English
In the biographical journey of Barcelona’s pop-rock quartet Manos de Topo, which will offer a concert at the iconic Apolo concert hall (2) in Poble Sec on Friday the 29th of March, there are a number of archetypal features that serve to define the bands of their musical genre.
Manos de Topo is a band originally founded by two film students who, in their autodidact DIY (Do it Yourself) spirit, which comes from the prepunk supports lots of the most exciting bands in recent decades, wanted to allude to their lack of musical skills directly through their name, as a way to shake any failure complex assuming that traits a differential hallmark through their humor and irony.
Humor and irony are indeed two of the most notable features of Manos de Topo, both permeating their, in appearance, romantic songs, in a parody to many of the most prominent Spanish indie-rock bands, particularly to the Catalan bands that play music in Spanish, in a broad spectrum that covers Love of Lesbian, Astrud and The New Raemon, who took care of the production of Escapar con el anticiclón, last album of Manos de Topo.
Moreover, the very particular parodic deconstruction of romantic music, through songs that somehow seem to evoke the sound of some of the most representative bands of the eighties, which used lyrics inspired by heartbreak stories that provided the audience an excuse to cry and intentionally limit the overtly pushed tune under a theatrically and exaggerated emotion discovered through Myspace, while catching the attention of different music labels as well as indie critics, some of which came to include their first album, Pretty Orthopaedics, among the best Spanish albums of the first decade of the XXI century.
The truth is that some of the songs collected here, such as La chica tripolar, El cartero and Otra llamada, have become extremely famous to a progressively increasing number of dedicated fans. All these songs were born from a determined irony at their failed relationships as a means to keep the bitterness and despair at a safe distance. Something that makes a noticeable difference with respect to the “pathos” of German Copini and his band Golpes Bajos, with whom, under the sound of the voice of Miguel Ángel Blanca, who despite his declaration that he didn’t hear Copini until recently, they have been frequently compared.
If you are staying in accommodation in Barcelona during these dates it will be difficult to find a most entertaining and fun concert.
