Os Mutantes

Yup, I saw the legends. Or at least a new version of them. Os Mutantes is a psychedelic Brazilian band from the late 1960s who teamed up with Caetano Veloso, Vinicius de Moraes, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa and Tom Ze to form the Tropicalia movement that countered Brazilian pop music and an oppressive dictatorship. Sounds complicated, but it mostly produced clever, catchy songs with lots of word play and fabulous musical texture. They played last night at the Beachland Ballroom, and while the sound was crap, the show was great fun. It made me miss Dr. Behague and all his little quirks and his nutty lectures about Brazilian music that were neither here nor there and yet I learned. A lot, actually, and as a result I could sing along to several songs.