Come On Dear

En Este Momento, the latest release by Cordero, has been in constant rotation in my CD players for a couple of weeks now. I caught them last night at the Rhythm Room after forcing myself to leave the house and I'm so glad I did. Sadly for the band but very good for me, the place was empty (which meant smoke-free), save for some underage kids there to see Koufax, in addition to me and another small group of fans who could shout out requests, which seemed to make Ani (Cordero) feel pretty good. The live show was a little rough around the edges, but in a good way...the way that makes you feel like you're in hangin' out in someone's living room with the band. Cordero, for me, is the perfect fusion of garage and punk with Latin rhythms...what Ani calls Georgiarican (she grew up in Atlanta and the band is based in Brooklyn). At the same time, they have something of a southwest sound a la Calexico and the Sadies. In addition to Ani's guitar, two of my favorite things about En Este Momento are the percussion and the trumpet. Live, the drummer was fantastic, playing at times with his maracas instead of sticks. The kid playing trumpet on tour turns out to be Frankie Lymon's nephew (man, my parents played a lot of the Teenagers when I was growing up)...he substituted keyboards for the trumpet in places where I think he just didn't have the range and that was a little disappointing. Still, I have no idea what this band is doing opening up for Koufax when they've been touring with Calexico, Ozomatli, Neko Case, and others (maybe I'm underestimating Koufax, but I tried to stick around only to take off two songs into their set). En Este Momento is infectious and one of my favorite purchases in a while.

Come On Dear