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Song of the day – 525: Los Cripis

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Los Cripis

Damn it. Am I that obvious?

From Another day, another boring article complaining about the ‘state’ of music:

Los Cripis (Argentina)
http://soundcloud.com/los-cripis/mountains

YES!

This is the band that inspired Geoff to compile this list for me [click on link above. Geoff is my old dancing insurgent from the 80s – Ed]. He saw them play live [in England] a few weeks back, and reckoned it was something I’d have liked. Damn straight I would’ve fucking liked it. Ramshackle, charming, female, a little bit cute. Like a band that might sound like The Shaggs or Shop Assistants, assuming that same band had never actually heard The Shaggs or Shop Assistants. I mean sure. I can hear The Raincoats in there somewhere but there again I can hear The Raincoats in just about everything I love. (The first album, knucklewit.) Contender for band of the year same way Muscles Of Joy was contender for band of the year last year, and Tunabunny the year before that. [And Las Kellies were the year before that.] Just… holy fuck and shit. I just discovered you can download their stuff for free over here. DO IT DO IT DO IT! Then drop them an email and let ‘em know how we all want to have their first-born, and fuck pregnant penguins to the strain of Mo Tucker’s debut solo album. Or something. Communication, that’s the key.

(This blog entry is taking 15 times longer to write than I expected because I simply CAN NOT STOP LISTENING to Los Cripis on that Soundcloud link. Two albums, released on cassette. Available FOR FREE at the link above. FOR FREE.)

I couldn’t let this one go past without dragging it to the front page again This music is so fun and poignant: nerve-ends left exposed, clattering and jagged, guitars that run naked through the streets in a running battle with the tentative rhythm section, vocals that judder and jar, from Argentina and a trio like all the best trios are – they leave in the space and the clutter, and take out the boredom with the trash and remains of yr dad’s old Pearl Jam records. The reinvented, re-imagined sound reminds me of another great No Wave/post-punk, heartland ET territory, trio from Argentina – Las Kellies. As I wrote a while ago:

OK. So let’s have a few rules established. Las Kellies are from Buenos Aires, and the three – now four – ladies have already been responsible for some of my absolute favourite music discovered since my entry into the world of blogging. I’ve talked about this found (Google Alert) definition of punk before, but it’s so relevant here I’m just going to have to reprint it once more – the whole “Raincoats–Red Krayola–Flying Lizards–Wire–James Chance–No Wave–Go Gos–Peaches–CSS–Electroclash–Riot Grrrl–Chicks on Speed–New York Noise–C86–Pastels–Everett True axis”. Of course, that omits some stuff – most notably ESG and Pylon, which is foolish to do even among the most congenial of company – but it’s not such a bad working definition at that. And the first two Las Kellies albums – Kalimera and Shaking Dog! – absolutely fall into that axis, but of course with their own spirited guitar-playing and energy and nod in the direction of the Pink Ladies from Grease and home-cooking and oblique lyrics thrown in.

And the same could apply here. Equal but different of  course. I have no idea if the two bands know each other – they are both from Buenos Aires, but I do hear tell that Buenos Aires is a big city, even bigger than Brisbane so it might not be a given.

There is a dude in Los Cripis incidentally, but as the song he sings lead on from the second album FAT – ‘Ghettoblaster’ – is Door And The Window good, we can easily overlook that and agree he probably rules as hard and in his own way as Billy Karren once did.

(We kind of went overboard on Las Kellies last year. Here, check it out.)

I’ve found a video! That makes me immensely happy. Download and listen to the albums first, though.

And another.

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