Artist.......: Manu Chao
Album........: Live at Coachella
Label........: n/a
Genre........: Rock
Catnr........: n/a
Source.......: DVBS
Rip.date.....: Oct-21-2007
Str.date.....: Apr-29-2007
Quality......: VBR/44,1Hz/Joint-Stereo
Url..........: www.manuchao.net
track title time
01. Live at Coachella 58:04
Runtime 58:04 min
Size 69,2 MB
Release Notes:
Recorded : October 21, 2007 (Europe2 Tv)
Performed : April 29, 2007 (Coachella)
Manu Chao helped begin the Latin Alternative movement, way
back in the '80s -- although it had no name then -- and in
his later work he cuts a cross-cultural swathe across
styles and geographic boundaries. Chao was born on June
26, 1961 in Paris, to Spanish parents -- his father Ramon
Chao a respected writer, comes from Galicia, his mother
Bilbao. Growing up bilingual, he was also influenced by
the punk scene across the English Channel that happened
while he was still in his teens. As a teen he played in
bands, including a rockabilly outfit called Les Hot Pants,
which won local critical praise but never went anywhere
before breaking up. After that, Chao and his cousin began
Mano Negra, named for an anarchist organization which
operated in Spain. They recorded their first single, "Mala
Vida," for a small label, but its French success led them
to a contract with Virgin -- something many early fans
decried as selling out. Multilingual and decidedly
multicultural, but with an edge heavily influenced by the
punk rock of the Clash, they seemed comfortably at home
anywhere, be it North Africa or North America, in their
music. Operating as a collective, without a manager,
wasn't the best way to guarantee international success,
and their attempts to break the U.S. at the start of the
'90s didn't work -- America simply wasn't ready for their
musical ratatouille. However, Europe loved them, as did
South America. In 1992 they began a seemingly odd tour of
Latin America, traveling by boat with actors and a circus,
playing in port cities on both the Atlantic and Pacific
sides, aided and abetted by various political guerilla
groups, which sometimes didn't sit well with governments.
In 1995, Chao moved the band to Spain, where he also
formed another outfit, Radio Bemba Sound System, employing
both musicians from Mano Negra and outside, which,
according to rumors, caused rifts within the ranks,
leading to the split of Mano Negra. Chao then returned to
South and Central America, spending the next few years
drifting around with his guitar and a four-track,
recording here and there. The resultant collection of
songs was released in 1998 (1999 in the U.S.) under the
title Clandestino, and included a reworking of the Mano
Negra track "King of Bongo," which was picked up for use
on the soundtrack to Madonna's The Next Big Thing. The
album itself took off very slowly, but after a year was
going stronger than ever, a sleeper that found its niche
in the burgeoning Latin Alternative scene (even though its
lyrics freely mixed English and French along with the
Spanish). In 2000 Chao played a rare pair of shows in Los
Angeles, and in June 2001 released Proxima Estacion:
Esperanza, which showed that his musical self had been
spending the last couple of years soaking up the sounds of
the Caribbean. This was further explored on The Live
Album, a recording done in 2001 that was taken from the
tour following Proxima Estacion: Esperanza.