With an important underground music scene and large international acts coming through regularly, Argentina has a thriving environment for fans of any genre of music. But what happens when being a fan goes beyond just knowing the words to a couple of songs or buying a few albums? For some, being a fan involves anything from following bands on tours, to spending absurd amounts of money on memorabilia, to getting an autograph of your favourite artist tattooed permanently. For some, following a band becomes an obsession and a way of life, regardless of how mainstream or commercially successful it may be. It is here that a cult status begins to form.
Obviously, the definition of a “cult band” is as varied as the bands the label is ascribed to, so the following list is neither comprehensive nor set in stone. What defines a band as “cult” is as hard to pin down, but for different reasons, whether their fan base, their musical influence, or the niche market they fit in, the following artists have become cult fixtures in Argentine music and culture.
Los Redondos
Patricio Rey y Sus Redonditos de Ricota, better known as ‘Los Redondos’ for short, is critically acclaimed as one of the most important and influential groups in Argentine rock, and one of the principal figures of the country’s music scene between 1980 and the 1990s.
Formed in La Plata, the group included Carlos Alberto ‘Indio’ Solari on vocals, Eduardo “Skay” Beilinson on guitar, and Carmen Castro, also known as ‘The Black Poly’, as manager and muse. They remained active between 1976 and 2001 and by the time the group had released its most commercially successful album, ‘La Mosca y La Sopa’ in 1991, it had already amassed a large, cult-like fan base that called themselves ‘ricoteros’.
Known for its experimentation in both music and publicity, the group shied away from large venues and traditional marketing in preference of smaller shows and more homespun advertising. Rather than making official announcements or using the media to spread word of performances, often the group relied on word of mouth to advertise shows to fans. Los Redondos’ complex lyrics have been compared to Baroque poets, and deal with everything from women and drugs to politics, their existentialist themes attracting passionate support.
As they gained popularity, the Redondos’ sparsely attended theatre shows gave way to jam-packed stadiums. The size of their following often brought sold out and over-capacity shows, and once even caused an Olavarría mayor to put a stop to a performance in 1997.
Although the group hasn’t played a show since its split in 2001, it maintains a huge fan base to this day and is a classic fixture in Argentine rock history.
Sumo in 1985
Although Sumo remained underground and lesser known during its time in the Argentine music scene, the band managed to shape contemporary Argentine rock. Started in the early 1980s by Italian-born Luca Prodan, Sumo combined British post-punk rock with the Argentine rock nacional genre that was prevalent at the time. Add a little bit of reggae on top of that, and you have a sound that’s both addictive and hard to describe.
Their story sounds straight out of a modern day epic poem: Luca Prodan fled Manchester, after years of hanging out with the members of Joy Division, to kick his heroin habit. He started recording songs in 1981 in a homemade studio in the countryside outside of Córdoba. After getting tired of the countryside, he moved to downtown Buenos Aires to start performing, but had to be careful because the military dictatorship at the time was on the look out for “subversive” artists and musicians. He then joined up with Germán Daffunchio on guitar, Alejandro Sokol on bass, and Stephanie Nuttal on drums and began to play at venues around the city.
Because their music was almost exclusively in English, Sumo did not enjoy a lot of radio airtime during their stint as a band. This only added to their mystery and cult status, as their loyal fans sought them out in the underground music scene. In a tragic end to the aforementioned “epic poem” qualities of Prodan’s life, his rockstar lifestyle caught up with him and he died of a heart attack in 1987, two days after the band’s last show. The early end to such a promising band has added to their mystique, and to this day people talk on forums and Facebook groups about what could have been if Prodan was still alive.
Él Mato A Un Policia Motorizado at Tecnópolis (photo: Wikimedia Commons)
El Mató a Un Policia Motorizado
Living in Buenos Aires, you’re more likely to learn of this band through the graffiti bearing its name throughout the city than from hearing them on the radio. La Plata band El Mató a Un Policia Motorizado combines punk rock and noise rock, and draws influence from bands like the Pixies, the Ramones and the Velvet Underground.
The group features Santiago Motorizado on bass and vocals, “Doctor Death” on drums, Pantro Puto on guitar, Niño Elefante on guitar, and Chatrán Chatrán on keyboard. They released their first EP, “El Mató a Un Policia Motorizado” in 2004, and in 2005 began a trilogy of albums depicting birth, life and death. The trilogy shot the band to a larger audience, setting them off on a tour of South America and Europe, where they played big festivals like Primavera Sound in Barcelona. The group took a four-year hiatus and came back stronger than ever in 2012, to fans that had been awaiting their return. With a small but growing following and frequent shows at cultural centres and alternative venues around Buenos Aires, this band is changing contemporary Argentine rock and developing a steady and dedicated set of fans in the process.
They continue to grow, and in 2012 Mexico’s Rolling Stone named their most recent album one of the best of the year, saying: “After four years of absence, the band returned with an album ambitious and risky that dispelled any doubts about their potent sound.” The group is still active and is back touring South America in Spring of 2013, with shows at the club Niceto in Buenos Aires on the 28th and 29th March.
Pez in concert (Photo courtesy of Pez Facebook Page)
One of the oldest still-active Argentine bands that has kept a strong following is Pez. Formed by Ariel Minimal in 1993, the “hard experimental rock” group originally included musicians Alejandro Alez and Pablo Barbieri. It has changed continuously since then, fluctuating between the original trio and a five-piece band with different instruments, experimenting with a variety of sounds. Pez currently has four members, with Minimal the only original member. With its constantly changing line-up of artists, it is difficult to say exactly what Pez’s overriding sound is, and that seems to be part of the attraction for many of its fans. Rooted in experimental rock, the group has incorporated everything from tango to punk into their sound and they never stick to one type of music. “Over this long period of time we’ve shown that Pez is much more than just the sound of one album, our history has been forged over the course of all our albums,” Minimal explained to the music blog Rebvelados.
Doing things their own way has always been the unofficial motto of Pez, who began its own independent, cooperative record label called Azione Artigianale to record its own music.
Perhaps it is the constant change that has attracted such a loyal fan base. Part of the reason the band maintains such a cult-like following is its ability to adapt and evolve to changing technology and the changing music scene. “Since we are an independent band, it is very important to distribute our music over social media and the internet,” Minimal said in a recent interview. He added that the band is always looking for innovative ways to share their music with the world. As long as the band continues to grow and adapt, they are set to retain their cult following for years go come.
Los Brujos
Emerging from the same musical nucleus as the hugely successful Babasónicos, Los Brujos carved out their own, less commercial niche in the music scene and has thousands of dedicated fans to prove it. Their hard-to-pin-down, invented genre has kept listeners guessing since their founding in 1988. Their sound has been described as “funkmetal” and “funkcore” but the group has opposed these labels.
“We’re pigeonholed into the list of alternative groups, but alternative to what? In reality, although it doesn’t bother us to be labelled like that, we prefer to say that we are a group that is constantly changing,” said guitarist Rey Mental.
The group created more than just a musical experience, as their concerts included bizarre costumes and lights, an aesthetic experience specific to Los Brujos. They achieved brief commercial success with their single “Kanishka,” which got a significant amount of radio play and even inspired a Nirvana song after Kurt Cobain heard the tune on a visit to Argentina. The group announced its separation in 1998 but maintains a huge fan base. Fan website Que Vuelvan Los Brujos (Come Back, Brujos) is still updated as of 2013 with information about the band and hopes that they’ll return to the Argentine music scene.
