New Music Week

I've been on a music binge lately and have been lucky to score some great new CDs. What's better than feeding your addiction while all curled up alone in a pool of your own drool on the kitchen floor? Peer pressuring your friends to try it with you, of course.
Here's the first entry:
Grupo Fantasma
We were lucky enough to see this group, umm... grupo, playing for free in downtown Greenville in the spring of 2007. Unbeknownst to me, they were fresh off a gig in Miami playing Super Bowl parties with my musical hero, Prince. That tidbit piqued my interest, so I immediately went home to find out everything I could about Grupo Fantasma and file that information somewhere in my brain alongside useless factoids about Jill Jones, The Family and Mazarati.
Number one, they're not from Minneapolis. They're from Austin, Texas, and play latin music -- in all its varied forms -- with a heavy head-bobbing nod to funk bands like War, Earth Wind and Fire, and Señor James Brown El Rey.
Their newest album, Sonidos Gold, was released in June and it's the best latin album I've heard in a long time.
Whereas the monotony of some latin dance music (merengue especially) leaves me bored by the third song of an album (Sorry, Elvis Crespo), Sonidos Gold keeps your attention from start to finish.
I've included three songs below to demonstrate that point. The first track, "Arroz Con Frijoles," showcases their latin roots. The second song, "Cumbia de Los Pajaritos, is a cumbia (duh) reminiscent of the hot, new old chicha sounds out of my beloved Peru. The third is funk-funk-funk with saxophone by the legendary Maceo Parker (James Brown, Parliament-Funkadelic, Prince).
Press play and disfruten!