Cafe Tacuba

Fact Sheet

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

Rubén Albarrán, aka "Juan", "Pinche Juan", "Cosme", "Anónimo" (Anonymous), "Nrü" (pronounced "dshyoo", [dSju] in Sampa), "Amparo Tonto Medardo In Lak'ech", "Gallo Gasss", or "Élfego Buendía" (vocals)
Emmanuel del Real (keyboards, acoustic guitar, piano, programming, vocals, melodion)
Joselo Rangel (electric guitar, acoustic guitar, vocals)
Quique Rangel (bass, electric upright bass, vocals)

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 collection, winner of a Latin Grammy for Best Rock Album of 1999), and Cuatro Caminos ("Four Paths", the name of an intersection in Mexico City, 2003). (Additonally, they have released an EP called Vale Campalla, a best-of album, Tiempo Transcurrido, and Esencial de Café Tacuba, which is a box set of Café Tacuba, Re, and Avalancha de Éxitos.) They have also contributed to movie soundtracks like Amores Perros and Y Tu Mamá También.

Their music is extremely eclectic: "Chilanga Banda" has a hip-hop beat under a stream of incomprehensible Mexico City slang, "El Fin de la Infancia" a brass-heavy ska sound, and "Desperté" has a melody that could have been stolen from a soap opera. 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 (with some Nahuatl and other Native American languages thrown in), but have a significant Anglophone following regardless.

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