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Molotov (Mexico)
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July 01, 22:00
B2 Club 
The barrelling rap-metal band formed in Mexico City over a decade ago, at a time when genre acts like Rage Against the Machine and Limp Bizkit ruled. While those U.S. bands have since flagged, molotov soldiers on. “Our music evolved,” Ebright says. “We didn’t stick with straight-up hip hop or metal. We took in a lot of influences.” Back in the ’90s, molotov played a key role in asserting Spanish as the language most conducive to rap after English. Its macho inflections, and rolling musicality, perfectly suits the hard cadences and bold flair of the form. Ebright, the band’s sole gringo, moved to Mexico City with his family from Michigan when his dad, a DEA agent, got transferred there. “I could tell you about his work,” Ebright jokes. “But then I’d have to kill you.” The drummer joined the band a year after they’d formed, playing alongside singer/guitarist Tito Fuentes, bassist Mickey Huidobro and guitarist Javier de la Cueva. Their 1997 debut earned both Anglo and Spanish fans. It also nabbed a Grammy nomination for Best Latin Rock Alternative performance.
Around that time, a whole range of diverse Mexican rock bands were making waves at home and beyond, including Control Machete, Cafe Tacuba and Kinky. Two hit soundtracks to the brilliant Mexican movies “Amores Perros” and “Y Tu Mama Tambien” featured such bands and spread the word. molotov got more exposure through soundtracks for U.S. action flicks like “The Fast and the Furious” and “S.W.A.T.” Still, Elbright believes south-of-the-border bands have yet to get their full due. “The U.S. is really closed,” he says. “It’s not like Europe where everything is so much more free-flowing. You hear German music in Spain, and vice versa, even though they don’t understand the language.”
molotov survived regardless, making some unusual moves along the way. In 2004, they released a terrific album of covers, “Con Todo Respeto” (with all respect), greatly reinventing songs by acts from the Clash to Gil Scott-Heron to Falco. molotov’s last album, 2007’s “Eternamiente,” found them splitting the disk in quarters (Hasta la Basura Se Separa, El Plan de Ayala, Sin Titolo, and Miss Canciones), with each devoted to solo material from a given member. “We wanted to show the four different sides of us,” says Ebright, “For us - then and now - it’s all about expanding our expression.”
It's kind of like the four separate, simultaneously released Kiss solo albums from 1978, except these four-track EPs were released simultaneously via iTunes, each with its own corresponding cover art, and later compiled onto a single CD, "Eternamiente". The respective EPs are sequenced one after the other, and it's curious to note the differences in style between them; for example, "Hasta la Basura Se Separa" is ripping hardcore punk-style thrash-metal, whereas "Miss Canciones" is bilingual rap-metal.
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