I had a conversation a while back with an A&R guy (who’s name I don’t recall) from some major label and i asked him if they had anyone on the payroll who’s job it was to just go through myspace looking for artists. His response amounted to that if you need to stoop to finding artists on myspace then you’re failing in the A&R business. That’s just about the stupidest statement I’ve heard on the subject as myspace is probably the best and easiest source for finding unknown or little known artists on the planet as I’m sure I don’t need to tell the lot of you who partake in the music blog community. He’s a moron.
Anyway, the reason I brought this up is because I was perusing myspace per usual and I happened upon a quirky, spanish electro-pop band from Barca called Mendetz who seem to have been writing all their music specifically for me for quite some time now. Let’s see; robots? check, disco? check, wailing Casio synths? check, choreographed dance numbers? check, orgasmatron? check. Yup everything is there. These guys are like The Happy Mondays with cheap synthesizers, tighter and more polished riffs and a dash of disco. There’s also a tongue-in-cheek-ness about the detail in their composition, specifically their walking funk basslines and the bleeps and bloops scattered throughout the tunes, that adds a satirical edge to their otherwise clean straightforward style. They certainly manage to capture a levity without making their music goofy which is great.
My favorite tune of theirs is Future Sex, which is the single off their recent Future Sex EP on Naked Man Recordings. They made a wonderful low-budget video for it (below) that is reminiscent of the sex scene in Demolition Man if it were reenacted with bubblewrap, Styrofoam and glitter.

Mendetz - Future Sex (YouTube)

They were also kind enough to provide a free tune for download off their self-titled Album on Sinnamon Records called “The Ground”, which is a bit faster and more intense than Future Sex.

Mendetz - The Ground

And finally heres a cheeky little interview I did with the casio punks. Next time I’m in Barca I must party with these guys. They’re a hoot!

Local Hero: How did you guys meet?
Mendetz: We meet when we were 3, at nursery… we are like brothers now. I think we didn’t know that we would form a “casiopunk” band 20 years later… in 1985 we were thinking about playing Masters of the Universe and watching Transformers Cartoons.

LH: What are some of your influences?
M: From Michael Jackson to Queen to Jamiroquai to Backstreet Boys to The Faint to Rage Against The Machine to Daft Punk… and we specially love the soundtracks of the films we watched when we were younger (kids), like “Back to the Future”, “Flight of the Navigator”, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, “Beverly Hills Cop”…

LH: What kind of gear do you use to make music?
M: We have a lot of old Casio synths, we love this kind of “retrotronic” sounds… they remind us of our childhood…

LH: What are your live shows like? Are there dance routines like in the Future Sex videos?
M: We don’t use drumboxes, or pre-programmed bases, or samplers, etc. We want to sound electronic playing with our hands. Humans trying to be machines. That’s a hard work… we’re like sweaty robots. Sometimes in a concert some fans dance like in the futuresex videos, that’s amazing. We can’t do it while playing!

LH: Do you think everyone will wear aluminum foil and bubble wrap in the future?
M: It would be cheaper than Dolce & Gabbana. And… the bubble wrap clothes are pretty sexy…

LH: It looks like you guys have been touring like mad. What has been your favorite show so far? why?
M: We played with !!! a month ago, it was great, a big big rhythm party. Last week we played in London, and we loved it too: we didn’t expect that english people would dance like fools with this 4 spanish sweaty casio players!

LH: What is your favorite party in Barca?
M: Definitely Razzmatazz. It’s a big venue where every night you can find 2 live concerts, 2 good international Dj’s, and lots of fun (and girls).

LH: What is next for the boys from Mendetz?
M: We are working on new songs, a little bit more electronic, more melodic. We’re listening now Hot Chip, Ratatat, Chromeo… and 70’s disco-funk. At the same time we’re recording a couple of covers from two great bands: The Beatles and Eiffel 65.

LH: Who’s your favorite Celebrity robot? why?
M: One of our favourite celebritiy robots is [Johny Five from] Short Circuit; we want to be like him: robots with feelings.

Be sure and buy all their music at Sinnimon Records and Naked Man Recordings online shops or whereever else you might find excellent MP3s.