Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Los Shakers!!!

May I present exhibit 1,821,000 proving that the Beatles dropped a 20 megaton musical bomb on an unsuspecting world and were the international cultural phenomena of the 60s?

Case in point, Ladies and Gentlemen is Los Shakers, the "Beatles del Río de la Plata." It appears that those Liverpool lunkheads (that's what Murry Wilson called 'em!) also messed with the cabezas of a few impressionable yoots in Latin America and here's the direct result of that fallout.

Caio Vila, Pelin Capobianco, and brothers Hugo and Osvaldo Fattoruso met at the Hot Club in Montevideo, Uruguay in the early 60s and after seeing A Hard Day's Night decided to form a band in the style of the Beatles. The band's first single "Break it All" was an immediate smash in early 1965 and their eponymous first LP was released later in the year. While much of Los Shakers' catalog is incredibly enjoyable spot-on Merseybeat mimicry, their crowning musical achievement is their 1966 tune "I Hope You'll Like It" which takes the Byrds' "Eight Miles High" as a starting point to reach heretofore unexplored psychedelic heights. Sadly, it has not been committed to video.

Regardless, here is a snippet of the band's unfinished movie from late 1966 which finds the boys romping through Buenos Aires in an frenetic homage to "Help!" The soundtrack features the previously mentioned single "Break it All."

Más Shakers por favor!!


4 comments:

steve simels said...

That's amazing.

Where the hell did you hear about these guys?

Do you have CDs?

Kid Charlemagne said...

Steve,

I do - email me!

steve simels said...

The thing that really kills me is just slick both the film clip (it might as well be Richard Lester) and the song are.

Most of the Brit-influenced 60s pop made outside of England lacks the tech sophistication of the real. The otherwise great early Easybeats hits recorded in Australia, for instance, don't sound anywhere near as good as the Kinks, or the Stones, or the rest of them.

This song, however, sounds exactly like a real Beatles record of the period. Amazing...

Where the hell did you discover these guys?

Kid Charlemagne said...

Steve,

I've a sucker for Beatles sound-alikes and this band's name kept popping up on lists. Big Beat released a comp on CD of their stuff in 2000 that is apparently out of print now.

You are right though, they are pretty spot-on save for the obviously phonetic English pronounciation which gives it even more charm in my opinion.