Influences

Been listening to a lot of Spanish pop/rock this afternoon. There was a time when my friend Aldo and my other friend Hugo were playing me all this pop and rock stuff from latin america and spain. Stuff like heroes del silencio, duncan dhu, fobia, caifanes, maldita vecindad, enanintos verdes, but the two that made the most impact on me were soda stereo and cafe tacuba.

Soda Stereo was a band from Argentina that I found out about in the late 80's. I liked their music, it reminded me of U2 bits of british rock/new wave, but with Spanish lyrics. I didn't think too much of the band itself, but I do remember liking their music a lot more than the pop music I was used to hearing from Mexico, which in my opinion was absolute shit. Most of that stuff sounded like Celine Dion or Elton John, but only worse.

Soda's sense of melody made an impact on my ears, the same way The Beatles, Pink Floyd and The Smiths did, and to a lesser extent, Depeche Mode. I later came to appreciate just how tuneful and melodic their music was and didn't think I was that influenced by them until I started playing my own music.

Cafe Tacuba was just fun, it's like they took all the regional music of Mexico, stuck it in a blender with the british stuff they liked and actually made it work. Some people like to call them the Mexican Radiohead, but if you think about it, they're really more like the Mexican Flaming Lips.

Since I'm talking about influences, how about a video playist and I'll just shut my trao.