Back on Track: Blogs

The final post in our quick updates on what you all missed while we were gone, focuses on the tons of good stuff posted on other blogs we like. Enjoy!

VivirLatino lines up the latino winners for the 'real' Grammies. However they don't mention the striking similarities with the Latin Grammies: Juan Luis Guerra wins 'Best Tropical', Calle 13 takes home 'Best Urban' and Pepe Aguilar is the 'Best Mexican'.
And About Latin Music has extensive commentary on Univision's Premios Lo Nuestro. As usual I totally disagree with the winners (Jennifer Lopez best new artist of the year? That's TWO times wrong - she's not new, and certainly not the best!).

Venezuelan authorities (i.e. Hugo 'El Presidente Loco' Chavez) has cancelled another concert of Spanish pop singer Alejandro Sanz. Sanz is not best friends with Chavez after making several remarks in the press criticizing him. Latin Gossip reports that 85 latino celebrities now showed their support for Sanz in a public letter.

Calle 13 made quite an impression at the annual Viña del Mar festival in Chile, easily the biggest music happening in the whole continent. After a performance, artist earn different awards according to the enthousiasm of the audience, and the Puertorican rappers took home every single one for their headlining show that lasted until the early hours. Read more on VivirLatino. The duo confirmed the release of a follow-up to their Grammy-winning albums Calle 13 and Residente o Visitante scheduled this fall.

mun2 has a profile on Mexican art-rockers Porter. Next april they will perform at the Coachella festival, alongside other important Mexican acts like Café Tacuba and Austin TV.

SoundRoots reviews the latest CD of the unknown Argentine indie-folk band Tumbatú Cumbá. The accompanying mp3 "Bajo Del Arbol Un Tambor" reveals a female voice of intense beauty, backed by subtle percussion. Certainly worth checking out!

As nueva cumbia keeps conquering Latin America, Masala posts a very hip crunk-reggaeton-cumbia mashup by the Super Kumbia Bros. That's certain to do well on any dancefloor.
The club around which this movement seems to be revolving, Zizek in Buenos Aires, is sending its deejays out north on a US Tour. No better way to celebrate that than a freely downloadable EP! Dates here.
Also, cumbia DJ Oro11 let us know that some of the Zizek crew united themselves under the label Bersa Discos. They plan to release a 12" every couple of months, the first one sounds very promising (check the MySpace). And what's even better: he mixed up some old & new cumbia in a nice 45-minute mp3 that you can download totally free here!

The Latin Americanist dedicated this week's video posts to famous Latin American protest songs. See the video for Aterciopelados' "Canción Protesta" here, and click through for the other videos - Manu Chao, Los Tigres del Norte and more!

And finally, after Barack Obama's reggaeton anthem, check out the Obama mariachi song below!