I fucking love this group. I was first turned on to this project by my good friend Carlos, when I visited him down in Santa Fe, NM, a 1/2 dozen or so years ago.
Carlos explained that it was kind of a Robert Rodriguez side project, and the actual Chingon grew out of Rodriguez not being able to find a suitable existing group to interpret what he wanted to the screen, in the soundtrack for his '03 movie Once Upon A Time In Mexico (love that movie, too!).
So, Rodriguez put together a group of musicians, with himself as part of the group (on guitar), and did the soundtrack himself. The group Chingon (which is Spanish for "badass", or somebody you don't want to fuck with) grew out of this, and they recorded an album entitled Mexican Spaghetti Western in '04, and they and Rodriguez toured behind it.
The thing that blew me away with Chingon, is the combining of a lot of musical ingredients, using mariachi as the mixing bowel. Especially listen to how the guitars are used to "substitute" for the classic mariachi horn sections in this song. Beautiful!
You may recognize Malaguena Salerosa from the soundtrack of Kill Bil Vol. 2 - Robert Rodriguez did the soundtrack for his buddy Quentin Tarantino on that movie, for the sum of $1.00, as a favor. Tarantino repaid the favor by directing a scene in Rodriguez's Sin City for the same amount of pay. Chingon's version of Malaguena Salerosa was the one in Kill Bill Vol. 2.
Robert Rodriguez plays a pretty fair guitar in this clip, he ain't no slouch!
Killer, informative stuff Rich, lifts my admiration for the bloke even higher, cheers.
ReplyDeleteI kinda figured you'd dig this.
ReplyDeleteI should have also said (and I forgot) when Rodriguez isn't touring with the band, they play under the name Del Castillo.
This music always makes me feel sorry for the bull . . .
ReplyDelete