2 Minutos

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2 Minutos or Dos Minutos are a punk rock band from Argentina. They are one of the most important bands of the genre to emerge in argentine rock in the 1990s, highly influential across the Spanish-speaking world, and also popular in the punk scene of the United States despite the language barrier.

1 Original Members
2 Biography
3 Links
4 References

[edit] Original Members

Luis Aguirre: guitar and voice
Wálter Mosca Velásquez: 2nd guitar and voice
Marcelo: drums
Papa: bass
El Indio: 3rd guitar

[edit] Biography

The band can trace its beginnings to the end of the 1980s, playing around in the punk holes of Buenos Aires. Over that period the group would be influenced by the likes of The Undertones, The Ramones, Los Violadores, Sex Pistols, and other punk pioneers.

The group continued to play the local circuits in the early 1990s. In 1992, the band participated in a collective album produced by an independent label called Mentes Abiertas, with its songs "Ya No Sos Igual" and "Arrebato" catching the attention of the Polygram Label, who would sign the band soon after.^[1]

1994 would be the studio album debut for 2 Minutos. Valentín Alsina was named in honor of their hometown, and it turned into a bigger hit than even the band or the label had expected on the back of the hit single "Ya no sos Igual" ("You're not the same anymore"), about a corner store clerk whom they found out was also a Federal Police officer.^[2] A controversy erupted however between the band and "Pil Trafa", a member of Los Violadores, with Pil Trafa accusing 2 Minutos of having "un-punk" lyrics about beer, football, and cars, which he considered those of bored, middle-class 90s suburban kids.

Nontheless, 2 Minutos became a mid 90s darling of the argentine punk world, and they also gained large followings by simple word-of-mouth across Latin America, specially after the release of their Valentín Alsina follow-up, Volvió la Alegría, Vieja!. They also gained nororiety in the American punk scene, to the point the became the 1st Argentine punk band to dedicate a tour of the United States in 1995. A highlight of that tour was their performance at the mythic CBGB club, which they sold out. Back home, they shared the stage with The Ramones in their 96 farewell concert.

The third studio album was released in mid 1997. Postal 97 featured the hit singles "Gatillo fácil", "Qué yeta", and "Recuerdos en la arena". International success lead Polygram to renew and improve the contract for 2 minutos that year.

Their punk spirit undiminished, they kept issuing albums every year or two. With the mid 2000s seeing the band as now weathered veterans of the punk movement, 2 Minutos released their latest studio album Un Mundo de Sensaciones, which may actually show a slight maturing process in the, still, small town punks from Valentín Alsina. Guest artists included Sebastián Teysera (La Vela Puerca), and Los Pericos.