I'd be lying if I said I was a little worried about not making it out to Flatstock this year... but I pulled a number of strings during the week to open up my schedule on Saturday to take in the legendary poster show.

I can't shake the feeling that Flatstock seems to be getting a little smaller every year... the floor was set up a little differently so maybe it was the same size as last year but the floor was laid out differently. I can't seem to shake the feeling that maybe poster making is a little saturated right now and its becoming harder and harder to come to these things and becoming acquainted with new and consistent work.

A couple of years ago the median price for posters seemed to go up from $20/25 to $35/50.... it felt like posters came back down to $25 across the board. Actual gig-posters (which is what I gravitate to) has kinda taken a big hit to poster makers making artwork prints in poster or t-shirt wearables.

I kinda hoped to see more screened record mats, but I didn't really see that materialize.

I came pretty close to not picking up any posters this year until I struck up a conversation with one of the vendors at Mercadorama. They had a number of Cafe Tacvba posters that caught my eye that seemed to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their seminal album: RE. I learned that Senior Designer at Starbucks - Victor Melendez got tapped to do the poster work so I jumped at snagging a copy for my collection.

Gaming Expo

So one of the biggest surprises I had over the weekend was getting to spend a few hours at the SXSW Gaming Expo. I have never been to a "gaming convention" of this size or quality before... but I was happy to see that it included - Console, Tabletop, Mobile Device and Computer game development.

Attendance was strong for the event... I believe the graduated to the Austin Convention Center this year and I suspect that this will move to a bigger room next year. I've never been to E3 - but I would liken it to that to anything else I'm familiar with.

Picked up a card game called Gruff while there too.

Opted to not participate (again) in any Cinco de Mayo festivities today... it's been a day that has gone largely unrecognized on my part for a really long time. It did however influence my muscal selection for the day tho'. I thought long and hard about what album to select today and I settled on Café Tacvba's seminal release "Re".

I wouldn't expect the small readership of this daily blog to have any familiarity with the band or the album... it is however one of my All-Time-Top 5 albums. I'm firmly of the opinion that it's the greatest rock en espaniol album ever released and wouldn't be surprised if they were selected as the first spanish speaking artist to enter the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame.

Named after a Cafe on Tacuba Street in Mexico City, the band formed in the late 80's/early 90's garnering a loyal following in Mexico City. I had learned about the band though an Uncle who had closely followed their young career and turned me onto the second album "Re".

It's really difficult to describe the soundscapes of this album because they sorta encompass EVERYTHING. The band went out of its way to incorporate sounds that influenced them personally and culturally. The band in many ways opened my mind, ears and heart to styles of latino music I had gone out of my way to avoid.

Stand out tracks:

La ingrata - The second track on the album and first single I heard from the album and band. They made a freakishly huge impression on me when I saw their video... it was the first time in my life where I saw something depict the lives of people I personally knew in Mexico City. They genuinely looked and sounded like the people I would spend every summer with.

The song was also amazing. It's about an ungrateful bitch who is undeserving of your love.

My favorite part of the song:

Cafe Tacuba Ingrata by metalrays

Ingrata.
¿Qué no ves que estoy sufriendo?
Por favor hoy no me digas
que sin mi te estás muriendo
que tus lágrimas son falsas.
Tu desprecias mis palabras
y mis besos,
pues si quiero hacerte daño
sólo falta que yo quiera lastimarte
y humillarte.

Esa noche - is an example of a song that made me completely rethink my stance on traditional spanish speaking songs. The song is a touching account about a person who wishes that his love didn't leave him alone. On said he night he found another love...

Trópico de Cáncer - this song cuts to the heart of wanting to leave the condensed/concrete surroundings of Mexico City...

El metro - colorful observations about being stuck in the Mexico City Metro system.

El fin de la infancia - I'm not quite sure what style of music they're aping here. It's a mixture of of what I think people refer to as "Banda" and Ska? The song is about the inevitable clash between young and old...

Madrugal - is a song that I believe apes the musical styling of what is often referred to as "Trio"... a short song about the majestic beauty of a building (Metropolitan Cathedral) and a walkway to it covered in pigeon shit.

La negrita - I damn near get weepy when I hear this song. I always think of my grandmother when I hear this song. It's a beautiful song about a person making it work....

El Tlatoani del barrio - I truly have no idea what the fuck this song is about... I think there's a black n' white image in the CD booklet that led me to believe that this was about a Wrestler. I truly don't know...

Las flores - the song structure and musicianship is jaw dropping. This is one of those songs you don't want to translate in fear of losing something in the translation. To hear it is to instantly fall in love with the band and song.

El puñal y el corazón - in my opinion, this is the finest song penned on the album. The title translates into "the heart and the knife". The romantic ballad delicately plays on the juxtaposition of those two things.

Here's the band performing it on a special MTV Unplugged...