Rockers 32

Rockers 32 formed in the late 1990s with former Legião Urbana members Renato Rocha on bass and Dado Villa-Lobos handling vocals and guitar. They weren't exactly starting from scratch, they had that connection to one of Brazil's most significant rock bands, which brought them immediate attention and a ready audience, but also questions about whether they were just riding on someone else's reputation.

Their debut album 'Agora!' came out in 2002, giving them a title track that became something of an anthem. The song 'Agora!' had that urgent, declarative quality that worked well live, and it helped establish them as more than just a tribute act. They followed it with albums like 'V.E.S.P.U.C.C.I.' in 2004 and '32' in 2012, which showed them stretching into different textures while keeping Rocha's bass lines and Villa-Lobos's melodic sense at the center.

You can hear that continuity in songs like 'Caminhos Contrários' and 'Lembranças', there's a directness to the writing, a kind of plainspoken rock that doesn't overcomplicate things. They kept the same lineup for years, which gave their sound a consistency even as they moved through different phases. They never really shook the Legião Urbana comparisons, but they built enough of their own catalog to stand on.