Juana Molina

Tour Dates

7-Oct UK Brighton / Komeda
8-Oct UK Manchester / Rubys Lounge
9-Oct IE Dublin / Crawdaddy
10-Oct IE Galway / Stress!! @ Club De Burgos
11-Oct IE Cork / Cyprus Avenue
14-Oct BE Leuven / Stuk
15-Oct BE Antwerpen / Arenbergschouwburg
16-Oct CH Fribourg / Bobine @ Fri-Son
17-Oct CH Winterthur / Kraftfeld
18-Oct IT Modena / Aquaragia
20-Oct AT Vienna / B72
22-Oct CZ Prag / Lucerna Music Bar
23-Oct DE Berlin / Centre Francais
24-Oct DE Hamburg / Prinzenbar
25-Oct NL Amsterdam / Paradiso
27-Oct FR Paris / Fleche díor
28-Oct SP Barcelona / Sidecar
29-Oct SP Madrid / Moby Dick
21-Nov La Trastienda Montevideo
27-Nov Billboard Live Tokyo
28-Nov Billboard Live Tokyo
12-Dec Teatro ND Ateneo Buenos Aires

Read More

Bjork

http://weheartmus…

Sure, everyone knows that Björk was previously in The Sugarcubes, but did you know she was previously in many other bands? I will be spotlighting some of her early bands, I won’t go into a lot of details, only the more famous ones (since many of her early bands did not have official recordings)….

I started doing some preliminary research on Dub Gabriel’s Anarchy & Alchemy but it looks like that album’s release date was moved from today to November… which is fine because I have a few releases that I need to write about today instead.

Juana Molina – ¡Que Llueva!

I first came across Juana Molina when I saw her striking cover art to Segundo (2005), which is nothing more than a sea of her long, straight hair with just a glimpse of her beautiful nose and mouth. So, as it turns out, her latest album, Un Dia (A Day), comes out today, and also feature a weird distorted album cover artwork, emphasis on her symmetric face and hair.

The interesting thing that I found out about her, was that her family lived in exile in Paris for six years, before returning back to their home country of Argentina. She’s possibly better known for being a comedic actress on the television show Juana y sus Hermanas (Juana and Her Brothers).

Un Dia is entirely in Spanish, much like her previous releases (with the exception of Insensible, which is entirely in French), fans of melodic, folk, and world music will not mind this. Although, I will have to admit, it makes it hard for me to write about her music since I don’t understand the lyrics.

My best description of her music is that it is sometime ambient music (but done with acoustic guitars) and some of the lyrics are there to just sound good… Maybe I’m oversimplifying it, but it is the impression I got the first time I listened to it.

There are enough odd percussion, traditional instruments, and sweet harmonic vocals on this album that reminds me of later, more experimental Bjork.

My favorite song on this album is “El Vestido” (The Dress), followed by “Quién?” (Who?), followed by “Un Dia”. I think “El Vestido” stood out because of the strange electronic ambient and acoustic rhythm.

If you like what you heard and want to check out more, she is offering the title song at juanamolina.com/tourdownload. The album is currently for sale at her record label, Domino Records, as well as online stores. Juana Molina is currently in the middle of touring through Europe and eventually landing over in Japan.

Links: www.juanamolina.com myspace.com/juanamolina

Candy wrote:

Tue, Oct 7, 2008 at 8:44 AM

[this is good] eso digo yo, a ver si llueve! ; ) good track / good singer (that I say, to see if it rains! ;))

jaklumen wrote:

Wed, Oct 8, 2008 at 1:51 AM

[this is good] Her vocals are very breathy, which makes it very difficult for me to understand her at all; otherwise, I would try to attempt some translation. Then again, I still have a lot of difficulty with sung Spanish (not to mention if it’s not a regional accent I’m comfortable with).

However, the ‘Net is a beautiful thing:

¡Qué llueva!

(¡Que llueva, que llueva, la vieja está en la cueva, los pajaritos cantan la vieja se levanta! – Cancion infantil popular)

El tiempo está mal Llueve sin parar Hay
que ir a comprar leche agua y pan La vieja
está en cama

Hace frío y La vieja está
ahí Siempre calentita en su cama blanda No
se levanta

Pero, Hay que salir Tiene
que ir Y oye que los
pajaritos cantan La vieja se levanta

Llega la familia Muy pedigüena No se da
cuenta De que la vieja se está muriendo

-¿Dónde está el
café?- -¡Quiero más
paté!- -Eso no está bien, ¡Se
quemó el pastel! ¡No servís
para nada!-

Y el ángel viene a buscar a la vieja de la
cueva Y oye que los pajaritos
cantan, la vieja se
levanta.

Translation (mine): Oh how it’s raining!

(Oh how it’s raining, how it’s raining, the old woman is in her cave, the birds are singing that she’s waking up– popular lullaby) [English equivalent: Think of the sing-song chant “It’s raining, it’s pouring, the old man is snoring, he went to bed, and bumped his head, and couldn’t get up in the morning.”]

The weather is bad
It’s raining and not stopping
I need to go buy some milk and bread
The old woman is in bed.

It’s cold
and the old woman is here
It’s always warm in her (cozy?) bed
She’s not getting up

But
I have to leave
I have to go out
And listen! the birds are singing
The old woman is getting up

The well-bred family is coming
They don’t realize
That the old woman is dying

Where is the coffee?
I want more pate!
That’s not good
The pastry is burnt
It won’t do at all.

And the angel comes
and looks for the old woman of the cave
and listen! how the birds are singing
that the old woman has gotten up.

Many apologies if my translation is poor.