Manic Hispanic
The Menudo Incident?
BYO
Combine Cheech & Chong with “Weird” Al Yankovic, throw in some guitars, and you get Manic Hispanic, a punk cover band remaking songs cholo style with a comedic twist.
The Menudo Incident? (the title itself a spoof of Guns N’ Roses’ The Spaghetti Incident?) is the band’s debut from 1996, and has recently been re-released. On it, Manic Hispanic revamps tunes by legends of the game, such as X and the Clash, among others. “Los Angeles” becomes “East L.A.” and “Garageland” is turned into “Barrio Land.”
The music on the CD is great, but I guess when you have such a kick-ass blueprint, it’s kind of hard to screw it up. Driving riffs and pounding drums are produced perfectly. Yet, it’s the kind-of-funny/kind-of-offensive lyrics that separate this album from the pack. Take, for example, “Mexican Society” (a remake of L7’s “American Society”): “There’s too many vatos in my casa/ I don’t wanna listen to my old lady/ I don’t wanna drown in a Mexican Society.” -wm If there’s any drawback to this album, it’s that like any parody material, the joke gets old after a while. But if you don’t have a problem with that, then just sit back and enjoy the “low” ride.
OK, maybe I’ll leave the spoofing to the professionals, eses.
Manic Hispanic: http://www.manichispanic.net/ • BYO Records: http://www.byorecords.com/
