Ando Meio Desligado

the title of this post is an Os Mutantes song that is also subtitled
"I Feel A Little Spaced Out"


On Monday night I finally had a little pocket money to spare and decided to do the right thing, and go see Brazil's psychedelic sound champs Os Mutantes.

So, uh, if you do not know what that refers too.. I'm not surprised...


In a nutshell, Os Mutantes are an obscure but influential experimental Tropicalia Brazilian rock group whose psychedelic peak was between 1968 - 1972. Sadly, they never had a true radio hit even in their own country, much less here.

This track is one of their better known numbers

Os Mutantes - Bat Macumba

Much of their work was produced by a cat named Rogerio Duprat, who is somewhat considered the Brazilian version of George Martin. He'd atually spent some time in the UK studio & pop scene and when he came back to Brazil in the late 60's, he helped organize and record many of the active groups of the day.

Here's a Cowsills cover tune, performed by Os Mutantes w/ aid of Rogerio Duprat

Os Mutantes - Rain, the Park and Other Things


Here's a b&w video from the late 1960's of them playing with Gilberto Gil. While it may not seem like a big deal in a 3 inch feed off You Tube, these were radical times, artists were bring threatened with torture & exile for expressing themselves, and Os Mutantes were playing a role as members of artists at the forefront of a Brazilian cultural war.



I had been eagerly waiting for my own opportunity to see 'em not only since I became aware almost ten years back, but since my friend Christine mentioned in an email some months ago that she was gonna catch 'em in NYC.

Well at first they were only scheduled to play two shows west of NYC, one being at Chicago's Pitchfork festival & a separate high profile gig at The Hollywood Bowl with The Flaming Lips.

I pretty much had given up on the idea of seeing em, after noting that they weren't coming to SF, and went on about my business, or whatever that might be. Then, several months later, on last saturday afternoon while trolling Haight St, I noticed a flyer for a date booked at the Fillmore coming up on Monday night.

As of Monday at 6:30 pm, I had $10 to my name, was looking forward to eating cold pasta out of the fridge, and too broke to even consider hiring a Brazilian cab driver to take me home from work... much less see a large Brazlian touring ensemble. It seemed a $50+ show was way out of the question.

But upon hitting the mailbox at home, I found an extra unexpected $1400 check in the mailbox on Monday night and quickly decided I could spare the $100 or so it would require to have an unfettered good time . I headed down to one of the sleazy Market St check cashing emporiums, and after some wrangling & waiting, soon had a wad of dough under my control. A mini miracle for sure, and I was headed for the venue.

After a cab & a preshow cocktail with some friends at Il Pirata, I caught another cab to The Fillmore, supposedly one of our nation's most venerable rock venues. I entered the building haunted by the ghosts of Jerry & Janis, and heard the muffled strains of some vaguely defined hippie squawling & bleating that could be heard emanating from the hallowed hall and I went up the stairs & in to take a look.

I would prefer to leave this musical amalagamation/abomination nameless, but in the interest of warning others, I will mention my opinion... uh, don't rush out to catch Brightblack Morning Light...

Let's just say if you are a fan of tight musicianship, focused, charismatic performers, clever songwriting, then you are not missing anything you care about... yawn.
(why didn't someone just book SF's own legendary band known as Mutants to play with Brazil's version... that woulda been perfect...)


In contrast to the droning opening act,Os Mutantes on the other hand, soon took the stage and immediately won the large crowd over. There were plenty of high points, and other than an early gaffe as Sergio dropped his beloved 30 year old handmade guitar during the opening number, they overcome and won the hearts and minds of the obviously delighted audience in San Francisco.



It wasn't his first time in The Fillmore though, having been in San Francisco as a teen, smoking a joint in Golden Gate Park and having seen a hippie era lightshow gig with Ten Years After at the corner of Geary & Fillmore. You can still hear the roots of the late bluesy strummer Alvin Lee in his playing today...

The general jubliance of seeing Sergio onstage at the venue, and performing with a band that's simply delighted to exist however briefly was special indeed. The Brazilian boys were joined by a hefty crew of well trained backing musicians & replaced original female vocalist Rita Lee with tatooed and more raw upfront wild woman Zélia Duncan.

Formed in Sao Paolo, Os Mutantes arose at the dawning of the age of Aquarius, following the student upheavals & stunted artistic aftermath of a mid 1960's military coup. The two brothers from "good" Sao Paolo families, were populists, who moved into a communal pad, and were definitely a band with a distinct 60's revolutionary & psychedelic sensibility.
They released 4 influential albums from 1968-1971 with various musician's involved,Rita left in 1972 and the two brothers stopped performing together by 1973.

An old 60's audio source likely from a b&w tv appearance

Os Mutantes - Preciso Urgentemente Encontrar Um Amigo

The brother's father was a politician jailed during the upheaval, their mother a prominent groundbreaking fmale symphonic composer. As Brazilian teen pop TV stars with a youthful audience, they were considered by the reigning military dictatorship as somewhat subversive. They helped foment the so-called "Tropicalia" movement, created happenings, lampooned the society at large, and worked with exiled greats like Gilberto Gil, and Caetano Veloso. Other collaborators included Jorge Ben, Rogerio Duprat & Tom Ze'.

Things grew darker as the 70's era began, and as the 60's faded so did the initial spark & joy of rebellion. Singer Rita Lee eventually went solo and became a commercial success, and ended her long running relationship & marriage with an increasingly unstable Arnaldo. Lore has it, Arnaldo was the Syd Barrett of Brazil, using too much acid, and grew despondent and attempted suicide by jumping out an 8th story window of a psychiatric hospital. Arnaldo released his solo album Loki in 1974, but also went into seclusion for awhile.

After Rita went on to divorce Arnaldo, she went on to maintain a successful career, and has recently rebuffed the offer to tour with the boys again.

here's Rita doing some Beatles covers

Rita Lee - And I Love Her

Rita Lee - I Get High With A Litle Help From My Friends

Sergio was the most active, going on to keep his own increasingly guitar centric acid rocking version of the Mutantes band going for a spell. But over time his interest eventually waned in the name brand as well, and by 1980 he was also officially a solo act. He continued releasing colaborative albums, touring with other acts, and has a website with lots of old Mutantes pictures as well as good discography. Not to be outdone, Arnaldo's is here, and here's Ritas, all of which are fairly flashy constructs.

Here's a recent live recording of Rita doing a Ramones cover on Brazilian MTV, followed by one of her solo videos, both in Windows Media formats.

Rita Lee - I Wanna Be Sedated

Nome da música: Amor e Sexo Disco: Balacobaco Ano: 2003 Direção: Christiano Metri e Suzana Vilas Boas

Despite Os Mutantes drifting into pop oblivion, their music remained an underground legend. Bands like Red Kross cited their music as an influence and a rumor has it that Kurt Cobain actually begged them to reform and tour with Nirvana in South America. It wasn't until David Byrne ressurrected material in 1999 from their early albums for reissue in the states, that it was proved some commercial activity was feasible. Then, as more prominent artsists like Beck, Devanda Barnhart and others cited Os Mutantes as an influence, talk of a reunion surfaced, with the brother's reunited ensemble first playing the UK in May of 2006.

Now playing together again after decades, and outside Brazil for the first time ever, these shows are some 40 years in the making, and the two brothers, Sergio & Arnaldo that comprise the core of the group are tanned, rested & ready to rock out. Sergio looks a slight bit like an elder Paul McCartney with silver tipped feathered hair and his Beatlesque stature.

Not surprisingly the group were influenced by the Beatles, and during their early 70's heyday created a series of influential albums that took the style of Sgt Pepper down into the Amazon basin, onto the beaches of Rio and fused the samba & bossa nova beats with psychedelia. These were agitprop and absurdist tunes that whirred along just like the traffic of the sprawling South American cities like Sao Paolo.

some classic Mutantes

Os Mutantes - Panis et Circuses

Os Mutantes - Ave Lucifer

Having lived during a tumultuous political period, the songs of the band were informed by the social issues of the day, and they often were forced to self censor themselves, often inserting odd noises where words and commentary that were deemed inappropriate came into their songs.

Sergio generally whips up a guitar solo or two that some have compared to Santana in style, but as opposed to Santana's obvious spirtual sworplay ,machismo and seriousness, Sergio's notes seem more contented and he almost always cracks a gleeful, wry smile....

At one point halfway through their set, I pressed up against the stage, and I practically crawled up into Arnaldo's leslie cabinet just catch a breeze from the spinning speaker.

Their live musical style actually reminds of what might happen if Sergio Mendes were to jam with Ten Years After or Jefferson Airplane.

Here's one of the songs Sergio dedicated to Condoleeza & Rumsfeld

Os Mutantes - El Justiciero

This song listed here next was performed with great enthusiasm at The Fillmore, causing the audience to sing along...and was the veritable highpoint of the evening.

Os Mutantes - Ando Meio Desligado

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On Saturday Night, I ventured outside the cultural safety of the city walls and went down to a lil burg known as Redwood City with my pal "Big Mike".
Ostensibly, we were there to catch a show featuring San Jose based blues guitarist Chris Cain, bu I think we snucjk in some beer drinking and general fraternizing with the locals as well.

Cain is a character witha Catskills Cowboy attitude, who can whip up a mean blues guitar frenzy. Cain sorta strikes me as what it would be like if B.B King had a lil Brooklyn in him.

Cain has been a big fan of the blues since his parents passed the music on to him in his childhood. The family would always catch Ray Charles and Johnny Otis when they passed through San Jose.

Said the guitarist in one interview...

"I mean, B.B. King one time ... it was like my fifth birthday or something, third birthday ... I was little -- my dad took me to the front of the stage .. B.B. had a process -- that's when he had the band with the band fronts and everything, and uh, it was my birthday and my dad takes me up to the front of the stage and tells B.B. it's my birthday, and he gets me up on stage and he holds me up and goes "Hey, it's his birthday, everybody!"
And he goes, "What would you like to hear?" He goes, "What do you want me to play?" I'll never forget it. And I go, "Rock 'n' roll." I'll never forget it. And the band kicked in and started playing, and man, it scared the -- I mean I started crying, I was like YAHHHHH!! He gave me back to my dad.

"Albert Collins -- took my dad on his bus, says, come here, he puts on this video tape of me jammin' with him. And my dad's like, "HE's got a video tape of YOU!"

Chris Cain on Albert King ...an excerpt of an interview he did in 2002 that tells about his friendship with the legendary guitarist Albert King.

Download:"Cain On Albert King..."

On Saturday, Cain was playing a joint called the Little Fox, which is adjacent to the much larger Fox Theater venue. The smaller side venue has 2 levels, great sound, and a casual vibe that is likely a worthy stop off your beaten path, if ya find they have some sort of worthy entertainment option going.


Chris Cain Band- Wake Up and Smell the Coffee

from his 1992 CD: Can't Buy A Break









more Chris Cain info at http://www.ChrisCain.cc


July upcoming tourdates

28-30 Campli, Italy



Chris Cain's August upcoming tourdates:

5 JJ's Blues Club San Jose, CA
11 Cascades Vancouver, WA
12 Joseph Bronze Blues & Brews Festival Joseph, Oregon
13 Ste Chapelle Winery 9348 Lowell Road, Caldwell, ID
19 Torch Club 904 15th Street Sacramento, CA
20 Comcast Jazz Festival San Jose, CA