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Lo Que Más Nos Gustó: Alt.Latino's Favorite Artists Of 2011

Girl In A Coma tops off our year-end celebration of the year's best music.
Courtesy of the artist
Girl In A Coma tops off our year-end celebration of the year's best music.

English / Spanish

This week's show might be one of the hardest we've ever had to put together. That's because there was so much amazing music this year, it was nearly impossible to fit it all into a one-hour show.

This was the year Felix became enamored with Austin-based band Girl In A Coma. I've rarely seen him as excited as he was when the group showed up for a pretty amazing Tiny Desk Concert. I had a similar reaction to the Puerto Rican garage band Davila 666, whose album Tan Bajo blew me away. While I haven't had the opportunity to see them live, I've heard rave reviews. Of all the bands we've played, few have as much crossover appeal as Davila 666.

Felix and I disagreed on a lot of points, but there were some artists we both thought were simply brilliant. Panamanian rap duo Los Rakas is one of the most exciting things to hit Latin rap since Calle 13. Colombian-American DJ Geko Jones is our favorite discovery of 2011. La Vida Boheme from Venezuela is what Latin rock is supposed to be all about, and Ecuadoran-American musician Helado Negro created an album that was both out of this world and firmly grounded in nature and Latin culture.

But this is far from a definitive list. We're counting on you, our listeners, to tell us about your favorite artists from this year. Who was in heavy rotation on your ipod? What new discoveries did you make?

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English / Spanish

Lo Que Mas Nos Gustó: Nuestros Artistas Favoritos Del 2011

El show de esta semana es uno de los mas dificiles que hemos tenido que armar. Y es que este año escuchamos una cantidad de música increíble, y fue casi imposible hacer que quepa todo en tan solo un show de una hora.

Este fue el año en el que Felix se enamoró completamente de la banda Girl In A Coma, basada en Austin, Texas. Rara vez lo he visto tan emocionado como cuando el grupo nos visitó aca en nuestros estudios y nos regaló un impresionante show acústico.

Yo tuve una reacción similar con la banda de garage rock Davila 666. Este fue el año en que los Boricuas nos regalaron el album Tan Bajo. Una producción tan impresionante que me dejó sin palabras. No he tenido el placer de verlos en vivo, pero según lo que me cuentan, parecen haber conquistado al público estadounidense. De todas las bandas que hemos escuchado este año, Davila 666 es una de las que mas audiencias no hispanas ha convocado.

Felix y yo no pudimos ponernos de acuerdo en mucho aspectos; sin embargo hubo artistas que a ambos nos parecieron simplemente estelares. El dúo de rap panameño Los Rakas es uno de los grupos mas talentosos del rap latino desde la llegada de Calle 13. El DJ de origen Colombiano Geko Jones es sin duda uno de nuestros artistas favoritos del 2011. La Vida Boheme, de Venezuela, es exactamente lo que el rock latino necesita hoy por hoy. Y las creaciones de un joven ecuatoriano llamado Helado Negro parecen originar tanto en una galaxia distante como en un bosque recóndito.

Por supuesto que esta no es una lista definitiva. Para eso contamos con ustedes, nuestros fieles oyente. ¿Cuales son tus artistas favoritos del año? ¿Quien dominó tu colección musical? ¿Que nuevos artistas descubriste en el 2011? ¿A quien se nos olvidó incluir?

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Felix Contreras is co-creator and host of Alt.Latino, NPR's pioneering radio show and podcast celebrating Latin music and culture since 2010.
Jasmine Garsd is an Argentine-American journalist living in New York. She is currently NPR's Criminal Justice correspondent and the host of The Last Cup. She started her career as the co-host of Alt.Latino, an NPR show about Latin music. Throughout her reporting career she's focused extensively on women's issues and immigrant communities in America. She's currently writing a book of stories about women she's met throughout her travels.
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