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RADIO VERDE TRES
VOLUMEN UNO
***** our CD out now *****
***** CONTACT: amoverde3@gmail.com or dial +573177284181 *****
verde3 2007 + 2008 lookat
0. verde3 about
1. verde3 2007
2. verde3 2008
3. what we're into
4. verde3 album explained, track by track
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0. verde3 about
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verde3: banda bogotana, nace en 2002 como espacio de creación y desarrollo de las composiciones de CHAMPI (carlos benavides). la banda descarta las clasificaciones de género (rock, pop, elektro, noise) para combinarlas y así concentrarse en lo que ellos denominan "un nuevo punto de vista frente a las canciones populares", producto de juegos de estilo y valores de producción de avanzada.
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verde3: born 2002 in Bogotá as a workspace for the creation and development of compositions authored by CHAMPI (carlos benavides). the band discards all genre classifications (rock, pop, elektro, noise) so as to combine them and thus concentrate in what they call "a new point of view with respect to popular songs," a result of a playful approach towards style and a forward-thinking set of production values.
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diana galán + minimoog pic by nobara hayakawa
verde3 is a band that plays and records music for the radio. they started up in bogotá in 2002 as a group who would play champi's songs in the new styles he was dressing them in at the time.
"when you write a song, if you're not orienting the song as a more focal consequence of a particular sonority, then you may first want to compose musically/sonically stable parts for instance, not thinking necessarily much about sonority at that point... then comes the task of "dressing the song up". this will include everything from arrangements to choosing a hi-hat via wardrobe for photos etc." (champi)
so champi worked with dear friends giving these songs a musical intention, as well as some sort of sonority. verde3 has been a revolving door of friends and family (example: champi's niece maria alejandra camero sang in the studio for "angelito" as well as @ colón bogotá in 2004, not bad for a 15 year old!), echoing thus, in its intention of recording live, the first ensemble champi had in boston in the late nineties: a twelve-piece group, complete with vibraphone and string section, with which champi recorded a series of shows.
verde3 play live like very few bands in that thay love all sorts of spaces and can fit anywhere. there's an impending art gallery tour in the works so stay tuned!
verde3 released their first work "radio verde tres volúmen uno" this past december, with the videoclip for acclaimed "viernes por la noche" in the works.
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1. verde3 2007.
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the band played the most important auditoriums in colombia, including teatro de cristóbal colón (colombia national theatre), teatro municipal jorge elíecer gaitán, and teatro libre chapinero. this last show (december 5, 2007) marked the release of the band's first cd and was the closing concert for a music fest that champi co-organised with the city of bogotá and the teatro libre chapinero.
on the international front, champi met and even had the chance to share the bill with jane birkin for the closing night of a french theatre festival, being this his second appearance at "la mousson d'été."
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2. verde3 2008.
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* lanzamiento del videoclip "viernes por la noche"
* shows en otros países
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3. what we're into
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3.1. JAVIERA MENA
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=244085858&blogID=333015667
videoclip de "esquemas juveniles" por Alberto Fuguet y Cristian Heyne (Chile)
gracias al sello índice virgen (buenos aires) por habernos permitido tocar "esquemas juveniles" el día del lanzamiento de nuestro disco. estamos buscando la grabación sonora para enviarla a ellos como nos pidieron. ¡gracias a javiera claro! sentimos que sonó bien.
tocar a javiera no es tarea fácil cuando ves que esta estupenda chilena ya tiene letras como "la comida es lo primero, la moral viene después" sobre beats houseros '91, o bien "tenemos que tener nuestras miradas perdidas en direcciones nulas y focalizar" y ver que le queda tiempo para hacer electropop de la belleza de un "cuando hablamos" o el soundalike de daniela romo "yo no te pido la luna". ¿nos preguntamos si la plancha al comienzo del video de dicha canción no hará referencia a la "música de / para planchar" como se le conoce en colombia?
el video es hermoso y es muy limpio nos parece. lo mismo el clip de "esquemas juveniles" con su delicada transmisión de mensajes y despistes...
entonces gracias javi y esperamos vernos pronto para tomar un jugo en bogotá o un vino en chile y que nos cuentes cosas y parcharla.
3.2. AU REVOIR SIMONE
(fan video)
ellas tocan en lecturas de david lynch. y abren la actual gira de air.
3.3. ROSARIO BLÉFARI
nos dio permiso para tocar una cacnión suya en vivo. no la hemos montado pero va ganando "río paraná". ¡besote rosario y gracias mil por respondernos personalmente!
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4. about "RADIO VERDE TRES VOLUMEN UNO"
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champi writes:
"
ok so here my blogger teeth come out and i just enjoy very deeply to be able to explain the songs a little. i'm sure you'll find this helpful we hope.
1. el azul del cielo (live colón bogotá 2004).
personnel:
champi (vocals, rickenbacker 360 through vox amp bridged to bass amp)
nicolás rico (ableton live)
daniela sanjinés (minimoog)
alejandro zuluaga (guitar)
francisco zea (drums)
composed in 1999 as a reply to a song written for me, i had changed the entire harmonic structure in 2004 for the colón show. so this was a première.
this will happen when you have composed a melody. you may want to do changes to the harmonies later on. remixers had been doing this with songs for a few years at that point all the way from björk's "telegram" ('96) where she covers herself and records it. the chords at the end were from the previous version of the song played in 2003 @ colón bogotá.
this show featured the gorgeous daniela sanjinés who worked and shared lovely times with us for three years, had a go singing at "luna" and other faves of that time. champi's best friend nicolás rico on ableton live, dubbing string samples from old late nineties string sections that champi had recorded and then chopped up. he showed us incredible stuff with double reverbs, advanced dubbing... then he's an anthropologist and fashion designer too... pacho zea ends up being the only of our three drummers on videotape. alejandro played guitar in verde3 2002-2004 and was also the first member of the colombian ensemble (champi + alejandro + a videotaped diana were the first version of such ensemble that was to become verde3 one year after their colón electrónico debut in 2002).
it is also a living proof of our live sound idea, to get stuff from the stage and try to make it listenable. quite pleasing to see those new radiohead live videos and know we'd been doing this for ages now.
2. mar (radio edit).
when you go through the tune and realise seven minutes have passed then it's "yeah right, the radio edit!"
those who wanted to hear what was going to happen at the end of the radio / web version can finally do. the long rappy ending which dani loves so much.
so yeah, with respect to the version we'd been playing live, we put the ending of the old version as verse of the new one and the verse of the old one as final rap part of the new one; we moved the lyrical and melodic sections whilst keeping the chords in place, this being then another approach to reharmonisation.
both guitar tracks are processed with ableton live plug-ins only (no sansamp plug-ins or logic preamps).
the chorus was written in 2000. the verses were a part which used to be in "casa" (oldest song, 1990) and was then removed in 2005 for the new wavey arrangement of "casa" for the colón 2005 show. the rap part comes from a song champi wrote back in '94 titled "lived day well" which he recorded later on for a college project.
diana sang this version of the vocals on a tuesday night at champi's place. champi sang the new male vocal on this track whilst mixing it + finishing the remix, at like 3am on a weekday night, all last november.
the minimoog bass part has no edits, it's a full take top to bottom, what is known in spanish as "plano secuencia" using techie language from audiovisual production. also one of the two guitars you hear on the track. haard to doo..
most of the beats (particularly the blips and funny hi-hats) were composed in 2000. the cell of this song sounded pretty much like the one you know ever since then. some reaktor and ableton beats were brought in to strengthen the punch of the rhythm section.
we recently thought of how the song seems to talk about a disappeared or kidnapped or tortured woman... no intention on our behalf... we can't help it i suppose, the info will filter through... we live in bogotá.
3. viernes por la noche (radio edit).
the next improvement of our dear tune comes with seven clean rickenbacker 360 guitars (no amp, pure clean), and the elecrtic piano part that champi had been working on. pretty much the same diana vocals from the may 2006 version (orlando produced such vocal sessions), the one that ended in the top 10 for the year in radiónica colombia. as some may know, this song was co-written with sergio "checho" medina, who plays drums on track 5 and did all of the programming on "viernes," punching in the arpeggios by hand (note fot note). then orlando and i placed some audio gates on the track which would make it sound choppy but way groovier.
4. margarita (live colón bogotá 2006).
originally titled "canción de margarita" in 1998, champi will eventually play or show the recordings of the 12-piece arrangement. this piano + diana version is very dear to verde3, as this is also the première of diana's live rendition, when verde3 played for their fifth year in a row @ teatro colón bogotá. the crowd reaction is self-explanatory we believe.
5. de la sangre (live colón bogotá 2006).
first song of the show. we decided to cut out the experimental ending (almost three minutes of gloomy noise), thus not showing that we started up as a very strange and disjointed ensemble of champi's friends and family who back in 2003 were in love with slowcore (would you think we became bubblegum pop haha). this also a première in that the version is new, but the structure is almost like the 12-piece version of this song recorded in 1998 (there's a bit of it on the promo video). i really want to know what kristen and flavio will say or feel... they're totally sampled from an old boston recording champi made in 99, complete with toy piano, cello (kristen odle) and viola (flavio gaete).
mauricio rico played the fuzzy moog liberation synthesizer. sergio "checho" medina (who co-wrote "viernes" with champi + diana) would change the sampled sections from a drumpad and, of course, play drums. the guitar was run through poncho ruiz's fender twin bridged onto a randall bass amp.
i love the goth and interpol-ly feel of this version.
6. angelito (live colón bogotá 2004).
my niece maría alejandra sings here, along with diana's vocal and me recording three guitars and two rhodes pianos. it was my return to studio recording after a very lovely and strange five years (i'd been recording shows in 99, 2002 and 2003 at that point anyhow): first touring the uk and europe 2000-2001 with sidestepper (uk / colombian recording artist) as well as with catalan artist marcel.lí antúnez roca, to then submerge in the academic world of my own country, running the sound engineering area in a bogotá university ('01), as well as making sound installations in public spaces (made one for the mayor's office in plaza de bolívar bogotá that same year) and learning immensely whilst working in theatre montage with mapa tearo in bogotá (even recorded and co-produced the composition and recording of a theatre piece by jean-luc lagarce as well as playing in international theatre festivals).
this return to studio recording felt grandiose. it was a very uplifting moment.
this song was included in a short film by miguel salazar (director, dp, photographer, bogotá) titled "martillo." the musical work won an award for "best original score" nyu filmfest 2005. thanks migue.
7. mar (extended).
simply removed the reaktor and ableton layers in the beats and turned the older beats up, the ones cooked in 2000. then sang on top freestyling a one taker and keeping it (like, dubbing the hell out of the trackpad whilst holding the mic with the other hand and singing and recording automation at the same time, like in a live dj set: FUN!).
totally idm 2001, like a tribute to the old skool idm stuff we loved with nico rico at that point in time, and to think the lyrics were written in english back in 94. i feel very proud of these lyrics as they not only transpose the song: they show a distinct relationship with esl or english as a second language as it is called... english versions of a few tunes do exist you know.
8. viernes por la noche (karaoke).
orlando and i turned the vocal track off and there you go. now you have to sing it!
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happiest 2008 and all the best with love. u made us really happy really.
verde3