"Bandido Rock"
Joe King Carrasco y las
Coronas
Rounder Records
****
Ever since Joe
Carrasco has been
recording, his love for
hispanic rhythms has
been obvious. He always
incorporated them into a
few songs on each album,
but seemed to be drifting
away from that on “Party
Weekend, ” his last LP
before “Bandido Rock. ”
This latest album reverses
that trend and explores
the roots of popular
hispanic music with
marvelous results.
Carrasco has been
playing his own version of
Tex-Mex music for several
years, and came close to
being a national sensation
with “Synapse Gap,” his
first major label release,
largely due to video play
on MTV. After “Party
Weekend” however,
Carrasco stopped working
with major record labels.
He is now recording for
Rounder, which is a
respectable but smaller
company.
Music from south of the
border has been making a
return to the United States
due to the popularity of
the “La Bamba” remake,
but the path was paved
back in 1983 when Los
Lobos released “... And
a Time to Dance” on
Slash records. This EP
accomplished the
seemingly impossible by
turning several American
pop music fans on to
hispanic polka music.
With his new album
Carrasco is doing his best
to continue the fusing of
American rock V roll and
Latino music.
Joe “King” Carrasco and his band Las Coronas will be performing at
Texas A&M’s DeWare Field House Friday, Sept. 18 at 8:30 p.m.
The first song on
“Bandido Rock” is
“Juarez and Zapata, ” a
song that recalls
Carrasco’s earlier album
“Synapse Gap. ” That is
followed by “Pachuco
Hop, ” an energetic Latin
American polka. Here
and on many other songs
the accordian is used to
help create fun dance
songs.
The following three
songs on side one,
“Bandido Rock, ” “Arriba
Sandino” and “Hey
Gringo” are upbeat
numbers that stir images
of the Old West below El
Paso.
“Banana,” an ode to
the popular fruit, begins
side two. The next song is
“Chicano Town,” another
splendid polka. “Dame tu
Nook Nook” is a
humorous song about
love and lust. “Kry Tuff”
is the one slow song on
the album that shows how
the accordian can be used
to create a romantic and
sentimental mood.
“Fuera Yanqui,”the
final cut, demonstrates
how Carrasco feels about
the United States
interfering in Latin and
South American affairs.
Carrasco has been able
to create great dance
songs since his pop music
career started and this
album is no exception.
Another thing he has had
from the start is a devoted
and sometimes fanatical
following in Texas. For
some reason, however,
the rest of the United
States has not yet caught
on to the beat of the King.
That is their loss.
—Review by Tom
Reinarts
"Freedom"
Little Steven
Capitol Records
NEW YORK (AP) —After
raising money, consciousness
and some hackles with the anti
apartheid “Sun City” project,
Little Steven Van Zandt is back
pointing his finger at
governments and politicians
around the world.
This time, the opinionated
songwriter’s finger is directed at
Washington as well as Pretoria,
El Salvador and Guatemala
City.
“There are three main
themes: the South African
theme, Latin American
exploitation and Native
American genocide,” Van
Zandt said of his third solo LP,
“Freedom, No Compromise.”
“I began to just generally
study foreign policy, and
everything starts to connect
with everything else,” he said
in explaining the album’s
evolution. “But 1 found out the
worst example of foreign policy
was on our own soil.”
And so Van Zandt attacks
both the Botha regime’s
treatment of blacks and the
Reagan administration’s
American Indian policy on the
album, which was initially
written and ready to record in
1984.
He instead delayed his
album, recruited performers
from rappers Run-DMC to
trumpeter Miles Davis to long
time pal Bruce Springsteen,
recorded “Sun City” and
released the politically charged
single in 1985.
“We accomplished two
main things (with ‘Sun City’).
First of all, we stopped all
international entertainers from
going down there, which was
good,” he said. “And the main
thing probably was the basic
politicization of people, of
letting people know we’re
responsible for this
government.... Our economic
relationship keeps them alive.”
Van Zandt examines the
South African situation again
on the new album, while
mixing in songs condemning
political organizations (“No
MorePartys”) and
encouraging the listener to take
a stand against government
immorality (‘ ‘Freedom’ ’).
It’s hardly the usual music
business fare, but Van Zandt
has skirted the mainstream
throughout his career as
guitarist, producer and solo
performer.
Bom in Massachusetts but
raised in New Jersey, he
became involved in the Asbury
Park music scene, hanging out
with fellow shore musicians
Springsteen and Southside
Johnny Lyon at such after-
hours clubs as the Upstage.
After producing and playing
on the first three albums for
Southside Johnny and the
Asbury Jukes in the mid-
1970s, Van Zandt joined
Springsteen’s E Street Band as
its rhythm guitarist, co
producing the million-selling
albums “Darkness on the Edge
of Town,” “The River” and
“Bom in the USA.”
But as Springsteen climbed
the charts, packing stadiums
around the world, Van Zandt
stepped out to produce his solo
albums — intensely personal
statements on the world
situation and America’s role in
it.
“The whole point of what
I’m doing, the whole point of
the career really, was to write
from an international
perspective,” he said. “To
write about not specifically
America, although America
comes up a lot because it has
the most impact around the
world, but what happens when
a country leaves its borders.”