I don’t speak Portuguese so it’s a little hard for me to tell you exactly what’s going on here, but from what I gather, Brazilian police spell out their departments’ names in acronyms with seized drugs or weapons and then take a photo of it for bragging rights.
Secos e Molhados (“Dry & Wet”) was an glam-rock/Tropicália band formed in Brazil in 1971 during the most repressive phase of the military dictatorship. The band was short-lived, recording just two albums, but launched the career of feminine-sounding vocalist, Ney Matogrosso.
Matogrosso’s distinctive voice is “sopranino” meaning that he can hit notes higher than F6. Now 70, he’s still a star in Brazil, but has dropped the wild costumes and make-up, concentrating more on the purely vocal aspects of his talents, and re-interpreting classic Portuguese pop songs (I guess similar to what Rod Stewart does now).
João Ricardo, who founded the group, and Gerson Conrad were the other two members. Secos e Molhados’ recorded in a wide variety of styles. Their innovative make-up and costuming caused a sensation, if not exactly scandal, in early 70s Brazil and they have sold millions of records.
Below, Secos e Molhados performing “Flores Astrais”
Brazil’s first female President, Dilma Rousseff has been sworn into office. At her swearing in, President Rousseff said:
“I know the historical significance of this decision. Today, all Brazilian women should feel proud and happy.”
Rousseff, a former Marxist guerilla who was imprisoned and tortured during Brazil’s long dictatorship for her involvement in a series of bank robberies in the 1970s, said at her 40-minute inauguration speech, “That at times this tough path made me value and love life much more. It gave me, more than anything else, courage to confront even bigger challenges. It’s with this courage that I’m going to govern Brazil.”
Rousseff has appointed nine women to her cabinet of 37 ministers - a record for Brazil, and traveled to the event in a Rolls Royce surrounded by female security guards - another first - she also said:
““The most determined struggle will be to eradicate extreme poverty. We can be a more developed and fairer country.
I will not rest while there are Brazilians without food on their table, homeless in the streets, and poor children abandoned to their luck.”
The new President gave support to “the ‘free press’ than the silence of the dictatorship.”
“I come to open doors for many other women can be presidents.
I come not to praise my biography. My commitment is to protect the weak, and govern for all.
We are experiencing the awakening of a new Brazil; innovation will be a key tool to be competitive in international markets”.
The destiny of a country depends not only on its government but of all people who live in it, I’ll be with everyone.
I extend my hand to the opposition parties. From now on I am the president of all Brazilians.”
New-generation samba-soulster and actor Jorge Mario da Silva a.k.a. Seu (“Mister”) Jorge has risen from drug addiction and homelessness in Rio’s Belford Roxo favelas to international renown. The world has seen the Brazilian go from playing the amazing villain Mané Galinha in City of God, to crooning Bowie tunes in Portugese as Pelé Dos Santos in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.
Now filmmaker Kahlil Joseph has captured some of the Jorge magic in conjunction with the singer’s eponymous album with the group Almaz, made up of folks from the Recife-based mangue bit band Nação Zumbi. In the two elliptical b&w vignettes below, Joseph finds Jorge wandering around a tasty Hollywood bungalow, musing on his mysterious muse, The Model, the undergoddess, the Oshun. His opaque handling of Kraftwerk’s tentative klassic is a sight to be heard…
After the jump: Check out the revelation of the Model…
Brazilian singer and birthday girl Gal Costa started her career during the Costa e Silva and Médici military juntas in Brazil, and from the top there was no stopping her. Joining up with the renegade Tropicalia movement in 1968, Costa helped make history with a group of musicians led by Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil.
In 1973, in an atmosphere rife with governmental repression, torture and strict press censorship, Costa unleashed the album India, which sported a Sticky Fingers-esque cover that got the album immediately banned from the shelves. Based on a themed live show and arranged and produced by Gil and recently rediscovered funk-meister Arthur Verocai, India comprised a great bunch of post-Tropicalia experimental rock tunes, a version of Tom Jobim’s bossa classic “Desafinado,” and this intense version of the Portugese folk tune “Milho Verde.”
Bonus clip after the jump: an Afro’ed Gal tears down the house in 1968 with Veloso & Gil’s “Divinho Marvilhoso” at IV Festival de Música Popular Brasileira!
Erasmo Carlos is a Brazilian singer and songwriter who regularly appeared on the influential sixties Brazilian music tv show called Jovem Guarda (Young Guard). The show spawned a whole scene of young rockers and pop singers, including Os Mutantes, Gilberto Gil, Roberto Carlos, Wanderlea and later Maria Bethânia and Gal Costa.
Jovem Guarda came to signify a musical movement more than a mere television show. The ‘Young Guard’ bands eventually went from American garage rock and British Invasion pop styles to more adventurous music , exploring psychedelia, jazz and the avant garde.
Erasmo Carlos is still recording and hugely popular in Brazil.
In the first video (which contains footage from ‘Mondo Mod’), Erasmo performs Vem Quente Que Eu Estou Fervendo (I’m So Hot, I’m Boiling), a tasty slice of Brazilian garage rock. The second video is a compilation of clips of bands performing on Jovem Guarda.
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