[mrjonathanr]

I couldn't find a suitable thread for this so I thought I'd start one....

 A multilingual punk-reggae-rock speeded-up latin Joe Strummer....... what's not to love?

This week I have been mostly listening to Baioanrena: enjoy.

[Joepicalli]

Just googled him. Ex-Mano Negro, what a band! And this is brilliant too - have a wad for the introduction.

[kelvin]

Unaware of this. Musical anarchy - my fave. Love it 

[mrjonathanr]

Musical anarchy

Spot on. Mano Negra were an anarchist organization.  His Wikipedia page makes interesting reading. Glad you like it...

Hi Joe

[csurfleet]

Amazing dude!

[cheque]

what's not to love?

That "King of the Bongo" song for a start. 

There must be something I don't get about this guy- he sounds great on paper but I find his music highly annoying, which is very rare for me- I can normally appreciate most acts for their merits. 

[mrjonathanr]

 :popcorn:You don't have to like evrything.... Listen to when the guitar comes in on Panik, if that doesn't fire you up it isn't your thing, fair enough.

Quite eclectic though, punk, reggae, rock, flamenco, in French Spanish English bits of Gallego, Arabic and god knows what. Mayhem. Good enough for me.

[fried]

I was bumming around in South America just after Clandestino came out, it was played continually in every bar/ hotel/ bus etc, I think he may have been touring there too, not sure.

When I came back to Paris in 2002, everyone was playing it, Manu Chao is a bit of a hero of the anarchleftliberalboboscum where I live, he's from the city and has a bar 5mins walk from my apartment. I think it's no exageration to say that I've heard that album about 50 billion times. I'd completely forgotten he existed until you started this thread.

I've been humming 'je ne t'aime plus mon amour, je ne t'aime plus tous les jours' all day thanks to you. Nice tune.

There's a very good book about Mano Negra, can't remember what it's called though.

[mrjonathanr]

Might be worth a read...

Are people talking about Marine Le Pen round your way?

[johnx2]

I was bumming around in South America just after Clandestino came out, it was played continually in every bar/ hotel/ bus etc,

Love Manu Chao.

yeah, thought of this as surf van music. Not particularly anarcholefty mates (well not lefty anyway) came back from Costa Rica.

Anyway, here's one of my favorites,  "La Vida Tombola" with subtitles 'cause the lyrics are great ("If I was maradona, I'd live just like him...) 



And here's the busking version. Even better!




I think that in Barcelona where he lives the man's a genre. Only been a few times but there's loads of squat dweller bands do folky rocky poppy reggae buskery stuff.

Still got les negres vert apres la plui on 12" vinyl somewhere. Must dig it up.

[SA Chris]

Might be worth a read...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Clandestino-In-Search-Manu-Chao/dp/1846681871

Saw it in the local HMV the other day.

[SA Chris]

That "King of the Bongo" song for a start. 

Sadly that's all I've ever know him for; irritating enough to justify no further investigation at the time. Might have a further look though.

[fried]

Are people talking about Marine Le Pen round your way?

My part of Paris (the eastern side) has always been traditionally Socialist/ Communist. It also has a massive amount of immigration (110 different nationalities I last heard),and the highest proportion of social housing. Marine Le Pen is highly unlikely to get a foothold in these areas.

When Hollande won against Sarkozy in the last election it was one big street party which swiftly came to and end when everyone realised absolutely nothing was going to change. People are fed up, depressed and there is still a silent minority upto around 7% in the last election (in my area) who support LePen. It's difficult to read the situation at the moment. Sarkozy may be back, the UMP may split, the government may disintergrate, someone's going to benefit from all this uncertainty I'm sure.

I have a couple of Arabic friends who would like to see LePen win (only hallf joking), just to see how on earth she'd manage to implement some of her populist policies.

[mrjonathanr]

Good call johnx2, I like that song too... I have plans to use it to introduce my mid-set year 10 boys to the imperfect subjunctive...  we'll see how it goes.

fried, thanks for the reply I was wondering if people were rattled. I kind of figure they should be, that's a lot of middle-of-the-road Catholic voters lending her support if the polls are right.  Not good.  And if Sarkozy is the answer, I'm not sure I want to hear the question.

[fried]

The problem is that people aren't rattled by the rise of the extreme right. They're rattled by the money in their pocket.

Me and the missus both work full-time (me a bit less) in low paid but professional positions. We don't have children, We don't have to buy petrol (except to go to the forest), we never go out for a drink or eat in a restauant. Our rent is 50% less through the 'marie' than you'd expect to pay. We buy food in bulk (meat, veg from the market, rest from Lidl). We have one  holiday a year, usually camping. We just about manage to save enough to keep my climbing wall contract running. Pretty scary when you think about it.

At least the wine is still cheap.

A lot of French people are still thinking jobs for life with all the perks, it's what they signed up for.