Charlie Monttana- Hotel Barcelona (2002)

Charlie Monttana- Hotel Barcelona (2002)

Funnily self-described as a mix of Charles Bukowski and Janis Joplin, Charlie Monttana has been a fixture on the underground rock scene for almost 30 years, Monttana is a really weird character, a man who has become a synonym of “urban rock”, whose image and look reflects the outdated “glam rock” look of bands like Poison or Motley Crue, but whose sound is built from varied sources, blues, rock, heavy metal and even norteño a man who has created a character bigger than himself, who may dwell on the underground, on lo fi recorded music and cheap covers, but one who has become one of the more solid pillars of music born and breed truly in Mexico’s capital.

If Alex Lora, singer of El TRI is our Elvis Presley, Rockdrigo Gonzalez our Bob Dylan and Jaime Lopez our Leonard Cohen, Charlie Monttana might easily be considered our James Brown, as one of the hardest workers in the world of Mexican rock n roll scoring more than 20 records in 30 years of career, never getting himself too serious, Montanna has built an impressive recording career sticking to his guns, taking chances and being funny as hell.

Hotel Barcelona (a cheap motel chain in Mexico) is the title of one of Monttana`s best recordings to date, a record that shows diversity form beginning to end and where Monttanas gritty tales get highlighted by sympathetic music, from opener Tu Mirada, with its John Lord like keyboards, we are forewarned that this is no mere Monttana record, but a special one, then we get Monttana`s vocals, not an spectacular singer, but one whose voices is immediately recognizable, something that to me is far better important than the amount of singing lesson taken, as if that wasn’t enough Monttana is a man who knows how to write very catchy melodies, which are displayed generously through all the pieces included here.

Ojala Fuera Un Cuento is funny as hell, with its rock n roll guitars in full display and a powerful horn section, Monttana sounds great as always backed perfectly by his band, as Monttana sings the tale of a love story with one of his young groupies, another favorite theme of someone like Frank Zappa, Monttana without a doubt plays here the role of the rock star in a brilliant way, exposing every cliché of the character to perfection in a beautiful and absurd way hoping his turbulent love story was a fairy tale or a Mexican soap opera.

Monttana has a large following in both sides of the border, and that’s a fact he has been exploiting to perfection adding norteño sounds to his musical arsenal, as an accordion that would make Flaco Jimenez proud is added in Pinche Pancho, the tale of a Mexican who crossed the border illegally, jumping into the tex mex bandwagon in an admiring way, and then comes the passionate Ramillete de Piernas, a homage to women Monttana`s style, thrown before the rollicking Dancin`Lu, a song that makes great use of Chuck Berry characteristic guitar.

Monttana is a fearless composer, a man who is not afraid of attacking particular themes or unusual genres, Y Sufriras is an obscure ballad, way in the middle of Mexican pop and the power ballads of the 80s an ambitious experiment that ends not as well as one would expect, but Monttana comes back to his strengths with Por Eso Yo Te Quiero, another tale of groupies, sex, drugs and alcohol, that without a doubt would make old dirty man Bukowski proud.

Hotel Barcelona is a great record and a great example of the so called urban rock genre taken to its best, Monttana shows great showmanship, a very special compositional quality and a complete domain of his Monttana persona, a street clown not afraid of experimenting with feelings and sounds, a big Mexican underground legend, an in this record, perhaps, making his definitive statement.