2 Minutos

2 Minutos formed in Valentín Alsina, in the industrial belt south of Buenos Aires, and have been playing since 1987. Singer Walter Velázquez met bassist Aidnajan and guitarist Pedrozo at a Casanovas concert that year, and the group spent the early 1990s working the local circuit before signing with Phonogram.

The songs are short and built on a handful of chords, with lyrics that stick to what the band knows: neighbourhood bars, police, factory shifts, football. Their 1994 debut album, named Valentín Alsina after their hometown, turned into a bigger hit than the band or its label expected, built on "Ya No Sos Igual," a song about a corner-store clerk who turned out to be an undercover police officer. It became the one everybody shouts back.

The record's success drew criticism from Pil Trafa of Los Violadores, who accused the band of singing about beer, football and street fighting rather than properly punk concerns. 2 Minutos went on to become one of the bigger Argentine punk exports, touring the United States in 1995, selling out CBGB, and sharing a stage with the Ramones during their 1996 farewell tour.

Their sound sits between the Ramones and British street punk, sung in porteño slang rather than translated Americanisms. Later albums such as Postal 97, Un Mundo de Sensaciones and Vamos a la Granja/Directo al Infierno kept up a steady release pace, the last of these including covers of the Clash, Sandro, Joaquín Sabina and Daniel Melero.

Velázquez has fronted the group for most of its run, and the lineup has turned over around him while the format, short blunt bursts built for a shouted-back chorus, has stayed put.