Caifanes (band)

Caifanes is a Mexican Alternative Rock band considered by critics to be one of the most innovative and influential acts in Latin American rock during the century XX. It was active from 1986 to 1996 , and from 2011 to the present. The band began as a quartet made up of Saúl Hernández (guitar and voice), Alfonso André (drums), Sabo Romo (bass) and Diego Herrera (keyboards, saxophone and percussion), releasing in 1988 their debut album Caifanes (also called Caifanes Volumen I). In 1988 Alejandro Marcovich joined as lead guitar.

Having as its origin Las Insólitas Imagenes de Aurora, Caifanes emerged from the Mexican underground scene and then jumped to the general public with the support of the dissemination campaign called "Rock in your language" at the end of the eighties. In this tenor, two of their songs (“Antes de que nos forgetn” and “Será por eso”) are considered among the 100 best (musically) of Mexican rock. Five more of them ("Afuera", "The cell that explodes", "Nubes", "No dejes que..." and "Viento"), are among the 120 most representative songs of Latin American rock.

Now structured as a quintet, they published the albums Caifanes. Volume II (better known as The Little Devil) and The Silence. Both, praised by critics. During 1993, Romo and Herrera left the band and the remaining members (already established as a trio) published their fourth and final album, El nervous delvolcano. Finally, the differences that existed between Hernández and Marcovich led to the group's withdrawal in 1996. Hernández and André would continue with the Jaguares project, which would include pieces by Caifanes as well as new material. Later, in 2011, after a reconciliation with Marcovich, Hernández formally revived Caifanes as a quintet. Finally, without any more internal fights being presumed, in 2014 a statement announced that Caifanes would return to the original quartet without Marcovich.

At the end of 2018, they announced in the media that a new single would be released (after a quarter of a century since their last musical production). This was released on March 7, 2019, on digital platforms. This is how "Heridos" came out as a preamble to a possible future album. In 2019 they launched the Caifanes Tour 2019, promoting said material.

History

The Unusual Images of Aurora (1984-1985)

The origin of Caifanes arose, in large part, from a previous musical project called Las Insólitas Imagens de Aurora. The latter arose in 1984 at the initiative of Alejandro Marcovich at the request of his brother Carlos, who at that time was studying film and needed to find money to develop his degree thesis and thus obtain his professional degree. Carlos asked his brother to organize a party that had a musical group on stage so he could collect admission.

Alejandro looked for other musicians to join the group: Alfonso André, drummer and friend of his brother Carlos, and Saúl Hernández, who at the time was part of another group called Frac and who initially refused to participate in the nascent group.; Two days before the scheduled date for the party, Hernández changed his mind and began rehearsing with André and Marcovich. Thus, Hernández would be the vocalist and bass player, Marcovich the guitarist and André the drummer.

Officially, Las Insólitas, (as they are commonly known) do not have a known discography, but there is material from them with some circulation, especially considering that at that time in Mexico the support of record labels for the rock movement in Spanish and national bands was minimal, if not nonexistent.

Around 1985 other musicians joined the band and Hernández left the bass to play rhythm guitar. There was also at that time the first confrontation between Saúl and Alejandro, which gave rise to the subsequent disintegration of the group, something that would also happen some time later in Caifanes.

Structure as a quartet (1987)

After the disintegration of Las Insólitas, each of the elements was integrated into different projects. Marcovich joined the group of musicians who accompanied Laureano Brizuela, while André temporarily joined Bon and the Enemigos del Silencio. Hernández together with Diego Herrera were planning a musical project that they called Caifanes. In urban language, a "caifán" It is one who resists deception and material compensation and seeks its reward in the soul. For this reason, his vision of life is always that of an abyss, but an abyss filled with wonders. In the 40s as in the 90s, "caifán" It means "non-conformist". It may also have been influenced by the 1967 film titled Los caifanes.

Caifanes was originally formed in January 1987. This lineup consisted of: Saúl Hernández (vocals and guitar), Sabo Romo (electric bass), Diego Herrera (keyboards and saxophone), and Juan Carlos Novelo (drums). Their first presentation was on April 11, 1987 in Rockotitlán with Jorge "El Gato" Arce (Ritmo Peligroso) supporting them on drums since Juan Carlos Novelo could not attend. The expectation created in the Mexican rock underground was so great that many people stayed outside the venue.

After his second presentation Juan Carlos Novelo decided to leave the group, and Alfonso André (drums and percussions) entered in his place. Later, Santiago Ojeda (guitar) joined the group for a short time, and then founded the band La Gran Vía, finally becoming a quartet with Saúl, Diego, Sabo and Alfonso.

Although Caifanes was a new group, Sabo Romo with his previous projects (Cherry, Manhattan, Ruido Blanco, El Medio del Ritmo, Taxi, Briseño and El Séptimo Aire) and Saúl, Alfonso y Alejandro's previous band, Las Unusual Images of Aurora already had a wide fan base. The explosion of groups originating from Spain and Argentina, and the label of Rock in your language, caused record companies to begin to support the groups that had been swarming in the bars and funky holes of Mexico for some time..

In 1988, Caifanes began to create a fan base, a plus that they began to forge and that was additional to the cult they had provoked as The Insólitas Imagenes de Aurora.

The journey was not easy; The band had raised a budget and had in mind to record an album under the protection of a Spanish producer; Unfortunately, money began to run out and was only enough to record a four-song demo. The songs chosen had been: "Kill me because I'm dying", "Nothing", "It will be because of that" and "Amanece".

The first of these songs was sent to the defunct Espacio 59 station, where the demos of the groups that wanted to make themselves known were programmed and where they began to gain the taste of the radio listening public.

The first stop at a record company was the defunct CBS México, whose general director, seeing their "gothic" appearance, similar to the post punk style of that time, had no other description of them and His words were only enough to tell them: "They look like whores."

The manager of the Mexican branch of CBS listened carefully to that tape that the group brought, the work was to his liking, but due to its appearance and after listening to the demo of "It will be for that", he denied them any firm contract, arguing the following phrase, remembered by Hernández: "At CBS, our business is to sell records, not coffins."

For a moment the group, frustrated with so much searching, received temporary support from CBS but later they would receive their "retirement letter". The real opportunity came when Ariola summoned the two bands that were causing "eco" in the under scene of the time in Mexico City, to open Miguel Mateos' concert at the missing Hotel de México (today the World Trade Center Mexico) on October 31, 1987: Caifanes and Neon were those bands.^{[citation needed]}

Place where, by the way, Cachorro López was located, (producer of Los Abuelos de la Nada, Miguel Mateos, Andrés Calamaro), who in turn was measuring the drawing power of both groups and where Caifanes emerged triumphant about Neon; He did not hesitate to give them his unconditional support. The result was the recording of a first LP under the direction and production of producer Cachorro López, also Mateos' producer.^{[citation required]}

Caifanes agreed to sign with RCA Ariola, in exchange for Maldita Vecindad also signing and that's how it happened. By November 1988, Maldita Vecindad was recording, at PolyGram Studios, what would be their first material.^{[citation required]}

Their first album, Caifanes, went on sale in August 1988 and the single Mátenme because I die was their first hit, followed by Viento, Amanece and Tell me your life. The also called Volume 1 was preceded by an EP with three songs, produced with the intention of testing the group's acceptance among the possible audience; The result was the sale of more than three hundred thousand copies and, therefore, the publication of the first LP.^{[citation required]}

The album itself clearly showed what many rock consumers in Mexico demanded: true rock. Gustavo Cerati, then vocalist and guitarist of Soda Stereo, participated as a guest musician in the recording of the album, playing guitar on "La bestia humano".^{[citation required]}

In December 1988, they recorded the maxi single La negra Tomasa in Mexico City. This work included three versions of the Cuban song “La negra Tomasa”, adding the song “I lost my deer eye”.^{[citation required]}

In the summer of 1989, after filling the National Auditorium for two consecutive days - in fact it was the first Mexican rock band to achieve this - and having Maldita Vecindad and Fobia as opening acts. The group prepares songs for what would be their second material; Songs like "Behind you" and "Before they forget us" were already common for the group at this time (the latter was dedicated to the fallen of Tlatelolco on October 2, 1968).^{[ citation required]}

Definitive formation as a quintet (1989-1993)

At a group presentation in a bar was Saúl and Alfonso's former bandmate in Las Insólitas Imagens de Aurora, Alejandro Marcovich. Hernández had a meeting with the guitarist, where they discussed matters about each other's projects (Marcovich was on tour with the Argentine singer Laureano Brizuela) and Hernández told him about the great weight that being a guitarist and vocalist in a group had on him.. For his part, Marcovich recommended: "Why don't you look for a guitarist to support you?", to which Hernández responded: "And why not you?".

In September 1989, Marcovich joined the group and, now with a solid formation, as a quintet, he went to New York to record his second album, again under the direction of Oscar López in collaboration with Gustavo Santaolalla, Cachorro López and Daniel Freiberg.^{[citation needed]}

The result of this work was Volume II, better known as El diablito (this is because the image of a devil is included on the album cover reminiscent of a lottery card, accompanied by a legend that says precisely: "The little devil"). Within this production, “Behind you”, “Before they forget us” and “The hidden gods” stand out; One of the group's most popular songs also appears, "The cell that explodes."^{[citation required]}

1990 was a year of hard work. They held a series of concerts with the strongest groups of that time, Fobia, Neón, Maldita Vecindad and Los Amantes de Lola; on a tour that they called Rock of the 90s, in December of that same year.^{[citation required]}

Then they were presented with the opportunity to do a concert hand in hand with the Argentine Soda Stereo at the Palacio de los Deportes, on March 13, 1991, and where the Soda vocalist introduced them like this:

But something else remains, something else remains. We'll invite some friends to this stage... Don't suck, güey, it's the Caifanes!

Gustavo Cerati

Then, they went to Wisconsin to record with Adrian Belew and, thus, in 1992 El Silencio was released. This album includes a large part of Caifanes' classical repertoire. Before El Silencio was published, The Cure was in Mexico and Caifanes was approached to open for them, but they refused since they first wanted to present the album before doing anything else. Alternative sources claim that the real cause of the group's refusal to open for The Cure was the desire to avoid comparisons with the British band. When this album went on sale, the group was already a success in Mexico, Central America, some South American countries and among the Hispanic community in the United States. In August 1992 they completely sold out the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles.

El Silencio is considered one of the best Mexican rock albums, and one of the best Latin rock albums, for many it is the most influential rock album in Mexico. On the album there are fusions of Mexican music and rock, as in "Piedra", "Para que no dices que no pens en ti" and "Nubes", or in "Mariquita", where they turn an anonymous son jarocho into a rock song; They also experimented with "Metamorféame", which is the closest thing to hard rock that Caifanes came to have, in addition to the classic "No dejes que...".

In April 1993 they completely filled the Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City, a feat that no other Mexican rock group had achieved to date, with Santa Sabina as the opening act.

In this same year, the group seemed increasingly solid, but Sabo Romo and Diego Herrera were in charge of denying it. With this concert at the Palacio de los Deportes, Sabo Romo said goodbye to the group. Diego Herrera would follow him shortly after, at the end of that tour.

Restructuring as a trio: El Nervio del Volcán, MTV Unplugged and separation (1994-1996)

When 1994 arrived, Caifanes was reduced to a trio made up of Saúl Hernández, Alfonso André and Alejandro Marcovich. Together they gave shape to Caifanes' last album: El nerve del volcano together with Federico Fong in bass and Yann Zaragoza on keyboards as guest musicians. The songs “Afuera”, “Miedo”, “Here it is not like that” and “Yesterday a bird told me” were chosen as singles. Their presence in the media grew and was closely followed by the MTV Latino newscasts for whom they performed an Unplugged in October 1994, being the first group from Latin America to participate. The friendship between Saúl Hernández and Alejandro Marcovich is not noticeable throughout the recital. In fact, Saúl called it an "anguished" concert. In addition to presenting this session, the group's growing international success was documented (for example, in those days they opened the Rolling Stones concert in Mexico City and participated in the WOMAD festival, organized by Peter Gabriel; they later rejected the invitation to participate in the 1994 edition of the Woodstock festival).

However, the growing differences between Saúl and Alejandro would lead to the transition of the group, with a statement issued on March 31, 1995 in San Luis Potosí at the facilities of the María Dolores Hotel Convention Center. With the exception of press release in which Saúl Hernández expressed his decision to break all work, artistic and personal relationships with Alejandro, the lack of information about the group's transition confused fans. However, a certain internal tension could be perceived in the interview that the band gave to MTV Latin America on January 13, 1995 during their tour of Colombia:

They are seated Saul Hernández and Alejandro Marcovich.

- MTV News: "Once eleven years of being together, what do you still have in common among you?"

- Alejandro: «The Skeleton. The amount of chromosomes. »

Saul, who at that time listens attentively and with his gaze on the ground, listening to the word "skeleton", clashes his gaze on Alexander, who only sees him for a few moments and then lowers his head (making a silence of seven seconds), Saul interrupts with the question:

-Saul: "What do you see when you see me?"

-Alejandro: "The same as you." responds this in an ironic tone.

Saul continues to speak during the interview while Alexander observes:

-Saul: "Well, we liked each other, let's not try to refuel attitudes to keep the business right. Suddenly perhaps, when we are really together, there is a very visceral honesty and explodes on stage... »

- MTV News: "Do you have fun or survive yet?"

- Alejandro: “It is a fair combination between the two.” Alexander answered while Saul watched and heard him...

Caifanes offered his transition concert on Friday, August 18, 1995 in the city of San Luis Potosí. Before starting the song "Aviéntame", Saúl Hernández said: "This song talks about how we can make each other shit."

« Neither Alexander Marcovich nor Alfonso André were immuted. The atmosphere was tense and when the situation endured more, Saul stripped himself of his t-shirt and threw himself into the public than of a single pull, so to speak, he did not drag him to the ground. The audience was a witness to a band whose members failed to see their eyes throughout the concert. »

Despite the number of denials by the press, that night the group formally said goodbye to its followers. During this recent recital, Carlos Marcovich surrounded Saúl Hernández by the neck and tried to bring him closer to Alejandro Marcovich for a reconciliatory hug in one of the most dramatic moments of the night, unable to accept the breakup of the group that he himself helped create (11 years ago causing the origin of The Unusual Images of Aurora). In the end the songs were exhausted, Alejandro Marcovich played the melody of "Sabor a mí", a well-known bolero and the entire auditorium hummed in unison: "We enjoyed this love for so long / our souls came so close / that I I keep your heat / but you also carry / flavor of me." Alfonso André barely looked at him. At the end of the melody Saúl responded, took the microphone and a cappella pronounced another testament: "Don't let the devil eat us love / let him swallow your heat / let him belch my pain." Saúl looked from him to Alejandro, but in a reprehensible act by the guitarist, he never responded to the singer's gaze. A few minutes after the concert ended, Carlos Marcovich would take the microphone and culminate his attempt to save the ship with a stone-cold phrase: "Caifanes is over". With his back to the public, Caifanes would never retire from his story, retirement and separation had arrived. At the beginning of the concert a fan would say: "Caifanes is Saúl, what else matters.". That same night, MTV News tried to speak with the protagonists but they, citing legal reasons, did not want to make statements.

The media handled several speculations regarding the future of the group, among which was the return of Sabo Romo; In this way, the situation chart would continue to include Saúl as vocalist and Alfonso as drummer, thus maintaining the name of Caifanes. If this came to fruition, the band's problem would no longer be a separation but would become a partial change of members, beyond Marcovich playing guitar and Romo playing bass.

After the separation

After the transition of the group, Saúl Hernández dedicated himself to recovering from acute bronchitis and invited Alfonso André to a new project that would later become Jaguares. Sabo Romo, for his part, under his own label 'Mulata Records', released a solo album. He also participated in a Jaguares album: Bajo el azul de tu mystery . Alejandro Marcovich, meanwhile, dedicated himself to producing and arranging the music of different artists, as well as being a session musician and recording a solo EP (Nocturnal). As for Diego Herrera, he served as artistic director of BMG Ariola. Starting in 2006, he joined Jaguares. For his part, Federico Fong continued in the group La Barranca, while he participated in two Jaguares albums: El Equilibrio de los Jaguares and Crónicas de un Laberinto.

Reconciliation

On December 14, 2010, it was announced that the band would reunite for the 2011 Vive Latino festival, after Hernández and Marcovich said they had "settled things down" and planned "a big bang." upon learning of Marcovich's delicate health problems that generated a rapprochement with Saúl Hernández; The only thing that prevented the group from returning with the original lineup were the problems between both musicians, since the relationship with the other members was stable. The media was expectant and incredulous, but the statements of the Ex-Caifanes during the week were responsible for denying it.

"We will be the five members; it is part of the wave that we seek to recover, to recreate the magic", said Diego Herrera, the keyboardist.

"Who looked who, how did it go?" Sabo Romo, the bassist, raised the subject: "That doesn't seem relevant to me. We are together because we want to."

And Alfonso André: "It gives me some fear, things ended up for something. That something is probably still there.".

Alejandro Marcovich said:For many the reunion between Saul and I symbolizes the reunion of Caifanes. But it was a matter of will: Sabo and Diego left the band before, also by their will.".

Subsequently, Saúl Hernández and Alejandro Marcovich gave an interview to a television news show saying that they did not plan to tour, except for a couple of concerts, the one at Vive Latino and another at Coachella, and that it would be later when they would decide if they could work in more projects together.

The return

On April 9, 2011, the group consummated its reunion after 16 years with its original lineup within the eleventh edition of the Vive Latino festival, before an estimated more than 70 thousand people.

In June of that same year, a tour of the United States of America and Mexico was confirmed during the last third of 2011.

In March 2012, Caifanes resumed his tour, appearing at the Cumbre Tajín festival in Veracruz, on March 17 and then at the Estéreo Pícnic festival on March 30 in Bogotá, which marked his return to the stages of Colombia after 16 years of absence.

Caifanes decided to take a break to allow the solo careers of Saúl Hernández and Alfonso André to advance. The band resumed its tour in mid-2012, extending to countries such as Guatemala, Panama and Costa Rica.

Back to the quartet

On March 22, 2014, a statement from Alfonso, Saúl, Diego and Sabo appeared on the group's official site announcing its restructuring to return to the original quartet lineup:

Since 1987 Caifanes has lived intensely and passionately.

We would like to reiterate our deep gratitude to life and to all you for all we've lived, that dense magic we share and that we and you are tattooed in the Heart.

We have always maintained our private internal history, we believe that music it is important and internal processes must be that, internal, private.

From today, Caifanes returns to his original formation.

Life is cycles, closes, opens others. All valid, all important.

Today a new one opens for us, we will continue to give you our heart.

This statement automatically presupposed the departure of Alejandro Marcovich from the group, whose version of the event was made known through an interview in which he declared that he was unaware of the underlying cause of the unilateral decision by his colleagues that he was no longer was not part of the group:

An explanation I cannot give it, because I deeply ignore whatever the base motive is since there was no lawsuit. This time there was no lawsuit, there was a very extensive two-and-a-half-year tour very positive, very happy in every way with the public, among us...

What I know is that they had the concern to return to an original training as stated in a press release, which is otherwise not true because if it were an original alignment there would have to be four people on stage, not five.

And that fifth element is the one who replaces Alexander Marcovich, playing the arrangements of Alexander Marcovich that were portrayed for eternity in the records of Caifanes and which are so important, that if this guitarist does not touch them, then people will miss them. It was the same thing that happened in the ’95; a statement was released and no explanations are given.

Wounded (2019)

On March 8, 2019, the band released their first song in 25 years titled "Heridos" The song was recorded in September 2018 at House of Blues in Nashville, Tennessee. It was recorded by David Thoener, mixed by Howard Willing and mastered by Ted Jensen of Sterling Sound, the same team that worked on Saúl Hernández's previous works on When the Blood Gallops, 45, Rowing and Deadly.

It's only you (2022)

On February 3, 2022, through their social networks, the band announced the premiere of a new single titled "Only you are", which was released a week later on all platforms digital.

Style

In their discography, the members of Caifanes experimented with the fusion of elements of Mexican and Latin American popular music with musical genres from the European music scene, generating an amalgamation of genres such as post-punk and cumbia, new wave and Mexican regional (also known as "Banda") or gothic rock and son jarocho.

The lyrics, mostly written by Saúl Hernández, were influenced by surrealism and existentialism along with elements of Mexicanism such as pre-Hispanic imagery, Catholic tradition and popular slang.

Although Caifanes' music is mostly deeply dark, dense, metaphorical and cryptic, the inclusion of a song with a much more cheerful tone like "La Negra Tomasa" in the group's repertoire was not coincidental: Hernández and Romo have roots in popular neighborhoods of Mexico City, which is why the cumbia rhythm was used as a base along with guitar riffs and bass lines influenced by post-punk, being in their discography the first of many combinations of apparently distant musical genres. each other.

Although in El diablito most of the songs can be classified simply as rock, the lyrics begin to take on popular elements (such as the total integration of the saying «At night all cats are brown » in the song of the same name) and with "The cell that explodes" the classic style of Caifanes is largely marked: demanding and poetic lyrics and music halfway between rock and Mexican music. The presence of Alejandro Marcovich, from of this album becomes fundamental in the group's sound, aiming to develop a guitar sound that, in the words of Alejandro Marcovich: "Sounds like Mexico and sounds like Latin America"

«The cell that explodes», constructed as a rock ballad with mariachi and marimba arrangements, is one of a whole series of amalgams. In The Silence the fusions play the music again with a strong rhythmic cadence that in Mexico is called "guapachosa" (“Nubes”, “Hasta muerte”, “Para que no dice que no te ninvoir de ti”), but also the band (“Piedra”), and even a version of a Veracruz son appears: “Mariquita”, where they are combined the traditional revels with Marcovich's electric guitars. Finally, in The Nervous of the Volcano they experimented with indigenous rhythms ("Afuera"), gave a bolero touch to the percussions of "Ayer told me a bird" and built "La llorona" on the waltz. traditional of the same name.

Discography

Studio albums

• Caifan (1988)
• The Devil (1990)
• Silence (1992)
• The nerve of the volcano (1994)

Bootlegs

• Caifanes MTV Unplugged (1994)

Compilations

• History (1997)
• Rock Millenium Caifanes (1999)
• The essentials of Caifanes (2009)
• Get your Classics back: Caifanes (2011)
• Caifanes Front Zoé Front (2011)
• Caifanes Rock Latino (2012)
• Caifanes 25th Anniversary (2012)
• Caifan Personality (2014)
• Caifanes Vinyl Boxset (5 LP'S) (2017)

Positioning in lists

Lists

Members

Caifans

Current training

• Saul Hernández – Voice and Guitar (1987–1996, 2011–present)
• Alfonso André – Battery (1987–1996, 2011–presente)
• Diego Herrera – Teclado, Saxon and Percussions (1987–1993, 2011–present)

Former members

• Alejandro Marcovich - Leading guitar (1989–1996, 2011–2014)
• Sabo Romo – Bajo (1987–1993, 2011–2020)

Support and session members

• Jorge "Gato" Arce - Battery (1987)
• Santiago Ojeda - Guitar (1987)
• Stu Hamm - Bass (1993, 2022)
• Federico Fong – Bajo (1993-1996)
• Yann Zaragoza - Keyboards (1993-1996)
• Chucho Merchan - Low (2013, 2016)
• Rodrigo Baills - Guitars (2014–Presente)
• Marco Rentería - Bajo (2021–Presente)

Timeline

Versions

• In 2022 Madrid's musician José Riaza released a version of "Viento" in his album Clement II.