Out & About

In its second season, Watcha Tour comes back to remind us that Ricky Martin is not the sole face of Latin music, nor are Los Tigres Del Norte or Tierra. (Do people actually think Mexican kids listen to these guys?) While one concert tour can do only so much to represent everything that's going on in Latino alternative music circles from here all the way down through South America, Watcha gives as good a sampling as can be expected. The genre-destroying Café Tacuba bring so much stuff in the mix, from punk to banda to electronica to samba to ska to tejano, that they're impossible to dissect. Critics' darlings, and rightfully so, their double CD, Reves/Yo Soy, was actually worth the doubled running time. Molotov's latest, Apocalypshit (the Ouija board cover might seem innocuous to us, but it got the CD booted off a lot of shelves in Mexico) wasn't as good as their previous, Donde Jugaran Las Ninas?, but it still kicks the shit out of most of the band's stateside rap/rock competition. Argentina's hard rock monsters, A.N.I.M.A.L., should crush everything in sight. And Colombia's Aterciopelados can weave together a dance beat, a beatnik rap, an old Tango melody, strains of folk and rock, and a sweet-voiced female into a sound that's perfect for a cabaret or the street corner or the dance floor. Of course, as always, L.A.'s own Ozomatli will get the groove going. With Resorte, Enanitos Verdes, and Riesgo De Contagio.