mexican radio

So I'm going between floors today, we have to swap lift lobbies in our building to do this between the low floors and the high floors. Into the lift I go with two young people, a stringy be-goateed bloke pushing a trolley stacked with boxes, and young girl who just looked a bit...alternative.

They're talking about Mexican metal. As we get out of the lift at the lobby-swapping floor, I ask them what Mexican metal is. They look at me a bit askance: after all, I'm in my late 50s, grey, and without any features that might distibguish me as a Mexican metal fan. I'm Don Henley all the way, with everything that this brings. They look at each other, shrug, and the bloke says "Rodrigo y Gabriela".

Then, "the 'e' is spelt 'y'".

"I know," I respond, "it means 'and'".

He looks at me like I'm an idiot - I get this frequently so it all washes off, but maybe one day I'll learn to be a little less patronising - and he says "Gabriela has only one 'l'". "Look them up on Youtube."

So I do, and look what I get - this is bloody fantastic.



Go there and look at some of the others.

And of course you go to wikipedia and find out how recognised they are.

But then at lunchtime I go to JB Hi Fi and buy this. And it's really good, too. Fogerty seems to have gone back to some country roots that weren't all that apparent in Creedence. I'm only halfway through the album, so far it's simple chord structures and some very familiar guitar work. Classic middle aged bloke music: after all the last CD I bought was JJ Cale and Eric Clapton, and it was very familar.