AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Cafe Tacuba

Artist:Cafe Tacuba

Song:Esa Noche

Album:Tiempo Transcurrido: The Best of Cafe Tacuba

The Mexican band Cafe Tacuba were at the forefront of the early 90s Spanish Rock movement. They have been very successful in Latin America and Europe. They are from Mexico City. Lead singer Ruben Albarran and guitarist Jose Alfredo Rangel met while studying graphic design at Metropolitan Autonomous University in Mexico City in 1989. Rangel's bassist brother Enrique Rangel joined and they started practicing in a garage. The band is named after a local coffee shop. They are influenced by 80s British punk and New Wave bands like The Cure and The Clash but they wanted to sing in Spanish and represent their own culture. They started playing local clubs and were spotted by Argentinian producer Gustavo Santaolalla. He was already producing Spanish Rock bands and he got Cafe Tacuba a record deal with Warner Music Latina. Santaolalla has produced all of Cafe Tacuba's albums. They had success immediately with the 1992 album Cafe Tacvba. Esa Noche is from the 1994 album Re. This was their second album. By this time they added Emmanuel del Real on keyboards to the band. They all write songs. The Rangel brothers wrote Esa Noche. So now they are getting acclaim from the music press like Rolling Stone. So they are starting to get somewhere. The 1996 album Avalancha de Exitos was all covers. Then they recorded an all instrumental album which was closer to ambient music. When Warners didn't want to release it. they reached a compromise and Cafe Tacuba recorded another album and released the two albums together as Reves/Yo Soy in 1999. Though the album did well and won a Latin Grammy, Cafe Tacuba was unhappy with the compromise and they left Warners for Universal for the 2003 album Cuatros Caminos. That's when this comp was  released. Cafe Tacuba is still around though they last released an album in 2017. I get the impression that the guys are working on individual projects and may or may not get together again. They did tour earlier this year so that's a good sign. Now they need to record new music. Here's Cafe Tacuba performing Esa Noche at the 1996 Festival Vina del Mar in Chile.