Café Tacuba (often spelled Café Tacvba) is a musical group from Naucalpan, Mexico. They were founded in 1989, and since then have had the same musical lineup:

• Rubén Isaac Albarrán Ortega, aka "Juan", "Pinche Juan" ("Fucking Juan"), "Cosme", "Anónimo" (Anonymous), "Nrü" (pronounced "dshyoo", in IPA), "Amparo Tonto Medardo In Lak’ech" (or "At Medardo ILK"), "G3", "Gallo Gasss", "Élfego Buendía", and "Sizu Yantra". (vocals)
• Emmanuel "Meme" del Real Díaz (keyboards, acoustic guitar, piano, programming, vocals, melodion)
• Jose Alfredo "Joselo" Rangel Arroyo aka "Oso"(electric guitar, acoustic guitar, vocals)
• Enrique 'Quique' Rangel Arroyo (bass, electric upright bass, vocals)

Mexican folk music player Alejandro Flores is considered the 5th tacubo. He has played the violin in almost every Café Tacuba's concert since 1994. Also, since the Cuatro Caminos world tour, Luis "El Children" Ledezma plays the drums in every concert but is not considered an official band member.

Discography

They have released five albums, which are, in order: Café Tacuba (1992), Re (1994), Avalancha de Éxitos ("Avalanche of Hits", 1996), Revés/Yo Soy (actually a two-album vocal/instrumental collection, winner of a Latin Grammy for Best Rock Album of 1999), and Cuatro Caminos ("Four Paths", 2003). Additionally, they have released an EP called Vale Callampa (a tribute to now defunct chilean band Los Tres, 2002), a best-of album/DVD entitled Tiempo Transcurrido (2001), Un Viaje 2005, a four-hour triple CD live performance from their 15th anniversary concert (also released as a DVD and box-set) and an MTV Unplugged.

Every studio album released by the band so far has been produced by Gustavo Santaolalla except Cuatro Caminos which was produced by Santaloalla, Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, Weezer) and Andrew Weiss (Ween). Cuatro Caminos was featured on several Top Albums of 2003 charts, including Rolling Stone, New York Times, Blender Magazine and won the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album.

Genre

Their music is extremely eclectic and therefore impossible to label as Rock en Español as it is commonly done by international (and sometimes even Mexican) press. Indeed, it has been said that no two of their songs fit the same genre. Their music has been heavily influenced by Mexico's Native American population and folk music traditions, but also by American music and other bands on the Mexico City scene. Perhaps the most distinctive feature of their music is Albarrán's gratingly nasal voice, which, combined with his impressive lung capacity (as demonstrated on "La Ingrata", a parody of norteño music), makes for a very distinctive sound, which can be somewhat offputting to the uninitiated. They sing entirely in Spanish but have a significant Anglophone following regardless.

The song "Chilanga Banda" has a hip-hop beat under a stream of Mexico City slang, "María" is a romantic 'bolero' balad, "El Fin de la Infancia" a brass-heavy 'banda ranchera' sound, "Desperté" has a tango-driven melody that could have been stolen from a soap opera and "El borrego" is a heavy-metal experiment.

Other Works

• They have contributed to movie soundtracks like Amores Perros, Y Tu Mamá También, Piedras Verdes and Vivir Mata as well as tribute albums to "Jose Jose" and "Los Tigres del Norte". Café Tacuba also collaborated with different artists such as Plastilina Mosh, Kronos Quartet, David Byrne, Celso Piña, Inspektor, and Ofelia Medina. They have played live with Beck, Incubus and Los Tres.

• Meme is known in the mexican electronica scene as "Dj Angustias". He is part of the Noiselab Collective and will release a solo album in late 2005. He also produced songs for many mexican artists like Julieta Venegas, Natalia Lafourcade, Ely Guerra, Liquits, among others.
• Joselo released his first solo album entitled Oso in 2001 and is planing to release a second one in 2005 produced by ex-Los Tres Álvaro Henriquez.
• Rubén played in an alternative instrumental band called Villa Jardín between 2000-2001.

Trivia

• The name of the band was taken from a traditional coffee shop located downtown Mexico City, which had its heyday in the 1940's and 1950's, and was representative of the Pachuco scene from the time, something the band would certainly acknowledge as an influence; The Cafè Tacuba is still in operation.
• The song "Eo" from Cuatro Caminos featured on the FIFA 2004 Playstation game.
• Their original name was "Alicia ya no vive aquí" (a tribute to Martin Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore)
• In the early years people would scream "Pinche Juan!" ("Fucking Juan!") to Rubén because that's the name of one of the band's first underground hits, so he kept the name for the release of the first album. Two years later he got bored and changed it to "Cosme" (a disused, old mexcian name) for the release of "Re". Since then, he has changed his name for every album and world tour.
• Formerly graphic design students, Rubén, Joselo and Quique make the art of every studio album.

External links

• Café Tacuba's official site (http://www.cafetacuba.com.mx/) (parts of which are available in English)
• A long article in Hispanic Online (http://www.hispaniconline.com/a&e/tacuba/) (in English)de:Café Tacuba

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