I spent the past weekend at Indio covering the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival with a team of writers, photographers from LA Weekly & OC Weekly. It made for great times and even greater stories.
Below are the three stories I wrote about the festival for LA Weekly:
The Slow Death of Coachella’s Local Vendor Economy
The Date Farmers’ Art Exposes the Economic Divide of Coachella
What’s It Going to Take to Bring More Latino Artists to Coachella?
The photos are finally here! I’m still getting used to the new camera but enjoying every second of it!
Here are some videos from the same night and my story about the album for LA Weekly.
Full album HERE!
My friends in Buyepongo and Quitapenas brought the {fire_emoji} to Riverside for the zillionth time to the Mission Tobacco Lounge in Riverside.
A few photos from the show are below. Click HERE for the full set at my Flickr.
Enjoy these poor quality cell phone videos of At The Drive-In’s performance in Santa Ana for their first show on this second reunion tour.
Brainstory:
Xixa:
Calentura took things to the next level last week, March 12th, when the monthly party by Subsuelo and Late Night Laggers moved further east to the El Rey Theatre. The reason? To celebrate the release of Calentura: Global Bassment on Fania Records, which I wrote about in LA Weekly.
The night included guests Peruvian Dark cumbia duo Dengue Dengue Dengue, Panamanian rudeboys Los Rakas, and Brazilian Trap duo Tropkillaz. Check out the video of each act below. Hella photos coming soon.
Dengue Dengue Dengue:
Los Rakas:
Tropkillaz:
Got a new video camera. WOOOOH!!
My friends at Subsuelo have, for a little over a year now, switched things up with a new format. Their days at Eastside Luv, sadly, came to a gradual end after they began Calentura at Los Globos thanks to a partnership with the Late Night Laggers crew, Fania Records, and Jack Daniels.
The new(-ish) party still carries that Latino flavor but adds some ratchetero, electro sounds that would’ve been too much for their Boyle Heights’ digs. Calentura has allowed them to expand their variety of guest stars, a feat Subsuelo successfully pulled off in the past with one-off parties at the Bootleg Theatre and other venues. Their first party this year featured Mark De-Clive Lowe, Banginclude, and living legend Cut Chemist (some photos below).
Calentura has already announced another amazing lineup for the year: their March party will be at the El Rey Theatre and feature Los Rakas, Dengue Dengue Dengue (making a full-length set debut after their too-short set at Supersonico last year), and headliners Tropkillaz.
2016 is looking great for Calentura.
Update (02/16): Calentura will host Buraka Som Sistema at The Roxy in April.
There once was a running joke among folks in L.A.’s Latino music scene that went something like this: “Wherever you are, Buyepongo’s there, too, jamming out.”
For years, the group performed anywhere and everywhere it could at any and all hours of the day. You could find them playing Mariachi Plaza during the day, then catch them later the same evening at the Mayan opening up for Ondatrópica. That ubiquity was necessary in developing the group’s core sound and style: a fusion of Latino, African and American sounds, grooves and rhythms, which has finally been compiled in the group’s long-awaited full-length debut album, Todo Mundo.
Read the rest of the article at LA Weekly.
Afroxander (aka Iván Fernández) 