| Titãs | |
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Titãs performing live in Foz do Iguaçu, Paraná, in 2006. From left to right: Paulo Miklos, Sergio Britto, Tony Bellotto, Charles Gavin and Branco Mello. |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil |
| Genres | Alternative rock, post-punk, new wave, punk rock, Brazilian rock |
| Years active | 1981–present |
| Labels | Warner Music Group Walt Disney/Hollywood (US) Abril Music Sony Music Arsenal Music |
| Associated acts | Os Camarões Kleiderman Trio Mamão Cabine C Banda Performática RPM Ira! Tribalistas Nando Reis e os Infernais Radio Taxi |
| Website | http://www.titas.net/ http://www.endino.com/titas/ |
| Members | |
| Paulo Miklos Tony Bellotto Branco Mello Sérgio Britto |
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| Past members | |
| André Jung Arnaldo Antunes Nando Reis Ciro Pessoa Marcelo Fromer Charles Gavin |
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Titãs are a rock band from São Paulo, Brazil. Their best-known line up is the one in the album Cabeça Dinossauro (1986): Nando Reis (bass guitar, vocals), Branco Mello (vocals), Marcelo Fromer (guitar), Arnaldo Antunes (vocals), Tony Bellotto (guitar), Paulo Miklos (sax, mandolin, harmonica, vocals), Charles Gavin (drums) and Sérgio Britto (keyboards, vocals). Out of these, only Mello, Bellotto, Miklos, and Britto remained in the band as of today.
Titãs are one of the most successful bands in Brazil, having sold more than 6.3 million albums[1] and having been covered by several well-known Brazilian artists and a couple of international singers.[2]
They started their career with nine members on its line-up. Apart from Reis, Mello, Fromer, Antunes, Bellotto, Miklos and Britto, they had also Ciro Pessoa as lead singer. However, he quickly left the band even before the first album, Titãs was released. André Jung was the current drummer in the beginning, but just after Titãs was released, he also quit and was replaced by current drummer Charles Gavin. This formation kept the same until 1992, when Antunes left the band to pursue a solo career. Same did Reis in 2002, after the release of A Melhor Banda de Todos os Tempos da Última Semana. Before that, however, Fromer was killed in July 2001 when a motorcycle rammed him at Avenida Europa, São Paulo. In 2010, Gavin left the band due to personal reasons.
The band has released their new album in June 2009, titled Sacos Plásticos (Plastic Bags).[3] The first single from the album was "Antes de Você" ("Before You"),[4] and it received radio airplay on May 7.[5] The second single was "Porque Eu Sei que É Amor" ("Because I Know It's Love") and it reached #16 at Brasil Hot 100 Airplay [6]
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Most of the band members met at Colégio Equipe in São Paulo at the end of the seventies and, after their first live performance at the school itself in 1981, the band began to perform live in several night clubs around the city. The first formation was: Arnaldo Antunes (vocals), Branco Mello (vocals), Marcelo Fromer (guitar), Nando Reis (bass), Paulo Miklos (sax and vocals), Sérgio Britto (keyboards and vocals), Tony Bellotto (guitar), Ciro Pessoa (vocals) and André Jung (drums). It was a pop/New Wave-styled band, with a rather conventional sound and odd looks, with tender and little ball neckties. In 1984, without Ciro Pessoa, who left over a disagreement about André Jung's drumming skills, the band signed with the WEA label to record their first album, Titãs, produced by Pena Schimdt, and featuring songs previously recorded with Pessoas's vocals. Although poorly promoted and hardly a success, the band spawned their first hit: "Sonífera Ilha", later recorded by singer Moraes Moreira.
In 1985, with Charles Gavin replacing André Jung on drums (the latter going on to Ira!), their second album, Televisão, produced by Lulu Santos, was released with tighter arrangements than their debut album. Not only was the title track a great hit, the album was more heavily promoted than the first one and brought more opportunities to the group.
In November 1985, Tony Bellotto and Arnaldo Antunes were arrested for heroin traffic and transportation.[7] The episode made so much of an impact in the band, the next album, Cabeça Dinossauro, released in June 1986, contained a lot of tracks criticizing the public institutions ("Estado Violência" and "Polícia"), as well as other "pillars" of the Brazilian society and indeed society in general ("Igreja" and "Família"). The heavy and punk-influenced rhythms and the forceful lyrics, characteristic of the band in this phase, are fully represented in this album which is considered by the critics one of the best works of the group and one of the landmarks of the Brazilian rock.
Jesus Não Tem Dentes No País Dos Banguelas, released at the end of 1987, continued in the same vein as the previous album in tracks like "Nome aos Bois", "Lugar Nenhum" and "Desordem", however adding samplers in tracks like "Corações e Mentes", "Todo Mundo quer Amor", "Comida" and "Diversão". After some international performances, the band recorded some of their hits in live Montreux Festival and released Go Back in 1988. The biggest hit to come out of Go Back was a live version of the song "Marvin" which is a re-invented version of "Patches" by Dicky Lee made famous by Elvis.
The producer Liminha (a former adjunct member of Os Mutantes) was always an important associate of the band since Cabeça Dinossauro, and this association arrived to its climax in Õ Blésq Blom, one of the most popular productions of the band by that time. Some of the prominence tracks: "Miséria", "Flores", "O Pulso" and "32 Dentes". One of the prominent features of this work was the special guest appearance of a couple of improvisors, called Mauro and Quitéria, discovered by the band in a beach in Recife.
The band had arrived to a decisive point in its history and the next album, Tudo Ao Mesmo Tempo Agora mark a strong yaw at the musicians' style, searching for heavier, alternative and authorial sound, along with scatological lyrics. The members themselves produced the album and the work was possibly the final reason for Arnaldo Antunes to leave for a solo career. The following album, Titanomaquia, in 1993, continued the previous work in a way, with heavy instrumentation and aggressive lyrics, only now produced by Jack Endino, producer of important bands like Nirvana, which contributioned for the grunge-influenced sound.
In 1995 the band decided to take a break for one year during which many of its members decided to work solo or work with other bands (most notably Nando Reis), or to do different activities. Tony Bellotto, for example, wrote his first book.
By releasing Domingo at the end of 1995, the band definitively took up a pop sound, but its popularity only reached a second climax on the commemorative work, Titãs - Acústico MTV (MTV Unplugged), their most successful album, released in 1997, which sold 1,7 million copies. Recorded Live, MTV Acustico not only revisited their career up to that point but it also had a song which became an immediate hit named "Pra dizer Adeus".
This record was followed by Volume Dois, modelled in the same way of their unplugged album, only recorded in studio.
The record of covers of others artists in As Dez Mais wasn't very sucssesful (despite Aluga-se's and Pelados em Santos' charting) and the band decided to make another interval in 2000.
On June 11, 2001 Marcelo Fromer was rammed by a motorcycle[8] in São Paulo and died two days later of Brain death.[9] It was a hard stroke to the band, which started recording their new album the day after. A Melhor Banda de Todos os Tempos da Última Semana was released at the end of 2001 and brought "Epitáfio" as the prominence song (a-side of the title track) which could represent the moment lived by the band that, after losing Marcelo Fromer, saw the departure of Nando Reis, who currently leads a successful solo career with many singles prominent in Brazilian charts (including songs penned for other artists) fronting his own band Nando Reis e os Infernais.
Regarding the death of Marcelo, this statement was published on June 20, 2001 at Titãs official site:[10]
| “ | Despite the pain that Marcelo's absence has caused, we have decided to enter the studio to record this record that we created and arranged together with him, about which we were -- and still are -- enthusiastic. We feel that the best way to overcome this difficult moment is to continue with what always held us together: the music. Once again, thanks for all the support and kindness from fans and friends. | ” |
The band hired the bassist Lee Marcucci (from Radio Taxi) to play in their album Como Estão Vocês? (How Are You?). As this album was released, the five remaining members continued to write the history of more than 20 years of the band. With self-help hits as "Enquanto Houver Sol", questions on relevance remain on Titãs' side, which faced declining sales and the ageing of their fanbase.
In 2005, they released another MTV-branded album, only this time in a non-acoustic live performance. This album generated a new hit for the group, called "Vossa Excelência", that basically criticizes the hypocrisy and lack of care from politicians, thus bringing the band back to its roots. It was seen as another opportunistic stunt by Brazilian critics, as the song was released exactly when Lula's government was facing manifold accusations of corruption.
On February 18, 2006, Titãs opened the Rolling Stones free concert at Copacabana beach, Rio de Janeiro for an audience of some 1.5 million people.[11]
In 2007, the band started a tour, entitled 25 Anos de Rock (25 Years of Rock), joining Os Paralamas do Sucesso to celebrate the 25th anniversary of both bands, as well as the 25th anniversary of the rising of 1980s Brazilian rock bands. The two line-ups played together most of the time on the shows, presenting also some invited musicians, like Arnaldo Antunes, Andreas Kisser and Dado Villa-Lobos. The concert in Rio de Janeiro, which took place at January 26, 2008, was recorded and filmed. The resulting CD and DVD from the show were released five months after.
The band released a documentary of the 25 years of their career. The documentary features 90 minutes of images collected since the beginning of the band, including recording of albums, live performances, and more. It is titled "Titãs - A Vida Até Parece Uma Festa".[12]
For most of 2008 and early 2009, the band recorded their latest studio album, the Latin Grammy-winner[13] Sacos Plásticos. The album was released on June 3, 2009, through Arsenal Music. The producer, Rick Bonadio, had already worked with artists such as Fresno and NX Zero.[14] The first single from the album was "Antes de Você" ("Before You"). It was featured at the Caras & Bocas (current 19pm Rede Globo telenovela) soundtrack.[4] The second single was "Porque Eu Sei que É Amor" (Because I Know It's Love) which was featured in Cama de Gato (a Brazilian telenovela that also features the song "Pelo Avesso" as opening theme, from their 2003 album Como Estão Vocês?).
In an interview to Jornal da Tarde, and regarding the music of the new album, Bonadio stated:[15]
| “ | They have an endless talent. I don't want to make just another album of Titãs, don't want it to be similar to the others. I ended up proposing some electronic stuff, and they accepted it immedeatly. There are songs with no drums, songs with various electronic elements. That's an example of how to become mature and keep this professional conscience. They are ethic with their sound, but are not dumb. | ” |
On February 12, 2010, Titãs announced in their official website that drummer Charles Gavin would leave the band for personal reasons.[16] Gavin later stated that he was physically and mentally exhausted because of the tours and album releases.[17] The quartet will continue their performances of the Sacos Plásticos tour with drummer Mario Fabre.[16]
During an interview, keyboardist Sérgio Britto said the band is planning to start recording a new album in 2011.[18]
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