Rodrigo y Gabriela: Tamacun

I first heard these guys a few months ago. They're a virtuoso Mexican guitar duo and they play a sort of metal/flamenco hybrid that is really fantastic -- energetic and extremely talented. Their album received lots of good press (though not from everyone for their self-titled debut album.

Their album contains two cover songs, of "Stairway to Heaven" and Metallica's "Orion." Both are great, as are the originals on the record, especially "Diablo Rojo" and "Juan Loco." Here's the thing that interests me, though. My favorite song on the album is the lead-off track, "Tamacun." Take a look and listen, and pay special attention to what I guess you could call the chorus, the part that Rodrigo picks:



Sound familiar? To me, it sounds an awful lot like the melody line to Britney Spears' "Oops, I Did It Again," just sped-up and flamenco-ized:



A listen to a performance of the song by Richard Thompson might make it a little easier to hear it, as he does it on acoustic guitar without the layers of production.

What's odd to me is that I've never read this mentioned anywhere. Ever. Here's a album that got quite a bit of alternative press, and even some mainstream notice (Rodrigo Y Gabriela performed on the Letterman show). Much of the press talked about the two covers on the album, but never once have I seen a reference to what appears to be a third, uncredited cover, and a cover of a mega-hit from less than a decade ago. Strange. Am I the only one who hears it?