Coachella Spotlight

Bajofondo is one of the bands performing at the Coachella Music Festival this year. The band is an intriguing and interesting mixture of Latin, rock, and hip-hop sounds that makes it challenging to place the seven-person group into any one music genre. Critics have often described Bajofondo as one of the leaders in the "electric tango" movement, but the band rejects this description.
The group is headed by Gustavo Santaolalla, composer of the Oscar winning scores of Babel and Brokeback Mountain, as well as 21 Grams, North Country, and The Motorcycle Diaries.
Bajofondo likes to describe their music as a rediscovery/redefinition of the Argentinian/Uruguayan musical traditions-the two countries the band members hail from. For them, this means taking traditional tango rythms and adding on the newer elements of today's musical movements. Visit their myspace page and listen to their music here.

Another band that sort of mines the field of restructuring traditional rythms linked to folk or cultural heritages is DeVotchka. The group hails from Colorado and at one time performed the music for a fetish burlesque show starring Dita Von Teese. They became more famous when their song "How it Ends" appeared in the trailer for Everything is Illuminated. Since then they have performed at Bonnaroo and wrote the score for Little Miss Sunshine.

The group describes their music as a "mix of Romani, Greek, Slavic, and Bolero rythms mixed with American punf and folk roots." Their band name, DeVotchka, means "little girl" in Russian.

Check out their music at their myspace page.

It seems that this blend of traditional folk music with new rythmic elements is extremely appealing to directors seeking innovative film scores.