Peppy Cross-Cultural, Cross-Genre Approach
Launches Kinky Toward International Stardom
By Duncan Strauss

I’m always partial to bands that are truly refreshing and effective in the way they combine otherwise eclectic styles--and these guys are masterful musical alchemists. But that’s only part of their appeal.

Hell, there’s no shortage of bands bobbing to the surface these days that mix electronica with assorted strains of assorted genres, but Kinky (who hail from Monterrey, Mexico) conjure up the image of a mad scientist, gleefully dropping all kinds of things into a big beaker-- electro-pop, rock, house, funk, trip-hop with the occasional dash of their native norteno and cumbia--and cackling with joy as new, exciting and invigorating music explodes out of that beaker.

And joy really is the operative word, or one of them. Whatever genre-bending, or blending, Kinky does on any given track of their debut disc, Kinky, joy always seems to be a key ingredient. This is truly happy stuff: The band sounds happy on the sending end, and it’s impossible not to feel happy on the receiving end. This material constitutes one big, natural mood elevator.

This is truly happy stuff: The band sounds happy on the sending end, and it’s impossible not to feel happy on the receiving end. This material constitutes one big, natural mood elevator.

From the propulsive instrumental “Great Spot” to the funky bounce of “San Antonio” to the peppy, accordion spiked “Cornman” (the song they performed on “Letterman”), Kinky music is virtually guaranteed to lift your spirits, even if they don’t particularly need lifting. The five members apparently bring enormously disparate sensibilities to this dance party, and they’re all pretty good players. But clearly the band’s secret weapon is bass player Cesar Pliego, who plucks out such thick, swinging, often-busy bass lines you’d swear he’s channeling James Jamerson.

Of course, Pliego’s powerful contribution is even more apparent when Kinky’s in concert. I caught them in August doing a one-off club show in the midst of the “Unlimited Sunshine” tour--a summer package featuring Cake, The Flaming Lips, De La Soul, Modest Mouse and Kinky-- and they were fantastic. For starters, they’re young, good-looking and have energy galore. Such contagious energy, in fact, that within the opening number the crowd went nuts, the roof was raised and it was difficult to imagine them maintaining that level of zest and impact, much less increasing it.

But they did. Indeed, they were so exciting and charismatic as they mounted their inventive cross-genre, cross-cultural 75-minute assault--another important trait of Kinky songs is that some of the lyrics are in Spanish, while many numbers have English words, or no words at all--that I couldn’t help feeling these guys are going to be huge international stars, already appealing powerfully to fans of rock, electonica and other strains of dance music and to a broad Latino contingent. You don’t need a crystal ball to see Kinky’s future: They’ll have a gigantic, global following in no time.

And rightly so.