Subterranean Homesick Alien

Radiohead's Subterranean Homesick Alien, the mariachi cover.

I wasn't too familiar with mariachi instrumentation before this, but ended up with three vocalists, two trumpets, two violins, two guitars, a guitarron, and an accordion, all samples except for one of the guitars and my voice.

Thanks to the MeFi folks who helped me with the lyrics translation. This is an amalgom of sorts of what everone suggested. Sing along!

El aliento del alba
Lo sigo olvidando
El olor del sol estival

Vivo en un pueblo
Donde no puedes oler nada
Miras tus pies
Por grietas en la acera

Allá arriba
Los extraterrestres graban
películas caseras
Para los que se quedaron

De estas criaturas raras
Que encierran sus almas
Taladran huecos en si mismos
Y viven para sus secretos

Están todos
Tensos ...

Deseo para ellos a descender sobre la camino
Tarde en la noche, mientras estoy manejando
Me llevan bordo de sus bella nave
Que me muestren el mundo como yo quiero verlo

Les diría a mis amigos, pero no lo creería
Se podrían pensar que yo estaba loco
Les mostraría las estrellas y lo que significa la vida
Me encerrarían
Pero estaría bien

Solo estoy
tenso ...

• play
• pause
• stop
• min volume
• max volume

posted by hanoixan (42 comments total)

Holy crap, this is delightful.
posted by modernserf at 3:02 PM on July 8, 2012

Ha! This is really great, hanoixan.
posted by cortex at 4:13 PM on July 8, 2012

The violins to trumpets right before 4:00 is pretty sweet.
posted by starman at 4:17 PM on July 8, 2012

Thanks all :)
posted by hanoixan at 4:45 PM on July 8, 2012

I would never have expected this to work, and it totally does.
posted by cathodeheart at 8:09 PM on July 8, 2012

lovely.
posted by dubold at 5:39 AM on July 9, 2012

Yeah, this totally works; great arrangement. I'm barely familiar with the album, really, and I realized about halfway through that this song's got so many strong little themes that you were using ... nice work. Your voice is just about perfect for it, too.
posted by uncleozzy at 5:47 AM on July 9, 2012

Wow!
posted by The World Famous at 7:59 AM on July 9, 2012

uncleozzy: Thanks, man. I realized just now that it would probably make a good march too. You've got those A and B trumpet parts that come together for the final dogfight after the second chorus. You'd just need to change keys for the second verse or something to really sell it. ;)
posted by hanoixan at 8:04 AM on July 9, 2012

AMAZING.
posted by naju at 1:54 PM on July 9, 2012

This is truly awesome. Well done.
posted by Elmore at 2:12 PM on July 9, 2012

ole!
posted by pyramid termite at 4:13 PM on July 9, 2012 [1 favorite]

This is amazing.
posted by Lutoslawski at 9:51 AM on July 10, 2012

Love it.
posted by dobie at 6:30 PM on July 10, 2012

This is all ten kinds of awesome.
posted by empatterson at 10:20 AM on July 11, 2012

Fucking hell. Ten foot grin here. Wonderful.
posted by ominous_paws at 12:06 PM on July 11, 2012

I don't usually comment, but I have to. AMAZING. Watch me play this many more times. Repeatedly.
posted by Folk at 12:28 PM on July 11, 2012

As a Radiohead fan this makes me deleriously happy.
posted by jokeefe at 4:56 PM on July 11, 2012

Wowzers.
posted by XhaustedProphet at 7:41 PM on July 11, 2012

I'm glad so many people dig it. You all are too nice!
posted by hanoixan at 6:27 AM on July 12, 2012

I love it! Thanks for brightening up a tense negotiating meeting.
posted by saucysault at 8:40 AM on July 12, 2012

Wow, wow, wow, this made my night!
posted by dual_action at 3:49 PM on July 12, 2012

What they all said. Seriously.
posted by owtytrof at 11:32 PM on July 12, 2012

oh my god, i love this. fantastic work, hanoixan!
posted by palomar at 1:16 AM on July 13, 2012

I keep coming back to this one. I normally don't love this genre, but your understanding and interpretation of the original arrangement and composition is just amazing.
posted by idest at 4:57 AM on July 13, 2012 [1 favorite]

God, this is wonderful!
posted by nile_red at 8:06 AM on July 14, 2012

This threw me right off when ot came on on the mefimusic player! love it mate, seriously well done, musta taken a lot of work and it sounded fantastic.
posted by marienbad at 3:53 PM on July 15, 2012

What everybody else said, wow. I have goosebumps!
posted by haunted by Leonard Cohen at 8:26 AM on July 16, 2012

Bravo!
posted by dabug at 4:08 PM on July 17, 2012

Absolutely fantastic.
posted by pinsomniac at 12:08 AM on July 18, 2012

Wow. Really.
posted by beccaj at 7:46 PM on July 18, 2012

As someone who a) loves Radiohead, b) doesn't really care for Mariachi music, and c) is Mexican, I am feeling very confused right now.
posted by Cobalt at 8:04 PM on July 18, 2012 [4 favorites]

Just to let you know in case you hadn't seen it, but this has been sidebarred on the Front Page! Well done mate.
posted by marienbad at 5:08 PM on July 19, 2012

Cobalt, besides the fact that, well, it's a Radiohead song done to mariachi, I wasn't trying to be ironic with it. I listened to a good bit of mariachi on Youtube trying to identify the style and do it justice. So, I hope I'm not offending your Mexican roots :)

marienbad: Thank you, I had no idea!
posted by hanoixan at 6:03 PM on July 19, 2012

By the way, Cobalt, I hope you let me know if I got any of the translation wrong.
posted by hanoixan at 6:04 PM on July 19, 2012

well hello new dark horse for mix cd competetion!
posted by The Whelk at 9:09 AM on July 23, 2012

I'm as surprised as you are, Whelk. ;)
posted by hanoixan at 1:02 PM on August 12, 2012

Is there ANYTHING else like this out there? WHERE are the other songs, I'm obsessed.
posted by kettleoffish at 9:42 PM on August 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

There's nothing else this good out there, but you can Karen to all the other MeFiMusic OK Computer covers by clicking the OKComputer tag up above on the right.
posted by The World Famous at 10:06 PM on August 20, 2012

He he. Click. Not Karen. Stupid autocorrect.
posted by The World Famous at 8:03 AM on August 21, 2012

No, no, it's perfect! Congratulations!
posted by Cobalt at 7:59 PM on August 24, 2012

I'm six months late to the party but oh my christ this is ace. My ears are delirious. Thank you so much - SO MUCH!
posted by freya_lamb at 2:00 PM on March 11