Listening to an episode of Cromos M80 the other day I heard about “Os Lusitansos” by Luís Filipe Barros. It’s a history of Portugal in the form of a rap, with the beat basically pinched from the Sugar Hill Gang. It’s er… Well, it’s something from the 80s, simultaneously the best and worst decade in history.
Tag: music
It’s Time To Master “Bater”
I keep seeing constructions like “bater mal” and “bater certo”, and couldn’t quite see why “bater” was being used. I asked and (after a brief kerfuffle with some brazilians who tried to tell me that it disn’t exist and made no sense) found out that it is an informal expression. Bater is the verb used for the beating of a heart or the ticking of a clock, and if it starts going wrong that’s bad, so if someone “bate mal” after – say – a blow to the head, he’s not quite himself. You can also “bater bem” (being in good form) and things can “bater certo” (be exact, precise, spot on).
There’s an example of Bater Mal near the beginning of this song by the Greatest Band Ever
Latest Musical Obsession
I’ve got obsessed with this song by Márcia (she’s the one in the video I posted a couple of weeks back). I don’t like this one as much, but it has a hidden secret: it has a Spanish pronoun (“Usted”) in it for no reason I can fathom. It isn’t needed for a rhyme, and no other Spanish words appear in it. She uses a more conventional “você” in a different verse. It’s well random. It’s as if an anglophone singer just decided to say… Oh I don’t know – “Though I put you on a pedastal, they put vous on the pill”
Anyway I made a translation (not a good one, I think) to try and get to grips with it to understand why, but I’m none the wiser.
Conan Osíris – Telemóveis
Well, this Eurovision semifinalist is definitely bonkers. It reminds me of António Variações, the cosmic electro-beardie from the eighties, reading out the warranty redemption for a damaged iPhone. Anyway, I don’t know if he’ll be picked but he seems like a strong contender: stronger, anyway, than the unbearably tedious, over-earnest drivel by DAMA that was controversially beaten out on a tie-breaker,and better than last year’s too, but it’s still no Salvador Sobral.
Better P-Pop
Ooh, I like this:
Violino
From the Facebook page of the Anglo-Portuguese Society:
Setúbal
Fui ontem para a residência do embaixador português em Inglaterra, para ouvir um discurso sobre o Festival de música de Setúbal. O director contou a história da origem do festival, o motivo pelo qual foi estabelecido, e descreveu os efeitos benéficos para a cidade. Foi muito um discurso interessante. As escolas participam no festival, o que traz oportunidades para estudantes de música, ainda que alguns tenham deficiências físicas ou mentais. As comunidades imigrantes também fazem parte do projecto, e isso aumentou o seu sentimento de pertencimento. Trouxe benefícios nas áreas de economia, de infraestrutura e de saúde e bem estar.
Uma estudante nativa de Setúbal tocou violino, e depois havia uma recepção com petiscos e vinho. 
Home Not Alone
Last night I went to a meeting of the Anglo-Portuguese Society at the residence of the Portuguese ambassador. There were no Ferrero Rochers but apart from that it was pretty good. I’ll to a texto about it later.
One of the things that interested me was that the guy talked about translating the word “Home” into Portuguese, which they had done, he said, using 7 different words. So – someone asked – what were the words? He couldn’t remember. The obvious ones are casa (house) lar (the word used in the equivalent of home sweet home – “lar doce lar”. Terra de mãe (the town or village you call home) seems like a string contender too. I felt like I’d heard the phrase “no colo da família” (something like ‘in the lap of the family’) too. Then there are more prosaic words like “domicílio”, “residência”, “habitação”.
Hm.
Oh wait, I just had the idea of er… You know… Googling it!
Here’s the site. Judging by the names of the events, it looks like I missed “ninho” (nest) and they mention “palácio” as well, which I suppose could be your home if you were posh…
P-Pop
Off-the-cuff reactions to Portuguese bands I was recommended by a friend of mine.
Ornatos Violeta
Funk/punk in the style of fishbone, maybe chilli peppers at a push, or some of the more grungey elements from the same eta (STP, Blind Melon). Definitely going on my Spotify library anyway.
Mão Morta
Some kind of Doom Metal, I think… Er… Well, see for yourself.
Belle Chase Hotel
Trilingual combo whose name is based on a Jim Jarmusch movie. Musically pretty good and playing in a variety of styles (so much so that at first I wondered if maybe there was more than one band that shared the name) but frustrating if, like me, you only want to hear PT lyrics, because they don’t seem to have many. One of the members is JP Simões who is also a solo artist who sings in Portuguese.
Sean Riley & the Slowriders
What? Dudes, do you even speak Portuguese?
Wray Gunn
Er… Again, struggling to find any Portuguese titles here. Rock ‘n’ Roll of the school of Link Wray. I had a look at the first one in the list and it seems to be about sleeping with his sister. No thank you. Do not want.
Minta & the Brook Trout
Really, really good but disappointingly anglophone
Jerónimo
I can only find three one songs by this lot and all English too
First Breath After Coma
Remind me of the Durutti Column or some of those post-rock bands like Godspeed You Black Emperor. The tracks I listened to were largely instrumentals with maybe some samples voices but not in Portuguese. Interesting and I’ll listen again but not really what I was after…
X-wife
Pretty decent indie dance band but again, not singing in Portuguese
Legendary Tigerman
Rock. Pretty good but English lyrics again.
Dead Combo
I really like this music. It’s quirky and energetic. They have a collab with Marc Ribot, who’s worked with Tom Waits, which should give an idea of the genre. A lot of the track titles are in Portuguese, but they’re not very loquacious and it’s mainly instrumental stuff.
Ornatos Violeta are my pick of the bunch here, being eminently listenable and with Portuguese lyrics, but they’re in no danger of displacing Deolinda in my affections!
Mais Chico-Espertice!
It often happens that when I learn a new phrase I suddenly notice it popping up everywhere – in videos or in song lyrics that, previously, I had mentally marked as indecipherable. After I wrote the post about Chico-Espertice the other day I spotted it in a Deolinda song (have I mentioned I like Deolinda? I have? Oh!) called Manta Para Dois (“Blanket for two”). I wondered how it had been translated, to see if I’d understood it right.
I found the english lyrics here. They’ve translated
Às vezes és parvo
Gabarola, mal-criado
É preciso muita pachorra para ti
Cromo, chico-esperto
Preguiçoso e incerto
Mas é certo que és perfeito para mim
as
Sometimes you’re stupid
You brag, you have no manners
I need a lot of calmness to deal with you
Silly, fancy and smart
Lazy and uncertain
But it’s obvious you’re perfect for me
Well, that’s not what I was expecting. I think this must be wrong though. I think the translator must live in a region where the expression isn’t used. Everything else in that paragraph is a list of faults the person has, in spite of which she loves the guy anyway, so throwing a couple of compliments in makes no sense, especially if they’re joined together with a hyphen instead of a comma. I think it should say
Sometimes you’re stupid
You brag, you have no manners
I need a lot of patience to deal with you
Silly, a smartarse
Lazy and uncertain
But it’s obvious you’re perfect for me
Or maybe “a pisstaker” or “too clever by half” or something like that.
Video here
By the way, that word “Cromo” is interesting too. It’s translated as “Silly” and Priberam gives it as
Diz-se de ou pessoa que tem um comportamento considerado estranho excêntrico ou ridículo .
“cromo”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa [em linha], 2008-2013, https://dicionario.priberam.org/cromo [consultado em 24-09-2018].
but I’m pretty sure I’ve heard it used to mean “nerd” or “geek”
Luso 