Quarteto Em Cy "Som Definitivo" was the first brazilian LP I purchased because I liked the cover. Before that I had only been familiar with Sergio Mendes and things like Les Baxter or Michel LeGrands excellent Rio LP. The darkness and power of Som Definitivo blew me away. Instead of the sacharine sweet vocals and ultra-clean arrangements of Sergio Mendes this sounded like 4 rowdy schoolgirls who got dragged into the studio off the street. The sound was much more throaty and the music by Tamba Trio is the primitive repetitious acoustic stuff that, personally, affects me the most. they do a lot of "call-and-response" type of arrangements. I always imagine the solitary life of people living in Bahia and the importance of the sea and the repetitious sound of the breaking waves in much of the music and the voices of the 4 girls like ghosts of the sea calling out to the fishermen. (I make up all kinds of stupid shit about the songs becasue I can't understand a word their saying anyway) Quarteto Em Cy also perfom on the classic Baden Powell/Vinicius De Moraes LP "Os Afro Sambas." In one of my earlier comments I mention that I have been told that Voodoo had a big influence on the people of Brazil and this LP is the best example of this influence.

Punk really was born in the sixties. This song, perhaps THE classic of its genre, oozes with energy and rage. The fuzz guitar sound is pure evil and when it comes in you just bless the stereophonic effect. Like The Velvet Underground, this song must've made a lot of people start a band.
The band wore black and had black instruments. They tuned their guitars a full step lower to make their sound more threatening. It worked. And all this back in '66.

one step away from twee pop, or whatever it's called these days. lyrics are interesting enough. vocals are tolerable, music is catchy and uplifting. the whole album is, without it becoming extremely sugary.

brilliant version of the marvin gaye classic. the funk bassline, primitive drumming and the sheer energy of ari up's semi-braying vocals is what makes the song for me. often i find the slits' songs a bit directionless, but this one really hits the spot. look into miy window while this is playing. chances are i'll be doing some sort of jerky white guy- dance.

God damn, I love Jack White. This song blows my mind... it absolutely blows my mind. I can't believe that any rock and roll band is doing something so incredibly original and startling and at the same time so basic and so primitive. The White Stripes make me believe that rock and roll, real bluesy wild rock, still lives and breathes.