puta's fever

La Manu Negra got busy with every kind of groove for the far-flung flamenco fusion of this funky and feverish punk rock patchanka.  The band was founded by Manu Chao and his brother Antoine with their cousin Santiago Casariego when Les Hot Pants split.  The name ("The Black Hand") comes from an alleged Andalusian anarchist group that was targeted by the repressive Spanish government of the 1880's.  The band recorded their first album 'Patchanka' for the Parisian independent Boucherie Productions.  The album title is Chao's word for mixing pot of musical styles that feed into the band's sound.  The stir (and record sales) led to a deal with Virgin Records; which led to cries from the underground scene that the band had sold out.  

'Puta's Fever' was produced by the band at Mix It in Paris and features Oscar Tramor (Manu Chao) on lead vocals and guitar;   Tonio Del Borño (Antoine Chao) on trumpet and vocals;   Santiago "El Águila" Casariego on drums and vocals;   Garbancito (Philippe Teboul) on percussion and vocals;   Roger Cageot (Daniel Jamet) on lead guitar and vocals;   Jo (Olivier Dahan) on bass and vocals;   Helmut Krumar (Thomas Darnal) on keyboards and vocals;   Krøpöl 1er (Pierre Gauthé) on trombone and vocals;   with Alain "L'Enclume De Choisy" Wampas on double bass and vocals;  and  Mme Oscar (Anouk),  Napo "Chihuahua" Romero,  and  Zofia on vocals.   The sound expands even further on the panoply, drawing from reggae and ska, Tex-Mex, Arabic Raï, and old time rock and roll.  

Chao considers:   "I was raised in France, and the American culture was present everywhere. On TV, on the radio...I think now, more and more with communication, people everywhere listen to different things, different music from other parts of the world, no? You can hear bhangra music anywhere in the world now. African music, music from the east...For me, music is good or not good. Of course, it's really interesting to, for example, play music with someone from North Africa, from Cape Verde, then go to Galicia and you play Celtic music with the guys, then find the affinities between the two kinds of music. Of course, it's less categories of music than it is cultural...I'm happy to be of this planet. I didn't choose it, but a planet is a planet. I was born in France, but I would have been happy to have been born in Senegal or in Romania or Japan. I don't care. This planet is both so small and so big, but I'm part of it...It's so difficult to talk with other people, yeah. That's why I love so much to, in my lyrics, to use a kind of invented language. My Spanish is not the regular Spanish. My English is obviously not the regular English, too...It depends on the idea. You never know what little idea or joke, what flame flickering really quickly, will become a song. That first idea, it can come any time. If it's in Spanish, you go on in Spanish. If it's in French, French. If it's in English, English. Or Portuguese. I'll try to do my best...A joke in French might be very different in Spanish. A good joke in English can be difficult to translate. That's a big problem with poetry, no? It's very difficult to translate poetry. My Spanish is different than the Spanish of Spain, and also of Mexico, and Argentina, and so on. It's funny, because in the Latin world, nobody knows where I'm from. A lot of people think I'm Argentine. A lot of people think I'm from Mexico. It's more the accent and some expressions that change. Grammatically it's really the same, but of course there are some words that you can say in Venezuela but no one will understand in Spain."

http://www.manuchao.net/

"King Kong Five" became their biggest hit and their only song to chart outside of France; hitting number ninety-five in the UK, eleven in Belgium, and eight in the Netherlands.  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-SkNfm3Gwk



"Mad House"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTAsrqmrWTE



"Pas Assez De Toi" became the band's first and biggest hit in France, peaking at number thirty-two.  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhfW0yTQbvs



"Rock'N' Roll Band" 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=va9lkIGwTyI



"Patchanka"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_bebJ328m4



"The Rebel Spell"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuHBFWxb9mo



"Sidi H' Bibi" reached number forty-seven in France. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cDIZwNRiyI








'Puta's Fever' 
full album:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=ALBTKoXRg38BB7y3047vmOwjr6oOlAG4t_

https://myspace.com/manonegradubwisestyle/music/album/puta-s-fever-18842787

http://www.last.fm/music/Mano+Negra/Puta's+Fever




"Mano Negra" (Manu Chao) – 0:57
"Rock'N' Roll Band" (Manu Chao) – 2:33
"King Kong Five" (Manu Chao, Mano Negra) – 1:56
"Soledad" (Manu Chao) – 2:34
"Sidi H' Bibi" (Traditional arranged by Mano Negra) – 2:36
"The Rebel Spell" (Traditional arranged by Mano Negra) – 2:01
"Peligro" (Manu Chao) – 2:52
"Pas Assez De Toi" (Manu Chao) – 2:19
"Magic Dice" (Manu Chao) – 1:23
"Mad House" (Manu Chao, Joe Dahan) – 2:40
"Guayaquil City" (Manu Chao, Thomas Darnal) – 3:01
"Voodoo" (Manu Chao) – 3:00
"Patchanka" (Manu Chao) – 3:05
"La Rançon Du Succès" (Manu Chao) – 1:57
"The Devil's Call" (Manu Chao) – 1:42
"Roger Cageot" (Manu Chao, Daniel Jamet) – 2:27
"El Sur" (Manu Chao) – 1:00
"Patchuko Hop" (Joe "King" Carrasco) – 2:28

clandestino

Manu Chao spent three years traveling the world writing and recording the songs and street sounds that would comprise this multi-lingual smorgasbord of worldbeat, electronica, and rock.  Born José-Manuel Thomas Arthur Chao to political parents from the independent Spanish regions of Basque and Galicia, his family had fled to France during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco.  His childhood was spent in the outskirts of Paris where he was exposed to a circle of artists and intellectuals.  

He played bass in a neighborhood band that made him the lead singer:  "I was the young man and I was not so strong as them so they decided I would be the singer.  It was not my decision. It was their decision.”  He would move on to form different groups like Hot Pants with his cousin Santiago Casariego, Los Carayos with his brother Tonio, and the three of them started Manu Negra which would swell to an octet that achieved massive success in Europe and South America, before breaking apart during a legendary tour of Colombia on their "Train of Ice and Fire".  They came together one last time to record 'Casa Babylon'.   Chao wanted to carry on with the name; but the rest of the members refused.  At the same time, he went through a romantic breakup and ended up touring the world in a state of depression:    "I woke up many mornings thinking maybe I wanted to kill myself. I thought I had lost my instinct, I was thinking only with my reason. A cow saved my life, though...I was in a bar in Rio and a cow walked in, I looked into its eyes, and I saw such tranquillidad, serenity. Then I started seeing cows everywhere. I realise why the Indians worship them."  

During that time Chao began working with Radio Bemba Sound System and recording new songs that emulated the street music of the various countries in which they toured.  Chao considers:    "I had a bad addiction to travel...Clandestino was the result of that time – I didn’t know I was making a record. It was pure therapy.”

When he returned to Paris, he teamed up with Renaud Letang who helped him sort through the many tracks to focus on what would become 'Clandestino'.  At first they produced a sound that was heavily influenced by electronica; but, after a computer virus, the electronic elements were jpartially erased, leaving a more lean organic beauty. 

'Clandestino' went to number nineteen in France at first and then left the chart; but word of mouth led to a reemergence on the charts a year later, when it would go to number eighty in Spain, twenty in Italy, fourteen in Germany, and number one in France, where it remained on the charts for four years.  'Clandestino' was given the Best World Music Album award at the Victoires de la Musique awards and would evenually sell over five million copies worldwide, including more than half a million in the US.   





http://www.manuchao.net/en/








"Bongo Bong" became an international underground sensation, charting at number seven in Germany.  It is a remake of Mano Negra's song, "King of Bongo" and evokes the 1939 song "King of the Bongo Bong" by the trumpeter Roy Eldridge.






"Clandestino" features snippets of a speech by Subcomandante Marcos.  




'Clandestino'
full album:


1. "Clandestino" (Spanish) 2:30
2. "Desaparecido" (Spanish) 3:47
3. "Bongo Bong" (English) 2:38
4. "Je Ne T'Aime Plus" (French) 2:02
5. "Mentira ..." (Spanish) 4:37
6. "Lágrimas de Oro" (Spanish) 2:57
7. "Mama Call" (English) 2:21
8. "Luna y Sol" (Spanish) 3:07
9. "Por el Suelo" (Spanish) 2:21
10. "Welcome to Tijuana" (Spanish+English) 4:04
11. "Día Luna... Día Pena" (Spanish) 1:30
12. "Malegría" (Spanish) 2:55
13. "La Vie a 2" (French) 3:00
14. "Minha Galera" (Portuguese) 2:21
15. "La Despedida" (Spanish) 3:09
16. "El Viento" (Spanish)