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One early review of our album came back from someone named Tex: "I laughed, I cried, I pissed my pants...NO Really!" IF THE SONGS WERE TITLED BY GENRES INSTEAD OF NAMES, THEY WOULD GO SOMETHING LIKE...THIS: 1-NEW CELTIC/LATIN FOLK 2-TEX MEX DRINKING SONG 3-GOTH ALTERNATIVE 4-SOUNDSCAPE / R&B 5-ROMANTIC ROCK 6-ACOUSTIC HARMONY POP! 7-VAUDEVILLE / CABARET 8-HARD FUNK / PUNK 9-TECHNO-COUNTRY GOSPEL 10-FIELD RECORDING 11-DELTA BLUES / CHANT 12-VOODOO POLKA 13-LO-FI BEATLESQUE SNIPPET 14-NONSENSE / PROG-CUBANO 15-PIANO BALLADRY 16-DISCO DIRGE 17-DRONE / SHEPHERD'S CALL 18-ANTHEMIC BO-DIDDLEY ENSEMBLE thanks to Jonathan D for this breakdown and this review: "HUMBERTO CORDERO LIVES IN HIS OWN WORLD. MAKES HIS OWN WORLD MUSIC. AN AMERICAN ECCENTRIC WHO, BY HAVING NO TASTE, HAS ALL TASTE, MUSICALLY, HUM IS THE KID YOU HATED IN HIGH SCHOOL FOR BEING HIMSELF, BUT LATER GREW TO ADMIRE. HE CHANNELS HIS SONGS THROUGH ACCORDIAN-THEMED MUSIC SUCH AS BELLE CANTO, LATIN, CAJUN, AND OTHER CINEMATIC FORMS IN THE SAME WAY THAT GREAT GUITARISTS GREET THE COMMON IDIOMS OF COUNTRY FOLK AND BLUES. AS A VOCALIST, CORDERO CANNOT HELP BUT BE DRIVEN BY HIS UNINHIBITED LATIN BLOOD. HE SEEMS TO HARMONIZE WITH HIMSELF-LOST IN THE EXQUISTE PLEASURE OF THE RESOUNDING 1-4-AND 5 OF A SIMPLE CHORD. HUMBERTO TWISTS THE WORLD MUSIC OF HIS OWN GALAXY AND ORCHESTRA, RAGTAG CHOIR, FRANK SINATRA, LOUIS PRIMA AND WITCH DOCTOR ALL SHOOTING FOR ECSTATIC REVERIE ON HIS OWN WIDE-SCREEN." How much Hum? How much the Quick? It's always been hard to say. There's never been a steady band. It's always been the songs and the mercenaries attacking them. Ever since agreeing to pen the graduation song for the choir to sing at my own high school graduation (a dreadful swirl called All Our Goodbyes), I've coerced a wide variety of musicians to help make nonsense of it all. These players have sometimes had a hard time following along, not because of complication, but because I'm told that my songs don't have very symmetrical patterns. They are more like rambling stories that kaleidoscope from image to emotion. The songs on Like...This come from many chapters in the history of the "band". Some originate from some rooftops in NYC before I began playing accordion and would improvise lyrics over Merritt's guitar and the summer and the wine. Some come from my time as a carpenter in upstate NY when I stumbled together the first bunch of Quick players and began winching the songs closer to what was in my head. There are songs from my time in Eastern Europe and Yugoslavia working as a prop guy on a film where the 12-piece jam band renamed themselves "Kvickly Humberto" and I began pretending to play the accordion. A couple of the tunes were born while working as an art director on feature films in Boston before washing ashore on Cape Cod where I decided to brace up, buy a serviceable accordion and get some minimal chops so I could begin doing open mics. That's where I met the musicians that helped create this first album. While pulling favors and hair, as always, I left it up to sweet chance and the talent of the ever-changing Quick to unravel the drama that each song holds tightly inside itself. Another review from Performer Magazine: Reviewer -Adam Crepeau "Humberto Cordero is not only interested in making music, but also overwhelming your senses with images, art, poetry, spoken word and sound collage. There are elements of a pop album appearing on Like...This, but as a whole, it's a very challenging listen, forcing the listener to take heed and think about what's going on. Pop music in general is like a city without parks. All day you see tall buildings, traffic, and people with places to go, but nowhere to turn for introspection, no grassy areas that you can walk on in bare feet to rest from the concrete. Music becomes a sterile wasteland, just like a parkless city. It would seem Humberto Cordero, the mastermind behind Hum and the Quick, is trying to change this all by himself. On his journey to create the perfect collection of ear candy, Humberto draws from an amazing array of sources to sample, from Dylan Thomas to Busta Rhymes to Mattel's See &Say. As an album, Like...This is very non sequitur. It keeps the listener in tune to the musical meandering but also looking for motivation behind it all. Maybe there isn't. Maybe Humberto is just having fun with us, playing with our concepts of pop music, playing with our concepts of pop art in general. You get this feeling as you read through the liner notes and through the song titles, "The Wedding of Electronics &Biology," "Judy the Chimp," "I Rely on Denial (You Deny You Rely On Me)," and by the subtle notes that are placed through the booklet, that its all done very tongue-in-cheek but in a way that makes you wonder why so much effort was put in the joke. But in the end you also realize that it's no joke. Humberto Cordero is a talented musician with great ideas and a knack for leading you to pop music's serene grassy park in the city." Check out the artist's website: http://www.humandthequick.com Track List: 1. Peek 2. Albuquerque 3. Dance Manic 4. Air Raid Siren 5. Julia 6. Tattle Tale 7. Judy the Chimp 8. Brace Yourself 9. He Was Prettier Than She Was 10. It Was Our Custom At the Time 11. No Regular Day, No 12. I Rely on Denial (you deny you rely on me) 13. Walk Toward This Moon 14. The Wedding of Electronics & Biology 15. Osmosis 16. Magical Food 17. Sky Boy 18. The Look You Give Me (La Mirada) Suggested CDs:Other Genres:
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