Maria Bethânia, from Brazil, presents what is frankly one of the most beautiful and eerie songs I’ve ever heard, a poem about the storms one faces while navigating through life.

via Into The Blue: Seven Songs For A Stormy Day At The Beach

The Truth About Cinco De Mayo

The hosts of Alt.Latino teamed up with Ask A Mexican! columnist Gustavo Arellano to discuss the origins of the oft-misunderstood holiday and play some Mexican music. 

This week’s Alt.Latino premieres “Sacar La Voz,” the new music video for Chilean rapper Ana Tijoux. Like everything Tijoux does, the video is simple but poignant, poetic but unpretentious, graceful yet furious.

Co-hosts Felix and Jas think they’ve created the “perfect dance show,” so if you don’t move to this mix from Angola, Argentina, Colombia and New York, we pronounce you dead.

The musical mood of the last few Alt.Latino shows has been mellow, romantic and even lovey-dovey, but now they are not to be messed with. Hear new Brazilian lo-fi, Spanish post-apocalyptic punk, Dominican moombahton, Mexican pop-rock and get feisty on Alt.Latino.

When Alt.Latino hosts Jasmine Garsd and Felix Contreras weren’t baking under the scorching Mexico City sun or snarfing hot dogs at Vive Latino 2012, they saw a ton of bands at the one of the largest musical events in Latin America. (And, yes, we are kinda bummed that the hosts of Alt.Latino didn’t bring us back any of those rad Mexican wrestler masks.)

Hear about Alt.Latino’s favorite performances and discoveries from Vive Latino 2012. 

As the hosts of NPR’s Alt.Latino prepare to head out to two major music festivals, SXSW in Austin, Tex. and Vive Latino in Mexico City, the sheer volume of music they’re going to hear in the next two weeks is overwhelming.

Guest DJ: Lila Downs

Gael García Bernal joins Alt.Latino to discuss his favorite music and the soundtracks to his films. 

¡Metal! 9 New Latin Metal Bands You Should Be Listening To: Hear Krisiun, Archaios, Acrania, Tuukaria, Goatzilla and more on the latest episode of NPR’s Alt.Latino, which features NPR’s Lars Gotrich and Search y Destroy’s Miguel Palafox as guests.

Photo: Krisiun’s Moyses Kolesne / jasonalayne via Flickr

(Source: totalvibration)

This week on Alt.Latino, hear an amazing mix of psychedelic Peruvian cumbia by DJ Jack Posada, an ode to psychoactive mushrooms by Argentina’s Fauna (pictured) and more.