Luis "Terror" Dias

[Photo by Rafael de los Santos]

Imagine Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and Keith Richards rolled into one; add an interest in discovering, learning about and rescuing from oblivion indigenous musics and you may come up with Luis Dias, father of modern rock in the Dominican Republic as well a celebrated songwriter, guitarist, frontman and music historian. Now in his mid 50s Dias, the man nicknamed "El Terror" due to his fiery spirit and anti-mainstream/establishment stance, started making music in his teens and in the mid '80s formed Transporte Urbano, a band whose mission statement was to "subvert traditional Dominican music until it became rock", throwing in palo, gá-gá, merengue, bachata with elements of rock music ranging from rockabilly to metal, and in the process, influencing a generation of musicians including Juan Luis Guerra who was once one of Dias' numerous sidemen.

Unfortunately, only his truly devoted, cult-like followers—present company included—know much about the man. (A rather erratic recorded output hasn't helped. But as a songwriter, however, he's had numerous hits with covers of his songs, most notably among them "Si He De Morir" by Marc Anthony on his debut salsa disc, Otra Nota and the perennial seasonal favorite "Carnaval" aka "Baila en la Calle" by iconic merenguero Fernandito Villalona.) Now, after years of a few lovingly constructed but notably flawed fansites being the only web-based source of information on the man, Dias has a newly designed website that is quite impressive and worth checking out. (The discography has a few gaps—where are Areito No.1 and Merenrock?—but we're sure they'll get it together soon enough. We hope.)

[Thanks to occasional Dias sideman and "5"er Jorge Suberví for the heads up.]