It’s nothing short of miraculous that American audiences are
getting the chance to see Os Mutantes. The legendary Brazilian group
never played an American show in their heyday; indeed, most Americans
had never heard of them until years after the Tropicália
movement had come and gone. But over the years it became clear that Os
Mutantes were one of the greatest rock bands that ever existed, and in
2006, founding members (and brothers) Sérgio Dias Baptista and
Arnaldo Baptista reconstituted the group for a handful of shows. Now
Sérgio has teamed with legendary Brazilian songwriter (and
fellow Tropicálista) Tom Zé to compose Haih or
Amortecedor, the first new Os Mutantes album in 35 years.
It’s a willfully weird album, and one wouldn’t expect anything less
from Os Mutantes. But the youthful, wide-eyed psychedelia of the
group’s classic work has given way to a wiser—if not
older—outlook. In some ways, Haih or Amortecedor is more
fiercely subversive than anything the group has ever done, with Western
musical styles inverted and traditional Brazilian sounds exposed to
their core.
A lot of this has to do with collaborating with Zé in the
songwriting, says Sérgio. “We met 40 years ago and I was too
young to talk to him then. We started together but then we had totally
separate lives, and then we got together now and he became the best
partner I’ve ever had in terms of writing music.”
The Tropicália movement was an artistic and political one;
under Brazil’s military dictatorship in the late ’60s, artists and
musicians celebrated the absurdist and exploratory qualities of the
counterculture movement happening at that time in Western society,
injecting it with a fierce Brazilian identity. The movement was soon
squelched by Brazil’s oppressive government, but Os Mutantes continued;
Arnaldo and fellow Mutante Rita Lee Jones were married in 1971, but
divorced a year later, and Jones left the group to go on to a hugely
successful solo career. Arnaldo left shortly after, and Sérgio
carried on with Os Mutantes until 1978.
The acid-dipped optimism of their music had a dark side, and in 1982
Arnaldo jumped out a window on ex-wife Jones’ birthday. Having survived
the leap, Arnaldo participated in the reunion shows in 2006 and 2007,
but has since had to bow out from Os Mutantes. “I think the thing was
too hard on him,” says Sérgio. “He’s not as strong as he was,
especially after the so-called accident. It’s not something I can make
a choice [about] because his wife has the guard of his ability to be
able to say yes or no to anything.”
Meanwhile, Arnaldo’s ex-wife Jones had some unkind words to say
about the reunion, saying it was to “earn cash to pay for
geriatry.”
“Well, it was a sad thing for her to say,” says Sérgio. “Rita
obviously is as crazy as him, and I think Mutantes was always kind of a
shadow on her career. They were sweethearts and they lost, like, their
cherries to each other, and when we came back, I think he haunted her
somehow.”
Old grudges aside, the return of Os Mutantes is a very welcome
thing, and the playful humor of their music is all the more vital.
“Life is so serious, man,” says Sérgio. “I think it’s very easy
to become cynical and bitter with the hardships of life. So if you
don’t have a laugh over it, you know, it becomes too heavy.”