A n a r c h i c _ U n i v e r s e ®

A Blast from the Past

in fact, I learned this technique to teach it to  children in the days a double-edge razor was okay for kids to have. It's Crayola®, covered with ink of China, I think that is its name in English. After dry, we can scrape it or draw on top of the dried paper. I wasn't on drugs at all. As the cartoon John Lennon says in "The Yellow Submarine" film,

"It's all in the mind, you know?"

For more on Os Mutantes psychedelic rock and news click here and add the site to your bookmarks. Keeping my mind busy at the sound of "I'm Fixing a Hole."

Os Mutantes - Their Seeds Take Over São Paulo

http://attu.typepad.com/universo_anarquico/2008/04/mutantes-depois.html Abra(clique) para baixar a nova canção d'Os Mutantes para a galera Mutantes nova.

Os Mutantes Later - A New Band and MP3

Many of you will recognize the faces of the band that performed since London's Barbican in 2006 to so many crowds of older and younger fans of Os Mutantes psychedelic rock tinged with a Brazilian sound. Here is a photo of the band as it is now, with a bonus MP3 for download; feel free to pass it around and post it in your blogs. Click on the photo to enlarge, if you wish. Will the MP3 work?  Let's check it out. Center wearing a top hat, Sérgio Dias, his Regulus guitar, next to him "Dinho" Leme, seminal Os Mutantes members.

Download MutantesDepoisFinalMix.mp3 (12106.2K)

News on Os Mutantes - For Real

Sometimes it pays to be an expat as they say in some blogs.  This morning I wrote about an idea for a post on the schism between black and Indie music.
It is hard for bands to show resilience without dropping like flies for all different reasons: boredom, new religions, new diets, who knows?

The bad news birdie told me is that Os Mutantes won nothing in the Latin Grammys in Vegas.

The good news is the formation of the band for its new repertoire:

•Liminha, whose career as a producer was great is back with the band. He goes by Arnolpho Lima Filho as a producer. I saw him here in Greater Los Angeles as a producer of Os Titãs, which is a great São Paulo band, one other 80s implosion.
He was bass player in 1971 on, skilled and incredibly handsome. Aw, shuddup already.

•Karina Zeviani is the invited singer. She comes from Thievery Corporation and Nouvelle Vague.

• Now it's time for me to touch base with Nialler 9, whose competence in fusion of styles and talents is much more developed than my own.

Os Mutantes - Arnaldo Baptista - The Catalizer

Tina Oiticica and her fancy words: catalizer.
[kay-t'-LIE-zr]  The one that can transform water into vapor is _ _ _ _ _ Yes! Catalysis is made thru the inspirer, the aggregator, the transformer. Arnaldo Dias Baptista  the liaison between his mate and his li'l brother, Sérgio.
How difficult it is to write about someone who seemed happy to be in Los Angeles only a week after his 59th birthday. I was moved, pressing flesh with Dinho, Arnaldo and Sérgio after not having seen them for decades.  The El Rey Theater, Los Angeles, crowded with all age groups and  peoples.

Os Mutantes are now 60 on December 31, Rita Lee.  59 on July 6, Arnaldo, Dinho must be pushing 50+ and Sérgio will be 56  December 1 this year.  They are from São Paulo, I was from Rio. I am 55, July 9.

Sometime this week  I wrote an Anon. quote. Today, in this sketch of the mutable Arnaldo, I want to add a link whose article changed my view on psychiatry forever.

As Professor Idelber Avelar advises people who don't know English, here is a chance to learn it from a babe fluent in English.  It's an article from the NY Times on neurotransmitters.
Genes and addictive behavior. Dr. Nora Volkow was introducing her notion, which I buy, that it's all a matter of biochemestry and genes.

Os Mutantes - Geriatric Rock ? That's Me!

I'm 55.  Rita Lee will be 60 on December 31.  Arnaldo Baptista turned 59 in July.  Sérgio is 55. We are part of what Rita herself called geriatric rock. Os Mutantes, the rock bridge along history.
A friend who belongs to the Dylan generation boasted she took care of her body. True. and? uhn-hun? So?

Mine is the contrary of an herbalife© infomercial.  I was so  cutie pie thin.  I'd like to believe I'm still a cutie pie.  A big round oatmeal smart cookie.

We have had our contretemps. Arnaldo Baptista's presence on stage is no short than a miracle. Rita Lee herself talks about her inner demons.  I flipped and got committed to an asylum. No lobotomy; just electric shock treatment. Seven treatments and woke up. Sid Barret wasn't  so lucky.

We are scarred but saved by the music we dig and make. Loki.  Rock exorcises us. (I'm gonna run and TM this before the evangelicals co-opt it.)

What about our siblings and family? 

Os Mutantes - Who Is Rita Lee?

I realize October 1 is today.  I was going to lie down as I have a back ache from some stress and lack of ergonomics.  When older not all our memories are perfect.  The Rita Lee LP cover that inspired Barbican's poster,see below, is 1979, no cover or music available except in her site. Lança Perfume, arguably her most famous pop song is 1980. The key points to multi-faceted Rita Lee are, I guess, the fatal attraction, the ills of rock society -- if you are suicidal you're kewl, as in Kurt Cobain.  The à la Nelson Rodrigues made-up quote of mine "Suicide, AIDS, depression, acting crayzola, and ANA-MIA are the modern illness chic du jour in rock culture, as TB was in the heyday of Dumas fils and romantic movement."  Rita Lee was sandwiched in between brothers, skilled musicians, the girlfriend of Tropicalia.  She played novelties and is creative.  A beautiful blue eyed Anglo-Italian for a brown Brazil.  Being a Mutante wasn't enough already in 1970. Fame hungry? A need to assert a talent she displayed individually only with the collaboration of mate Arnaldo Baptista?  A befuddled teen, Sergio refused to participate in this pop adventure (Build Up-1970) which added nothing to Os Mutantes mystique. Or was it her need to be a songstress on her own, a pop-rock one.  Sometimes less is more.

A solo career for Rita is an iffy one, aided by Gilberto Gil, never quite solo as she is many in one, ravished by drug use and a relationship with Arnaldo Baptista, still her musical producer and keyboardist in Build Up, then Tutti Frutti , her R& R greats and the realization of a longtime dream -- To be a pop chanteuse (songstress) with a younger husband and co-leader of the band, Roberto de Carvalho.  I haven't seen Rita Lee since the 1972 days of "turn on, tune in and drop out" in Brazil.  March 1972.  We didn't click then as we had before and never ran into each other again.

E-mail contact thru her website has eluded me.  Her voice, a great match to the "boys" is changed. She had a wider range to her contralto.  It seems to me both Arnaldo and Rita, once mates, lived a "The Woman Next Door" rapport: ni sans toi, ni avec toi.

Sergio Dias' ten years abroad helped him cut the li'l brother syndrome and establish his cred in his own right.  It is a pity the original Os Mutantes are no more.  And yet, despite self-destructive assertions, the magic continues with new band members.  Thursday  Os Mutantes keep the magic, in studio, recording their new formation. mutatis mutandis.  The Poet Laureate, Paulo Henriques Britto, advises me on band personalities, "Remember Lennon-MacCartney and 'All you did was Yesterday.' "

What do you think? Say something.  I want to include a video of Rita Lee, whose pop-rock penchant was irresistible and in hindsight predictable since 1970. Rita is fragile in her multiple selves and modes. I remember her best rock here.  And her utmost pop here. Later, Arnaldo Dias Baptista.

Os Mutantes - Review of Solo Careers - Sérgio Dias

After Os Mutantes disbanded I saw Sérgio Dias once; in July 1986.  It was a dark club, Jazzmania, in Arpoador, Ipanema.  Two friends witnessed one more of my Forrest Gump moments. I had bought his 1980 LP, which I have, in LP. Jazzmania was dark, it reeked of distilled uísque and cigarros.
Yesterday I was checking on the status of blogrolls, the list of links of sites and blogs in both Universo Anárquico and its li'l brother, Anarchic_Universe.  In 1986, Sérgio Dias was no longer the li'l brother.  We weren't teens, we were very assertive thirty-four adults.
Early this morning I was thinking on what to blog and noticed a NEW! next to his site on our blog.  I opened it and explored it more carefully.  It puts to rest for once and for all any of alleged reasons Os Mutantes regrouped.
In it there are all the solo recordings of his career.  They can be listened to at a click. His co-writers include Caetano Veloso and Nélson Motta.  I have the Sérgio Dias 1980 and went to Jazzmania, its CD just now released.  The voice is unscathed, young, pretty much the same melodious Sérgio, a non-smoker.
Enjoy the clever arrangement of the site, and the coming up -- Os Mutantes, getting into a Sony studio October 1, Barbican being released in mid-November, the DVDs and double CDs, by wizard David Byrne's label.
http://www.sergiodias.com.br/ You'll travel with Os Mutantes magic once again in his solo career. They all carry it within. The Barbican Centre very kindly let me use the "Tropicália" poster of the event that amazed us all, live in "Tecnicolor." Rita Lee had become a grandmother and sent Arnaldo and Sérgio off with Zélia and her blessings.
Once more, let wagging tongues rest.

Next, Rita Lee Jones de Carvalho, the  oldest of the unforgettable teens who forged the best Brazilian  sound,solo or as Os Mutantes.  I guess the Barbican poster of 40 years of Tropicália should show Rita Lee was expected, not ejected.  Lastly, Arnaldo Baptista, whose site has some kewl surprises for all. In a live get together, Sérgio Dias featured in the third minute, Rita Lee and Sérgio Dias playing in a Globo Festival circa 1985, "O Vírus do Amor," by Rita Lee and Roberto de Carvalho. Enjoy!

Os Mutantes - A Bridge Along Generations

Please see updates below

Here is Tina Oiticica, your rocking-chair rocker, speaking as a follower of a timeless band, Os Mutantes.

The regrouping of Os Mutantes em 2006  was announced to me on line by a Paulistano kid. Today the band shows itself to be an indestructible bridge between the 1960s and century XXI.  Their performance at the Barbican last year moved me to tears.  I know it'll be released in a beautiful double CD and DVD here in the USA through nearly omniscient-musico David Byrne's label, in mid-November, 2007.
Os Mutantes in the 1960s had festival followers, had a play, "Planeta dos Mutantes" at Rio's Teatro Casa Grande, where I sat with a few others Thursday thru Sundays, and Som Livre Exportação, a TV show in which I snuck in. This show was where Globo set the stage for  Caetano Veloso's show back from London exile. That was my first of many brushes with the wizard of words.

The only era when I have seen Os Mutantes playing for dedicated audience, full house, folks 18 to 81, was last year and this one on YouTube.

Live, after forty years: July 13, 2007 at the El Rey, in Los Angeles.
And that was when I met Dinho, Arnaldo and Sérgio. Again.  The photos are here, just look for the set. Flickr,

It was magic in the air. Os Mutantes create magic in the air; magic for me, an eye-witness of forty years, magic for the kids who fall under their spell. Nelson Rodrigues, my favorite playwright and phrase maker, would generate a sentence such as, "Even alone with the goat chewing grass on an empty lot, they would atract followers: yesterday's and forever."

Os Mutantes, with Sérgio and the musicians that have played with them since Barbican 2006, sans Rita Lee Jones de Carvalho, sans Zélia Duncan, who participated in the collective Mutante trance in 2006-2007, sans Arnaldo Baptista, whose plans differ now, Os Mutantes are. 

Os Mutantes transcend formations of the band. That is the message I would like to convey to you; it's how I feel about them. Os Mutantes that will enter Sony's studio to record in October, today's Os Mutantes, will present Os Mutantes songs. These are songs I await waving enthusiastically my imaginary fan club card in the air.

I am sure they have remained "Os Mutantes" in their essence.  We chatted in Los Angeles like friends who had been together just yesterday. Dinho, Arnaldo and Sérgio. We change, we mature and we remain faithful to whom we are, to ourselves, "Os Mutantes" in essence. 

No dream it was. I saw the show at the El Rey, Los Angeles.  Therefore, it's not a dream and it's not over. Besides the  mutanting intrinsic quality the band has, it is ours. And it will be ours.  Atmospheric. Hallucinating. Its fans mutantes.  It is and will be Os Mutantes for all.

News on Os Mutantes

Os Mutantes have been nominated for the Latino Grammy Awards in two categories:

http://musica.uol.com.br/ultnot/afp/2007/08/29/ult280u1482.jhtm

Cê tá pensando que sou Lóki?- D'You think I'm nuts?

This song is from a solo album by Arnaldo Baptista, named  Lóki?"  It was re-recorded in 2005 with Moisés Santana and won an award. The illustrations floating around are Arnaldo's.  You can see more of his art in his site. Check the blogroll out.

Os Mutantes at the El Rey, Los Angeles, 7/13/07

Right now, 20:18 in NYC, Os Mutantes must be getting ready for their show at the Rose Theater. This is a kick-ass theater, with a 1,200 people capacity. There are more Brazilians in NYC.  The show will be more civilized. At the El Rey I started getting worried.  First, it's also covered with some dark red suede -like cloth.  Even if flame-retardant, it can catch fire, either from the joints circulating around, or from a short circuit.  Two drunks were right next to Arnaldo Baptista, totally plastered, bowing over their cups filled with beer.  I talked to security. NADA.  The security girls were tired of the drunks.  They were kicked out and shortly after returned to the show, to drink some more.  In the end, these two climbed onto the stage and Os Mutantes' beefy manager grabbed them and disappeared with them backstage.  The beer cups were right next to some electronic attachments of Arnaldo's.  And of course, if there were a fire, the escape routes were taken by these ill-mannered kids. In a parallel to the Smiths, to die by Os Mutantes' side is  such a heavenly way (click to watch) to die. The dangers of addiction are well demonstrated here, with Nora Volkow, a great  researcher of neurotransmitters and their role in addiction. When I say addiction, I mean all addictions: food, drugs, sleeping pills, weight loss.

In a way I guess I am addicted to my memories.  So far my memory is prodigious.  Not the where-are-my-glasses type memory.  If you read Proust you'll understand this better.  It's a somewhat neurotic way to retain in the brain everything possible because once you perceive something, it's past.
However, the era of Tropicália and the time of Os Mutantes were very special.  So that you understand better, Tropicália was an artistic revolution. It meant accepting the fact Brazil ingests the hype from abroad but produces something different.  Imagine a people getting aroused in the bleakest time of the Dictators; one side musically traditional, the other blending mambo, old Brazilian music, rock and roll, sampling, touches of classical, being booed by all.  That was 1968, a crucial revolutionary year in Brazil, in France, but the Stalinists left the students on their own, and in the USA.
At the El Rey I was amazed at how powerful Os Mutantes sounded.  It was a wise decision to add five members to the band.  I had heard Arnaldo Baptista wasn't playing. Horse manure. There is a visible growth in his prowess as a keyboardist.  The guy was playing the piano at age six.  Things come back to you. Besides being fuller, their sound of today is definitely tinged by progressive rock.  That was one question I dared ask Sérgio after the show,

"I know Mrs. De Carvalho left because of progressive rock and the band was no longer after a while.  Is the sound of Os Mutantes, a tinged with progressive rock sound, the one you had dreamed of for the band?" ( I hope I sounded smart there;P)

"Absolutely.  This is my dream come true."

 We talked about the miracle of getting the band together, finding Zélia, who has adjusted her lower pitch voice to a higher one, getting Arnaldo to join in, another miracle in itself.  I mentioned the fact I didn't recognize who was singing what.  Arnaldo's range is more limited now, although he does sing the weird "Dia 36", with gestures to go along. Sérgio is very caring and protective of his older brother.  Arnaldo still plays devil-may-care, easy-go-lucky.  Clowning is part of his personality. It was there I found out he doesn't know what he says in "Top Top"; it changes. Zélia is very dynamic on stage; sometimes she reminds me of people at a voodoo center, dancing while the "saints" take their bodies, which is kinda of what "Batmacumba" is about.
The act that opened the show was not very good. A guy with two microphones, a disheveled 'fro, a "knife" across his head. His partner in crime wore a hockey mask. Hey, if this is the club sound of today, spare me.  The kids mimicked the blacks who go to battles, with gestures, blabla. You want to know the real thing? Get in your car and go to Compton. Or Watts or Lynwood.
Get Public Enemy.
The show of Os Mutantes opened with "Don Quixote." The brass/orchestra is pre-recorded from their records. Maestro Rogério Duprat lives on. Some songs were performed in a faster tempo, such as Françoise Hardy's "Le Premier Bonheur du Jour." It is important to understand how idiotic this label "psychedelic" is for Os Mutantes 1968-1970.  A link of an interview with Sérgio mentions this.  My husband was saying some folks have no clue of Tropicalia, so they label what they don't get as psychedelic. I know  drugs ween't there,for sure. Later.
What is really amazing besides how young they were at that time is how they  preceded hippies in their penchant for costumes. At the El Rey Arnaldo wore a metallic looking top and bottom. Sergio is enamoured of his long scarf. Nicolas, my husband, says Sérgio is trying the Sir Paul  look. Think about how ahead of the times they were/are. "Easy Rider" was released in 1969.  The year of "2001"-Kubrick's film. Check the song out, live in São Paulo, with Tom Zé, co-writer, wearing a parangolé. What's a parangolé? In this blog, Hélio Oiticica. Seek  and thou shall find.
The link to my photos is http://www.flickr.com/photos/anarchic_universe/

No Excuses -Don't Miss a Great Show-Os Mutantes

The band added five other musicians for "oomph." They fill the room, and it won't be hot as it was last year at Pitchfork.  I have never seen the band as well as now.  Where there is personal harmony, music prevails.  Arnaldo has come back quite on top  of his stuff.  As I mentioned in my post below, Sérgio
[SEH-zhiu] is a very self-assured man, I was so impressed!  He was a kid last we saw each other. They were all very nice and  I must thank Maria Lucia, Arnaldo's companion, the manager and the producer, and the boys for staying with us after a show filled with adventures.  Their sound is better than ever.  More on that later. Pinky promise.

Now, I am really sorry, I am tired, I am out of the hospital but not well. Thank you http://www.fisheo.com for the visit.  I hope I will be able to watch the fireworks of the Fête du 14 juillet next year.

©Anarchic_Universe,2007

Os Mutantes Live -- How Do You Define Their Rock?

It's  been 37 years. Finally I get to see the band I followed in my youth, from 1968-1972.  I don't like the word groupie.  I was fascinated at how independent they were, how daring the clothes they picked looked, how creative their music was.
I told Sérgio ˆ had never noticed he had such nice legs. He told me to "spread the word." He looks great.
Those were the days of Tropicalia.  Tropicalia followed a credo of disrespect for musical boundaries. Anything goes, put it in a blender, shake it, add electric guitars, the old tear-jerker songs, the Latin American ones, rock itself, bossa, and there you have it.  In music, for the movement encompassed visual arts, cinema, and theater, Maestro Rogério Duprat created brassy arrangements to which Os Mutantes contributed their own take on many songs. You can find more references to Tropicália elsewhere in this blog.

Although the movement per se was quelched by the generals through a decree on  December 13,1968, Os Mutantes carried the torch of innovation despite the repressive vigilance of the Generals.
Tina, Ph.D., Arnaldo, Lucia, Dinho, a younger fan
I saw them live in the Rio stadium where they sang "Caminhante Noturno", then I saw them playing the irreverent " ando Meio Desligado".  They had a musical/play of sorts from Thursday to Sunday, at a theater in Rio, near Ipanema.  I got in everyday and watched up close, fascinated by their sound live, the energy, the good vibes emanating from them.  They lived in Copacabana for that period. A diner down the street from their apartment was a great place to hang out around midnight, exchange esoteric off-the-wall comments in our teen version of adult talk. One exchange I remember was over my hamburger with tomatoes. Dinho(Ronaldo Leme), the drummer, says,"Tomatoes are bad, they are yan (or yin.)"   At the theater they changed costumes, from white body suits splashed with fosforescent orange-pink  to wooly lambskin vests and a false pregnancy coveralls for Rita.

It was a true privilege to see them play live.  Regardless of labeling, something I dislike, Os Mutantes were skilled at what they did.  How can vocal harmony go wrong when there are two brothers in the band?  Both Rita Lee and Zélia Duncan have lower-pitch voices. Purrfect!

On Globo TV they led a musical program. My friends and I knew interns and snuck in every week. While they were in the back stage it was an opportunity to  get more information about the goings-on of the dictatorship.  And it was there  that Caetano Veloso made his  comeback from exile, going on stage under a  thick  aura of reverence.  The tape is gone.  Caetano  sang  "London,London"  and  Os Mutantes sang  "Batmacumba," announced by  Arnaldo as "Batmacumba" by Caetano and Gil. Afterwards, Rita said, "No, no, Gil only."

Arnaldo was right, natch.  In the role of older brother, having amassed considerable knowledge of the world, he was the boss.  Sérgio was a guitar nerrrd! and I always saw him this way, until now.

Another point I would like to state is how weird the label of "psychedelic rock" is for that era.  We were all kids, L.S.D. was known to be dangerous and hard to find at that time. Check out Sérgio's interview, just click.

These are chestnuts from my memory of the best rock ever in that era.  I lost touch with them, went to college, got into teaching, earned a T.A.ship from USC in 1985.  I had vaguely heard of Arnaldo's accident, grieved for a while, it was so sad.  Then a friend sent me "Let It Bed" -- pretty cool solo disc.

So, when I got the chance to watch them perform, it was hard to hold back the tears -- of joy -- we are alive; they are still the great performers they were.  I know Sérgio had tried for years to get the band together. Arnaldo wouldn't hear of it. There were videos on YouTube about this.
It's like a miracle they are together, it's a miracle they found a great fit in Zélia Duncan.  And the biggest miracle of all was to meet them again and be remembered, for I was nerdie-geekie, too.  Later with my interview.  Now, you guys with nothing better to do in the Bay Are, get going. The poster is somewhere  on the page. More photos can be found at Flickr.

©Anarchic_Universe,2007 All Rights Reserved

Os Mutantes Back on the Road Again - Long Live Rock

This time I will be there f'sher. My venue is the El Rey Theater, a landmark here in Los Angeles. For all of you outside of Los Angeles, in the USA, I want to say there is one vendor, Ticketmaster. I found a really cute site selling tickets for 78 bucks and it's all SRO, so what's the big deal? With Ticketmaster I got a sampler of ten songs and two others I can choose.
The other site has music samples, it's cute but El Rey with Ticketmaster is 100 bucks all taxes considered.
Cute to look at:

Poster with all the dates here and elsewhere. Click to enlarge. For those who hapenned to stop by, I have cellulitis, must stay in bed with my feet up, no jokes, please, and I haven't been posting or visiting on a regular basis. Right below this announcement there is a post on my cousin Hélio Oiticica, whose installation coined the term Tropicália, which named the artistic movement Os Mutantes, Gil and Caetano were part of until the dictatorship limited civil rights dramatically on December 13, 1968. A lot more on this below, in H.O. post. C ya!.

Video, please click, Os Mutantes at home, São Paulo, At the Museum of Independence. Os Mutantes!

For People with Access to Globo and Good Taste

Sunday, May 20, after Sob Nova Direção on Globo.  Time may vary.  Consult your local Globo Internetional provider.