El Guincho

I first heard about El Guincho a few years ago while I was in Austin for SXSW. With so many things happening during the festival it’s really hard to keep up on going to shows – not to mention all the shows of artists that you’re not in the loop about. On top of that, while I’m at SX for the most part my own performance schedule is pretty brutal, so it’s tough to get time to see bands and balancing time spent hanging with friends or just kicking it. I’ve seen some fantastic live acts at SXSW, like Kanye West, Major Lazer, Chromeo, Motorhead, Bun B, Boris and (my personal favorite show) X. For the most part, SXSW (as well as WMC) is like summer camp for DJs – everyone that you know is in one place for one short period of time, so a lot of the time is spent just trying to catch up with folks. Anyway, I remember hearing a couple friends of mine talking about they were going to check out this groovy Spanish one-man-band named El Guincho. He was performing in what I think was the Biz 3 crib, which is a space that feels like an intimate house party. I decided to do something else (that probably included Shiner Bock) but afterwards my folks were raving about this performance.

Fast forward to earlier on this year and I came across the video for “Bombay” by El Guincho. It definitely was video of the year in my opinion, with a serious helping of Alejandro Jodorowsky styled imagery and attitude. For those of you who would really like to understand me, this video is like a look inside my brian, except if it had more black people.

So I dunno man, I think this is some pretty great stuff. Kind of a 21st Century Spanish Talking Heads or like a new, less estrogen fueled Os Mutantes. All pretty bad comparisons, I will be the first to admit, but I really love it when I discover a group that is completely inexplicable when it comes down to me filing in the “genre” field in my iTunes. There’s something about the way this music moves. And for the record, I am the biggest hater of anything “world music” (although I hate that term even more) but there is definitely that air about it. No Pan flutes, please.

Anyway, yeah… That’s pretty much what it looks like inside my brain.

Okay since I mentioned Os Mutantes, X and Talking Heads I might as well post some great Youtube clips, including some incredible live footage… Oh yeah, if you’re in NY tonight come out to Sway, as I will be performing there tonight. My interpretation of this stuff, via rap music.