Six Million Ways To Die (choose one)

Hola A Todo El Mundo, this weird band from Madrid are getting more media coverage than Penelope Cruz’ cleavage this month. They’re doing interviews with everyone from El Mundo to Mondo Sonoro. Myspace have chosen them as their highlighted band of the week and they’ve been building up their tally of gigs played in a pleasantly workaholic manner. From three to 6 in 2 weeks isn’t bad for a band who made some demos, hand made the sleeves and then didn’t get round to recording the CD’s.

Beneath all the hype there’s a few people unsettled by this sudden rush of publicity for a new band. For a start their live shows are still a bit shabby. The songs are undeniably brilliant, and each of the 6 members brings something else to the sound – shouty boy/girl choruses, melodica solos, or the type of euphoric violin breakdowns more common on GYBE! than on pop songs.

Hitting Spanish crowds with this kind of thing though, is risky. A typical gig audience is made up of fashionably dressed cultural retards, fucked up on coke and whiskey, and raised on europop. It’s like rather than slowly building a scene by taking risks on booking great foreign bands (like delorian just did with Radioclit - who cares that there were only 50 people there? It was a fucking blast.), making Madrid an essential stop on the indie touring circuit and then sitting back with a smile as a whole army of inspired kids take to the streets and build the revolution one fanzine at a time, throwing a band as delicate and visionary as HATEM right into the established scene is a bit irresponsible. Yes they deserve wider exposure, but this should come from the inside out, right?

Regardless of all this, they still make me smile like I’ve just seen a kitten in a wig tied to a pink balloon sailing over a rainbow, and clara and me did a big ‘Hola A Todo El Mundo’ graffiti on the wall of a bassment last night, complete with clouds and expert shading.

Incedently I’ve spent the entire week spraypainting shop shutters, which means my hands look like I’ve got leprosy and my lungs and nose are both totally full of little particles of montanna hardcore spraypaint. Not cool. Not by a long way