Café Tacuba

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Café Tacuba

Background information
Also known as	Café Tacvba
Origin	México City, Mexico
Genre(s)	Alternative Rock, Eclectic
Years active	1989–present
Label(s)	Warner de Mexico Warner
Members
Rubén Albarrán Emmanuel del Real Enrique Rangel Joselo Rangel

Café Tacuba (often spelled Café Tacvba) is a musical group from Naucalpan, Mexico. They were founded in 1989, and since then have had the same musical lineup:

Rubén Isaac Albarrán Ortega: aka "Pinche Juan" ("Fuckin Juan" or perhaps "Johnny Rotten"), "Masiosare", "Cosme", "Anónimo" (Anonymous), "Nrü" (pronounced "dshyoo", [dʃju] in IPA), "Amparo Tonto Medardo In Lak'ech" (or "At Medardo ILK"), "G3", "Gallo Gasss", "Élfego Buendía", "Sizu Yantra", "Rita Cantalagua" and many others. (vocals, guitar)
Emmanuel "Meme" del Real Díaz: (keyboards, acoustic guitar, piano, programming, vocals, melodion)
José Alfredo "Joselo" Rangel Arroyo: (electric guitar, acoustic guitar, vocals)
Enrique 'Quique' Rangel Arroyo: (bass guitar, electric upright bass, vocals)

Mexican folk music player Alejandro Flores is considered the 5th tacubo, as he has played the violin in almost every Café Tacuba concert since 1994. Since the Cuatro Caminos World Tour, Luis "El Children" Ledezma has played the drums in every concert but is not considered an official member of the band.

1 Discography
2 Genre
3 Other works
4 Trivia
5 External links

[edit] Discography

CD cover of album RE (1994)

They have released five albums, which are, in order:

Café Tacuba (1992),
Re (1994),
Avalancha de Éxitos ("Avalanche of Hits", 1996),
Revés/Yo Soy (actually a two-album vocal/instrumental collection, winner of a Latin Grammy for Best Rock Album of 1999), and
Cuatro Caminos ("Four Paths", 2003).

Additionally, they have released an EP called Vale Callampa (a tribute to Chilean band Los Tres, 2002), a best-of album/DVD entitled Tiempo Transcurrido (2001), Un Viaje 2005, a four-hour triple CD live performance from their 15th anniversary concert (also released as a DVD and box-set) and an MTV Unplugged (2005, but recorded in 1995). Un Viaje was chosen as one of Amazon.com's Top 100 Editor's Picks of 2005 (#78).

Every studio album released by the band so far has been produced by Gustavo Santaolalla except for Cuatro Caminos which was produced by Santaloalla, Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, Weezer) and Andrew Weiss (Ween). Cuatro Caminos was featured on several Top Albums of 2003 charts, including Rolling Stone, New York Times, Blender Magazine and won the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album.

[edit] Genre

Their musical style covers a wide variety of genres, though it is most commonly labeled as Rock en Español. Their music has been heavily influenced by Mexico's indigenous population and folk music traditions, but also by punk and electronic music and other bands on the Mexico City scene. Perhaps the most distinctive feature of their music is Albarrán's gratingly nasal voice, which, combined with his impressive lung capacity (as demonstrated on "La Ingrata", a parody of norteño music), makes for a very distinctive sound, which can be somewhat offputting to the uninitiated. They sing entirely in Spanish but have a significant Anglophone following regardless.

The song "Chilanga Banda" has a hip-hop beat under a stream of Mexico City slang, "María" is a 'bolero' balad about a somewhat romantic ghost, "El Fin de la Infancia" a brass-heavy 'banda ranchera' sound, "Desperté" has a tango-driven melody that could have been stolen from a latinamerican soap opera and "El Borrego" is pure speed metal.

Café Tacuba dancing 'Déjate Caer', during a live performance in 2004

[edit] Other works

They have contributed to movie soundtracks like Amores Perros, Y Tu Mamá También, Piedras Verdes and 'Vivir Mata as well as tribute albums to Jose Jose and Los Tigres del Norte. Café Tacuba also collaborated with different artists such as Plastilina Mosh, Kronos Quartet, David Byrne, Celso Piña, Maldita Vecindad, Sekta Core, Enanitos Verdes, and Control Machete. They have played live with Beck, Incubus and Los Tres.

Meme is known in the Mexican electronica scene as "DJ Angustias". He is part of the Noiselab collective and will release a solo album in late 2005. He also produced songs for many Mexican artists like Julieta Venegas, Natalia Lafourcade, Ely Guerra, Liquits, among others.
Joselo released his first solo album entitled Oso in 2001 and a second one, "Lejos" in 2005 (produced by ex-Los Tres Álvaro Henriquez).
Rubén played in an indie instrumental band called Villa Jardín between 2000-2001 and has a solo album named "Bienvenido al Sueño" ("Welcome to the Dream", 2006).

[edit] Trivia

The name of the band was taken from a coffee shop (el Café de Tacuba) located in downtown Mexico City, which opened in 1912 and had its heyday in the 1940's and 1950's, and was representative of the Pachuco scene from the time, something the band would certainly acknowledge as an influence; The Café de Tacuba is still in operation on Tacuba street, in Mexico City's Historic Center.
The song "Eo" from Cuatro Caminos featured on Electronic Arts' FIFA 2004 videogame.
The song "Futurismo y Tradicion" featured on Electronic Arts' Fifa Street 2 videogame.
Their original name was "Alicia Ya No Vive Aquí" (a tribute to Martin Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore).
In the early years people would scream "¡Pinche Juan!" ("Fucking Juan!") to Rubén because that's the name of one of the band's first underground hits, so he kept the name for the release of the first album. Two years later he got bored and changed it to "Cosme" (a disused name in Spanish) for the release of "Re". Since then, he has changed his name for every album and world tour.
Formerly graphic design students, Rubén, Joselo and Quique design their own album covers.