Cuban Boys
Encyclopedia
The Cuban Boys are a British band and production team
, currently composed of Skreen B and Ricardo Autobahn
; the band formerly also included B.L. Underwood ("Blu") and Jenny McLaren (Autobahn's sister). Their music is characterised by fast electronic beats, heavy reliance upon samples and the repetition of the words "The Cuban Boys" in the background of many of their tracks. They achieved success after being aired on John Peel
's Radio 1
show with sample-heavy
dance tracks
and cut-ups and were responsible for the hit single
"Cognoscenti Vs. Intelligentsia
" which was released through EMI
.
, they recorded Oh My God! They Killed Kenny (later retitled Kenny), which featured sampled dialogue from South Park
combined with The Bump by Kenny
. This was played extensively by John Peel
and took the 6th position in the 1998 Festive Fifty
. Following this it was released as the band's first single. A six-track EP, Blueprint For Modernisation, followed. A track from this EP, "Cuban Boy (Cuban Boys Go Boom! Mix)", went on to be used as the theme music for the BBC sitcom Still Game
.
" was built on a sample used from "Whistle Stop" by Roger Miller
which was featured in the Disney
movie Robin Hood
. It was first featured on the Internet
as part of The Hampster Dance
song on the website of the same name. The same sample was later used as the basis for the song "Irritating Hamster" by the artist DJ Mavica, then as part of the Cuban Boys' hit (a close but noticeably different imitation of the original sample was used in the final release, as the licensing fees could not be met)
"Cognoscenti Vs. Intelligentsia" became a #4 hit in the UK in December 1999, following months of speculation and rumours - all of which turned out to be false - that the men behind the Cuban Boys project were in fact Paul Weller and Noel Gallagher
of Oasis
. Either way, the track received many requests for play at radio, and was heavily hyped as a contender for the Christmas number one spot. Upon release, the single peaked at #4 on the Christmas
chart, outsold only by Westlife
at the height of their popularity, Cliff Richard
(with "The Millennium Prayer
"), and a re-release of John Lennon
's "Imagine
". It also took the number one position in the 1999 Festive Fifty
.
, through EMI
but, despite the popularity of "Cognoscenti Vs. Intelligentsia", Eastwood suffered poor sales. It was not released in time to capitalise on the success of "Cognoscenti Vs. Intelligentsia" and was given limited marketing. Some of the older tunes featuring unauthorised samples had them replaced by obvious imitations.
Following the commercial failure of Eastwood, the band were dropped by the label and left with some bitterness, later expressed through their releasing a 7" cover version
of the Sex Pistols
' "EMI".
. All the members became involved in other projects and although the Cuban Boys never formally split up, the band ceased to be active around 2001. Its members continued to work together under various names, most notably Spray
.
Following the death of John Peel
in 2004, The Cuban Boys (now consisting only of Skreen B and Ricardo Autobahn) reformed to release a tribute song, "The Nation Needs You", as a free download. Following this, they returned to producing individual tracks, releasing some of them as download-only or limited release CD singles. In 2008, they released their first full album since Eastwood, The Satellite Junkyard. on their own record label, House Of Beauty.
In 2010, the Cuban Boys released a "greatest hits" compilation of their singles. Art vs Commerce amounted to twenty one tracks, and was released once again on House of Beauty Records. The cover for the CD consists of a booklet with new artwork and a detailed history of the band.
Additionally the Cuban Boys have featured on alternative compilation album
s such as Damaged Goods
"Totally Damaged" sampler (unique track) and have done remix work featuring on other bands' singles and EPs, e.g. Helen Love.
Production team
A production team is the group of technical staff who produce a play, television show, recording, or film. Generally the term refers to all individuals responsible for the technical aspects of creating of a particular product, regardless of where in the process their expertize is required, or how...
, currently composed of Skreen B and Ricardo Autobahn
Ricardo Autobahn
John Matthews better known by his stage name Ricardo Autobahn is an English producer, songwriter and musician.Matthews is a member of the bands Spray and the Cuban Boys, who are most famous for their "pass off" UK Christmas hit "Cognoscenti Vs. Intelligentsia"...
; the band formerly also included B.L. Underwood ("Blu") and Jenny McLaren (Autobahn's sister). Their music is characterised by fast electronic beats, heavy reliance upon samples and the repetition of the words "The Cuban Boys" in the background of many of their tracks. They achieved success after being aired on John Peel
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...
's Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
show with sample-heavy
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
dance tracks
Dance music
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement...
and cut-ups and were responsible for the hit single
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
"Cognoscenti Vs. Intelligentsia
Cognoscenti vs. Intelligentsia
"Cognoscenti vs. Intelligentsia" is a song by the Cuban Boys. The song consists almost in its entirety of a sampled loop from "Whistle Stop" by Roger Miller which was featured in the Disney movie Robin Hood...
" which was released through EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
.
Band formation
The Cuban Boys formed in 1998 using the Internet as a publicity and collaboration tool from the outset. After a web only release of an anonymous dance track, Diophantus Arithmetica, with hints that it was by Noel GallagherNoel Gallagher
Noel Thomas David Gallagher is an English musician and singer-songwriter, formerly the lead guitarist, backing vocalist and principal songwriter of the English rock band Oasis. He is currently fronting his solo project, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds.Raised in Burnage, Manchester with his...
, they recorded Oh My God! They Killed Kenny (later retitled Kenny), which featured sampled dialogue from South Park
South Park
South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...
combined with The Bump by Kenny
Kenny (band)
Kenny were a mid-1970s English pop and glam rock band.-Career:Kenny emerged from a North London band called Chufff. Songwriters Bill Martin and Phil Coulter wrote the bulk of the successful songs for them. In the event, stardom was to prove extremely fleeting...
. This was played extensively by John Peel
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...
and took the 6th position in the 1998 Festive Fifty
Festive Fifty
The Festive Fifty was originally an annual list of the year's fifty best songs compiled at the end of the year and voted for by listeners to John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show...
. Following this it was released as the band's first single. A six-track EP, Blueprint For Modernisation, followed. A track from this EP, "Cuban Boy (Cuban Boys Go Boom! Mix)", went on to be used as the theme music for the BBC sitcom Still Game
Still Game
Still Game is a Scottish sitcom, produced by The Comedy Unit with the BBC. It was created by Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill, who play the lead characters - two Glaswegian pensioners, named Jack Jarvis and Victor McDade respectively....
.
"Cognoscenti Vs. Intelligentsia"
The Cuban Boys next single, "Cognoscenti Vs. IntelligentsiaCognoscenti vs. Intelligentsia
"Cognoscenti vs. Intelligentsia" is a song by the Cuban Boys. The song consists almost in its entirety of a sampled loop from "Whistle Stop" by Roger Miller which was featured in the Disney movie Robin Hood...
" was built on a sample used from "Whistle Stop" by Roger Miller
Roger Miller
Roger Dean Miller was an American singer, songwriter, musician and actor, best known for his honky tonk-influenced novelty songs...
which was featured in the Disney
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
movie Robin Hood
Robin Hood (1973 film)
Robin Hood is an 1973 American animated film produced by the Walt Disney Productions, first released in the United States on November 8, 1973...
. It was first featured on the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
as part of The Hampster Dance
The Hampster Dance
The Hampster Dance or Hampsterdance is one of the earliest examples of an Internet meme. Created by Canadian art student Deidre LaCarte for a Geocities page, the dance features rows of animated hamsters and other rodents dancing in various ways to a sped-up sample from the song "Whistle Stop" by...
song on the website of the same name. The same sample was later used as the basis for the song "Irritating Hamster" by the artist DJ Mavica, then as part of the Cuban Boys' hit (a close but noticeably different imitation of the original sample was used in the final release, as the licensing fees could not be met)
"Cognoscenti Vs. Intelligentsia" became a #4 hit in the UK in December 1999, following months of speculation and rumours - all of which turned out to be false - that the men behind the Cuban Boys project were in fact Paul Weller and Noel Gallagher
Noel Gallagher
Noel Thomas David Gallagher is an English musician and singer-songwriter, formerly the lead guitarist, backing vocalist and principal songwriter of the English rock band Oasis. He is currently fronting his solo project, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds.Raised in Burnage, Manchester with his...
of Oasis
Oasis (band)
Oasis were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1991. Originally known as The Rain, the group was formed by Liam Gallagher , Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs , Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan and Tony McCarroll , who were soon joined by Liam's older brother Noel Gallagher...
. Either way, the track received many requests for play at radio, and was heavily hyped as a contender for the Christmas number one spot. Upon release, the single peaked at #4 on the Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
chart, outsold only by Westlife
Westlife
Westlife are an Irish boy band established on 3 July 1998. They are to disband in 2012. The group's line-up was Nicky Byrne, Kian Egan, Mark Feehily, Shane Filan, and Brian McFadden . The group are the only act in British and Irish history to have their first seven singles peak at number one...
at the height of their popularity, Cliff Richard
Cliff Richard
Sir Cliff Richard, OBE is a British pop singer, musician, performer, actor, and philanthropist who has sold over an estimated 250 million records worldwide....
(with "The Millennium Prayer
The Millennium Prayer
"The Millennium Prayer" is a 1999 charity single by Cliff Richard. The song features Richard singing the words of the Lord's Prayer to the tune of "Auld Lang Syne". It was not written to be entered into the charts, instead being written to form part of the Share Jesus International production,...
"), and a re-release of John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
's "Imagine
Imagine (song)
"Imagine" is a song written and performed by the English musician John Lennon. It is the opening track on his album Imagine, released in 1971...
". It also took the number one position in the 1999 Festive Fifty
Festive Fifty
The Festive Fifty was originally an annual list of the year's fifty best songs compiled at the end of the year and voted for by listeners to John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show...
.
Eastwood
In 2000, the Cuban boys released their first album, EastwoodEastwood (album)
Eastwood is British Synthpop band, Cuban Boys' first and only major label album. It was released in 2000, after some delay, following the band's only UK hit single, "Cognoscenti vs...
, through EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
but, despite the popularity of "Cognoscenti Vs. Intelligentsia", Eastwood suffered poor sales. It was not released in time to capitalise on the success of "Cognoscenti Vs. Intelligentsia" and was given limited marketing. Some of the older tunes featuring unauthorised samples had them replaced by obvious imitations.
Following the commercial failure of Eastwood, the band were dropped by the label and left with some bitterness, later expressed through their releasing a 7" cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of the Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...
' "EMI".
Later work
Commercially, little was heard of the band itself after Eastwood, although they released several limited release singles and EPs. The band focused mainly on internet downloads, and made much of their early discography available free of charge from their various websites and on MySpaceMySpace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
. All the members became involved in other projects and although the Cuban Boys never formally split up, the band ceased to be active around 2001. Its members continued to work together under various names, most notably Spray
Spray (band)
Spray is a 21st century synthpop duo from England, consisting of Jenny McLaren and Ricardo Autobahn. Following the demise of their previous band, the Cuban Boys , McLaren and Autobahn released the album Living In Neon on Ninthwave Records in the USA. This was followed in 2003 by the extended single...
.
Following the death of John Peel
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...
in 2004, The Cuban Boys (now consisting only of Skreen B and Ricardo Autobahn) reformed to release a tribute song, "The Nation Needs You", as a free download. Following this, they returned to producing individual tracks, releasing some of them as download-only or limited release CD singles. In 2008, they released their first full album since Eastwood, The Satellite Junkyard. on their own record label, House Of Beauty.
In 2010, the Cuban Boys released a "greatest hits" compilation of their singles. Art vs Commerce amounted to twenty one tracks, and was released once again on House of Beauty Records. The cover for the CD consists of a booklet with new artwork and a detailed history of the band.
Related acts
Members of the Cuban Boys have also worked on music under various names:- The Beatbox Saboteurs (Skreen B and BL Underwood)
- Wave Runner
- Space Kats
- SpraySpray (band)Spray is a 21st century synthpop duo from England, consisting of Jenny McLaren and Ricardo Autobahn. Following the demise of their previous band, the Cuban Boys , McLaren and Autobahn released the album Living In Neon on Ninthwave Records in the USA. This was followed in 2003 by the extended single...
(McLaren and Autobahn) - Dynamo Beat (Skreen B and BL Underwood)
- PigynClust (Skreen B and BL Underwood)
- Blu Thunder (BL Underwood)
- Ricardo AutobahnRicardo AutobahnJohn Matthews better known by his stage name Ricardo Autobahn is an English producer, songwriter and musician.Matthews is a member of the bands Spray and the Cuban Boys, who are most famous for their "pass off" UK Christmas hit "Cognoscenti Vs. Intelligentsia"...
(solo) - Rikki & Daz (Ricardo Autobahn and Daz SampsonDaz SampsonDarren "Daz" Sampson is a British dance music producer, musician and singer-songwriter.Up until 2006, when he represented the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest, Sampson was best known for his commercial dance music, often reworkings of older songs as a solo act and as a member of various...
) - The Barndance Boys (Ricardo Autobahn and Daz SampsonDaz SampsonDarren "Daz" Sampson is a British dance music producer, musician and singer-songwriter.Up until 2006, when he represented the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest, Sampson was best known for his commercial dance music, often reworkings of older songs as a solo act and as a member of various...
)
Singles and EPs
- "Oh My God! They Killed Kenny!", Rough Trade Shop (1998) (7" single, limited edition of 1000)
- Blueprint for Modernisation EP, Org Records (1998) (6 track CD, limited edition of 1000)
- "Cognoscenti Vs. IntelligentsiaCognoscenti vs. Intelligentsia"Cognoscenti vs. Intelligentsia" is a song by the Cuban Boys. The song consists almost in its entirety of a sampled loop from "Whistle Stop" by Roger Miller which was featured in the Disney movie Robin Hood...
", EMI (1999) - UKUK Singles ChartThe UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
#4 - "Inertia Kicks", Stone The Kubist Records / self published (2000)
- Old Skool for Scoundrels EP, Prim & Proper / self published (2000) (7" EP on yellow vinyl, limited edition of 1000)
- "EMI", Damaged Goods (2000) (7" single)
- "Drink" (originally Drink Drink Drink), Sanctuary Records (2001) (unreleased promotional CD)
- "The Nation Needs You", self published (2005) (promotional CD and free download)
- "Spooky!", self published (2007)
- "The Penthouse Messiahs", self published (2008)
- "Summer Song", self published (2009)
- "All Girls Have A Volvo", self published (2009)
- "I'm Backing Britain", self published (2009) (promotional CD)
- "Datacrime 2011", self published (2011) (downloadable single)
Albums
- EastwoodEastwood (album)Eastwood is British Synthpop band, Cuban Boys' first and only major label album. It was released in 2000, after some delay, following the band's only UK hit single, "Cognoscenti vs...
, EMI (2000) - The Satellite Junkyard, House of Beauty / self published (2008)
- Art vs Commerce - The Singles Collection, House of Beauty / self published (2010)
Additionally the Cuban Boys have featured on alternative compilation album
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
s such as Damaged Goods
Damaged Goods
Damaged Goods is an original Doctor Who novel, released by Virgin Publishing in their New Adventures range of Doctor Who books in 1996...
"Totally Damaged" sampler (unique track) and have done remix work featuring on other bands' singles and EPs, e.g. Helen Love.