelona.

The Barcelona scene, he says, fueled his hybrid musical concept. Ten years ago, Carbonell was squatting in a house in a run-down, international, artist-friendly neighborhood near the city port. He decided to start performing on the street, powering amplifiers with car batteries and experimenting with the musical ideas he heard around him.

"That's why I say always 'fusion without confusion,' because it's not a fórmula quimica [chemical formula]; it's not mathematic," Carbonell says. "It comes from the heart and the feeling."

Macaco's latest European hit was "Mama Tierra" (Mother Earth), the single from Ingravitto. Carbonell says he wanted to write a direct, uncomplicated song about nature.

"I compare mother earth, like, when if I say something bad about your mom or your family, very fast, you will be like 'Hey? What are you talking about?' in defense," he says. "I compare that feeling with 'Mama Tierra' — it's something very big that is under our feet, but it's alive, no?"

I'll post a few songs for you, and here's their web site if you are into them. I start with Crece la Voz because my coffee is failing me, but this fast talkin' track is easing me out of my coma. http://www.macaco.to/

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I haven't felt much like posting or commenting lately. I've been doing so many other things that when I had time to sit and read posts from my other fellow MOGGERS, I just felt like listening, and not adding. So sorry about that. I promise, I am listening and so many of you have really just blown me away. So, I chose to listen, read, enjoy and be a quiet little mouse.

But, today, this hilarious coincidence occurred. Whilst roasting carrots, sweet potatoes, yukon golds, red peppers, onions, shallots and so on, a friend of mine (one whom, by the way, I lovingly refer to as Yam) sent me this link and my god, it's not just musical, it's nutritiously kismet! It also reaffirms my love affair with all things Japanese, and I think, my reasons for keeping this MOG account. Who the hell else am I going to share this stuff with??

ENJOY!

P.S. (if you look on youtube, you'll find many more of this wonderful man. these are just a few of my faves.)

And, something slightly related, but not from Japan . . .

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