The Matematicos came from Nuevo Laredo, across the Rio Grande from Laredo, TX in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. This is their third album. Their first looks to be more 50’s based rock n’ roll and their second is surf music.
The only name I can find for this group is Juan Garza, the lead singer and, in a sense, lyricist. He takes three songs by the Kinks, for example, keeps the music and writes completely new lyrics (and titles) in Spanish.
That wouldn’t amount to much, except he and the band really rave it up on these tracks and others like “La Pelea”, my favorite track on the record. All the first side is good, and two tracks from the second. The remaining three are really less worthwhile.
The band broke up when Garza went solo. Their name has more of a ring to it in Spanish, in English it would translate as the Mathematicians, not very hip!
hola,
you will find some more informations on “Los Matemáticos” at:
http://tobbys1.tripod.com/rockandrollfronterizodelos60s/id4.html
and
http://rockenmexico2.tripod.com/id13.html
best, palemovie
Hola, Tukan. Gracias por tu buena respuesta. Mira, tio, y te toman por ingles? No he oido a Lone Star pero me encantaria oir de ellos.
El grupo mejicano al que me refiero hizo Satisfaction como “No Soy Nada” (no soy nada sin tu querer).
En Puerto Rico teniamos as Los Sonsets cuyos heroes eran The Rolling Stones y The Young Rascals ya que los Racals pegaron fuerte en Puerto Rico y, creo pero no puede decir de seguor, que tocaron en San Juan, Puerto Rico! (Os Beatles -numero uno en Portugal- hicieron escala an el aeropuerto en San Juan.
Hey Tukan. Thanks for you good reply. Say man, do they take you for English (referring to Spain’s Los Salvajes’ Soy Asi). I haven’t heard Lone Star (another Spanish beat group) but I’d like to.
CHAS, THE MEXICAN GROUP I’M REFERRING TO DID SATISFACTION AS NO SOY NADA!
And yes Chas, I’ll mention them again. We in Puerto Rico had The Sunsets whose heroes were The Rolling Stones and The Young Rascals who were a big hit down there. And I think but I’m sure that the Rascals even played in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the only big time beat group, American or otherwise, who did so!! And yes Chas, The Beatles or two of them briefly landed in the San Juan airport!!
I was so pleased when I came to realize that rancheras and Santana are not characteristic of Mexican rock ‘n’ roll. And that was thanks to Kicks a few years ago. I should’ve known sooner. When I was 11 and a half in 1976 in San Felipe, Yaracuy, Venezuela the Spaniard neighbors had a record featuring “La Plaga” which as you chingadores should know is the Mexican version of “Jailhouse Rock”.
La Plaga means The Plague. Here comes the Plague / She likes to rock and roll / And when she’s rocking and rolling / She’s the queen of the place. (Queen of the Hop, dig?) The lyrics are somewhat related to what Elvis was putting down in “Jailhouse Rock” -some people just have to rock! – and that’s just it. What was important was that the song sound like the original English version.
And the songs had to rhyme.
“You Really Got Me”. Ok, knowing Spanish I can say that “Tu me tienes” (you got me) can sound like “You really got me”. Try singing that, cabrones. But “Tu me tienes de verdad” or …”de veras” or adding the “really” doesn’t match the metre. Well, “Tu si me tienes” is almost right. But what about the rest of the song and what about the rhyme? And doing a minimal thing with just one lyric wasn’t exactly where it was at.
Hey Monstruo, quitate de aqui / Hey Monstruo, quitate de aqui. Hey Monster, get yourself out of here (get out of here) and no other lyric. Ok. But the group was Los Monstruos so it makes sense and the original song was The Pretty Things’ “Mama Keep Your Big Mouth Shut” (which in Spanish would be “Mami, manten tu boca grande cerrada” which is “Mami, callate (cayate) la boca” and neither has the same rhythm as the English lyric.
Then there’s “Satisfaction”. A literal translation wouldn’t be good enough, wouldn’t be boss and groovy and outta sight. “Satisfaction” includes the lyric “No, no, no, no”. Ok, so you build the Spanish translation around that because that is in fact the same in Spanish.
Do try and find the Mexican group that did in fact “remake” “Satisfaction”. Los Apson? Los Yakis? I’m not even 50% sure.
El Profesor
aunque comprendo muy poquito ingles si que entiendo que te refieres a intentar buscar versiones de satisfaction, en España muchos grupos hicieron versiones de esta cancion, la mas lograda la de Los Salvajes, pero tambien el conjunto Lone Star hizo su version correspondiente y cada uno con una letra en español distinta!!!! uno de ellos decía …. no me doy por satisfechoooo…
me encanta esta pagina y he disfrutado enormemente con los matematicos y sus traslaciones de canciones inglesas al español son muy buenas… gran grupo
saludos desde Villarrobledo (España)
HOLA. Para mi gusto en cuanto a interpretación del tema “Satisfaction”, Los Apson hicieron una buena versión que aparece en su penúltimo (8) LP. He oido la versión de Los Salvajes, es buena, pero me quedo con Los Apson.
Saludos
I used to listen to this band when I was 8 years old back in Guatemala,La pelea and Hey policia where the most heard ones.I didn’t know they were mexicans,I thougt they were from South America.Thanks for the memories.
Would you happen to have the song “No,No,No”? To listen to? Thank You and Take Care,
Ruben
My father Guillermo Lopez R.I.P. from the photo above he’s the second member from right to left top leaning against the pillar was Lead guitar for Los Matematicos. Juan Garza (Vocals) is like family he’s still around living in Nuevo Laredo, Tamps. Mexico if you need any songs or photos let me know I have access to alot of the music and Images.
I’ll see what I can do for Ruben!
The one on the bottom left hand side is my Uncle Tomas Hinojosa R.I.P he was the saxophonist of the group. I only know Mr. Garza from his association with my family in particularly my uncles and my father. As for songs I got several of those too so if your looking for some of them drop me a line.
Hey Diana! My father is fan of los matemáticos. Wow your uncle was Tomas Hinojosa! So your dad was his brother? Whoah!
Hi sorry just saw your message. Yes my dad is his brother. All our family were musicians, but only my uncle branched out into the early rock scene though. Happy to hear that your dad was a fan and he enjoyed the music.
It appears on Lucha Va Voom – Señor Amor’s Mexican R&R Faves on Cobraside.
http://digital.thinkindie.com/search/release.php?RELEASE_ID=26733
Jesus Manuel Ruiz his the one at the very bottom is my Grandpa its amazing to see the Matematicos on the internet I’ve heard so many stories about the band i never thought they were big i thought they were a local group I’m happy to see my grandpa for ever immortalized on pictures and his voice on CD’S. I LOVE HIM AND THOUGH I’VE NEVER MET HIM I MISS HIM EVERYONE DOES (R.I.P Jesus Manuel Ruiz) LONG LIVE Los Matematicos.
Hola Guillermo, mi nombre es Lalo Martínez y tengo un blog en multiply (y en otros sitios de internet que aqui han mencionado en otros mails), en mi blog tengo información acerca de éstos grupos norteños de los años 60s, entre ellos los Matemáticos,Los Seven Days, Los Yaki, Los Reno,etc etc.asimismo he subido musica, videos etc de estas agrupaciones, me gustaría compartieras información acerca de tu padre Guillermo López como integrante de esta agrupación de los Matemáticos, conozco a Juan Garza pues en Agosto del 2007 fuimos a tocar a Nuevo Laredo ya ahi se le rindió un reconocimiento por su trayectoria. Mi correo es lalo2025@yahoo.com
y el link de mi página es http://frontrock60s.multiply.com
Ojalá te puedas comunicar conmigo. Saludos.
Hi Profesor
I wan’t to hear this song of “Los Monstruos” “Hey Monstruo, quitate de aqui / Hey Monstruo, quitate de aqui.”
Do you have any more info??
Cheers!!!