Soda Stereo & Gustavo Cerati

I never made it up to Casa Latina which apparently seems to have closed recently :(

Just took a break from listening to some of Gustavo's solo stuff and put on Dynamo. The psychedelic tablas on "Sweet Sahumerio" are reminding of that one song on Head.

Found this TV show made a few months after he died, which seems to have a long interview with his mother. Feel like it might be painful to watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTDjbGTw8iE

A ton of stuff on their YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/@SodaStereoVEVO

The psychedelic tablas on "Sweet Sahumerio" are reminding of that one song on _Head_.

Another friend from Bueños Aires says Doble Vida is his favorite but I couldn't get it into that much except for the hit that you mention, too quirky or herky-jerky or something

Yeah hard to put my finger on it. Mostly I think the songs just aren't that strong, but it does feel on that album that they also weren't sure about the style, it's a less unified sound than any of their other albums. On the other hand, their first album is sure of its style, reminds me a bit of early XTC (who I adore), but the songs just aren't that great compared to other albums

Oh and I bring up XTC to make the point that herky-jerky in itself is my thing, if done well

Sure. XTC are the gold standard for that sort of thing. Among their many merits is that they don’t seem to rush the tempos and that even at their herkiest and jerkiest, their rhythms cycle around like some kind of internal machine, some kind of Buster Keaton train wheel or at least handcar.

It took me a while to like “Persiana Americana,” to take one example, because it goes by a little too fast. Listing to the symphonic version help me gain a deeper appreciation for it. I see that it first appeared on Signos which I still haven’t listened to. Wonder what it sounds like in the context of that album.

Wow, you have Signos in third place, behind Dynamo and Canción Animal, pretty high.

Pre-Soda:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4nCX0FK0_0

Thinking of getting a biography now.

Signos is great, I waffled putting it #2. The first couple tracks are only solid, but "Prófugos" through the end is an excellent run of tracks

How long did it actually take you to listen to all the albums properly and formulate your opinions? I’m starting to think it is somewhat of a daunting task, without even taking into consideration all the live and symphonic versions never mind the solo stuff and side projects. Maybe not quite as gigantic a discography as Wayne Shorter but still.

Speaking of Capussotto, I just learned about this parody of “De música ligera” called “Llamen a Moe.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iUtlksYzEg

“Balsa” on Bocanada has an obvious sample from Elvis Presley’s “It’s Now or Never.”

My first post on this thread was August 2021 so about a year and a half! I've spaced them out pretty evenly since then, and the top ones on my list I've probably given 5-6 listens, the bottom ones only 3. Been meaning to go back to Bocanada and Sueño because I heard them early and might like them more with context

Listening to Colores Santos now and liking it. Somewhat similar to Bocanada but maybe more intense and industrial. ILX0r xhuxk liked it quite a bit. Speaking of Daniel Melero, apparently that Peter Capussotto bit was based on a real incident.

That's the next one for to check out - as you can tell I tend towards the 80s/early 90s material thus far

For me*

Hoy se cumplen 30 años del recital de Los Encargados en BARock, en el que nos tiraron 30 kilos de frutas. ¿Dónde estará toda esa gente, hoy?

— Daniel Melero (@DanMelero) November 7, 2012

Incident mentioned here: https://www.rionegro.com.ar/daniel-melero-el-cowboy-del-pop-ALHRN0108273271011/

So “En la ciudad de la furia” is about…Icarus?

Sad to say, I know next to no Spanish and haven't really paid attention to their lyrics at all. Despite that, I got pretty into them, Café Tacvba, and Caifanes in the last couple years

I have been trying to do some of these at karaoke recently so have been paying a bit more attention to the lyrics.

Wow, “En la ciudad de la furia” has been covered at least two dozen times looks like.

Finally figured out what this SEP7IMO DIA aka Séptimo or Sép7imo Día - No Descansaré is. A Cirque du Soleil show based on the music of Soda Stereo, with some mashups and new recordings of drums and other things, done by Zeta, Charly and longtime Soda sound man Adrián Taverna, along with some assistance from Gustavo’s sister Laura, I think. It’s pretty cool, I think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFJWWWBMf7o

Actually part of the Soda Stereo origin story is that Charly called up Laura for a date one weekend, she said no, and he said “okay, let me talk to your brother then.”

Haha I think I read that story somewhere

Seem to be many tellings of that story, here is a long amusing interview with Charly about it. It’s in Spanish though.

https://www.facebook.com/ceratisodaperu/videos/charly-alberti-a-mi-me-gustaba-laura-cerati-significado-sodastereo-programa-omar/217183216006505/

Same interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tg9q0TBCX4Q

Too much stuff on the web, I probably shouldn’t link to all of it, but here is what seems to be an interesting documentary about Gustavo with interviews from his inner circle, if not from Zeta and Charly, and a title from the lyrics of “En la ciudad de la furia.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dFtiTei2a8

It seems to be an attempt to get deep inside his artistic process as opposed to the usual approach of biographical documentaries, as this review says: https://indiehoy.com/noticias/critica-de-un-hombre-alado-un-profundo-viaje-al-interior-del-universo-de-gustavo-cerati/

A klezmer version of a certain song!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51-DWZKvyAY

One thing is that many of the songs just don’t click with me right away for whatever reason. “Canción Animal” is finally registering with me as of this weekend.

This could be said of almost any band tbh.

And right now it's "Primavera 0."

The "original" version of "Llamen a Moe" from Todo X 2 Pesos before Gustavo, who was a huge fan of the show, came to recover it on the show's final episode.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msjuUlCLxOE

.
Se hacían llamar “Los Estereotipos” La lista incluyó temas como “Dorian Grey” (luego titulado “El Tiempo es Dinero”) “Trae Cola” (que luego terminaría siendo “Juegos de Seducción”) , “Dime Sebastián”, “Detectives”, “La calle enseña”, “¿Por qué no puedo ser del jet-set?”…

— Soda Stereo (@sodastereo) December 19, 2021

Despite the fact that he never actually says “My name is Gustavo and I’m here to say,” “En la borde” has some truly terrible Fruity Pebbles-level English-language rapping.

“En el borde” sorry.

I didn't remember the title of the song but I remember exactly what you're talking about

Seem to recall upthread ILX0r Moja referring to Gustavo as being “the Bob Dylan of Latin America,” but to me he is more like Prince, even in this.

Yeah but it was more of a comparison about him being as famous as Dylan. Sound-wise they don’t have anything in common.

Soda Stereo’s early sound and even looks were highly inspired by new wave and goth, specifically by The Cure.

They were accused back in the 80’s of being a copy of The Cure… i think it was more of how they looked, I’m not hearing any blatant Cure copies in their songs tbh - although yeah, they admit they were huge Cure fans.

I kinda hear more other new wave bands in their sound, some early songs give The Police vibes. And the album version - not the unplugged one - of “ciudad de la feria” sounds lifted from The Fixx - Red Skies.

Believe they specifically mention The Police in interviews.

I don’t think he sounds like Prince exactly, I was mostly just sort of thinking of his significance as a very productive songwriter, singer and bandleader with a bunch of side projects who was also a guitar hero and OCD perfectionist on stage as well as in the studio, even if Gustavo wasn’t as flamboyant as the other guy.

On the first album, the biggest influences are the Police and XTC I think, but after they drop the goofiness, it's harder to point out direct influences. "No Existes" kinda sounds Cure-like but the voice is quite different. A few songs throughout their albums sound like INXS ("Nada Personal", "Doble Vida", others I can't remember) and I think Cerati's voice is a little similar to Michael Hutchence's in the louder moments

By the time Unplugged came out Cerati was on another level as a guitar player and he has a very distinct sound of his own - tends to play chords with the same “figure” in his hand, and also variations of the same chord (songs that go Em - E7 - E - Em per example) - you can hear how the album version of “un misil en mi placard” kinda sounds influenced by The Police and the Unplugged version sounds like a more “Cerati” version… playing the same figure from F#m7 to Em7 almost throughout.

Interesting.

Came to post yet another parody.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yFc6jbMcmQ