If you didn't have plans for NYE, now you do! Transmission Entertainment presents Grupo Fantasma, Brownout, and Peligrosa All-Stars at the Mohawk in downtown Austin, TX.  Advance tix are only $20 (will be $25 at the door).  Come celebrate with us under the start and kick off 2010 in style.  Happy Holidays

Advance tix at http://transmission.frontgatetickets.com/choose.php?a=1&lid=38803&eid=45369

Can't lie...we copied this from Adrian Quesada's myspace blog...thanks Adrian!  So we have to give him props for being Austin Powell's electric guitar god of the year, and for Ocote Soul Sounds' appearance on a couple of the lists below.

And special thanks to Thomas Fawcett and Jay Trachtenberg for putting Sonidos Gold at the top of their lists.

Good stuff indeed!

AUSTIN POWELL:

Top 10 Austin

1) The Sword, Gods of the Earth (Kemado)
2) Alejandro Escovedo, Real Animal (Back Porch/EMI)
3) Harlem, Free Drugs
4) White Denim, Exposion (Transmission Entertainment)
5) Shearwater, Rook (Matador)
6) Balmorhea, Rivers Arms (Western Vinyl)
7) Grupo Fantasma, Sonidos Gold (Aire Sol)
8) Lions of Tsavo, [Firelung] (Ovrcast)
9) Leatherbag, Love & Harm (Super Pop)
10) The Black Angels, Directions to See a Ghost (Light in the Attic)

AUSTIN POWELL'S PICKS for 09 MUSIC AWARDS:
LATIN TRADITIONAL: Grupo Fantasma
LATIN CONTEMPORARY: Ocote Soul Sounds
ELECTRIC GUITAR: Adrian Quesada, Grupo Fantasma
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RAOUL HERNANDEZ

Top 10 Local

1) Alejandro Escovedo, Real Animal (Back Porch)
2) James McMurtry, Just Us Kids (Lightning Rod)
3) Hayes Carll, Trouble in Mind (Lost Highway)
4) The Sword, Gods of the Earth (Kemado)
5) Grupo Fantasma, Sonidos Gold (Aire Sol)
6) The Ape-Shits, La Pollution Culturelle (Super Secret)
7) When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, Not Noiice (Chalk Circle)
8) Eliza Gilkyson, Beautiful World (Red House)
9) Lions of Tsavo, [Firelung] (Ovrcast)
10) Dan Dyer (Fat Caddy)
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AUDRA SCHROEDER
TOP 10 Texas

1) Horse + Donkey
2) Harlem, Free Drugs (Female Fantasy)
3) Hacienda, Loud Is the Night (Alive Natural Sound)
4) Weird Weeds, I Miss This (Autobus)
5) Shearwater, Rook (Matador)
6) The Black Angels, Directions to See a Ghost (Light in the Attic)
7) Golden Boys, Goodbye Country (Monofonus Press)
8) White Denim, Exposion (Transmission Entertainment)
9) Grupo Fantasma, Sonidos Gold (Aire Sol)
10) Dana Falconberry, Oh Skies of Grey (00:02:59)
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JIM CALIGIURI

1) Alejandro Escovedo, Real Animal (Back Porch/Manhattan/EMI)
2) Mother Truckers, Let's All Go to Bed (Funzalo)
3) Grupo Fantasma, Sonidos Gold (Aire Sol)
4) San Saba County, ... Though Cheating Was Never an Option (Wagonmaker)
5) Brothers and Sisters, Fortunately (Calla Lily)
6) Kacy Crowley, Cave (Stable)
7) Shearwater, Rook (Matador)
8) The Belleville Outfit, Wanderin'
9) Joe Ely & Joel Guzman, Live Cactus! (Rack 'Em)
10) Leatherbag, Love & Harm (Superpop!)
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THOMAS FAWCETT

1) Grupo Fantasma, Sonidos Gold (Aire Sol)
2) PPT, Denglish (Idol)
3) Ocote Soul Sounds & Adrian Quesada, The Alchemist Manifesto (ESL Music)
4) Rae Davis, Positive Thinking! (Exponential)
5) Dan Dyer (Fat Caddy)
6) Ethan Master of the Hawaiian Ukulele, So Real
7) James McMurtry, Just Us Kids (Lightning Rod)
8) Hayes Carll, Trouble in Mind (Lost Highway)
9) McPullish, Back to Mount Zion Riddim (Charlie's)
10) G-Christ, Damage Is Done EP

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CHASE HOFFBERGER

1) Alejandro Escovedo, Real Animal (Back Porch/Manhattan/EMI)
2) Hacienda, Loud Is the Night (Alive Natural Sound)
3) Shearwater, Rook (Matador)
4) The Black Angels, Directions to See a Ghost (Light in the Attic)
5) Diasporic, Mass Appeal
6) Grupo Fantasma, Sonidos Gold (Aire Sol)
7) White Denim, Exposion (Transmission Entertainment)
8) Clemits, Tomorrows Friend (Blue Room)
9) Young Nick, Gone (Dirty Politics Entertainment)
10) Mother Truckers, Let's All Go to Bed (Funzalo)
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DANIEL MEE

1) Grupo Fantasma, Sonidos Gold (Aire Sol)
2) The Weird Weeds, I Miss This (Autobus)
3) Alejandro Escovedo, Real Animal (Back Porch/Manhattan/EMI)
4) Woozyhelmet, Get Down
5) Carolyn Wonderland, Miss Understood (Bismeaux)
6) Horse + Donkey
7) Last Ride In, Washed Up: The Story of Captain Chokebone (Lower)
8) Yuppie Pricks, Balls. (Chicken Ranch)
9) Southpaw Jones, Cruelty (Freshly Picked Music)
10) The Dirty Hearts, Pigs (Socyermom)
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MARGARET MOSER

1) Dan Dyer (Fat Caddy)
2) Alejandro Escovedo, Real Animal (Back Porch/Manhattan/EMI)
3) Ariel Abshire, Exclamation Love (Darla)
4) Grupo Fantasma, Sonidos Gold (Aire Sol)
5) Eve & the Exiles, Blow Your Mind (Serpent)
6) 3 Balls of Fire, Jet Set Guitars (Deep Eddy)
7) James McMurtry, Just Us Kids (Lightning Rod)
8) 25 Smokin' Figurados, Divine Spirits, Holy Smoke
9) Southpaw Jones, Cruelty (Freshly Picked Music)
10) Vallejo, Thicker Than Water (VMG/Quandra)
------------------
JAY TRACHTENBERG

1) Grupo Fantasma, Sonidos Gold (Aire Sol)
2) James McMurtry, Just Us Kids (Lightning Rod)
3) Alejandro Escovedo, Real Animal (Back Porch/Manhattan/EMI)
4) Okkervil River, The Stand Ins (Jagjaguwar)
5) The Black Angels, Directions to See a Ghost (Light in the Attic)
6) Ocote Soul Sounds & Adrian Quesada, The Alchemist Manifesto (ESL)
7) Alex Coke, Tina Marsh, & Steve Feld, It's Possible (Voxlox)
8) The Black & White Years (Brando)
9) Scrappy Jud Newcomb, Ride the High Country (Freedom)
10) The Summer Wardrobe, Cajun Prairie Fire (Sauspop)

That's right folks...the funkiest and hardest working latin soldiers in the land are up for a Grammy for 'Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album'

The 51st annual Grammy Awards show will take place on February 9th, 2009 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

A segment on the band will be part of this week's "American Latino TV" program which airs nationwide in over 100 cities, beginning October 25th.  Click the pic below for stations and times.

The infamous pianist, composer, arranger, and producer Larry Harlow comes to Austin this weekend to perform as part of Grupo Fantasma.  Harlow is best known for his work with the Fania All-Stars and Fania Records, and is responsible for the signature sound of salsa in the 60's, 70's and beyond.  Don't miss this great opportunity to see one of the living legends of Latin music, and one of our heroes.  Advance tickets for the show at Antone's Nightclub, Saturday October 11th, are available HERE.

Don't miss a special screeing of the film "Through the Eyes of Larry Harlow: El Judio Maravilloso" on Sunday, October 12th at 4pm at the Original Alamo Drafthouse (downtown).  The documentary and Q&A afterwards with Harlow is presented by the Austin Jewish Film Festival.  Advance tix HERE.

Hope to see y'all at these great events!

We are back from a 10 day trip to Iraq via Kuwait.  An absolutely incredible experience.  Thanks to everyone who escorted us around and made for a great trip.

Read of our travels at the Fantasma Iraq Blog...

www.grupofantasma.com/iraq

We'll be updating the posts every few days so be sure to check back often.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims of Hurricane Ike that hit Texas this past weekend.

-GF

iTunes Latino has featured Grupo Fantasma's "El Sabio Soy Yo" from Sonidos Gold as the 'Song of the week / Cancion de la semana' - click HERE to download the song...and feel free to check out the rest of the album while you're at it!

Check out this great review of SONIDOS GOLD in The San Francisco Bay Guardian!
_______________

GRUPO FANTASMA
Sonidos Gold
(Aire Sol/ High Wire Music)

By Todd Lavoie

Freshly sparkled with Prince's glittering purple seal of approval, Austin's tireless Latin funk orchestra Grupo Fantasma pushes onward with their crowd-amassing trajectory on Sonidos Gold, a floor-burning 12-track collection of hip-shakers and provocative grooves.

Having recently enjoyed a much-deserved surge of international exposure - thanks largely to Prince's ringing endorsement and the high-profile supporting-band gigs that followed - the 10-member soul machine arrives more confident than ever on this, their fourth album. The disc might also be the most faithful in capturing the joyous, body-liberating ebullience of the band's live performances. (And while we're on the subject of their shows: You must see them, case closed. I caught Grupo with a former Austinite friend at Slim's here back in February, and they were complete and utter sweat-soaking bliss.)

Sonidos Gold exudes plenty of room-filling warmth, and guitarist Adrian Quesada's production plunks the listener directly on the dancefloor, right in the sweet spot between the hot-pepper horn section and the mighty rumble of congas and timbales. While I'm sure these folks picked up some tricks from Prince on the road, I'm beginning to wonder if maybe the Purple One himself might be taking a few notes as well…

Drawing upon timeless Latin song forms such as cumbia, salsa, and meringue, but frequently expanding the roots to include elements of funk, dub, and psychedelia, Grupo Fantasma aren't strict traditionalists per se. Even a casual listener could easily pick up the occasional similarities to War or old-school Santana, for example - and as classic as both artists might sound today, it's worth remembering that they were quite revolutionary at the time for their genre-splicing. Still, unlike contemporaries such as Ozomatli, the band does not seem overly beholden to the idea of sounding uber-modern or "of the now" - there are no rappers or turntablists or post-hip hop songwriting structures on Sonidos Gold, in other words.

The fact is, most of the disc sounds like a long-lost artifact from the '60s or '70s - a quality certain to delight any true-blue lover of soul and funk, as those two decades form the pinnacle for such sounds. One frequent point of comparison Grupo is likely to garner, particularly thanks to the new record: the unbelievably funky Latin jazz/boogaloo juggernaut the Fania All-Stars, an ever-rotating crew of largely New York-based groove superstars from the flawless Fania label, including Ray Barretto, Willie Colón, Johnny Pacheco, and pianist-arranger Larry Harlow. The resemblance is helped by the addition of Harlow as an auxiliary member on Sonidos Gold: his piano and keyboard work here keeps the album rooted in the golden age of Latin funk. If you've ever fallen prey to the fast and furious grind of the Fania sound, this one should hit you just as hard.

As one should probably expect, almost all of Sonidos Gold is sung in Spanish - and while knowledge of the language obviously doesn't hurt, it also need not be a prerequisite, considering the wonder of the grooves contained within. If dance music truly does transcend all language barriers - and I honestly believe it does - then the inability to follow along to the words shouldn't really preclude anyone from succumbing to Grupo Fantasma's seductive rhythms. Sure, maybe those without any fluency in Spanish might not be able to shout along to the chanted vocals of roof-raisers such as "Levantate" with the same levels of bravado, but there are plenty of other ways to feel equally connected to the music - the group's intricate polyrhythms practically scream for crowd participation, thanks to the layers of congas and timbales pounding away here. And while knowing that the ensemble is actually singing, "The eyes are going to see / the body is pleasure" doesn't hurt, there's something implicit in the song's sultry horn-filled pulse that conveys the same message without speaking a single word.

"Levantate" also offers a few flashes of carefully measured dub echo heaped upon the guitar, in order to ratchet up the drama before exploding into electrifying unison-vocal and horn duels over timbalero Jose Galeano's blazing rhythms. The technique is deployed to tremendous effect on "Bacalao Con Pan," a stretched-out eight-minute rave-up that imagines a collaboration between early Funkadelic and the Fania roster, thanks to inspired use of echo as well as some wonderfully head-floating keyboard work from Harlow.

There's a similar space-jazz key-twinkling on Arroz Con Frijoles", and it pairs tremendously with the thick blankets of reverb applied to the easily learned chorus of "Aah, aah, ahh, arroz con frijoles." About three-quarters of the way into the song, the rhythm suddenly shifts - double-time, triple-time! Screaming horns, battling congas and timbales - total dancefloor emancipation, to be sure.

Those seeking to relive the fiery majesty of early Santana will be well served by the frantic "Rumba y Guaganco," a traditional Yoruba chant given a splendid wah-wah guitar and funk-keyboard makeover, while the addition of invincible saxophonist Maceo Parker on "Gimme Some" delivers a bit of JB's groove to the song's delirious hip-wiggling War shuffle. That irresistible scrape of the guiro, a thumping woodblock rhythm, a feisty low-end rumble, and choppy electric guitar - it's a potent combination, and when the combo gives a quick little shout-out to Latin jazz maestro Willie Bobo's 1965 anthem "Spanish Grease," the dam busts wide open, kids. Genius.

Lastly, here's hoping album closer "Perso Fra i Mesquites" points to further explorations for Grupo Fantasma: the moody cha cha cha travelogue of reverb-heavy surf guitar, tearful violins, and drifting accordion left me scanning the liner notes for Angelo Badalamenti songwriting credits, only to end up even more impressed with the band than before, once I discovered it was a Grupo Fantasma composition. By the track's breathless mariachi horn climax, I couldn't possibly have felt more caught up in my own personal big-screen melodrama. I'm wowed.

OH YEAH!!! Today is the official North American release date of Grupo Fantasma's finest effort, "Sonidos Gold" - hit up your local record store, our online merch store at www.grupofantasma.com, or download from iTunes.

It's a beautiful day!

-GF

Check us out in The Austin Chronicle's cover story for the week of June 12th!

Tomorrow night June 13th we rock the Bonnaroo Festival in Manchester, Tennessee! Catch us at 9 PM right before the sick medieval metal of ATX's own The Sword....

And dont forget SONIDOS GOLD drops NEXT WEEK JUNE 17th!

-GF