VIDA – In Absence
Music fans and critics use genre names so often that it’s easy to forget what some of those bands actually do. Is it enough to belong to a genre, or do you need to be good too? Is it enough to belong to a genre, or do you have to really show up as well?
Most of the bands that have broken the lock to glorious success are bored of all of their good fortune. They certainly sound like it. The groups who have managed to get their show in front of thousands and thousands of people reduce themselves to being human jukeboxes.
Listen, without that, the music business might cease to exist altogether. Thank the Lord, we have Chris Martin half-heartedly singing “Yellow” to any crowd who’ll listen and pay him. But, it’s equally true that if you don’t get more bands in there to put their backs into, mean what they say, and risk bodily harm, obsolescence is on the table.
VIDA’s “In Absence” sounds extreme, even for post-hardcore. It sounds like the one song a band that can only play one song plays before being asked by the hosts of the venue to leave. Like a famous cartoon character used to say, “It ain’t pretty, but at least they mean it.” And what is more beautiful than that in an era of monotonous perfection?
Karamelo Santo – El Ritmo Indecente
I’m a little bit prudent in believing that cultural appropriation is a real problem. Listen, don’t run me out on a rail for saying it. But how can anyone own a culture? Rock music is a really good example of it. Arguing over who started it or who did it best is a favorite pastime of many people. Still, it will hardly settle matters or provide us with answers.
Maybe what bugs people is that some of those who take elements of a different culture simply don’t love it enough. Maybe they feel that some of them are merely using it as a way to cynically profit.
When it comes to Latin American bands, it’s hardly ever correct to say that they lack passion. In fact, it is the energy on which most things function in countries like Argentina.
Karamelo Santo are inspired by punk and ska on “El Ritmo Indecente.” It’s the kind of song and performance that could easily have been sitting alongside the more popular 1990s bands who perfected a similar sound. But time is not an issue here. Karamelo Santo brings the energy to this and wants to make sure that you’re having a good time and are using ska-punk to make the world’s troubles just a little bit more bearable.
