Since releasing their debut album in 2004, Los Buitres de Culiacan have garnered an enormous audience for their gritty "alterna movimiento" brand of norteño music, offering provocative narcocorridos and bittersweet, often explicit love songs.
The quartet (singer and accordionist Eduardo Sánchez Reyes, guitarist Eulogio Jesus Sosa, bassist Juan Carlos Ochoa, and percussionist Luis Gerardo Sanchez) came together in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico in the early 2000s. They began playing for other kids in their neighborhood, then at local celebrations from weddings to birthdays, and finally in clubs.
The music scene in Culiacan is competitive and word about the next hot band travels fast. They released a slew of albums beginning with 2004's Que Role la Bolsita and Solo Para Mi and 2005's Corazon Rebelde. Famed producers Adolfo & Omar "Los Cuates" Valenzuela (aka the Twins) signed the group to Universal Latino, and helmed the album Palabra de Acero. Filled with strong narcocorridos done in swaggering norteño style and balanced by a couple of ballads, the album was a hit out of the box. Los Buitres' relentless touring paid off with chart success as well as live albums En Vivo Fiesta del Cachetes and En Vivo en Culiacan. El Rey los Vicios and No Tengas Miedo (and its hit single, "Las Ladies Mafia") arrived in 2008.
Their tour took them to Southern California, where they took audiences and radio by storm, so a live album of earlier material, Me Muero de Ganas, was released. This was followed by Cero Miedo in 2009. In 2010, the band issued Asociacion Antrax, which boasted the hit "Corazon Polito" as well as subterranean singles such as "Demonios Empecherados," "Sexo en la Troca," and the anthemic "Los Nuevos Terroristas." They also collaborated with El Komander (Alfredo Rios) on the hit single "Corrido Tamrindo," and also dropped the full-lengths Corazón de Pollito and Los Buitres con Tololoche.
Que Role la Bolsita was reissued in 2011 due to audience demand, as was the new recording Armandos Hasta el Tronco. In an unexpected move, Los Buitres switched gears and issued a collection of songs by the late narcocorrido singer and songwriter Chalino Sanchez entitled Tributo al Mas Grande Chalino Sanches: Lo Mejor de Ayer, Hoy y Siempre. This set included the hit "Gallo de Sinaloa."
It was right back to work on their own material in 2013. The pre-release single "Borracho de Amor" was issued in January, followed by the full-length Simplemente Buitres in March, the live En Vivo Desde Culiacan, Vol. 2 in August, and the high-charting, pre-release single, "Mejor Soltero" (and its hit video) for Territorio Buitres, which was released in January of 2014. ~ Thom Jurek