Some Bolivian Rock Worth Checking Out

FYI, Bolivia-watchers, there is a lot more music coming out of these parts of the Andes than pan flutes.

Last year the New York Times did a fine article and video on Aymara rap music. A popular rock music band here in Cochabamba, Cartel Afonico, recently put out a new CD in the most creative (though perhaps not most environmentally sensitive) packaging I’ve seen. The album, titled “enlatado” (canned), comes in a giant, CD-sized, tuna can. All this is not exactly a rerun of popular traditional music from Las Kjarkas or Norte Potosi (whose most famous song is about the rhythm of a walking burro).

And then there is Atajo. The band from La Paz, together as a group just over a decade, is resolutely political. Their music often addresses the suffering and struggle of recent years, sometimes seriously and sometimes with good humor. I tuned into them when I heard their famous line (Santa Cruz friends, I promise, you aren’t going to like this) about the statuesque light-skinned modeling team from Santa Cruz, “Las Magnificas”. The line goes (translated to English), “You are a magnifi-ca-ca.” Not flattering, but clever.

Some people I know associated with the band recently posted a 5-minute music video from them, Ay Mamita, on You Tube, which you can view here. Dedicated, to the families who lost loved ones in the repression by then-President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada during the gas revolt in 2003, the video features images of them with photos of those lost.

There are certainly many other fine musicians from Bolivia worth global attention. Feel free to post links and news about them here – and debate away about the sins and blessings of those who would sing so blasphemously about those tall beauties from eastern Bolivia.