NPR Music - Alt.Latino: Bruce Springsteen, Louie TheSinger, more

Episode Date: June 11, 2025

This week Anamaria Sayre continues to scour her part of the internet for great new tracks that will impress Felix Contreras, while he continues to explore Latinos who sing country music.Featured artists and songs: • Alleh & Yorghaki, "me late"• Alleh & Yorghaki, "capaz (merengueton)"• Louie TheSinger, "Quicker Way To Jesus"• pablopablo, "Dónde Estás!"• Bruce Springsteen, "Adelita" • Bruce Springsteen, "Sinaloa Cowboys" • Belafonte Sensacional, "Llamas Rexio"• Belafonte Sensacional, "Todavía DF"• David Byrne and Brian Eno, "Mea Culpa"• Juana (feat. ELENI), "La Paloma"Credits Audio for this episode of Alt.Latino was edited and mixed by Simon Rentner. Editorial support from Hazel Cills. Our project manager is Grace Chung. NPR Music's executive producer is Suraya Mohamed. Our VP of Music and Visuals is Keith Jenkins.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

You know what I actually did the other day? What? I texted someone that I know who works in music and I said, hey, I'm bored. Do you have any Chisema you could tell me? And she sent me like, I have audio messages. Oh, my God. I was like, I should do this more often. This is really entertaining.

Way better than Netflix. I don't want to know. Less I know, the better. I always have Chisemey, Felix. Hey there, this is Felix Contreras. And I'm Anna Maria Sayer. Why don't you kick it off first? Thank you, Felix.

So, Jorgaki and Ale, two pretty big, heavy-hitting kind of pop regettone artists, released an album together. They released it this last December, but this album is, to me, an album of Summer Bangers. Without further ado, here for you, Felix, is the song that will be the soundtrack to my summer, and it's called Melante, off of their album La Cida. So, Fulikin' So, Ful'u'uida

when you're nearer and me up to the nubes, getting to the nubes, looking in a t'n't

manner for that you want you get you to get to get you to my test,

always, for whether a song, is like really it's really a banger it's really gonna get me going is I take it on a run and then if I have to pause and literally dance on my run that's when I know it's a banger and that's exactly what happened to me with this song that I played 20,000 times in a row this record to me is truly a straight ahead straightforward Latin pop record it's based in pregatona a lot of thembo they did experiment with something a song that actually completely blew up it's called a

Merengetton, which has now become my favorite variety of kind of fun, funky pop music. So this song is called Capas. It's crazy that first part of the rest of the band comes in, that is the most basic part of the merengue beat that you play on these traditional barris, the traditional barrel drums on merengue. It's like almost playing it with one hand. It's just great the way these producers are getting to the essence of the music that they're drawing from,

then adding reggaeton on top of it and all these pop elements and all the instruments. But it's that one little beat just before the band comes in, it would make even me listen. The exact punch is part of a medange beat or even just the demo that really hits hard. Like they're doing a really good job of figuring out what that is and they smash it all together and make it into an earworm. That I think is also like musically very strong, melodically this album. came off is really strong to me. A lot of this album was produced by Manuel Lara, who is one of the brothers in the Lada Project, which is a band that we've covered a bit. Like, he's produced everywhere from Caliucci's produced on Bad Bunny Records. He's produced for Alvado Diaz. He's now producing

on this record. He's one of those people that I also just like run into everywhere. Like I see him in Mexico, I see him in New York. He's just all in all these places. And he's always working and leveling up and doing projects like this. It's awesome to see. That was capo'n't That was Capaz And we also heard Melate by Ale and Yorgaki Okay time for our classic alt-latino What do we call it?

Head Swivel, pivot I have more country music for you Oh, wow Felix, you're becoming almost as much of a country head as you are a jazz head these days. You know, I really, I'm... Something about the twang has captured your heart. And you're bringing Louis the singer. I brought that guy.

I showed you him. When? You're about to say I didn't show you him. I'm going to pull up the receipts because I have the episode. I'm literally dropping you the link to the episode after this. I did bring Louis the singer. Because he's got a new record coming out soon. And there's a couple of singles that have been released so far.

It reflects his life story. Louis the singer, he's another Latino singing country music. He's Mexican-American from the Dallas area. First, we're going to hear the song, Quicker Way to Jesus. See how many different types of music you can hear in this country song. Sticking like a tattoo, drink, and sinking, we're too long. Another night, nine, nine. Another salt shot, lime, lime, lie.

Lit up like a lie, lie, lie. Whole time I've been talking lie. Do you hear a little bit of Dare it up till I see the sunrise Because the bottle never leave you Now the devil with a paraphrase Like I'm trying to find a quick You hear a little bit of that R&B in there

Oh Felix, that's all he is Right? That's his whole deal Well, it's the biggest part of his story Because his first album from 2021 Was all R&B He's both He's one of these artists

Like you don't have to choose one or the other You grew up with R&B He's from Texas. He grew up with country music. His records are like all of that matched up together. Really fascinating combination. Now, of course, I bet the country music, crowd industry, maybe they're a little hesitant, a little resistant.

But this is really the reality of these young folks all over the place, especially in Texas when they're listening to all three, or at least heavily R&B in country. I loved that line in the chorus that's talking. about the bottle, it almost gives me a chente vibe. Like, I'm drowning my heartbreak in tequila, but it's also a country very much, a country. So it's like there has always been this kind of cousinness, maybe, I would say, between country and a lot of, like, rancheras. You have people like Louis the singer, he is actually very much heir to and raised in both of these traditions.

Right. That's what draws me. into this stuff like this. The other part of the story with Louis the singer, his real name is Luis Alfonso Palacios II. He's from the Dallas area. You know, he started recording in 2021, and as I said, it was just strictly R&B. And then 2022, he released an album called Country My Way. And his life story includes a brief time spent in prison on drug-related charges, which he is very open about, because that experience well in prison forged a determination for him. him to make something of his life. He was watching the Latin Grammys,

and he saw Becky G. and Carol G. And he was part of a management deal early on with them. And then he saw how they were moving ahead with their careers, and he made a decision while he was in prison. Like, I'm going to get out, I'm going to do this, I'm going to dedicate my life to music, which is what he did. Tile, line, line. Trying to find a quicker way to Jesus.

Dare it up till I see the sunrise. The name of the artist is Louis the singer. The album is going to be called One for the hometown. And the track is called Quicker Way to Jesus. Okay, Felix, I'm really excited about this one. I've been waiting a long time to bring on the show. This is Pablo Pablo in his new album, Cansiones in Me. This track is called Don't Estas.

Don't Estas. Pablo Pablo easily is one of my favorite producers in this Spanish scene that I'm always talking about. He actually won a Latin Grammy for the work he did on Nati Peluso's album for the work he did on his dad's album because yes, this is Pablo Pablo Jorge Drexler's son. But very much talented to me in his own right. I've been listening to his singles now for a long time. that beautiful one that I brought on with Carine Leon, with Ralphie Chu,

that's what you name is Amor. And also there was one with Elado Negro that was all so gorgeous. And what I love about the way he talks about this album is it was really this process of rediscovery for him. He says that he showed Settengana who he was touring with his record. It was super electronic.

He was really excited to show him. And Settengana was like, I kind of only liked the singer-songwritery simple one. And he was like, And so he said he went back. You know, he'd been writing songs on guitar and piano for pretty much, you know, most of his life. Like he grew up with his dad. This is what he started training on doing at a very young age.

And he was like, as much as I loved my electronic project, this was my 10,000 hours. This was the thing that I had mastered. And so he went back and he did the whole thing. And I think you can hear a lot of that tension in what he does. I'm going to play you another song. it's called Vida Nueva. And I think it kind of like encapsulates a lot of that tension really beautifully. I love when he uses, takes these beautiful piano melodies and he throws them into his songs.

But more than that, like you can hear slightly some of the electronic effects coming in like midway through there. But he's really lyrically yelling at himself to find a new life. Not many people can relate to the fact that he's Drexler's son, but they can relate to that fact of feeling lost in what you're doing and trying to. to go through that process of discovering what you're doing. And I hear that all over this record, even though it's a heartbreak record. The work of Pablo Pablo, to me, is pop music that has a deep artistic stamp. And it's not formulaic.

Okay, we've got to put a reggaeton beat in here. Or we got to do this in here. We got to do this, right? This song, this artist, has that pop sensibility. So a lot of people will listen to it. And it's very, very artistic. It's well done. It's well thought out.

all the things you just said make it stand out to me, especially when I hear this music. He's not a very big artist. He doesn't have that much of a following yet. He signed to an indie label. He signed a mom and pop, actually, which is like an American indie label. They signed like MGMT and kind of these brands, which is good for him as this artist who is from technically Rewaian, but he was raised in Madrid. He lived in London for a lot of years. So he has these very global sensibilities, and a lot of his sound is more like an American indie sound, despite it being in Spanish.

And I'm here for that. Pablo Pablo, and his new album, Canciones and Me, this track is called Vida Nueva. I'm also here for this break that we have to take right now. We'll be right back. Not to be here writing your segues, but that wasn't one of your best. We'll be right back. All right. Bruce Springsteen is about to release seven...

I'm getting my popcorn. It's about to release seven previously unreleased albums in late June. It's a big deal in the Springsteen universe. You may ask me, what does that have to do with Alt Latino? One of the seven albums is called Inyo, and it's I-N-Y-O. The album is about Mexico and the Mexican-American experience in the Southwest. It was even recorded with some Mexican folk musicians. There's one single out right now. It's called Adelita.

For those people who are not familiar with the word Adelita, Adelita was the name given to the women who used to either work with or write along with the revolutionary fighters during the 1910 revolution in Mexico. This is Adelita from Bruce Spring. My love, my loving guy's name. If I don't remember me and my blood will not have been spilled, horseback of carbon full in it all. Over the blouse cartridges filled a bundle

side by sign, and we rode east of my day. For my soul, heaven that I lay falling with my my congress. First of all, for the record, everyone should know that I am a fan. I've been a fan since November of 1978 when I saw him at the Winterland Arena in San Francisco. For Springsteen fans, that's a secret code.

It's one of his most memorable shows, and I just happened to be there to catch the magic, the rock and roll revival, everything about that, just completely captured my attention and made me a lifelong fan. The whole Springsteen phenomenon is about his songwriting. He's known for capturing the struggles and joys

of everyday working people, love songs. Those universal themes resonated with me, always have. I hear a lot of the same things in a lot of the corridos and the Mexican folk music and even folk music from Latin America. I'm going to go on the record and say that if Bruce Springsteen was Mexican, he would have written La Haula de Oro from Los Tigres of Norte. Wow. Okay.

Okay. And for those that don't know, that's their classic song about a guy who came the United States to work, always dreamed of going back, had a family, then his kids, like, you know what, Dad, we don't want to go back. We're too American. So he's trapped in the Haula de Oro, the Golden Cage. And it's such a profound song.

That's the power of Springsteen's writing. And it's all over this album. I've heard every track on the unreleased album. Beautiful song about this young girl who's going to go to her folkloric dance. And her mother, in his most evocative ways, explains who she is, the Aztec blood running in her veins,

the tradition of being a folklorical dancer. And it's coming from this guy from New Jersey. Why? because of his grasp of the human condition. This record was a result of him riding his motorcycle around the southwest, in particular riding in Route 66 through Arizona up to flagstaff. Some people will say, hey, man, that's appropriation. Where does he come from?

This Jersey guy singing it. Sometimes appropriation is in the eye or the ear of the beholder. He released an album in 1995 called The Ghost of Tom Jod. And on that album was this song called the Sinaloa Cowboys. And it's about these two brothers who came over from Mexico. They got involved in the methamphetamine trade. There was an explosion in the lab and one of the brothers dies. And the last line is just so profoundly prophetic.

Let's hear a little bit of this song. It's called the Sinaloa Cowboys. And there's tall grass leaves, oh, some, this time. I give lifted loose his pop into his truck and then he drove. to where the morning sunlight fell on a eucalyptych and the dirt he dug up $10,000 all that day saved kissed his brothers lived

The lyric at the end where he says Miguel lifted Luis's body onto his truck and then he drove to where the morning sunlight fell on a eucalyptus grove There in the dirt he dug up $10,000 all that they saved kissed his brother's lips and placed him in his grave. So all that to say is that I think this album is worth listening to in a very big way. If you want to know who this guy is, start here with this record and work your way back. All seven unreleased albums are going to come out on June 27.

Your portrait I carry deep in my brisk pocket. A rifle fire to the companion light will you round my heart. protected from this death by beauty. Okay, probably whiplash time. Yes, but not entirely. So, this is Mexico City band Belafonte Sensational. They've been around for a while now since 2009. That was the stage name that the founder of the band Israel Ramirez originally used.

And they've been, like, for me, a pretty good, just like punk, rock, folk, rock, staple from the city. They have a new album out. I think you might like, maybe not. We'll see. It's called Yamas, Yamas, Yamas, Yamas. And this song is Yamas Rexio. I so like this so much. Oh my God. And it is indeed a big dose of whiplash to go from Bruce Prezstein to this. I was like, I think he's going to love it, but I don't know for sure. This is just to remind you, Felix, that I'm not all pop, okay? I need that reminder. These guys are always doing stuff

that is so on point and it's so weird but it's so good and I just love like that's how they opened the album and immediately I was hooked five seconds in I was like oh this is it

I'm done I'm sold this is great so is the rest of the record like this kind of hodgepodge of sound design and all that well okay so let me hit you with another song Toadilla DFE is what this one's called

Very often I hear things from the past when you're trying to avoid, it's like they're trying to avoid a copyright infringement on La Bamba. Okay, right? Because it had similar... Did you hear me singing La Bamba while we were playing it? It's so there. It has it. But more power to them.

There was an album in 1981 called My Life in the Bush of Ghost. It was by Brian Eno and David Byrne. Go back to that first song. Remember the concoffony of that first song? Yes. Check this out. Okay, weirdly enough, Felix, this is almost closer to me to the Pablo track that I played than the Beliswomte.

Okay. Wait, wait. For those of you at home, man. Don't try to keep up this week because we're all over the place. I don't even hear it relating to the Pablo Pablo thing. Okay, it was, do you remember in the last Pablo Pablo track I played here? He starts off with that piano, and then he drops in all these sounds that are clearly just like bits of audio that they picked up in the studio. And then he has him singing, and then he's layering all these other people singing.

And then he starts, like, layering electronically a little bit his vocals. And it sounds almost closer to me to this, because the Bel-Ele-R, also conceptually there, but that's like them crashing in with a bunch of crazy drums and crazy electronic guitar and a bunch of horns and they're like ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta they're like hitting you over the head with it. And this one's a little bit more delicate, even though it's cacophony, it's a little more delicate. Like what I talked about, it's like the combining, mashing beautiful sounds. That's more what I'm hearing. Interesting.

The belle-a-fonte one is almost uncomfortable. It's so intent. That was Yamaz Rekio and T'A. Of the new Belefonte Sensational album. With a little bit of Brian Eno and David Byrne from my life in the bush of ghosts. Okay, I'm going to close the show with a track that gives us a chance to talk about a record label owner. For over 30 years, Putumayo has been opening doors of musical exploration for countless people who were curious about music from other countries and cultures. Dan Storper was the co-founder and CEO. of Putumayo World Music.

He died on May 22nd and immediately music fans all over the world just thanked him for the work that he did. So I'm going to play a track from a new record that's coming out. He passed on May 22nd. On May 23rd, the latest album came out. It's called Latin American

Women by Putumayo. This is a track La Paloma from Juana Luna, from Argentina and Aleni from Greece. Very quickly, there's a way to pay tribute to Dan Storper. They released over 400 albums, thousands of artists,

over 35 million albums sold. Just the widest variety of music that you could ever want. And almost all of it is still available. The track was called La Paloma. It's by the vocalist Juanaluna and Aleni. It's from the latest album, Latin American Women by Putumayo.

That was for Dan Storper. And that does it for this week's show. You have been listening to Alt Latino. Our editor is Simon Rentner. Grace Chung keeps the trains running on time. Sarah Mohamed is the executive producer of NPR Music. And Keith Jenkins is the heffin-chief VP of Music and Visuals here at NPR. I'm Felix Contreras.

And I'm Anna Maria Sayer. Thanks so much for listening.