Exporting Shit
Formed in the late nineties in Vila Velha (Espírito Santo – Brazil), Merda [Shit] has members of Mukeka di Rato (favela grindcore), Os Pedrero (rawk’n’roll), Morto Pela Escola (skate-punk) and Hillbilly The Kid (bluegrass/country). As you can see, Mozine (guitar/vocals), Japa (bass/vocals) and Paulista (drums/vocals) know no limits when they’re supposed to show the diversity of the influences they’ve suffered. In Merda, things aren’t different, they can go from Japanese fastcore to samba in a matter of seconds – not to mention punk rock and hardcore. Be it in Portuguese, English, Spanish or Japanese, this trio always has something stupid to spread. And there’s no shortage of material for it: in 2001 they released their first CD, “Curtição dos Jovens” [Recreation for the Youngsters] through Läjä Rex. The label also released the 4-way-split “Drunk Fools X True Till Death”, where Merda meets Jäzzus, Evil Idols and I Shot Cyrus. The band took advantage of the buzz and went for international invasion with two 7” splits. One with the Americans from Hellnation (via Luna Records and 2 + 2 = 5) and another shared with the Japanese from Fuck On The Beach (which was released via 2 + 2 = 5). After that, they joined Americans, Japanese, Swedish and Finnish bands on “All Punks Spending Drunk Night”, a compilation released in the USA by Distort Ohio (belonging to Doug, from Hellnation). With that Brazilian touch, Läjä Rex put together all the material from the splits and released a CD with the adorable title of “Minha Linda Coleção de EPs do Conjunto de Música Rock Merda” [My Lovely Collection of EPs released by Shit , the Rock Music Ensemble], and as a bonus, a version for a classic Leo Canhoto & Robertinho song (if you’ve never heard of the country music duo, know that the Brazilian music isn’t summed up by “Garota de Ipanema”). Then, came “Carlos”, in a Brazilian (Läjä Rex), American (Sound Pollution) and Dutch (UPS) coalition. In the end of 2006, the crappy bases, horrible screaming and ironic lyrics were mixed with a crooked samba and an already expired bossa nova, and so “Eu Tenho Pena dos Insetos que me Picam” [I Feel Bad for the Bugs that Bite Me] was born. The CD, another globalized release (Läjä Rex [Brazil], Karasu Killer [Japan], Morte Secca [Italy] and DSK [USA]), comes with multimedia content: two videos and a full concert in Santo Antônio da Patrulha (Rio Grande do Sul - Brazil) from the tour that, in 2005, went around Brazil in a subcompact Volkswagen Gol and also passed through Argentina and Uruguay. Do you think that’s too much? Rest assured, there’s a lot more to come, a lot of shit is still going to be exported… just stay tuned!
by Ricardo Tibiu
June/2007
Contatos:
www.myspace.com/merdarock
click here to see pictures of Merda and here to read reviews.
