To hear La Gusana Ciega play live we trekked to a club called Babel located in a giant mall / theme park called Mundo E, located just north of Mexico City. Come backstage with us for an exclusive interview you’ll find only here!

"Me Puedes" is the first sencillo (single) to be released by the phenomenal La Gusana Ciega in over five years. (And it’s great!) It’s from an album called La Rueda del Diablo (The Devil’s Wheel), which was recorded in Los Angeles under the direction of eight-time grammy winner Benny Faccone, who has worked his magic with the likes of Stevie Wonder, Ricky Martin and Santana.

The effort to de-mine Central America is truly an international one, with assistance coming from the U.S., Germany, Spain, France, England, Japan, Canada and Sweden (who’s ambassador is featured here, speaking eloquent Spanish). Also we hear from soldiers on the pleasure of serving a mission of peace, as opposed to one of war.

It’s quite possible that El Día de Los Locos, as celebrated in La Vela de Coro, has its roots as far back as the Roman Empire, which celebrated Saturnalia at the same time of year. Both festivals, historically, involve turning the social order on its head, with slaves dressing like their masters.

Vamos al grano, Babasónicos might just be one of the most popular bands on the planet, as popular in Distrito Federal (Mexico City) as they are in Capital Federal (Buenos Aires). "Risa" is un tema pegajoso, which is to say “a catchy tune,” that for sure te gustará mucho (you’ll like a lot)!

Puerto Rican by birth, Luis Fonsi moved at an early age to Orlando, Florida. Despite having participated in a number of minor “boy bands,” it wasn’t until he was discovered by the president of the music school at the University of Florida, where he was a student, that he was offered a sizable recording contract. Success came quickly as his reputation spread throughout Latin America.

We are all familiar with ¿Cómo se dice…?, “How do you say…”—it’s a very useful phrase when inquiring about the right words to use. Denisse Guererro repeatedly uses a similar phrase, asking the audience ¿Cóme dice?, which also sounds like it might be something like “How does one say?” but in fact this is Spanish for “How does it go?”—she wants the crowd to sing along!

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’?

Mauro thought he’d seen the last of Juan when he fired him from the record store, only to find the boy raiding his kitchen fridge! Mauro attempts to throw him out but his mom intervenes. It turns out that Mauro’s sister Teresa has convinced her mother to pay Juan to teach her to play the piano. Mauro is not amused.

Edgar Huerta, keyboardist of Belanova, refers to Joselo of Cafe Tacuba as un cuate. The word comes from the indigenous Nahuatl word coatl, which means “twin.” But Joselo is not Edgar’s gemelo, cuate is known by all Mexicans to refer to a “good buddy,” a “dear friend.”

Juan paints outlines on his tiles using a paintbrush and manganese oxide, but at one time practitioners did this by laying down fine strings dipped in wax, and this explains why Juan still calls the technique he uses cuerda seca, or “dry cord.” Note that he describes the technique as one of alto relieve, or “high relief,” which is the opposite of bas-relief (low relief).

Pulsorock has this to say about Los Nativos (the name given to the members of Vivanativa): La energía positiva que irradia este conjunto de talentos no tiene fin y es imparable. The positive energy that this set of talents radiates is endless and unstoppable! Hyperbole? We think not… check it out!

Have you ever had una sospecha (a suspicion)? Puerto Rico’s Circo explores restless uncertainty and mines a treasure chest of carnivalesque imagery from the world of Santeria, that mix of African deity worship and Catholicism that sprouted after African slaves arrived on the shores of the new world.

Most English speakers have at some time in their lives heard Donovan sing “The Hurdy Gurdy Man,” but how many knew what such a man did? The woman in this video talks about a musical family that used to play the sinfonía, and indeed this is the Spanish name for the hand-crank organ known as a “hurdy gurdy.”

Elena is absolutely certain she will not be calling Mariano, her estranged, cheating boyfriend. She professes this fact repeatedly. But when Vero drops by, still tipsy from the club, discussion of lonely reality has its effect. She breaks down and picks up the phone…