Amps & Lina formed in Recife (a state of northeast Brazil), in the middle of June 1995 by a group of friends in order to perform unpretentiously. Luciana (vocals) and Alcides (guitars) met while studying Architecture at University (UFPE) . Henrique (bass) is Alcides´ brother, the other members were friends and neighbors invited for the adventure. In that time, Luciana was 17, Alcides, 20, and Henrique was 18 years old. The brothers used to play together since the middle 80’s but the idea of a project influenced by Mutantes runned only in University time – their links and likes helped. Luciana wasn´t a Rita Lee wannabe, but assumed the vocals for fun. Amps & Lina soon made its live debut in a local independent rock festival and circuited the underground of Recife.

The first demo was recorded in 1997, released in cassette and had the dreadful but tropicalist title of “DEMO ROLL + Chegou”. In 1998, they produced a promocional CD entitled “Só pra dançar” with the same songs above plus a bonus track called “Amanhã é Sábado”.

In March 1999, Amps & Lina performed last show after joining “Recife Rock Mangue”, a cd compilation produced by DJ Elcy Oliveira. Wanna know the reason they split? The moto in the band was getting together and having fun, taking it easy. But their priorities changed: they were supposed to get a job and start living an adult life when getting to their 20’s.

In spite of personal reasons, Luciana also added that those times weren´t artistically favourable for authoral bands in Recife, except those which could be filed under the label ‘mangue’, such as Chico Science and Nação Zumbi and Mundo Livre. “Recife was like a closing shell, except for cover bands that used to fill up pubs and night clubs. Each day more things were getting difficult such as media and places to perform.”

Later in 2004, part of the members joined to play other bands’ versions at a friend’s party. Surprisingly, some friends asked them to play their own songs. After that, they decided to return with the band. Amps & Lina reborn with new purpose and formation.

In 2005, Diego Araújo (current Sweet Fanny Addams’ bass player) joined the 3 original members to play drums and so did Lorena in violin and vocals later in 2006. The present formation was completed when Ricardo entered to replace Diego and most recently Rogério assumed programming and guitars after “Curva e Linha” EP recording.

This new Amps & Lina are still dense, with harmonic confluence between violin and guitar, sweet voices, strong rhythms and electronic effects. After the gap, they feel themselves more mature and musically sensitive, this could be naturally perceived through lyrics and melodies of their new songs.
Besides friendship, technological facilities and interfaces such as internet and recording softwares, new members with different influences and tones stimulated A&L to perform and write songs. Luciana says, “After releasing ‘Curva e Linha’ we didn´t know what or how would be the audience feedback but in fact we trusted the songs. We knew that we had in our hands the result of our differences and not simply a product of any external formula adopted for us.”

Actually, there are many differences. Alcides and Henrique´s father is a popular songwriter in Frevo (a tradicional rhythmn from the northeast Brazil). Despite that, both brothers enjoy blues and classical rock. Rogério likes samba-rock and such as Luciana and Lorena also likes alternative rock. But both girls also enjoy fusions, electronic music, jazz, and so on.

Kinda Mangue Beat, ain´t that? Could be… but not repeating formulas, like Luciana said: “If Recife has a sound considered multicultural, so we fit where music is completly free to float, where we can mix tones, sound effetcs, to experiment our passions and feelings. But regional rhythms and aspects are not our references, it wouldn´t sound true. We were raised by the concrete but we could not deny our popular culture. It is just a matter of life experience. Amps runned out of the Mangue beat Movement and nowadays makes alternative music free from formulas and open to experiments and new sounds.”

“Curva e Linha” ’s recording started in March 2007 at Pierre´s studio with a little help from Guilherme Gadelha on keyboards, samplers and effects. It was finished in June 2007 at Proclo´s studio with the help from another friend, Enio Damasceno (from local band Mellotrons) playing synths and eletronic effects. Diego (from Sweet Fanny Addams) helped with mixdown and mastering in a home studio.

In September 2007, A&L became part of midsummer madness’ cast. The “Curva e Linha” EP was released in the site in November 2007. You can download all 5 tracks and the cover.

In 2008, Amps & Lina recorded a version of Beatles‘ “Good Night”, taken from the White Album. A brazilian journalist is compiling fan versions from brazilian bands. You can find more about this project at this group at orkut

Amps & Lina MySpace - www.myspace.com/ampsilina

Amps & Lina at Best 2007 Downloads of INDIE MP3.

South America has long had a pretty decent indiepop scene, though few bands (like Postal Blue and Pale Sunday) ever really seem to get much attention up here. Well, for anyone interested in hearing what’s going on down there, this hour-long collection of songs from all over the continent (plus one from Mexico) would be a great place to start. Most of these bands are new to me, although there were a couple songs that I’ve heard elsewhere, including the best song from Hacia Dos Veranos’s 2004 EP and yet another album track on a compilation from the excellent Luisa Mandou Um Beijo (who I really would love to hear more from!). Other favorites come from the delightfully jangly Amelia and Apanhador Só, the dreamy Lissa and the crooning Coiffeur. Not strictly indiepop, this disc also contains a few electronic songs, most of which I wasn’t too into, although I did like the poppy song from Ondo and parts of Filme’s jazzy composition. Of course, all of these songs are sung in Spanish or Portuguese, but language barriers are no matter for true fans of pop!

by Chris Mac - Indie Pages

The playlist:
* marks bands on the compilation Porque este oceáno…

Bicicletas (argentina)- lovesong (the Cure)
Resplandor * (peru)- oeste
Modular* (argentina) - encapsulados
El Mato un Policia Motorizado*(argentina)-navidad en los santos
Amelia* (uruguay) - adios (photo)
Verme Arder (argentina)- barcarola
Mostro (chile) - ogopogo
Popdylan (argentina) - nada es igual
Que Out (argentina) - soy una punk (aerolineas federales)
Apanhador Só* (brazil)- pouco importa
Telegrama* (Venezuela) - deja de hablar

Luisa mandou um beijo was born in as a solo project from guitarist and composer Fernando Paiva. He home-recorded at 4track-studio and invited Flavia Muniz to sing. They have had an band before called Candongas não Fazem Festa. This demo was released in january 2000
As the news spread, people liked the music and Fernando and Flavia decided to invite other friends to start a band. The idea was to be able to play those songs live.On June 2000, Luisa mandou um beijo formed with the same members as today: Flávia Muniz (voice); Fernando Paiva (guitar); PP (guitar); PC (bass); Shockbrou (trumpet); Andrezinho (flute); Luciano Grossman (drums). All of them has always been involved with side-projects. Flávia Muniz recorded a solo CD in 2004. Fernando Paiva is a journalist and writer, in 2004 he published a novel called “Ana Camerinda” and writes a blog called “Maquina de Escrever”. PP, or Pedro Paulo, is an architect, he also recorded a solo project called “PedroP78” in 2004, available through midsummer madness. He is also guitarist in a band called Pancake and drummer for ACK. Shockbrou, or Daniel Paiva, draws and studied cinema. He directed a documentary, 2 animated short movies and co-directed the video for the music Guardanapos from Luisa Mandou Um Beijo. Luciano Grossman is a music producer and played drums for another local band called Leela. He was responsible for the musical production of Luisa’s first album. PC, or Paulo César, has a master’s degree in philosofy at PUC-Rio.

Not only the name of the band is curious (it translates to Luisa sent you a kiss). They have other excentricities: all their releases, from EPs to albuns don’t have titles, they are all called “s/t”. Also, they don’t like to appear in pictures. To represent the band, photos of legos, forks & knives and also drawings have been used.
Some of Luisa’s most important shows are the support for Cat Power, in 2001, at Rio de Janeiro; a headline at Centro Cultural São Paulo (CCSP), in 2002; playing at Rio Cena Contemporânea, at MAM in 2003; and the participation at midsummer madness’ 15th aniversary in 2004.

Their first album was released in the begining of 2005. After that, they started promoting the record through the internet. The british website Indie Mp3 wrote a very nice review of the album that stroke a blitzkrieg of 225 downloads in only 7 days. New reviews and articles in other blogs in Japan , England , Portugal, Spain, Germany, Sweden, Italy and the band received a proposal to take part on a compilation in Cingapore !!

The same albun gathered good reviews and nominations for prizes in Brazil. It was nominated for the best indie rock album in Brazil at Prêmio Claro de Música Independente 2005 and best independent albun at Laboratório Pop’s magazine Award. Several magazines and websites listed Luisa Mandou Um Beijo’s first album as one of the best records of 2005: Rock Press magazine, websites Sobrecarga and Scream & Yell, and the argentinian website Velvet Rockmine. Outside Brazil, again, the album was distributed in England through Action Pop and Argentina through Muy Moderna Records.

Througout 2006 e 2007, the band is doing well in MP3-free websites in Europe. At the german website TonsPion, Luisa stayed at top10 for 2 weeks; at MeinBerlin also top10, above names as Gotan Project e Sigúr Ros.
These european feedback for the 1st record made new connections for the band. The german band Computer and DJ Aufa Fikri remixed songs from Luisa Mandou Um Beijo’s album, as did 2 brazilian producers, Fujimo and Nha Tang. In february 2007, midsummer madness put all remixes together and released ep mm71 - Extras.

For the second half of 2007, Luisa Mandou Um Beijo is working on songs for a 2nd album.
oficial website: www.luisamandouumbeijo.com

community at Orkut: http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=531907

compilations that they take part:
“não passe álcool” (midsummer madness / 2001) with the song Bauhaus Today (demo)”

people are required for…” (plan de sens / Japan / 2003 ) with Bauhaus Today (demo) - you can buy this compilation at our AUDIO SHOP

“peachy little secrets” (fruit records / Singapora / 2006) with Amarelinha

“let it bee”(my honey / Italy / 2007) with Com um pote de geléia de morango nas mãos.

“Share it, spread it, love it” (a Creative Commons license web compilation). For the website Metawelle. You can download the compilation for free at: http://metawelle.net/2007/05/15/ssl-vol-1/

“Porque este oceano es el tuyo, es el mio” (Si no puedo Bailar… / Brazil / 2007) with Anslemo. This compilation was released by Fernando’s label, Si No Puedo Bailar, No es mi revolucion, with midsummer madness’ cooperation (see more at ARTIST menu)

Some press reviews:
“This is indie pop at the top of its game. It features wonderful vocals provided by female vocalist Flávia Muniz complete with a horn section that makes most, if not all of these songs infectious listening. This is one enjoyable album. Dont worry about the band singing it their native Portuguese as indie pop as high quality as this surpasses any language constraints.” - INDIE MP3

video for “Guardanapos”:

video for “Desfeito em Luz”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcNcvw0MSrw
video for “Amarelinha”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRPFR_7Qic0
video for “Anselmo”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXz-pf5Ka-I