Thursday, May 26, 2011

Rodrigo y Gabriela y piratas

'Stairway to Heaven' may be as overplayed as that lame-as-fuck Train song, but Rod y Gab have brought new life to it.
(Photo source: Tennessean)
I love the sounds of Rodrigo y Gabriela. If you're not familiar with this Mexican duo from Ireland, they perform badass instrumentals that fall under the category of "acoustic metal."



So when I discovered the other day while browsing through Best Buy's music section that Hans Zimmer--who frequently collaborates with ace guitarists like Johnny Marr, Michael Brook and Heitor Pereira--enlisted Rodrigo y Gabriela as soloists and co-composers on his Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides score, I had to snap up the On Stranger Tides score CD right away.



All five of the On Stranger Tides album tracks that feature Rod y Gab are as excellent as I expected them to be. The highlight is, of course, when they tackle the Captain Jack Sparrow theme with the same gusto they've brought to their covers of Metallica's "Orion" and Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven."

'You're going to like the way I look. I guarantee...' Woops, wrong Zimmer.
(Photo source: KCRW)
I've added those five On Stranger Tides tracks to rotation during the Fistful of Soundtracks blocks "Assorted Fistful" (check listings) and "New Cue Revue" (Wednesdays at 10-11am and 4-5pm, Fridays at 11am-noon), along with selections from Alexandre Desplat's lush score to Terrence Malick's Cannes audience polarizer/sensation The Tree of Life and Patrick Doyle's epic score to Please Hammer, Do Hurt 'Em.

Oh look, it's Vitaminwater in the bottom right corner. Why does Vitaminwater make me take a piss every five minutes? I'm not a fan of any non-alcoholic beverage that turns my bladder into a 70-year-old man's at 3 in the morning.

2 comments:

  1. Love these guys! Never heard of them before getting the POTC score. Then I saw that "Hanuman" video and became a new fan! They really elevate the score and give it a distinctive voice in relation to the previous three.

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  2. Yes, their sound really does elevate the score. I became a fan of Rod y Gab after watching their video for "Diablo Rojo" (an instrumental about a favorite rollercoaster of theirs) back in 2006. Seeing their name on the cover of the On Stranger Tides CD at Best Buy totally took me by surprise because I didn't know about their involvement in the movie.

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