If you didn’t know already, these two are Mexican. They are guitarists, and quite possibly the best musicians in the world music genre at this moment and time.

I know what you are thinking, they are the kind of artists, to start singing in Spanish, as you tap your feet to the cool rhythm, and latino beats. Erm, no this is not them. This is not them at all. In fact what you see is not what you get.

I remember watching them at a Muse concert, but I was so far away, I might as well watched a busker. I could hardly hear, I could hardly see. It was depressing. I went home that evening and researched their music. Their self titled 2nd album (one with a crocodile’s eye as the cover) sort of worried me at first. After that, I was blown away. I had never heard such beautiful to come out from two guitarists.

They fall under acoustic, and folk rock. Their guitar playing is fast paced and rhythmic classic guitar. Rodrigo is the lead guitarist, and could quite simply make any woman melt in the way he plays his classic guitar. On the 2nd album they do a rendition to Stairway to Heaven, its breathtaking, and so different.

Gabriela is the rhythm guitarist, but provides a sort of percussion to the duo, that I have never seen before. As she strums each chord, she hits the guitar in way that is not only unique, but incredibly cool.
After falling in love with their songs, which are all instrumental, and some beautiful music to relax to, I did my research. The duo began their musical career in a heavy metal band back in Mexico city, until they moved to Dublin where they heard it was a great place to showcase their music when they became an acoustic duo.

It was after a series of gigs, they were discovered by Damien Rice, who asked them to join him on his tour. From then on a label signing and 3 records released, one of them a live concert in Manchester. There is also a live album in Japan.

To see them live, is like watching Michaelangelo paint. They are a work of art. It is beautiful guitar playing from Rodrigo, and unique rhythm/percussion improvisation from the lovely Gabriela. Not only does Rod do a solo, but so does Gabriela. Yeah, how does she do it? Either youtube it, or go and see them in person. Worth every penny. Their new album 11:11 is available to buy now!

For quite a while now, Saturday Night Live is without a doubt the birth place for some of Americas Biggest Comedy stars. The likes of Seth Rogen, Steve Carrell, Evan Goldberg have all got to thank SNL for getting them off the ground. For those of you living out of the US, SNL is a weekly comedy sketch and variety show filmed in New York. It has run for almost 30 years and has been a huge success with huge celebrities and musicians featuring on it throughout the years. Certain sketches had rose to internet fame for example Lindsay Lohan in Harry Potter as Hermoine, none too shabby.

Several years ago Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone, and Adam Samberg were 3 junior high buddies who used to do comedy sketches. They worked on a low budget sketch show named The Lonely Island, which was a ridiculous programme about a guys addiction to toothpaste. They also worked on a satire of The OC. In their early work, they focused on making hip-hop style songs in any of their videos with songs like Ka-Blamo and Just 2 Guyz.
As a pilot was made for their sitcom The Lonely Island, Lorne Michaels the producer of SNL got a hold of their material. He liked it so much that he asked them to write some skits for the show, which ended up being dubbed as “digital shorts.” The trio first released a faux lettuce commercial, which was aired in 2005. It was so popular that Michaels asked them to release another digital short. They worked on their first musical “piece” Lazy Sunday, which is about two guys going to see the Chronicles of Narnia at the movies.

The song enjoyed runaway success and Samberg and the crew were made regulars on the show involving sketches, but most importantly digital songs (which became a platform for their take on music). Later they decided to push boundaries and recruit names like Justin Timberlake, Norah Jones, T-Pain, Adam Levine, and Jack Black into what was becoming something of a cult.
Music comedy is in. Look at The Flight of The Conchords, of whom I will be writing a review about soon. Before these guys there was only Tenacious D for who I can think about, and they too got their name out thanks to SNL. It was around April this year that I was online and I noticed a video titled Jizz In My Pants. I couldn’t help but take a gander. If you haven’t heard it/seen check it out on youtube. The Lonely Island are on top form with a song that has a deep electric bass and funky beat that could have been produced by the likes of Timbaland. Its a song about, yes, you guessed it, Jizz. It contains lyrics like “Its perfectally normal nothing wrong with me, but were gna need a clean up on aisle 3. Now im posed in an awkward stance, cos I jizzed in my pants.”
The video is hilarious and has a cameo from Justin Timberlake. It rose to Internet fame, and was effectively the platform for The Lonely Island to not only air on SNL but to youtube aswell. Im on A Boat ft T-Pain is about 2 friends winning a competition to party on a boat, and one friend missing out, Dick in a Box ft Justin Timberlake (which actually won an Emmy award) is about giving your girlfriend a gift that is a little unexpected, and theres even Natalies Rap (which features actress Natalie Portman rapping like Ghostface Killah! It’s brilliant).

All in all, what started with a sketch show, and was just a little addition to what the trio normally do (which is acting, Andy Samberg being the most successful in films like I Love You, Man), has become a huge internet phenomenon. So they released an album. Which topped the US download charts! The problem is the lyrical content is funny, but the videos are just the tipping point. All in all, an album like no other. But check out their videos aswell as their music. This is quite possibly the most random album I have/will ever review/reviewed.