Shut Up and Dance

They have been compared to other musicians from Minas Gerais state like themselves, but Skank has created a sound that defies any resemblance to the well-accepted music of the region. With their compelling music, they have made the first team of Brazilian pop.

Bruce Gilman

It's Friday night and everybody at Café Danssa in West Los Angeles is dancing to a tune that has been dominating Brazilian radio for months with irresistible rhythmic punch and torrid lyrics that speak of a dream girl steamed in vapor. Pumping through the sound system is Skank, a band that has seduced the public with an infallible formula that addresses two national glories Brazilians cultivate from the crib: women and soccer. Their monstrous hit is, of course, "Garota Nacional" (National Girl).

Skank, the latest sensation of Brazilian pop, emerged from Belo Horizonte, the capital of mountainous, mineral-rich Minas Gerais, a city where the music scene at the beginning of the `90s was divided between the cult of the Clube da Esquina — devotees of Milton Nascimento, Lô Borges, and Beto Guedes; and the disciples of heavy-metal. Skank is neither.

Embracing Jamaican pop as its foundation, Skank succeeded because of their riveting, unrelenting sound and because they have never been solely a reggae band. What came directly from Jamaica to the music of Skank was electronic reggae, the digital keyboard and drum sound of Sly & Robbie. Although some contend that the band's name came from the Bob Marley tune "Easy Skanking" on his Kaya LP, and others say that it is a derivative of the word used for laboratory grown marijuana; the name, in reality, is an allusion to the Jamaican rhythm ska. Skanking is something like dancing to ska.

Comparisons between Skank and other composers and musicians from Minas like Lô Borges are inevitable. But by performing their own breed of reggae, Skank has created an unparalleled sound that is aggressive, but sweet, a sound that defies any resemblance to the well-accepted music of the region.

Because they have a knack for writing coherent tunes, which sound simple, yet shine with unusual brilliance, Skank's compositions have conquered the public at large as well as other successful composers and notable musicians. Lô Borges, a Skank fan himself, recently commented that the quartet's sound is one that Brazil has needed for a long time. Daniela Mercury invited Samuel Rosa, Skank's vocalist and guitar player, to record the duet "Minas com Bahia" by Chico Amaral on her most recent project. And Jorge Benjor, another Skank fan, asked Samuel to appear on Homo Sapiens, Benjor's latest project.

Besides writing tunes with contagious rhythms and flirtatious lyrics, the quartet evokes a euphoric mood. They are heirs of the pop music reveler tradition dating back to the accordion of Luiz Gonzaga and the trio elétrico of Luiz Caldas. Setting a record, they made 170 appearances in 18 months to promote their second release, Calango. Their fee is roughly $41,000 per show while the reggae group Cidade Negra, who in 1995 sold almost 1 million discs, receives about $15,000 for a performance.

Skank's success is intriguing because of its similarity to the recent spread of axé music, which originated with black groups in Bahia. Axé exploded in Brazil only after being presented by Daniela Mercury. The same thing happened with Brazilian rap, which became a national mania only after Gabriel o Pensador's first release. Exploitation of black music by white artists has been an astonishing and widely recognized phenomenon that has been successfully employed since Elvis Presley. The only trick is that the formula works only when the artists involved have talent.

Skank went through a curious growth process, different from the majority of groups from Belo Horizonte. The band members were local musicians who played at different bars. Once in a while they got together at a bar called Janis to play in Skank and do cover versions of tunes by Tim Maia (godfather of Brazilian funk) and Jorge Benjor, never imagining that five years later Benjor would invite their singer to appear on one of his recordings.

The first venue Skank started playing with any regularity was a churrascaria (a restaurant featuring barbecued meat) called Mister Biff. Every night after the gig, their clothes would be inundated with the smell of meat and smoke. But the worst part of the gig was that the band never even got dinner. They were allowed a snack, which was limited to a choice between a hamburger or a potato. Struggling to survive in the artistic world of Belo Horizonte by playing the bar scene was grizzly. It was a milestone for the quartet when they created a joint savings account to spur the Skank project.

Instead of proceeding like many other groups, who make a demo tape and try their luck with the big record companies, Skank invested their $10,000 collective savings in a CD and a video clip. They had 3,000 copies of the CD pressed and sent half to radio stations, record companies, and the press. The other half was sold at gigs to cover their investment. While the band was busy trying to shop their product, their manager negotiated a deal with Sony's Chaos label. Sony bought the master for $10,000 and invested another $10,000 for a remix providing the first release with a more polished sound. The deal was a bargain for Sony who at the time was reticent about contracting any new talent.

The first disc sold 150,000 copies, more than enough for the standards of Brazilian rock when you consider that the superb disc Da Lata (From Tin) released in 1995 on EMI by rock diva Fernanda Abreu, singer and sex symbol for the preeminent rock group Blitz, sold roughly 100,000 copies in one year. Although Skank's first release wasn't the earth shattering success of Mamonas Assassinas, it was enough to show that Brazilian pop music had a future and that it was not necessary for Brazilian bands to sing in English or to mimic the fashions that were in vogue abroad, like hip-hop music or grunge.

The members of the quartet were born and raised in Belo Horizonte, and they still live there. Guitar player and vocalist Samuel Rosa, bass player Lelo Zaneti, and drummer Haroldo Ferretti live on the same street. Keyboard player Henrique Portugal lives in an apartment two blocks away from the others. They play soccer together every chance they get and are often joined by their close friend Lô Borges. Their passion for the game is obvious by the official soccer jerseys they wear on stage and by their refusal to book gigs on days when there is an important match between the two principal Mineiro soccer teams, Atlético and Cruzeiro.

They have even signed an exclusive contract with the brand of sports' products that sponsors the uniforms of the top Brazilian teams. Nonetheless, they have refused offers of $250,000 to promote products like slippers and beer. It's not that they are adverse to the advertising world. It is just that Skank has tried to avoid the over-exposure that pulled down groups like RPM, the Brazilian rock sensation of the 1980s. The members of Skank never imagined they would attain stardom, and that is the secret of the rapport they have established with their fans. They are like a soccer team that wins the World Cup playing with athletes who were just promoted from the juniors.

Selling more discs than the king, Roberto Carlos, and more than any sertaneja duo, Skank dominated Brazilian music sales in 1996. Their third disc O Samba Poconé (the name was forró inspired) has continued to maintain its position high on best sellers' charts in Brazil and is proof that Skank's success was warranted and not fabricated. Only the sound track from the soap opera Rei do Gado (King of the Herd) — pushed by Globo media conglomerate and adorned by a dozen different artists — sold more than the Mineiros. Maybe the wind will change, but it is still strong enough now to bet on Skank as a favorite for quite some time.

In absolute numbers, O Samba Poconé is followed closely only by Na Cabeça, e na Cintura (In the Head, In the Waist) from the Bahian group É o Tchan and by the most recent disc by Zezé Camargo and Luciano, both with sales above the 1.5 million mark. Released in June 1996, on the Sony label, O Samba Poconé has already sold over 1.8 million copies. In comparison, the disc A Tempestade (Storm) by Legião Urbana (Urban Legion) sold less than half as many copies despite the commotion over the death of singer Renato Russo.

Propelled by the racy lyrics and its scorching rhythmic drive, the latest project has brought record crowds to their electrifying shows. Skank communicates with their fans via a high-voltage energy level that moves through a throng like electrifying waves. Attending a Skank show has become the dream of the young people who championed Mamonas Assassinas. Fans stay up until three in the morning dancing and trying to get closer to their idols. "É uma Partida de Futebol" (It's a Soccer Game), narrated with a magic reminiscent of the Benjor classics, "Fio Maravilha" (Marvelous Fio) and "Ponta de Lança Africano" (African Point Man) never fails to ignite Skank supporters.

Aside from soccer, the liveliest tunes on O Samba Poconé talk about girls. The charm here lies in the understated manner the group has of expressing its particular form of romanticism. Even when the lyrics are disheartening, the music is joyous. This happens with "Eu Disse a Ela" (I Told Her) which talks about a separation:

Quando eu disse a ela

Que o amor morreu

A cidade sutilmente

Estremeceu

When I told her

That my love died

The city subtly

Shook

It's not Chico Buarque, but the group makes no pretension of flying so high. The idea is to be simple and direct without butchering the grammar, as many rival bands have. Another subject that Skank touches on is cinema. Three tracks from O Samba Poconé talk about the seventh art, one is an homage to the comic Zé Trindade.

The new disc successfully employs female background vocals, thick percussion tracks, and some of the sweetest horn section arrangements I've heard in years. After two months of confinement in a São Paulo studio, the completed O Samba Poconé emerged, without exaggeration, as one of the best recorded projects ever to come out of Brazil. Reggae once more is the foundation, but the project ventures through rock, ska, baião, and carimbó as well. This diversity has resulted in a recording that has the capacity to hook listeners abroad as well as in Brazil.

Almost all the music was composed by singer Samuel Rosa. Chico Amaral, the thirty-nine year old sax player who is considered by many to be the fifth member of Skank, wrote the lyrics for 8 of the 11 tracks. In addition, Amaral composed both the music and lyrics for "Um Dia Qualquer" (Any Day) and "Poconé." The quartet acknowledges that Amaral's contributions have been decisive. Returning the praise, Amaral has referred to the group as a fraternity of talent. Bass player Nando Reis from the group Titãs, a musician who has written some of the biggest hits for Marisa Monte and the reggae group Cidade Negra, makes his debut as Samuel Rosa's writing partner on the aforementioned "É Uma Partida de Futebol," the disc's forceful opening track.

Even before delivery to the stores, the project was a hit. The tune "Garota Nacional" — satiric defense for those wonderful girls that populate the erotic dreams of all healthy guys — was given premature air-play all over Brazil long before stores received the product. To supplement the early radio exposure, Skank hatched a video, displaying a stable of beautiful, nearly naked girls in stimulating poses. Skank's manager, Fernando Furtado, used to be a porno movie critic known as Dr. Penetration. Needless to say, the video turned the heads of a generation of Brazilian youth who devour MTV videos. "Garota Nacional" has commanded the charts for months and remains the biggest hit from O Samba Poconé so far, although it is followed closely by "Os Exilados" (The Exiled) and "Eu Disse a Ela."

Three months after its release, O Samba Poconé guaranteed the band another Disco de Platina. Without a doubt, the CD is one of the best releases of Brazilian pop in years. It will inevitably set the standard for some time, just as O Eterno Deus Mu Dança (The Eternal God of Change) by Gilberto Gil and Cabeça Dinossauro (Dinosaur Head ) by Titãs did in the 1980s. The comparison to these touchstone recordings is validated by Skank's impressive instrumental and vocal musicianship, their unequaled writing, and by the recording quality itself. Well produced and highly danceable, the disc follows admirably in the footprints of their 1994 mega-success Calango, which propelled Skank to a national career and landed the group their first Disco de Platina. Practically every track on Calango was a hit.

Blessed by their success in Brazil, the group is now pushing toward the international market without any significant promotional work and singing in Portuguese — a language that has not helped exportation. Success in the markets abroad may be a stiff challenge for the quartet largely because recordings by Brazilian artists released outside of Brazil are typically labeled by record companies as "Latina Music" and handled as such, not because Brazilian music is so small a slice of the market and the Spanish speaking market is so huge, but because these large companies don't seem to know what to do with Brazilian music. Curiously, the Brazilian act that has taken off outside Brazil plays music with a heavy-metal emphasis. Still, Skank's expectations for an international career are formidable.

If nothing else, the band has become a notable statistic with tremendous potential. The international version of the disc O Samba Poconé with a bonus track of "Garota Nacional" in Spanish was released in ten countries in Latin America and exported to France, Spain, and Portugal. Among all the South American artists contracted to multinational Sony music, Skank has been the most successful outside their country of origin for the last 10 months. Last December the band made a small tour to Chile, where "Garota Nacional" was receiving extensive airplay; it even became a jingle for a cigarette commercial. Sony's enthusiastic manager of international development for Brazilian artists stated recently that the responses they have been receiving from markets outside Brazil is unanimous: Skank is a marvelous product.

It appears that Skank will soon have the support abroad from the North American Epic label, the same division responsible for recordings by Michael Jackson. And if an international campaign corresponds to their ambitious expectations, the quartet will become the most successful Brazilian group outside Brazil, a position occupied today only by another band from Belo Horizonte, Sepultura — the heavy metal head-bangers whose most notable success has been achieved outside Brazil. Contrary to the laborious heavy-meddlers, who "sing" in English and live abroad, Skank intends to remain in Belo Horizonte and to sing in Portuguese.

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Te ver e não te querer
É improvável, é impossível

Te ver e ter que esquecer
É insuportável, é dor incrível

É como mergulhar num rio e não se molhar
É como não morrer de frio no gelo polar
É ter estomago vazio e não almoçar
E ver o céu se abrir no estio e não se animar

É como esperar o prato e não salivar
Sentir apertar o sapato e não descalçar
É ver alguém feliz de fato sem alguém pra amar
É como procurar no mato estrela do mar

É como não sentir calor em Cuiabá
Ou como no Arpoador não ver o mar
É como não morrer de raiva com a política
Ignorar que a tarde vai vadia e mítica

É como ver televisão e não dormir
Ver um bichano pelo chão e não sorrir
É como não provar o néctar de um lindo amor
Depois que o coração detecta a fina flor

---

To See You

To see you and not want you
Is improbable, it is impossible

To have you and have to forget you
Is unbearable, it is incredible pain

It is like diving in a river and not getting wet
It is like not dying of cold in the polar ice
It is to have an empty stomach and not eat lunch
It is to see the open sky in the summer and not be happy

It is like waiting for the dish and not salivating
To feel the shoe pinch and not take it off
It is to see someone really happy without someone to love
It is like searching for a star in the bushes

It is like not feeling the heat in Cuiabá
Or like not seeing the sea at Arpoador
It is like not dying of rage with politics
To ignore that the evening is going leisurely and mythically

It is like watching television and not getting sleepy
To see a cat on the floor and not smile
It is like not tasting the nectar of a beautiful love
After the heart detects the finest flower


---

Eu Disse a Ela
Samuel Rosa, Chico Amaral

Quando eu disse a ela
Que o amor passou
A cidade levemente
Flutuou

Ondas amarelas
Na Contorno cheia
A cidade simplesmente
Me odeia

Quando eu disse a ela
Que o amor morreu
A cidade sutilmente

Estremeceu
Bestas e janelas
Êxtase no breu
A cidade nos meus dentes
Tu e eu

Mesmo sabendo que a vida nos engana
Mesmo sabendo que a Opala não é plana
Mesmo sabendo que a dor cartesiana
Mesmo sabendo que só música baiana

Eu disse a ela que
Eu disse a ela então
Eu disse a ela que
Eu disse a ela não


---

I Told Her

When I told her
That love has passed
The city lightly
Floated

Yellow waves
On the crowded avenue
The city simply
Hates me

When I told her
That my love died
The city subtly
Shook

Beasts and windows
Ecstasy in the darkness
The city in my teeth
You and I

Even knowing that life deceives us
Even knowing that the Opal is not flat
Even knowing that the pain is Cartesian
Even knowing that it is only Bahian music

I told her that
I told her then
I told her that
I told her no

---

Garota Nacional
Samuel Rosa, Chico Amaral

Aqui nesse mundinho fechado ela é incrível
Com seu vestido preto indefectível
Eu detesto o jeito dela,
mas pensando bem
Ela fecha com meus sonhos
como ninguém

Conhece-te a ti mesmo e eu
me conheço
Sou um qualquer vulgar,
bem, às vezes esqueço
E finjo que não finjo ao ignorar
Que ela me domina no
primeiro olhar

Porque ela derrama um banquete, um palacete
Um anjo de vestido, uma libido do cacete
Ela é tão vistosa que talvez seja mentira
Quem dera minha cara fosse de sucupira

Beat it laun,daun daun
Beat it loom, dap'n daun
Beat it laun, baun baun

Eu quero te provar
Cozida a vapor
Eu te quero te provar
Sem medo e sem amor

You can download a sample of
"Garota Nacional" (garotana.wav - 197kb)

---

National Girl

Here in this closed little world she is incredible
In her infallibe black dress
I detest her manner, but on second thought
She matches my dreams like no one else

Know yourself and I know myself
I am anyone, well, sometimes I forget
And I pretend that I'm not pretending at ignoring
That she dominates with her first glance

Because she pours a banquet, a small palace
An angel in a dress, a fucking libido
She is so good looking that maybe it's a lie
I wish my face showed no expression

Beat it laun, daun daun
Beat it loom, dap'n daun
Beat it laun, baun baun

I want to taste you
Cooked in steam
I want to taste you
Without fear and without love

---

Tão Seu
Samuel Rosa, Chico Amaral

Cê sabe que eu sinto a sua falta
Não posso esperar tanto tempo assim
O nosso amor é novo
É o velho amor ainda e sempre

Não diga que não vem me ver
De noite eu quero descansar
Ir ao cinema com você
Um filme à toa no Pathé

Que culpa a gente tem de ser feliz
Que culpa a gente tem, meu bem
O mundo bem diante do nariz
Feliz aqui e não além

Cê sabe que eu faço tanta coisa
Pensando no momento de te ver
A minha casa sem você é triste
E a espera arde sem me aquecer

Não diga que você não volta
Eu não vou conseguir dormir
À noite eu quero descansar
Sair à toa por aí

Que culpa a gente tem de ser feliz
Eu digo eles ou nós dois
O mundo bem diante do nariz
Feliz agora e não depois

Me sinto só, me sinto só, me sinto tão seu
Me sinto tão, me sinto só e sou teu

---

So Much Yours

You know that I miss you
I can't wait so long
Our love is new
It is the old love again and forever

Don't tell me you won't come to see me
In the evening I want to rest
To go the movies with you
A film of any type at the Pathé

Who can blame us for being so happy
Who can blame us, my love
The world is in front of our noses
Happy here and not beyond

You know that I plan so many things
Thinking of the moment that I will see you
My home is sad without you
And waiting for you burns without warming me

Don't say that you're not coming back
I cannot sleep
In the evening I want to rest
To hang out

Who can blame us for being so happy
I tell them or the two of us
The world is here in front of our noses
Happy now and not afterwards

I feel helpless, I feel helpless, I feel so much yours
I feel so much, I feel helpless and I am yours

---

Os Exilados
Samuel Rosa, Chico Amaral

Meu coração tá batendo
De amor e de cansaço
Saudade de abraço
Do morno regaço
Onde eu deixei
Um pedaço de mim

Meu coração parecendo
Um lobo rubro aço
Ficou mudo no abraço
É de veludo o laço
Com que eu atei
Um pedaço de você

Com você eu vou mais longe
Que os cristos, que as crenças
Que o bonde de Valença
Com você eu vou mais longe

Com você eu vou mais longe
Que a ilha de Mallorca
Onde a porca torce o rabo
E o diabo nos esconde

Meu coração parecendo
Um troço, um erro crasso
Tipo "lost in the space"
Não entende o estilhaço
Que é só, eu sei
Um balaço de amor

Meu coração é o seu
Seu coração é o meu

---

The Exiled

My heart is beating
My love is tired
Longing for a hug
In the warmth of your bosom
Where I left
A piece of myself

My heart seems
A red steel wolf
That became mute in your embrace
It is a velvet lasso
With which I tied
A piece of you

With you I go much farther
Than the christs, and the beliefs
Than the streetcar to Valença
With you I go much farther

With you I go much farther
Than the island of Majorca
Where the pig twists her tail
And the devil hides us

My heart seems
An object, a big mistake
Type "lost in the space"
That doesn't understand the debris
That it is only, I know
A bullet of love

My heart is yours
Your heart is mine

Bruce Gilman, music editor for Brazzil, received his Masters degree in music from California Institute of the Arts. He leads the Brazilian Jazz Ensemble Axé and plays cuíca for escola de samba MILA. You can reach him through his E-mail: cuíca@interworld.net

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