By the Zonagirante.com team @spinning zone
«Say say two thousand zero zero party over, oops, out of time
So tonight I'm gonna party like it's nineteen ninety-nine»
Prince – 1999
Boys of the new generations: 1999. Imagine a world filled with fear because we felt the arrival of the new millennium. Something was approaching that the experts called the Y2K effect, a software error caused by the custom programmers had adopted of omitting the century in the year for date storage (generally to save memory), assuming that each computer program would only work during years whose numbers began with 19. The second after the start of January 1st, 2000, the world would fall apart., There would be financial chaos, computers would eat children, existing robots would seize power and force us to live staring at small, colorful screens all day, as permanent punishment for our selfishness and contempt for the rest of humanity. And while that moment was approaching, the Argentine idol Charly García, Perhaps thinking to demonstrate that neither he nor his work deserved such punishment, during the celebration of the cycle Buenos Aires Vivo 3, He recorded his performance in front of six hundred thousand people, breaking attendance records for a public concert in his country, material that he later called Too much ego. The end of the world was approaching, and yet there was still time for the man with the two-toned mustache to thrill a large crowd., regardless of whether they all turned to ash in a flash.
While some overly cautious individuals, anticipating a possible orbital catastrophe, built their survival bunkers and bought all the available bottled water in their town, the Buenos Aires-based label Ultrapop Amid the euphoria caused by García's record, they decided to release a tribute album of 15 covers performed by prominent bands from the Argentine indie scene. Almost prophetically, they decided to title it Close to the revolution, like the song that Charly included on his album Piano Bar in 1984. Curiously, despite the name, None of the invited artists decided to release their version of that song.
Who participated in this album?, Who survives, artistically speaking, in the music world? Among the performers listed, some of the most outstanding include Jaime sin Tierra, The band, who, after separating for twelve years and each dedicating themselves to their profession (Sebastián Kramer, their guitarist, divided his time between composing film scores and his work as an architect), reunited in 2018 and performed three sold-out shows in Argentina and Uruguay. In the tribute, they performed Videotape eyes, from the catalogue of Modern Clicks, giving it a unique touch reminiscent of the shoegaze of the era. We also highlight the participation of Belly, the band led by the still very much in the public eye Mariana Bianchini, which achieved a punk spasm of sound even rougher than the initial recording of Demolishing Hotels.
Not only were songs from Charly García's solo albums recorded, but covers of tracks from his time with various bands were also included. Therefore, from La Plata came Audioperú, a project led by Rudie Martinez, to convert Bubulina, of The Bird Making Machine, ...in an electronic dance experiment. On the other hand, Grand Prix He recorded it, in a slightly more distorted tone, I want to see, I want to be, I want to enter, original of Porsuigieco, a fusion of stars from the seventies, made up of Charly himself, Raúl Porchetto, Nito Mestre, León Gieco and María Rosa Yorio. And, perhaps being one of the best moments of the tribute, we have the hilarious translation of Mr. Jones, original song by Sui generis, in the hands of Always Lucrecia, a band led by our friend Fede Kempff, who in recent years has brightened our lives with his groups City of Willows y Intense Autumn.
In short, in 1999, before the despair and the holocaust that never happened, There was a compilation that attempted to give a rough idea of what was happening at that time in the independent scene of Buenos Aires and its surroundings, Through the timeless compositions of a genius. Fifteen productions, some worthy of being remembered with great pleasure and others that can be listened to with curiosity, without prejudice, though not with much delight. Some musicians faded from the scene without fanfare or recognition., Others continue to make their mark in the vibrant rock scene of the Southern Cone.
And Charly? As you know, he is sixty-eight years old and has survived everything. He's reached 2019 after jumping from a ninth-floor window, consuming every legal and illegal substance on the planet, losing and regaining every kind of weight imaginable, and now looking like an adorable old man who, because of his mastery, is forgiven everything. Surely, in his free time, with a piano and his friends around, he must sing some songs by his admired Prince, another one who couldn't reach this point due to his personal downfall. Anyway, an honorable musician who we are confident laughs at the turbulent times we are now living in.
