The curse of Los Socios del Desierto, Luis Alberto Spinetta’s most underrated band

One birth is not enough. The desert partners they were, however Luis Alberto Spinetta, a sort of exercise in humiliation of a famous artist. Unthinkable: no one wanted to release the first album. It took a long time to get the first of two studio albums the band would sign.

Record companies could do without Spinetta. As harsh as it may seem. The topic of the time – when not in this blessed country – was a financial crisis that became known as Tequila effect. Year 1994, the same year in which Los Socios del Desierto were formed. Lack of international reserves, devaluation of local currencies and in our country, Menem with his structural reforms.

Record companies at the time were interested in pop groups like Ace of Base. You had to be a little dirty and sloppy, so the chaos of Nirvana, Pearl Jam or Soundgarden was also included. Luis Alberto Spinetta didn’t have a grunge or Latin sound. Selena, Maná and Gloria Trevi were part of the radio epidemic of the moment and Flaco didn’t have that “I love you, I need you, I miss you…” thing. There was a lack of melodrama and banality in his repertoire.

Almendra’s father was working on a new artistic project and for the labels it was as if nothing had happened. Format power triopowerful, fresh and unreleased songs, songs that, curiously, only thanks to live music have we begun to know and sing without there being any physical evidence of the material.

Flaco Spinetta’s statement

This led the most emblematic musician of national rock to release a statement whose title could have been longer clickbaiter than “The Record and the Hour”. But still, true to his style, Spinetta said the following:

“My creative life and the rebellious and artistic flame that has always guided me will suffer no loss if this latest work of mine is not published. Sooner or later some label will claim my work and accept my requests. This strengthens me. Maybe my records sold little by little, and without a sales boom, but they always sold constantly, until they became catalog or collector’s material.”

A marvel of good taste and appeal without supplication, things continued like this: “Today, despising everything but the immediate commercial strength of an artist, these labels offer proposals to publish Spinetta, even at the cost of spending huge sums to produce music for idiots which not only don’t sell immediately but will never sell.

“Spinetta always sells – he continued in Maradone style – and has always sold like this. Where are the gold records that they never gave me? Gentlemen: I will not establish myself as a company, because it contradicts my philosophy of life; I will not even consider the intentions they hide in their mediocre proposal, which is the same as they have for all true artists. With this I want to make it clear, to my fans and to the public in general, that I would like nothing more than this album full of new songs to reach among hands just as I conceived it and at the right price.

And he concluded with a clarification: “Labels believe that a double album is too expensive to sell en masse, but the truth is that selling it at a very reasonable price would still make everyone a lot of money. To do this, I will seek alternative options and relentlessly continue with new work; Don’t forget that I am the autoveda artist. Oh”

Music from a film

In 1994 Spinetta began to be tempted by an unlikely project, that is, writing the music for the most surreal film in our history: Gray Firedirected by Pablo César, Jorge Polaco’s most devoted disciple.

That filmic delirium – which would have deserved a recent book, Your Head Is About to Explode, the story of Gray Fire, by Jorge Kasparian) passed into theaters with less glory than pain, even if he left behind a beautiful album that was cornered by its own author. For unknown reasons Spinetta never performed it live.

The vinyl record was what many had at the time, until Flaco forced them to chase the technology Gray Fire, released only on CD. Having a Talent tray plus a cassette player left you out.

In Libertad street we found a small CD player, the popular “discman”. Then we went to Corrientes and bought Spinetta’s latest release, a soundtrack that pushed us forward in consumption (“Tomorrow is better”).

Interesting to think that vinyl has managed to represent a generation thanks to the rare existence of the album Artaud -to its cover and its contents-, with Gray FireReleased only on CD, Flaco has once again proven compelling in form (and substance).

A new trio

Immediately, almost without anyone knowing, another half-hearted initiative would arrive. Under for Luis Alberto himself. This happened 30 years ago, in 1994. Without a doubt, a strange year for the emblematic musician. Although the film was less of an open secret, His comeback under a band name had already beguna project called Los Socios del Desierto.

It meant another connection in his prestigious job. A power trio done and right. The news, however, did not arouse any initial interest among record companies.

They integrated it Daniel “The One Eye” Wirtz (battery) e Marcelo Torres (Bass). It was one of the first times songs were known backwards: live before recorded. Spinetta and Los Socios del Desierto were chosen as “Best Show of the Year” for a recital at the Opera House.

Furthermore, in March 1996 they gave a free show at the Velodromo, “an old debt to the public: playing for free and outdoors, in the woods of Palermo”, said Flaco.

And on September 22 they reunited 50 thousand people in Parque Chacabuco, for the closing of the II Young Biennial. Incredibly, Spinetta’s group, ignored by record labels, was one of the most appreciated.

Another detail: with Los Socios Spinetta returns to sing in English after the failure Only love can sustainwhere more than a Spinetta album it seemed like a long play by Gloria Gaynor.

Jorge Kasparian, author of the book Luisito, says it well: “It’s one thing to listen to Spinetta sing Bad peopleby Los Socios del Desierto, and another very different thing is listening to it Only love…“

Over time, Partners were left as a forgotten accessory. It took more than two years of popular success before the band’s first formal recording appeared.

A delayed debut

The album (double and self-titled) finally ended up winning the cultural battle. It was released via Sony Music. They launched it on April 30, 1997 and It has glories still unknown to the vast majority: Account in the Sun, People’s Garden, Holland, Cheques, Bosnia.

All the morbidity surrounding its edition meant that the Spinette’s exuberant niche ran out of circulation. The critics went wild: Clarín rolled out the red carpet, calling it “the best national rock album of the 90s”. Rolling Stone magazine considered it a creative “peak”, “one of the most important works of Argentine rock of the last twenty years”.

Before ceasing to exist, Spinetta’s last band signed a second album under the name Los Socios del Desierto. Second and final study. The eyes It was released a year later, in 1999. It deserves no more than a registration mention.

The band’s credits also include San Cristóforo, recorded live in 1998, and MTV unplugged (credited to Spinetta as soloist but with most of the songs performed by Los Socios del Desierto).

An eternal band

Las Bandas Eternas was Spinetta’s last anniversary. The legendary recital in Vélez in 2009. From now on there will be sequels and remakes. Spinetta brought together Almendra, Rabid Fish, Invisible, Jade and The Desert Partners.

Also in the game were Charly García, Fito Páez, Gustavo Cerati, Ricardo Mollo, Juanse. Bassist Javier Malosetti opened the “guest star” mini-set and later played as drummer in Los Socios del Desierto, as One-Eyed Wirzt had died shortly before.