gomez music

Ultra Music Festival Gringofies Miami

2009-03-30T10:50:00.000-07:00

Just when Gomez thought Miami had officially seceded and become the new tassel-shoed capital of Latin America, along came the Ultra Music Festival over the weekend,
to make the city about as white as you can get without a dog-eared copy of a Carlos Castaneda book under one arm and a peyote button in your hand.

Ultra is a massive showcase for drum-and-bass electronica music, and a close scrutiny of the featured artists revealed that none of them were Latinos, or at least that they did not want to admit to it on the ultra home page. We suspect someone in Infected Mushroom is Latino. Everyone else we thought might have been Latino turned out to be Danish or from Paris. There was one Spaniard, Elio Riso, but we figure he shouldn't count.

Between 50,000 and 60,000 people showed up for the festival, all of them thrusting their pelvises (pelvi?) alone in a tracelike state that is best cultivated alone in one's bedroom in leafy northern suburbs. The only mention Gomez found of Latinos at Ultra was one attendee's online review referring to the cheapest food being sold by some Latino guy. Gomez wishes we'd been there to sell snow cones laced with ecstasy.

Gomez wonders if we are the only ones reminded of side cramps in step class from the early 1990s when we listen to Elio Riso. Gomez wonders why people think it is clever to call a self-loathing musical group Infected Mushroom. Gomez wonders whether repeating ourselves over and over could be a literary version of electronica. Gomez wonders whether repeating ourselves over and over could be a literary version of electronica. Gomez wonders whether repeating ourselves over and over could be a literary version of electronica. Insane, insane, insane, insane, insane, insane...

Academy of Country Music Awards Ignores Latinos Again

2009-03-26T12:50:00.000-07:00

It is amazing to Gomez that in a country where so many Mexicans and Mexican-Americans wear cowboy hats and listen to country music, that not a single performer or honoree at the Academy of Country Music Awards - airing a week from Sunday on CBS - is Hispanic. Or black. But you don't see as many black folks in cowboy hats, big-ass trucks and listening to country music as you do Hispanics. Or at least that has been Gomez's experience. Perhaps Gomez lives in the wrong part of the world.

Yes, it is amazing, but not surprising.

Gomez put in a call to the US Hispanic Country Music Association president Maritza Baca, to try to get a handle on why country music remains the whitest genre since Lawrence Welk, but all we got was the voicemail. We also noticed that Ms. Baca's Web site hasn't been updated since 2006, shortly after Freddie Fender died. Is it possible that Freddie was the last great Latino country star in English?

Rene Perez of Calle 13 talks about AIDS

2009-03-23T09:37:00.001-07:00

Calle 13 - La Jirafa

Latina.com reports that Rene Perez, the poetic lyrical genius known as "residente" in the Puerto Rican rap duo Calle 13, recently talked to MTV3 about how HIV and AIDS have impacted his own life. His aunt and uncle both have the disease, he said.

Mr. Perez also talked about how huge a problem the disease is in Puerto Rico, where, in Gomez's experience, too many men refuse to use condoms even though nearly all of them are cheating on somebody. Gomez thinks those men who refuse to wear condoms with their wives, even though they are cheating on those wives, should be put in jail.

Gomez applauds Mr. Perez for speaking so candidly about this epidemic, and for encouraging the use of condoms. If Mr. Perez needs someone to try out a condom with, there are a few volunteers raising their hands and screaming "oooh, pick me!" here at Gomez. Just a thought.

DMN found Ximena childlike and brunette at SXSW

2009-03-20T12:24:00.000-07:00

MARCH 20, 2009 - Sometimes, a woman genius can't catch a break, especially from male music critics.

Take this Dallas Morning News story about last nights SXSW performance by the brilliant Mexican singer/songwriter Ximena Sarinana. The review, by a dude named Mario, said she was very good, but also called the twenty-three-year-old "child-like," "youthful" and "brunette," all in the span of a single paragraph.

For the record, Mario did not describe any of the other artists mentioned in his article - Quincy Jones, The Oak Ridge Boys, and Devo - in these subjective terms. Gomez will venture to guess that this is because they are all male and old.

Then again, Gomez has an organic tortilla chip on our slumped shoulder about the treatment of women in the music business, for our own sordid (and, yes, perhaps childlike and brunette) reasons.

Gomez should probably quit complaining and just be glad the DMN wrote about MS. Sarinana at all.

Gomez would like the record to state the very original and impressive Ms. Sarinana is currently our favorite Mexican export after tequila. We would also like to say that Ms. Sarinana sings like a modern Billie Holliday. No, we did not say "the Mexican Billie Holliday," we said "a modern Billie Holliday".

Mariah Carey to buy world's costliest mansion

2009-03-20T09:44:00.000-07:00

Mariah Carey and husband Nick Cannon are set to purchase the world's most expensive mansion, in Beverly Hills, according to multiple sources. The palace is priced at $125 million.

Gomez loves the Venezuelan-American Carey (yes, her black father is Venezuelan) for her singing, and believes she singlehandedly changed the course of American popular music for generations to come. But Gomez wonders if she and Mr. Cannon have taken second jobs working for AIG. Do they need a championship tennis court? Do they need staff quarters for ten?

How, how, how is it possible, during such dire economic times as these, for two overpaid entertainers from humble backgrounds to be so out of touch with the needs of regular people?

With Latinos the hardest-hit in the current recession and foreclosure crisis, we wonder if it wouldn't be too much to ask that filthy rich Latina celebrities like Ms. Carey make more of an effort to tone it down a bit - and maybe help out more?

Ms. Carey, ostentatious consumption, like super-high whistle tones, Tommy Mottola, and gold lame tank tops, is unfashionably 1990s. We suggest you recalibrate, and evolve. This is not the time for anyone to flaunt their wealth and retain fans.

Christina Milian's new single leaked on Internet

2009-03-19T13:34:00.000-07:00

Gomez tried not roll our collective eyes (we got eyes like spider, oiste?) when news surfaced this week about Cuban-American singer Christina Milian.

First, we learned that a demo of her newly-recorded single has been leaked on the Internet. Here's the link where you can hear the song, I'm a Cheat.

Then we learned that Ms. Milian is not actually engaged to a producer who goes by the name The-Dream. Gomez never thought she was. Gomez can't believe anyone would be silly enough to go by a made-up name like...oh, well, what? Nevermind.

Then the story surfaced that there is some controversy about Ms. Milian lightening her skin and dyeing her hair blond. I guess that with resident fading freak Jack-O on tour the skin-lightening police had to pick on someone else.

Gomez does think the new Ms. Milian looks much worse than the old, however contrived the controversy might be. Gomez suspects all these Milian Mishaps are the result of some late-night hand-wringing by overpaid publicists who hope to draw attention to the singer who, "coincidentally," has a new remix of an old song, Amazing, out in video.

Gomez respects Ms. Milian's obvious talents, but wishes she weren't reduced to stunt-pimpin' for attention like Britney. Gomez would not, however, be disappointed if Ms. Milian shaved all that straw-stiff yellow stuff from her head. Then again, Gomez's first live concert was Van Halen. Times have changed. Maybe Gomez should, too.

Jeannie Ortega's career stagnant on MTV3

2009-03-18T13:12:00.000-07:00

Gomez doesn't have anything particularly new to say about twenty-two-year-old Nuyorican singer and actress Jeannie Ortega, except that we were surprised to find out that some of our closest Latino friends had no idea who she was. Shame.

Miss Ortega looks like all the chola girls who used to beat Gomez up in middle school, but that's where the similarities end. In reality, Miss Ortega is a talented songwriter, singer and actress from Bushwick, who decided at the age of eight to make the big time, but has now been trapped in the MTV ghetto where excellent Latino mainstream artists are sent to watch their careers die before they get off the ground.

Gomez think it sucks that MTV has stupidly relegated Miss Ortega and her excellent English-language pop to their Spanish-language music video network MTV3. Gomez wonders whatever happened to Kat de Luna and Paula de Anda, the two who escaped said ghetto.

Gomez wonders when segregation will end in the music industry for the vast majority of US-born Latino performers. Gomez also wonders when Pitbull will reveal the secret to his success (Mother Goose books). Gomez wonders about a lot of things. Don't you?

Shakira's school issues resolved

2009-03-18T08:38:00.000-07:00

The Latin American Herald Tribune is reporting that the issues with teachers and students not showing up at the school created for poor kids in Colombia by singer/songwriter Shakira have been resolved.

Like Oprah with her African school, Shakira has had to face the fact that once you give a bunch of strangers money to help kids in a place where you don't live, you have no idea what they might (or might not) do with it. Corruption in poor communities is a major problem, and Shakira's plight shows why throwing money at the problems of the poor might not be the long-term answer to their problems. But what the hell does Gomez know about such things? The closest Gomez came to what Shakira is doing was buying mint cookies from a girl scout outside the Alberton's last week.

Hopefully things are all straightened out for Shaki now, and the kids will get the education and respect they deserve. Gomez doesn't wear a hat, but if we did, we'd take it off in honor of Shakira and her humanitarian work on behalf of poor children.

Tejano duo make mark at SXSW

2009-03-17T10:07:00.000-07:00

Gomez doesn't know why, but Gomez loves us some crazy little self-described Tejano band called A Hawk and a Hacksaw.

Gomez isn't alone. Chosen to perform at the indie music festival South by Southwest in Austin, Texas (going on now) this Zuzax, New Mexico, group is drawing attention for its creative, manic, tubalicious polka-klezmer wackadoodle big-ironic-mustache music.

Click here to listen to a song.

Click here to visit the group's website.

Demi Lovato to perform at 2009 Bamboozle festival

2009-03-16T11:51:00.000-07:00

Pop princess Demi Lovato, whose new video is featured here, has been chosen to perform as part of the Bamboozle traveling music festival. Other performers include No Doubt and Fallout Boy.

The seventeen-year-old singer and actress is absolutely making her hometown of Dallas, Texas, proud. Her first album debuted at No. 2 on Billboard's charts last year, and her new TV show, Sonny with a Chance, is set to soar at Disney channel.

Adding to Demi's "awww" factor is the fact that her best friend is none other than Selena Gomez, another rising star singer and actress. The two met at auditions for Barney & Friends. C'mon, say it with us: awwww!

Another interesting fact: Demi's mom Diana was a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader. No wonder Demi went a little metal and edgy...

Jennifer Lopez back in the recording studio

2009-03-16T11:29:00.001-07:00

Various media outlets are reporting having seen the multi-talented singer/actress/designer Jennifer Lopez leaving a New York City recording studio last week. It has been two years since the release of Mrs. Lopez's last English-language pop album, Brave.

We know it is trendy to bash Mrs. Lopez's singing ability, but we believe the criticism is unfair and rooted mostly in envy. We like Jenny's dance and club hits, and are hopeful more of the same is on the way.

We congratulate Mrs. Lopez for having the energy to forge ahead with her career after the birth of her twin babies. It's not easy, girlfriend. You are an inspiration!