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 Entertainment | June 2007 
Mexican Spaghetti Western
 Mike Beek - musicfromthemovies.com
Director, Writer, Producer and Composer Robert Rodriguez is a talented man. Besides all of the above he created a band in 2003, gathering together some of Austin’s hottest rockers to form CHINGON. The artists, who include Rick and Mark Del Castillo, Alex Ruiz, Rafael Gayol and Carl Thiel, were brought together initially to provide some tracks for Rodriguez’s film Once Upon a Time in Mexico.
His previous films, such as El Mariachi, Desperado and From Dusk Till Dawn had seen many of the names play a part in the soundtracks, so for the new film they would unite and record songs to work alongside the director’s own score.
Flash forward a few years and the band appeared on the soundtrack for Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Volume 2, while this year they provide music for Rodriguez’s half of the Grindhouse double feature, Planet Terror. So filmgoers and soundtrack listeners will already have had a taste of the group’s vibrant brand of ‘mariachi meets rock and roll’ and with this new album, ‘Mexican Spaghetti Western’, they have a whole disc devoted to it and it’s quite a listen.
While not a film soundtrack, nor strictly an official film music compilation, this album highlights Chingon’s blend of passionate, visceral rock and roll, entirely cinematic in its conception, and touches upon a few of their film related tracks along the way. Kill Bill’s energetic ‘Malaguena Salerosa’, itself a re-arrangement of a mariachi classic and originally conceived for Desperado, is of course the most recognisable track on the album and is a highlight, among highlights.
Two tracks from Once Upon a Time in Mexico end the selection, including the balladic ‘Siente Mi Amor’, with breathy vocals by none other than Salma Hayek, and Chingon’s signature piece ‘Cuka Rocka’ (a twist on the classic ‘La Cukaracha’) which is featured in an extended and seemingly live version. The final film-related track to note is ‘Alacran y Pistolero’, written by Tito Larriva and performed by him and the band; it was of course used in Rodriguez’s first feature El Mariachi.
So the rest of the album ought to be of no interest to us as none of the tracks were used in films, but I find it very difficult to brush them aside as they are quite simply some of the most infectious and highly enjoyable songs to come out of my CD player in a long time. Chingon long to be heard and tracks like the epic title song ‘Fideo del Oesto (Mexican Spaghetti Western)’, with its whistling, pipe organ and trumpet, just knock you off your seat, as does the instrumental ‘Mexican Sausage Link’, beginning with sound effects and brimming with vengeance. Alex Ruiz provides the majority of the vocals, in Spanish of course (save for a lone English song), and his husky tones are perfectly cast in what is a testosterone-fuelled, but unabashedly passionate, collection of songs. Further highlights are a guest vocal by Texan songstress Patricia Vonne, whose feminine touch in ‘Severina’ adds much to the mix, while ‘El Rey de los Chingones’ (which translates as ‘King of the Bad Asses’) is a lot of fun.
Chingon literally means ‘Bad Ass’ and they don’t come much ‘badder’ than these guys. This album is a hot-blooded roof raiser, so crack open the corona (or tequila) and crank this up to ‘Max’, you will not be disappointed. |
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