By Ramiro Burr 

Express-News Staff Writer 

Web Posted : 03/11/2003 11:25 AM 

The South by Southwest music conference and festival in Austin is, in large part, a showcase for new artists, but it's a fairly exclusive one.

That won't be the case Thursday night when two rising Latin music acts, neo-banda favorite Jenni Rivera and norteño hip-hoppers Big Circo, perform in a free concert that's open to everyone.

Rivera and Big Circo are part of one of the largest SXSW showcases, which is sponsored by the Texas chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. The bill also includes Tejano stalwarts David Lee Garza y los Musicales; Jorge Moreno, a Latin Grammy winner for best new artist; and Austin flamenco-rock fusionists Del Castillo.

SXSW is a huge music industry conference that each year showcases hundreds of bands by night and analyzes the business in panel discussions by day. Most showcases are packed affairs in small clubs where conference-goers and those who've bought $100 wristbands get in first.

That makes Thursday's showcase one of the festival's best bets for music fans.

A songwriter with attitude and sass, Rivera has also gone against the odds, breaking through the male-dominated corrido genre in the late 1990s. She's the sister of narcocorrido king Lupillo and daughter of the self-made music entrepreneur Pedro.

Her risqué corridos, which remind some of a younger Paquita la del Barrio, have made her popular with female fans.

On Rivera's 2001 hit Querida Socia, she taunts her lover's new bride with the closing line: You wash his clothes, and I take them off.

But unlike Paquita, Rivera also records narcocorridos.

Raised in Long Beach, Calif., Rivera has helped spread banda's popularity to second- and third-generation Mexican Americans.

Although I grew up in the United States and did listen to rock and rap, my culture was always with me because with my parents, it was almost an obligation to us to listen to Spanish music, she said.

But unlike her neo-traditionalist banda peers Graciela Beltran and Carmen Jara, Rivera adds bicultural attitude.

I want to bring my modern talk, my gestures, speech and dress into it, she said. That's helped me with the younger crowd.

In a recent music video, for example, she sported a Bin Laden es un Buey (roughly, Bin Laden is a jerk) baseball cap.

Her upcoming album Homenaje a las Grandes, scheduled for release April 1, is a cover CD that pays tribute to her favorite female singers, including Lola Beltran, Rocio Durcal and Diana Ross.

The first single is a banda-rock version of Gloria Trevi's 1994 kiss-off classic La Papa sin Catsup. While Rivera's serviceable voice is no match for Trevi's ominous growl, she delivers the song with her usual panache.

Rivera also is proud of her cover of Alejandra Guzman's Hacer el Amor con Otro. A morning-after lament about a new partner who lacks his predecessor's skills, the song resonates with women, Rivera said.

It's almost like an anthem for females, she said. It's something we can relate to. We can always remember a past lover or boyfriend.

However, she's not just out to alienate guys. Her husband, a fan who first met her after a performance in a club, also provides input on the material.

He has a lot to do with what I choose to sing, she said. I want to see the male point of view. He's pretty universal he likes many things, so his opinion is very important to me.