The Singles Jukebox

The Singles Jukebox: with words for your little indie bands since the 2000s…

[Video][Website]
[6.83]

Josh Langhoff: I’m impressed: this banda-pop cover of Fato’s mariachi-pop “Ya No Vives En Mi” manages more lushness and luxury than the original (or Yuri’s straight-up pop version, or Samuray’s cumbia, or whatever this future-Tarantino-title-music horror is), while still sounding like the band’s making fun of it. Blame the flutter-tonguer in the back row, or Max Peraza’s bewildered double takes in the video. Not only are bandas perfectly suitable delivery vehicles for pop songs; when they put their minds to it, they can achieve shades of irony your little indie band can only dream of.
[6]

Jonathan Bogart: Although in theory there should be nothing keeping modern banda music from being as swooningly romantic as Latin music throughout its long history has so often been, the fact that it’s generally taken at a polka — or even a pogo — clip has made it one of the 21st century’s most urgent, and least funky, sounds. This, swishing along to a sedate but hip-moving bolero rhythm, is swooning and then some.
[8]

Thomas Inskeep: Elegant, moving banda, excruciatingly well-played. Max Peraza has the voice of an angel.
[8]

David Sheffieck: The vocalist compellingly vacillates between lamenting and spite, with the brass providing a sturdy foundation for the theatrics. The percussion flourishes could do with a more sympathetic mix — it’s a lively performance that you have to dig to hear.
[7]

Alfred Soto: The horns frame the Pagliacci performance of the singer, who doesn’t wink at the audience but believes in every can’t-live-without-you cliche.
[6]

Megan Harrington: I’m most familiar with sad horn charts as employed by the National. Everything sounds mournful in their hands, and so their honking, wilting brass is almost a toe over the line and into cartoonish. “Cuál Adiós” sets the horns just a beat or two beneath up and they provide an almost sunny contrast to the song’s sweeping sadness. There’s mopiness here, but it never loses itself to the maudlin. 
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