Tuesday, December 15, 2009

The What The F*cks

Note:  This is a censored version of the original post... The band does not actually use an asterisk in place of a "U" in their name... I removed the "U" just in case the folks at Blogger consider such expletives as constituting adult material... If you'd like, you can visit PsmythSongs to read the band's name intact.  SPS.

Originally Posted at PsmythSongs.com December 10, 2009

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a very brief piece about unsigned musical acts from Argentina.  Somehow I missed today’s featured band - The What The F*cks (or TWTF)  What can I say, I’m learning as I go.  Anyway, I found these guys during one of my daily “trawling for new MySpace friends” exercises.  When I saw the name I thought ‘you know, I don’t even care if they suck, I’ve got to have a blog entry with this band in it - for the name alone.’  But guess what, they don’t suck.

Their music isn’t anything stupendously groundbreaking or original... just sort of good old toe-tapping acoustic rock and roll with an overtly Latin savor (o sabor?)... I wish I had more book-learning as regards the history of Latin American music - I should, since I rip it off on a regular basis - but I don’t.  So the only insight I can really offer here regards my personal, visceral responses to their songs (Sorry I don’t have more to offer.  However, anybody interested in furthering their knowledge of Argentinian Rock can start here). 

From the first time I listened to this band I found myself smiling and wanting to think good things about the world... which, trust me, is a very odd and unusual state of affairs.  And I don’t think I’ve ever seen or heard a band have more fun while performing.  At the same time, their melodies really get under one’s skin in that catchy, haunting, I’m gonna find myself humming this while I do the dishes this evening but won’t remember where I heard it, sort of way. 

I do speak a bit of Spanish and could probably translate some of their songs’ lyrical contents given enough time... but honestly, I rarely write about lyrics at all, simply because I don’t have the time such explication requires (I already spend way too many hours on this blog as is).  What I can do is tell you that the first song on their site, “Que Bajon” (loose translation: What a Slump) I believe has something to do with salad and ham.  

In all honesty, I know less about these guys than I do about Argentina and it’s music, other than that I really like their songs... There is scant biographical info on their MySpace page and, after minutes of surfing the web, I found little more, other than a Facebook fan page and postings for shows and appearances in Argentina.  

In fact, for all I know, these guys could be some shamefully regarded, hack cover band with a sensational handle they use to the gain attention of silly American blog writers with little knowledge of Argentinian culture or Latin American folk or pop musical genres or modes in general.  In any case, I highly recommend The What the F*cks and hope they’ll deliver more music to us soon...  




S.

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