El Guincho: Spain’s Favorite Son and his Space-Age Exotica Creations

El Guincho (real name Pablo Diaz-Reixa) is a solo artist originally from the Spanish Canary Islands (near the coast of Africa) and currently living in Barcelona whose popularity continues to skyrocket with every release thanks to his trademark sound: Space-Age Exotica, a potent cocktail mix of Electronic, Tropical, Bossa Nova and Pop music.

El Guincho y la palma de amor! — El Guincho. Photo courtesy Thomas Williams via The Guardian

Let’s dive in immediately with the song and (nsfw) video that made El Guincho the talk of the town last year:

Continue reading →

Carla Morrison, Hello Seahorse!, Tijuana Panthers and More at Make Music Pasadena

My ‘fro and camera ventured into Old Town Pasadena for the annual Make Music festival. It reminded me of SXSW in Austin sans the Lone Stars.

Below are some of my favorite photos that I took. You can see them all at Remezcla.

lasantacecilia10 — La Santa Cecilia brought some positive vibes to the Luckman Stage. Photo by Ivan Fernandez.

carlamorrison14 — Carla Morrison was warmer than the sunshine. Photo by Ivan Fernandez.

helloseahorse20 — Hello Seahorse! performed tracks off their latest album. Photo by Ivan Fernandez.

tijuanapanthers11 — Tijuana Panthers rocked out in a mall plaza. Photo by Ivan Fernandez.

bsideplayers09 — The B-Side Players had as much fun as their audience did. Photo by Ivan Fernandez.

Don’t forget to check out my cameo in the video below (a few seconds in the beginning and the last minute or two at the end):

Rocking Out in Pomona with Deftones, Dillinger Escape Plan and Le Butcherettes

I hit up Pomona’s Fox Theater this past Wednesday night for one of the best shows I’ve covered this year:

D.E.P. — Dillinger Escape Plan by Ivan Fernandez for Remezcla

Check out all the photos at Remezcla!

From Post-Punk to Latin Romance: How Diego Garcia Got His Groove (and Girl) Back

KCRW launched its first installment of its Summer Nights series in Pasadena with a
concert by artist Diego Garcia this past Saturday. KCRW DJ Anne Litt introduced Garcia
and his well-dressed backup band of musician friends to an adoring crowd that packed
the European-style courtyard of the One Colorado shopping area.

The show, Garcia’s last in his week-long tour of California, covered every track off his
freshly-released solo debut album, Laura, as well as a cover of The Kinks “This Strange
Effect” for good measure. Amidst the setting sun and gentle breeze, Garcia poured his
heart out as he shared the pain of lost love, the comfort and release provided by time and maturity and the triumph of love regained.

Head over to LA WEEKLY for my full interview with Garcia and concert review.

More photos HERE!

Happy Birthday Harry Nilsson and RIP!

Harry Nilsson would have been 70 today had it not been for heart failure in 1994.

Nilsson is HEAR! — Nilsson! (photographer unknown)

From Dangerous Minds:

If you’re under 45-years of age, you might have little idea of who the great singer/songwriter/hellraiser Harry Nilsson was, but surely almost everyone has heard his biggest hits “Everybody’s Talkin’” (from the Midnight Cowboy soundtrack), “Without You” (a Badfinger cover given its devastating emotional impact by Harry’s plaintiff three octave vocal range, later recorded by Mariah Carey) and “Coconut” which was used in dozens of movies (normally during a drinking scene) and in more than one 7UP advertising campaign.

Many will recognize Nilsson’s “Coconut” from the ending credits to Reservoir Dogs:

Continue reading “Happy Birthday Harry Nilsson and RIP!” →

Blood, Drugs and Hitmen Addendum: Javier Garza Ramos

Javier Garza Ramos, editor-in-chief for Mexican newspaper El Siglo de Torreon, wrote a piece for the Columbia Journalism Review that covers on a topic I touched on briefly in a previous post.

The following excerpt comes from Writing The War On Drugs: Why do so few American papers report on the trade in their backyard?

For years the absence of stories about how drugs are moved and traded inside the United States has sparked my curiosity. Ten years ago, while a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin, I did a content analysis of how several American news outlets portrayed the war on drugs in Mexico and in the United States. I uncovered two main narratives. The one about Mexico focused on government corruption, the cartels’ structure, their control of local law enforcement, and the way they move drugs across the country. The narrative about the US dealt mostly with drug addiction and stories about prevention and rehabilitation programs. Continue reading “Blood, Drugs and Hitmen Addendum: Javier Garza Ramos” →

Capsula: The Best Live Band You Haven’t Seen

Search for Capsula on the internet and you will find stories by music critics who all make the same observation: Capsula puts on a hell of a live show (as anyone who has been to SXSW these past three years can attest to).

The band, featuring vocalist/guitarist Martin Guevara, vocalist/bassist Coni Duchess and drummer Ignacio Villarejo, is a Garage/Psychedelic Rock group based in Bilbao, Spain who came together in 1998 in their hometown of Buenos Aires, Argentina with the intent of following in the footsteps of their favorite musicians of the 60’s and 70’s: David Bowie, The Velvet Underground, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Pescado Rabioso and Manal.

Continue reading “Capsula: The Best Live Band You Haven’t Seen” →

El Aviador Dro: 30+ Years of Spanish Synthesizers

I’ll be out of the country this July and living in Valladolid, Spain where I’ll be improving my Spanish writing and grammar skills at University of Valladolid. I’m going to mark the occasion with a number of posts about Spanish music groups beginning with:

El Aviador Dro y Sus Obreros Especializados (The Aviator Dro and His Specialized Workers, Aviador Dro for short) is an Electronic Pop group from Madrid whose musical style falls somewhere between Kraftwerk’s serious minimalism and DEVO’s deadpan kitsch.

Founding members Servando Carballar and Arturo Lanz fmet in Madrid’s Santamarca Institute in 1976. Carballar formed Punk group Alex y Los Drugos (Alex and The Droogs) in 1978. He later bought an electric organ that same year and created Techno-Pop group Holoplastico. Continue reading “El Aviador Dro: 30+ Years of Spanish Synthesizers” →

Blood, Drugs and Hitmen: Where to find Info. on Organized Crime and Narcotrafficking in Mexico and Latin America

Drug cartels in Mexico who once operated in the shadows announced their entrance into mainstream society with a number of beheadings in 2006 that marked the beginning of a wave of unprecedented violence that still consumes parts of the country. Gun fights in broad daylight occur regularly in parts of Nuevo Leon, Michoacan and Chihuahua. Cartels have also moved on to methods more sadistic than beheadings via vats of acid and even a car bomb or two.

Bandera de Los Zetas — Flag of Los Zetas by cartoonist Jose Hernandez (monerohernandez.com.mx)

Much of Mexico continues to live normally despite the violence in some areas. Traveler extraordinaire Rick Steves celebrated the coming of 2011 in Mexico City with nary a hint of drug-related violence in sight. My relatives in the state of Jalisco continue to live in peace. My friends with families in Juarez, unfortunately, cannot say the same. They have suffered extortion and violence at the hands of cartels and corrupt law enforcement.

Most Mexican news organizations can’t or won’t cover the situation in-depth because of threats and attacks by cartels on their headquarters and journalists. U.S. news organizations can’t or won’t because it’s not in their interest to do so save for lazy, fear-mongering tales of spillover violence and anarchy.

So where do concerned citizens and interested parties turn to for accurate information and comprehensive analysis of events in Mexico? Read on after the jump to find out:

Continue reading “Blood, Drugs and Hitmen: Where to find Info. on Organized Crime and Narcotrafficking in Mexico and Latin America” →

Super Metal Bros.: Metal Tunes Redone via 8-bit

I guess it was only a matter of time until chiptune fanatics remixed/converted Heavy Metal into chiptune/8-bit/bleepity-bloopity songs thanks to a little program called GXSCC, which converts MIDI files into MSX-like WAV files. Drag a MIDI file of Metallica’s “Battery” into the program and you get the following:

More Chipmetal tracks after the jump: Continue reading “Super Metal Bros.: Metal Tunes Redone via 8-bit” →