I’ve been told by the woman I married that it is New Music Week and I best listen to some new music. I am not one to question such things. I have always liked Dan Bejar, or Destroyer. Not, like, loved him. Or them. But appreciated them. Or him. So the idea of him covering 5 songs by a Spanish band I’ve never heard of sounded pretty cool.
That was a correct assumption. Five Spanish Songs is a nice little EP that features covers of five Sr. Chinarro songs. There is also a sixth track called Untitled Congas.
The first thing you should know, and accept, is that these songs are in Spanish. Maybe you were hoping that “Babieca” would be called “Fool”? You’re out of luck. The thing is, the words never bothered me. I grew up listening to the Pixies. The lyrics might as well be in another language. I like the sound of the words, not the actual words. Just wait until it’s 60’s Revolutionary Brazilian Music Week. Then you’ll learn how much I like music I can’t understand. So the lack of comprehension in no way impeded my enjoyment. I wish I could speak to his selection of Sr. Chinarro songs, or at least fake it. Maybe I tell you that the choice of “El rito” was a bold one, considering that he could have chose something off of El porqué de mis peinados instead? Can I pull that off? Probably not.
I do know that you try to read up on a band such as this and you are met with a weird wall- English Wikipedia shrugs its shoulders while Spanish Wikipedia gets very, very detailed. It’s not often I run into this. Check out their giant body of work, which is unfortunately to my dumb American eyes merely a list of gibberish. Translating the page helps, but then I feel like I’m cheating.
Wait, we were talking about music, right? Anyways, one of the the Dan Bejars made this beautiful, beautiful EP full of music I would have never experienced. Melodic and very listenable. Lyrically impenetrable due to my own ignorance. And unexpected. Thanks, Dan.
Here’s the best of the bunch to me, El rito.
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