B-Side Players

Since 1994, the B-Side Players have stirred the world music melting pot with remarkable vigor. Fusing the sounds of Cuba, Jamaica, Mexico, and Brazil with American funk, rock, jazz, and hip-hop, the nine-man San Diego-based outfit has delivered some memorable results.

Colin Hay of Men at Work joined by a children's choir doing trip-hop? They've got that one covered. Bob Marley crooning over a rumba beat? Ditto. Sting duking it out with mariachi horns and a gaggle of Caribbean backup singers? Sure, why not. The band's seventh album, Fire in the Youth, is more politically charged and socially aware than its previous efforts. "In a world where people are afraid to say hello or smile and the media presents fiction as reality, it's getting harder and harder to tell what's real from what's not," says vocalist/bandleader Karlos Paez. "But the young people are always real and are demanding the truth. Youth all around the world are marching and protesting."