No Need for New Batteries.

Sonido Martines - Vuela Pajarito Rebajado 2008

I grabbed this from dudes Myspace a long time ago, back when you used to be able to do that. Why did Myspace put the kibosh on that? On a bit of a throwback tip but hey, I love this stuff. Cumbia that sounds like a dying boom box is funny to these ears. I'd say I kind of prefer this to the Choppaholix method of adding the color purple to the equation, for this stuff is just well, wrong. I imagine this is how things sound after a rag soaked in ether. Been craving more of this, anybody who points me in the right direction gets a free beer on me at any Chicago bar.

Revolution of Your Ass

An ice cream cart has been playing this in my neighborhood lately, followed by a 20 minute block of MIDI Christmas songs. I was first introduced to the song that started the Lambada craze through the Sun City Girls on Torch of the Mystics. Their version is Llorando drunk around a campfire, a slightly different world than Bolivian pop band Los Kjarkas. My jaw dropped when I first stumbled upon this video because I couldn't believe they were the same song. I imagined it's origin to be bottles of cheap tequila and cowboy hats, not creepy up-skirts and poofy hair. Aware that the Girls version was a cover, I was actually searching. Someone told me it was an old Amerindian song, and with the cover wearing the name The Shining Path I was convinced it was a song about the Communist Party of Peru. Well I was wrong, and since then have acquired about 5 Cumbia versions, a few Merengue ones, and about 20 oddballs. The video that goes along with this famous Andean hit is an essential part of the experience, which is why I didn't throw up an mp3. Absolutely one of my favorite songs ever, which I think is kind of strange.