I.R.A. stands for Infexion Respiratoria Acuda. Spanish readers, please translate! I’m just a chubby Japanese guy sitting behind a computer. So, I received a copy of this band from Medellin, Colombia’s CD titled Cronicas De Una Decada Podrida in a trade a few years ago. It was a big surprise to hear from my brother that this band was playing at a tiny club in Long Beach, CA with no flyers passed out or any advertising. He had received an email from a friend a couple of days before and forwarded it to me. But as luck would have it, I had other commitments. But my brother did go and he got copies of these releases and let me borrow them since the band asked him to have them reviewed by me. So this band has been, from what I am told, one of the longest running punk bands in Colombia. They play what would be classified as street punk. But they really sound like an older band that continues to play what they know: upbeat, snotty punk that is sung in their native tongue of Spanish and a mid-paced 4/4 beat that would have those in the know singing along at the top of their lungs at their gigs. Dual female/male vocals take turns from song to song to mix things up. Group background vocals round things out. If I heard an American band playing the same songs, it wouldn’t have the same magic. Something about it coming from South America makes it so intriguing.
–don (I.R.A.)