El Cuarteto de Nos

In 1984, El Cuarteto de Nos played their first show, an instrumental set in the "El Tinglado" theater.[1] They also played at the "La Máscara", "El Circular", "Teatro de la Alianza Francesa" theaters while developing their own musical style. In 1984, their first album was released, in collaboration with Alberto Wolf, whom had six of the twelve songs; and drummer Álvaro Pintos joined the group afterwards.

In 1985, they stepped on a stage, located in a fair from Villa Biarritz, dressed up with aluminum foil on their legs and balloons tied to their heads.[2]

In 1986, they edited their first LP, Soy una Arveja (I am a Pea), on which they performed some hits.[1] The following year, band members dressed up as elderly women to promote the song Soy una Vieja (I am an Old Lady).[2] In 1988, their second album, Emilio García (by then, the fictional manager), was released.[2]

In 1991, the album Canciones del Corazón (Songs of the Heart) was released in cassette, and it was a great commercial success for the band.

In 1994, after four years of hiatus, they released their album Otra Navidad en las Trincheras (Another Christmas in the Trenches), which achieved quadruple platinum status almost instantly, making them the first Uruguayan band ever to achieve it.[2] This album has a wider musical amplitude, having mixed salsa, music, and electronic music, in the band's usual mocking style, the most successful songs of this album were "Sólo un rumor" (Just a Rumour), "El primer oriental desertor" (The First Uruguayan Deserter), "Soy un capón" (I'm a Eunuch), "Bo Cartero" (Hey, Mr. Postman; a mocking, Spanish version of "Please Mr. Postman"), "El putón del barrio" (The Biggest Slut in the Neighbourhood) and "Me agarré el pitito con el cierre" (I Caught My Peepee in the Zipper, being said in a childish manner).

Mocking their success, they call their 1995 album Barranca abajo (Downhill), this album is acknowledged as darker than their previous works, and exploiting the success generated by Otra Navidad en las Trincheras, they released in the same year, the album La Misma Porquería (The Same Rubbish), a compilation of their first three albums.

In late 1996, they released their seventh album El Tren Bala (The Bullet Train). This album was controversial in Uruguay, since one of its songs, named El día que Artigas se emborrachó (The Day Artigas Got Drunk) makes an allusion to José Gervasio Artigas, the founding father of Uruguay, which led to attempts to ban the song,[2][3][4] delaying the release of the album, being the reason of the creation of their own label, Manzana Verde (Green Apple, mocking the Beatles' Apple Records).[4] Because of the diversity of musical styles presented, the reception of this record was very high, becoming a gold record in a week.[4]

In 1998, the group signed a contract with Sony BMG, and released Revista ¡¡Ésta!! (This one!! Magazine), which was received poorly, as was its next album, Cortamambo (Killjoy), released in 2000, leading into a hiatus for some time while the band picked up things together from the brief disbanding that took place when Riki Musso, complaining about the sexual character of the album's cover (a woman's breasts are seen on both back and front cover) left the band for over a year.

In 2004, they released El Cuarteto de Nos, a compilation album of their all-time hits played and recorded again, plus three new songs, called "Hay que comer" (We Have to Eat), "No quiero ser normal" (I Don't Want to Be Normal) and "Fui yo" (It Was Me), the album was made in a more rocker style and had a coherent production.

During 2005, they were dedicated to presenting a new album, as well as celebrating the band's 21st anniversary with a show, having as special guests the musicians Gabriel Peluffo and Tabaré Rivero, amongst other famous musicians of Uruguay.

On May 20, 2006, the album Raro (Weird) was released. It was a major commercial success, it rose to the top of the Uruguayan charts, reaching gold status only a few weeks later. In 2007, El Cuarteto de Nos was nominated for Latin Grammy with "Yendo a la casa de Damián" on their album Raro. They started a trip around the world including stops at the Vive Latino Festival in Mexico, as well as the Rock al parque in Colombia. The album was truly the biggest success they had seen since Otra Navidad en las Trincheras, and with the positive reviews and feedback it was safe to say they had found their new representative sound.

In 2008, they performed for Pepsi Music 2008, a huge festival in Argentina, along with other big bands and solo artists.

On May 27, 2009, in the midst of the development of their album Bipolar, it was said that Ricardo Musso had artistic and administrative differences with the course the band had taken. Majareta Productions announced that the band would not split, but would undergo structural change. With the departure of Ricardo Musso, two new musicians had joined the band, replacing Musso's guitar, Gustavo Antuña and the keyboardist Santiago Marrero. Finally, after many setbacks (such as the departure of Musso and the leaking of the album in Taringa! when it was still in the making), the album was released in September 2009. This album was well received, winning five Graffiti Awards in June 2010.[5]

When listening to Raro and Bipolar it is clear that they are similar albums in the topics they tackle, the style of the music and guitars, as well as the overall feel of the records.This started a theory upon the release of the following album, Porfiado in 2012 that the three albums were somehow connected and made up a trilogy, after all the latter does follow that line of talking about topics such as life and its meaning, the different personalities and character traits found in people, and a diverse genre of musical rock styles. Roberto said publicly that this was not the case and that the albums were not intended to be connected, however many fans and sometimes even themselves do refer to this period of their careers as the "trilogy", since most of the songs that they play nowadays come from the three albums which gave them a setlist to go from when touring, almost completely abandoning the 10 albums that came before.

In 2014 Habla tu Espejo was released, breaking the topics of the so-called "trilogy", and being a darker album which focused on deep and sentimental topics such as stories related to Roberto's family (his mother's Alzheimer's is touched on in the song "21 de Septiembre" (September the 21st), his daughter's fears and his own fears as a parent make the lyrics of "No Llora" (She Doesn't Cry), and so on) as well as a look to themselves on songs like "Roberto" and "De Hielo", with poetry often being referenced through the grim record. It was especially well received, and the music video for "No Llora" went viral online through mid-2015. Their next album was supposed to be a concept album for different problems in modern society being perceived as monsters in a sort of zoo, which resulted in the album Apocalipsis Zombi, showcasing once more the clever song-writing of the band in tracks like the title number, which mocks use of social media in the modern day and repetitive musical genres, while using a beat that sounds just like a modern reggaeton song. Finally, the last album released by the quintet so far, Jueves was released without a storyline or concept, the only concept being the random nature of itself in having songs that do not relate to each other, spanning the hit tracks "Mario Neta" (Puppet displayed in a way that seems like it is a person's name), "Punta Cana" and "Contrapunto para Humano y Computadora" (Counterpoint for human and computer).