The band’s name is a pun between Tepeyac and Jacques Cousteau. Tepeyac means “at the top of the hill” in Nahuatl. And the hill of the Tepeyac was always a transcendental place for Mexico.
In the times before the Spanish conquest, it was the place where the Mexicas held their celebrations for Mother Earth, Tonantzin, which was the representation of the feminine side of the universe in Mexica cosmogony, which assigned a dual nature to the universe.
After the conquest, the Catholic Church recognized the significance of the place and realized they had to turn it into a place of worship of their own, and so the virgin Mary appeared before a Mexican of indigenous origins, Juan Diego, in 1531, ten years after the conquest of Tenochtitlan.
Since the virgin asked him to have a church built for her in the site, Juan Diego went to Friar Juan de Zumárraga, Spaniard, first bishop, archbishop and inquisitor of Mexico, a man now associated to bitter memories.
Zumárraga asked Juan Diego for a proof that the virgin was in speaking terms with him. Juan Diego went back to Mary and told her the message, and she asked him to go to the top of the hill (tepeyac), cut some flowers he would find there, and bring them to Zumárraga.
Juan Diego took the flowers to him, and as he opened his robe to show Zumárraga the flowers, the image of the virgin appeared, painted in the robe. The archbishop, who obviously was convinced that indigenous people were not capable of painting or doing anything that required the smallest measure of talent, decided the thing was a miracle.
Ever since, the hill of the Tepeyac has been one of the most important Catholic sites in the world.
In a stark contrast to Zumárraga, Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Captain Cousteau, is a man associated to the fondest of memories who was born in France in 1910. He is widely recognized for many inventions that have approached us tremendously to the secrets of the sea, including the oxygen tanks that made it possible, in the one hand, that people could dive without an source of air connected to the surface and, in the other, that virtually any pedestrian could jump into underwater adventures. It is estimated that currently over 6 million people have diving licenses.
Knowing that the sea was full of wonders yet to be discovered, and that progress was putting them at risk, Cousteau set out to make us fall in love with the sea. “People protect what they love,” he used to say, and he tried in many ways to make us plunge into the knowledge and protection of the environment.
He published over 115 films for television, 50 books and, among other things, he launched a world campaign in 1990 to prevent the mineral exploitation of Antarctica. And he achieved it. Antarctica is protected, for 50 years at least.
He also campaigned for the creation of a charter of rights of the future generations, which, in short, states that those of us who are currently living in the world have the responsibility to leave a inhabitable world for those who haven’t been born.
So, again, ‘tepeyac usto’ is a pun between Tepeyac and Jacques Cousteau and it’s pronounced tĕ-pĕ-YAHK ū-stō.
That was written by the vocalist of the band, who is from London. It was recorded at normal speed and then accelerated a little bit to give it that sort of mock tone, which seems to go really well with the Mexican theme.
The story is about a poor family in a poor neighborhood, it starts with the birth of Panchito, the firstborn son, then describes details about the life of family (Panchito was followed by 7 boys and one girl) until the day, 15 years after Panchito’s birth, when a stray bullet hits the father in the street.
Panchito runs and kneels besides his father (an ill-fortuned innocent pedestrian, says the song) who then gives him his last words of advice: respect what is not yours, and don’t mess with those Koreans.
The song came out of a “game” Greg used to have with some friends, which consisted of grabbing police press releases and singing them, playing guitar as you read. Only in this one the lyrics are made up, they aren’t an actual press release.
It was recorded in a Tascam 4 track portastudio in 2002, in the Rancho Relacso, in Guatemala.
En un barrio bravo entre bravos
Una vecindad común y corriente
Amanece un día de septiembre
Con un nuevo habitante
Don Ignacio con puro en mano
Sonríe y mira a su hijo
Quince años van pasando tranquilitos
No hay lujo pero tampoco pasan hambre
A Panchito le va bien en la escuela
Le han seguido siete machos y una hembra
Pero en la tarde, en la esquina, tres balazos
Cambian el rumbo de nuestro cuento
Panchito sale corriendo a la calle
Pocos segundos después del tiroteo
Se arrodilla al lado de su padre
Mientras el charco rojo se hace mas grande
A un malafortunado transeúnte inocente
Le alcanzaron las Garras del Destino
Padre susurra a su hijo:
Respeta a lo ajeno
Y no te metas con los Coreanos
“‘El If You Find’ was one of those songs that came up in a jam. Grec came around to my house, grabbed the guitarrón and started fooling around. I grabbed the jarana and started to play along. We liked how it sounded.
We took the drum machine, made up a quick beat, connected it to the amplifier of the bass and had it blasting while we were jamming. Grec was making up the words as we played. We really liked it, so we recorded it. Two hours after we started jamming we had the thing recorded, and we never recorded a version with better quality.
To this day I like the fact that it doesn’t have any lyrics. It’s like an experiment where people can mishear a meaning out of something completely meaningless. I’d like to keep it that way, but grec has been threatening to put lyrics to it.”
“…right, the weird name. We chose that name for the song because it’s what Greg kept repeating the most while singing: “if you find.” Then again, naming the song “If You Find” sounded awfully cheesy, so we took the format that sones jarochos use, where songs are always called “The” + “Subject Matter” (like “El” + “Pájaro Carpintero” or “El” + “Fandanguito.” Hence “El” + “If You Find.””
guest vox by: bgm
A
If I appear in your backyard,
G
open your arms
D A
when I’m feeling well received I shine
A
If I appear in your backyard,
G
open your arms
D A
when I’m feeling well received I shine
A
when I’m feeling well received
D
I shine
when I’m feeling well received I shine
G
when I’m feeling well received
D
I shine
when I’m feeling well received I shine
A
If I appear in your backyard,
G
open your arms
D B-A
when I’m feeling well received I shine
Recording Engineer: Confort Supersónico
Gm7 Am7
Cuando vos
Gm7 Am7
dijiste va a estar bien, tranquilo
Gm7 Am7
me oí decir
Gm7 Am7
que sí, que cómo no, seguro
Gm7 Am7
y sé que sí
Gm7 Am7
y sé también por vez primera
Gm7 Am7
que el día de hoy
Gm7 Am7
o un día cualquier del calendario
Gm7 Am7
llega el sol
Gm7 Am7
a encontrarnos bien y separados
Rem Sim7
Cade seu amor?
Gm7 A
Cade hoje voce?
Mim – Fa# – Sim – Mim /F#7 /Sol7 /La7
Mim – Fa# – Do7 – Do#7
My Charityn, why did you do that disappearing thing
you know it is so very annoying
where have you been?
My Little Charityn, I ring and ring and ring and ring
but there is never anybody in
my little thing
My Charityn, the policía don’t know where you been
the yellow pages don’t have no charityns
little chapin
You know something? it’s easier to speak to Vladimir Putin
or even Osama Bin Laden
than my chapin queen
I saw you at the bar one evening
sipping your vodka you looked ravishing
I had no idea you’d be vanishing, leaving me in a spin
Hey, charityn, my doctor tell me, “take your medicine,
stop talking crazy things about charityns
that you have never seen”
You’never seen!
I’ve never seen, no woman finer than my charityn
not even in a magazine
nor on the big screen
My charityn, I look for you en Jutiapa y en Palín
I even look for you en zone eighteen
where I had never been
My charityn, as I’m getting into this rhyming thing
I’m running out of words that end in in
for me to sing
If you where chariton,
I would have more words left to finish this song
i could go on and on and on and on
but that would be wrong
My charitan, I wanna prove to you that I’m a man
I have some money in a savings plan
house in Atitlan
My charice, je peux te chanter si tu veux en Français
fazer o mesmo em portugues
o nihonés
My charitun, I barely met you you were gone too soon
now all I have left of you is this tune
clippings in my room
Spoken:
My Charityn, why did you do that disappearing thing
you know it is so very annoying
where have you been?
My Charityn, why you go do that disappearing thing
you know it so so so very annoying
where have you been?
Where have you been?
My Little Charityn, I ring and ring and ring and ring
but there is never anybody in
freaking chapin
tepeyac usto 