Oye - te quiero, tequila. All apologies to Irish whiskey, but the best booze in the world is the sweet golden agave nectar. The best excuse to indulge es Viernes, Dieciseis De Septiembre: Dia De La Independencia. And I'll go as far as to declare Mexican cerveza the best beer in the world - second only to Ireland's best (Guinness, Murphy's, Smithwicks). Corona and Sol excepted as they’re instaskunked in the clear bottles - caveat emptor. I prefer Dos Equis, indeed. And Negra Modello. Stay thirsty mis amigos. 

It's also the best excuse to allow a non local band to usurp this space. Tijuana's own Los Shadows may not have purloined, speaking of usurpation, White Reaper's Band Of The Year regnancy last year, but had I been cognizant of their six song debut, recorded that August, they would have at least been toppermost of the poppermost for my Cinco De Mayo fiesta. Such as it is, the new disqué de Shadows is fresh as of June. It's called Midnight Climax and features the decidedly Reaperesque "Riverside" with its bubbly organ line and garage surf riff. Los Shadows likes to slot their occaisonally bemasked personas into the "surf punk" stakes; as we shall see, they sell themselves short in so doing. Not that that isn't my genre. But the Nirvana influenced quartet drift blissfully into Blue seas - my beloved Ocean Blue (!) - on the new "Cream", Blue Dream" (bluetiful...swooningly so), and the old "Voices". Which is to say, the genre, to be specific, would be 'ringing guitar dreampop', albeit with aggro drums. But no denying the David Schelzel(esque) intonations. 

Blisspop.

Okay - call it a draw at 'surfpop'. "Sleeping Outside" is legit surf fare, all seasoaked reverb. Still, last year's model "Sally" as well as the fresh "The Times" are nothing if not standard Britpop. Go figure.

And go to You Tube for a couple of live numbers from the band's home turf south of the border. For those keeping score, the new titles on Midnight Climax are: "Sleeping Outside", "Blue Dream", "The Times", "Cream", "Riverside", "Taxicasido". They feature the new bassist, BTW. 

Salud, compas!