I’m a little late with the Amoeba Hollywood World Music best sellers list for March, so here it goes.

1. Charlotte Gainsbourg-IRM
2. Basseko Kouyate-I Speak Fula
3. Bunbury-Las Consecuencias
4. Chatmonchy-S/T
5. V/A-Pomegranates
6. Julieta Venegas-Otra Cosa
7. V/A-Pomegranates (LP version)
8. V/A-Dengue Fever Presents: Electric Cambodia
9. Ali Farka Toure & Toumani Diabate-Ali & Toumani
10. V/A-Nigeria Special Vol.2

Charlotte tops the chart for the third month in a row. Most likely she will bumped by the new Ozomatli in April (More on that later). If you live in or near San Francisco, take note: Charlotte Gainsbourg will be appearing at the SF Amoeba for Record Store Day, where she will be doing a signing at 12 noon! The Pomegranates compilation scores double positions on the chart with both the CD and LP version making the top ten. Two in-store performances fueled the sales of  Basseko Kouyate and Chatmonchy. None of the releases on the top ten show any signs of slowing down; if anything, some may sell more than when they were first released in the coming weeks!

April is turning into another busy month of new releases. So far we had releases by Angelique Kidjo’s Oyo, Mulatu Astatke's Steps Ahead and Richard Bona’s The Ten Shades of Blues. Another B-Music compilation, Absolute Belter, is a collection of Psychedelic pop nuggets from Spain from the late 60’s/early 70’s. The LP version will be out soon, so I hear.

When I heard that Bomba Estereo would be doing an instore performance at Amoeba, I didn’t know what to think. A few years ago, I heard their song “Huepajé” on a Nacional Records compilation and I dug it. Almost every time I played that song in the clubs, someone asked me about the song. I was anticipating their album Blow Up when it came out, only to be slightly disappointed by the somewhat sterile sound of it. I felt it was an adequate album, but not the one I was expecting. Perhaps their Electro-Tropical hybrid worked better as a single than a whole album. Soon after the album was released, I was getting reports from wherever Bomba Estereo played, from folks in Texas to a good friend in Tokyo, that this band live was not to be missed. It was only now that they got to make their way to Los Angeles. I hoped my friends were right.

The audience waiting for the show was small before the band went on. It was mostly your Latin Alternative enthusiasts and curious NPR types. Later, just before Bomba Estereo went on and during their set, the late-arriving Colombian nationals started trickling in, some decked out in yellow, blue and red, the colors of the Colombian flag. I saw a few gentlemen sporting the traditional Sombrero Vueltiao, the traditional hat of Colombia commonly worn by Cumbia and Vallenato musicians. I even saw a woman that was a complete Shakira knock-off in the front row, I kid you not! So when Bomba Estereo hit the stage and started the first song with the thud of conga synonymous with Cumbia, the audience was up and dancing.

I figured I can only write about what I know. I couldn't tell you what deserved album of the year, record of the year, song of the year, best rap/singing vocal or most anything nominated, because truthfully, I never bothered to listen to 99% of the albums nominated. There, I said it.

When I went down the list, there was only one category in which I had heard every album that was nominated, "Best Latin Rock Or Alternative Album," so here's what I thought:

Jaguares is one of those legendary Spanish Rock bands that is painfully dated. So dated that their Grammy winning album, 45, sounds like they finally tried to modernize. Now they sound like they reached deep into the future…to the year...1994! Dated or not, this is the first Jaguares record I could finish all the way through. This album reminds me of U2’s back to the basics, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, from a few years back. Better than previous releases, but more like a lifetime achivement award for Saul Hernandez. It wasn't quite a Jethro Tull winning over Metallica. It was more like Saul Hernandez, The Color Of Money.

I thought The Nortec Collective would give Jaguares a fighting chance. Their Tijuana Sound Machine album was in many top ten lists of 2008 (mine included) by both Anglo and Spanish press. Plus, they had the best plea to the academy to vote for them. With all the violence that has been happening in their hometown of Tijuana, MX, Nortec felt that winning a Grammy would be good for the image of Tijuana.


Locos Por Juana was the token Latin fusion group, a mixture of Spanish Reggae, Cumbia, Dancehall and lots of fun…and that’s why they had no chance. Doesn’t mean you can’t have yours though. They are playing this Thursday at AfroFunke at Zanzibar.