Mamonas Assassinas
| Mamonas Assassinas | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Guarulhos, São Paulo, Brazil |
| Genres | Comedy rock |
| Years active | 1995–1996 |
| Labels | EMI |
| Associated acts | Utopia |
| Past members |
Dinho Samuel Reoli Júlio Rasec Sérgio Reoli Bento Hinoto |
Mamonas Assassinas was a satirical Brazilian rock band. Their lyrics, music and live performances were as famous as their tragic end: on March 2, 1996, the plane in which they were flying crashed into the Cantareira mountain range, near São Paulo, causing the death of all the band members.
The band's name carries a double-entendre as, in Portuguese mamonas can be either the name of the Castor oil plant, which contains the highly toxic comount ricin (their logo incorporated a castor bean) or the augmentative for mamas, meaning breasts (which were prominently pictured on the album cover). The band mentioned model as an influence to the name, and even translated the name into English as "Killer Big Breasts".
The musical style of Mamonas Assassinas members employed a humorous mixture between rock and a wide range of styles. They often borrowed elements from other music, among which were the main riff of the Portuguese Vira ("Vira-Vira"), Northeastern Brazilian rhythms like forró ("Jumento Celestino"), Mexican music ("Pelados em Santos"), heavy metal ("Débil Metal"), sertanejo ("Bois Don't Cry"), and even pagode ("Lá Vem o Alemão"). This combination can be easily checked at their videos, where various references to many cultures were found.
The band started its activities in 1989 without Dinho, in a band called Utopia, performing covers of Legião Urbana and Rush. Soon Dinho was incorporated, and Utopia performed in the suburbs of São Paulo. They even did release an album, but it sold less than 100 copies. Just as the band noticed the comedical intromissions and songs on their concerts were better accepted than the serious performances, the band decided to fully embrace the comedy on their music, including a change to a double entendre name. Their first demo reached Rafael, son of the artistic director of EMI-Odeon, João Augusto Soares. João Augusto hired the band afterwards
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