Molotov

Mexico City's Molotov recently devised a way to amuse themselves while simultaneously confounding their fans and the media. First the road-weary quartet, which fuses hip-hop and hard rock much more adeptly and palatably than Limp Bizkit, leaked rumors they had broken up, then seemingly confirmed those rumors when all four members released separate EPs. As one of the few Mexican bands (alongside Café Tacuba and Control Machete) with a sizable toehold in the States, they soon had some explaining to do. "We knew [the break-up rumor] was risky, and people could be really upset," singer-­bassist Paco Ayala told the Chicago Sun-Times this month. "But the people who know us understand that it's just a joke. The others just thought we were being clowns." This isn't the first time Molotov has flashed their impish sense of humor — they translated such unlikely English-language songs as Falco's "Rock Me Amadeus," Gil Scott-Heron's "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" and the Beastie Boys' "Girls" into Molotovese on 2004 covers album Con Todo Respeto, making further inroads into the Norteamericano market. Their most recent album and Universal Latino debut, 2007's Eternamiente ("eternal lies"), gathers those four "solo" EPs into one tongue-in-cheek, riff-heavy record by a band that most assuredly hasn't broken up and has no plans whatsoever to do so.