So what is it with this Latin American love of ska, a Jamaican genre from the early 60’s that’s had a second coming amongst British and American bands since the early 80’s? Lucky for us, ska is almost always sung very clearly, in short, catchy, easy to understand phrases. Liquits hails from Mexico City, but this award winning group has been hopping continents to record and play for a growing audience since 1993. The animation is ¡padrisimo!

Chido, is Mexican for “cool” (and we don’t mean leaning towards cold). As is typical, a precise definition can vary with context. Liquits, representative of Mexico City’s young and playful, enjoy riffing and aren’t afraid to mix languages (and cultural references) with abandon.

If there was an entry for “trippy” in the English-Spanish dictionary we think there would be a photo of Liquits sitting there next to it. Lyrically, this neat little tune is not as simple as it at first sounds, and is loaded with double meanings and word plays—we’ve tried to point out a few! Have fun (you know you like to sing)—vocab quiz on naked stork firefly poppies first thing Monday.

Mexican singer Lila Downs sings soulfully about the fictional character, Naila and how, after betraying her lover, she cannot be “Naila for you anymore.”

Listen to the catchy pop tune "Girasol" [Sunflower] by Mexican Band Latin Monkey.

Here's another catchy tune by the Latin Monkey band. Let's dance!

Landa Henriquez is a mother of three, Business Sciences graduate, entrepreneur, songwriter and singer. She’s also owner of a cute red descapotable and leader of the band. Not bad for a woman of 40.

We have the debut music video from La Vida Bohème -- an Indy, punkish Venezuelan band with a bit of French in its name. Playing on roof tops in Caracas, the band delivers a subversive song in just a few words. And then they are kidnapped. "Viva la résistance," says the writing on the wall (also dropping in a bit of French). This is one band worth following.

Uruguayan rock band, La Vela Puerca's intriguing single, "Se le va," is from their 2011 album, Piel y hueso.

Listen to Uruguayan rock band La Vela Puerca's single, "De atar," from their 2004 album, A Contraluz.

Grammy-nominated La Secta Allstar boasts Puerto Rican roots despite having come together in Orlando, where the members attended college, and shortly after that settling in Miami. This title track from their album, Consejo, may very well make their mothers and mothers around the Spanish speaking world proud.

Of course tuve is the preterite yo form tener, so one might be misled to think that the refrain of this tune is “I had, I had.” However, in casual speech on the beautiful island of Puerto Rico, tú ve’ is short for tú ves (“you see”), but the uninitiated could easily mistake it for the verb tuve (“I had”). ¿Tú ve’?

This Puerto Rican band wasn’t on the island from the get-go. Two of La Secta’s members, Mark and Gustavo, met in Orlando during school and then moved to Miami Beach. There, they met up with John and Carlos and started writing songs. The message of their album Fuego, which shines through in “Déjalos que hablen,” is, according to John, “to be positive in the face of a moment of so many changes in the world.”

Cosas de Críos, or “kids’ stuff”, is a friendly song about those bygone times when our world was nothing but a fantastic playground.

Spain’s pop sensation is way more than an enigmatic name. Sure, we’re also wondering why you’d name your band after the removed appendage of a long-gone Dutch painter, but what’s made them famous is their music. "El último vals" is a song inspired by Martin Scorsese’s film The Last Waltz.