2009-01-13 09:26:05

FRIJOLES AND ICE

Filed under: Grupo Fantasma, Music, Old 97's
Posted by: John

Lately, Austin, Texas has become an integral part of my New Years transition and resolution. At the end of 2007, I went to see the Old 97’s at Zona Rose in Austin and capped off the night with a meal of pork tamales in chile verde. I resolved then and there to become better acquainted with the 97’s back catalogue and to eat more and better Mexican food in 2008. Mission accomplished, I’m proud to say.

This year’s blog starts in Massachusetts, but features an amazing Austin band, Grupo Fantasma, ten guys on horns, timbales, congas, bass, lead and rhythm guitar. They deliver a sound that has to be heard to be believed, a cross between traditional cumbia and salsa, James Brown funk and Santana rock. I saw them Sunday night after a hearty meal of taquitos, plantains, yucca and beans and wrote this review for No Depression:

Maybe it was the spectacle of a pack of New Englanders busting their Latin moves in the deep midwinter. Maybe it was the prospect of winning a Grammy next month for their most recent record Sonidos Gold. Or maybe it was the fact that they’d just played a few songs in New York the night before with salsa pioneer Larry Harlow. Whatever the reason, when the Austin funk, rock and frijoles outfit Grupo Fantasma showed up on a frozen Sunday night in Northampton, they melted the last of the ice.Lead singer and timbalero supremo Jose Galeano, the nephew of Santana percussionist Jose “Chepito” Areas, occupied center stage and set the tone for a raging set that …

(Catch the rest at ND)

As for this year’s New Years resolutions, here’s what I’m thinking. Having succeeded last year on the Mexican food front, I’m going to double down on that for 2009, and in the same spirit, I pledge to spend more time this year with Latin sounds. I expect to succeed on both counts beyond my wildest expectations.

Comments (4)

4 Comments »

1. Glad you’re still able to pay homage to your Texas roots, music and food-wise, and thanks for putting Grupo Fantasma on my radar. One of the highlights – other than the prodigious quantity of red meat I consumed in the form of BBQ, steak, Tex-Mex – of my recent holidays in Houston was seeing a 97’s show on native soil and being able to visit with Murry afterward. I was actually wondering if you were possibly at the La Zona Rosa show in Austin the night before, but it seems as though you might have remained up north this year. Viva la musica de Tejas. Feliz ano nuevo, mi amigo.

   Comment by Joe — January 15, 2009 @ 1:49 pm

2. Siempre, amigo. Y tu. Keep hoping Murry, Rhett and company will come through my current neck of the woods.

   Comment by John — January 15, 2009 @ 2:31 pm

3. John, the boyfriend and I will be visiting Austin next month and we’re stoked — even more so after reading your post! We have plenty of good Mexican chow in LA, so it’s really the BBQ we’re after. And the music.

   Your New Years resolutions remind me of a conversation I had a couple of years ago with my father about immigration. He nicely summed up two of the major benefits of the “Hispanization” of U.S. culture: “The food gets better and the music gets more interesting”. Seems to me you’re taking advantage of both!

   And in your explorations of Latin music (which has also been an ever-growing passion of mine), do remember to look south…wayyyy south. In Argentina, not only do they have some kick-ass rock bands, but the tango has come roaring back in recent years, both in more traditional forms and scruffier hybrid versions incorporating dance beats, dub…you name it. We spent the better part of October in Buenos Aires and fell in love with this music. Sexy, sad, and sinister all at once.

   Comment by Robert Little — January 15, 2009 @ 9:45 pm

4. Robert,

   I am going to run out and listen to that tango. I don’t know why, maybe it’s living up north, maybe it’s all those years of hearing conjunto in the Mexican restaurants of my youth, but I’m beginning to crave the Latin sound almost as much as the food. When you two go to Austin, don’t forget to drive to Lockhart, Texas, BBQ capital of America, and try Kreuz and Smittys and Blacks. That alone will be a culinary experience extraordinaire. Lockhart lies a few miles southeast of Austin, not very far from the airport.

   Your father is too right on both counts.

   Comment by John — January 16, 2009 @ 7:06 am

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