“Violencia” is the new song from El Mato A Un Policia Motorizado of La Plata, Argentina. The track is part of a four-track “maxi-simple” (their version of the maxi-single), which also contains “El Baile De La Colina,” “Aire Fresco,” “Rucho,” and “Dos Galaxias.”
The maxi-simple will be available in the US on Spotify, cassette tape, and vinyl on February 19th via Nacional Records.
Spanish Punk music has long had an anarchist as well as atheist tradition. Los Muertos De Cristo were no different in this regard as they wore their atheism on their sleeve…or in this case their band name (Christ’s Dead).
Lorenzo Morales (singer), Antón Tochi (lead guitar), Jesus “Mosti” Mosteiro (rhythm guitar), Ignacio “Chino” Gallego (bass), and Maniel “Lolo” Borrego (drums) came together in 1989 in Utrera, Sevilla, Spain. The quintet chose its name for three reasons. First, as a direct challenge to censorship and free speech laws in their country (of which they provided many challenges). Second, as a reflection of the band’s atheism. Third, to commemorate the millions of people killed in the name of religion throughout history.
LMDC self-released its debut EP, Punk’s Not Dead ’91, in 1991 and unveiled its full-length debut album, A Las Barricadas (To The Barricades) in 1995. The 12-song album includes the band’s Anarcho-Punk version of “¡Ay Carmela!/El Paso Del Erbo,” a classic song originally written during the War of Spanish Independence in 1808 and used by the Spanish Republican Army during the Spanish Civil War. LMDC’s version changes the lyrics to reflect their antifascist stance with lines such as “solo es nuestro / acabar con el fascismo (our only wish / is to end fascism).”
The band remained true to its Anarchist roots throughout the entirety of its existence. They self-published/distributed six of their nine albums with A Las Barricadas, Cualquier Noche Puede Salir El Sol (The Sun May Rise On Any Night), and Los Pobres No Tienen Patria (The Poor Have No Homeland) the exceptions. The band also created their own label, Odisea Records, which still exists today to promote their work as well as the work of Anarcho-Punk group El Noi Del Sucre.
Speaking of which, the seeds of LMDC’s impending demise were first planted in 2001. Morales first referred to himself as El Noi (The Boy) on the band’s live album Bienvenidos Al Infierno (Welcome To Hell). Morales wanted to start a new Anarcho-Punk group from scratch but not before ending LMDC on good terms with his bandmates.
LMDC announced their inevitable dissolution during their performance at the BaituRock festival in the summer of 2006. The group’s farewell tour lasted well into 2008 and they released their final album, Rapsodia Libertaria Vol. III, in 2009. Morales launched El Noi Del Sucre (The Boy From Sugar/The Sugar Boy), named as an homage to Catalonian anarchosyndicalist Salvador Seguí, that same year. Mosti and Chino of LMDC joined him in this new endeavor with the latter leaving the group in October of this year in order to focus on his work at Odisea Records.
Los Muertos De Cristo reunited this year to celebrate their 25th anniversary, touring as El Noi Del Sucre & Los Muertos De Cristo.
The band’s entire discography is available for download at this site.
Check out my first piece for Noisey (Vice’s music section): Lila Downs, Death, and Celebrity Gravestones at Hollywood Forever’s Dia de los Muertos.
I am happy and very lucky to say that I photographed the Mexican national football team for the second time this year. This match, however, was more important than a friendly as Mexico faced off against their CONCACAF rival USMNT. At stake was the berth to represent CONCACAF at the FIFA Confederations Cup to be held in Russia 2017.
The weekend began with a visit to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena for pre-match day training photos and the press conference on Friday, Oct. 9th. Kickoff was at 6:30pm the following day at the same venue in front of a sold-out crowd of just under 94, 000 fans (75% Mex, 25% USA), many of which arrived nearly five hours earlier for the tailgate parties.
The atmosphere from both sets of fans was incredible and electrifying thanks to both teams providing an entertaining 120 minutes of football. In the end, Mexico sealed the victory at 3 – 2 thanks to a golazo from Paul Aguilar with two minutes left before penalties.
Complete photo album of pre-match day training & press conference for Mexico.
Complete photo album of CONCACAF Cup match day featuring USMNT (2) vs. Mexico (3).
A selection of photos from both albums is below. Enjoy!
Mexico’s pre-match day training and press conference at the Rose Bowl:
Inaugural CONCACAF Cup match between Mexico and USMNT for CONCACAF’s spot at the Confederations Cup in Russia 2017:
On August 31st, the Financial Times broke the story on the North American Soccer League’s (NASL) legal challenge to the United States Soccer Federation’s (USSF) proposed changes to Division 1 football requirements. The sport’s governing body’s attempt to change and increase the minimum criteria for a 1st division soccer league is an “anti-competitive bait and switch,” claimed attorney Jeffrey Kessler (he of DeflateGate fame) who is representing the NASL in the case.
This past weekend, Erik Stover, COO of NASL team New York Cosmos, doubled down on NASL’s legal challenge against the USSF. Schmidt was candid about a number of topics at a pre-game watch party Q&A session hosted by Jack Demsey’s before the team’s match against FC Edmonton. The hour-long session covered numerous topics including the state of the new Cosmos stadium, questions about the team roster, and, most importantly, his personal thoughts on the NASL’s legal challenge against the USSF.
He also claimed that a recent story in the New York Times about NASL team Carolina Railhawks was placed by people at Major League Soccer (MLS) and the USSF as a means to further discredit the NASL in the American soccer market. The story focused on the arrests of the team’s owner, Aaron Davidson of Traffic Sports, who was one of many persons caught in the initial wave of arrests in this year’s FIFA scandal.
The hour-long session is available in its entirety at the bottom of the post courtesy of the Cosmos Country Podcast. I’ve gone ahead and transcribed the juicier bits about the NASL/USSF situation and the Railhawks/NYT story below as best as I could.
At the 13:45 mark:
Question from audience member: You’ve obviously seen the headlines with Bill Edwards having the pending lawsuit issues against him, we have issues with Carolina with, obviously, Traffic, this new owner in Atlanta, and then we’ve got the two new teams running the league. What are the prospects we can expect from this ownership in general running the league and resolving some of these unknown questions?
Stover: Very good question and it kind of goes into the whole anti-trust thing so why don’t we talk about that for a few minutes.
First, Bill Edwards. I’m not sure what’s real there, what’s not, how much trouble he’s in, how much trouble he’s not. I think it’s interesting that the Department of Justice is not involved in that case. That says a little bit about the validity of it but it doesn’t say everything. He’s done a tremendous job turning that team around. It was an embarrassment how it was run and, so, he’s a very real mover and shaker in the Tampa City *??* area and he makes things happen. So I certainly hope things settle down with whatever is going on with that lawsuit. Only time will tell with something like that and it’s interesting that that case, for a long time…he wasn’t involved in that suit so who knows what’s going on.
I think you’ll be hearing news on Atlanta very soon. Good news for me from my point of view. When I finish here, I’m going to Atlanta to the Board of Governor’s meeting in Atlanta. Monday, Tuesday, there should be several announcements coming out, out of that and if there are several cities in the running for expansion, there’s a resolution to Atlanta coming soon. If it’s not announced within the next week or two, it will be probably before the end of the season. There appears to be a solution for Atlanta.
The interesting thing with Carolina was that team was for sale with Traffic and almost sold well before any of this stuff happened and, ironically, it almost sold before they sold Ft. Lauderdale, so they were moving out of any interest in NASL well before any of this stuff happened. Obviously this FIFA stuff caught us off-guard.
Aaron Davidson, I’ve known him for a few years and thought he was the nicest guy in the world. I certainly never saw a bad side to him but, from what I’ve read, he appears to be very guilty. He was playing the game the way a lot of people, particularly people from South America, play the game: with kickbacks and envelopes and things. It’s unfortunate for him. Nice guy, nice family but he appears to have crossed the line.
Traffic was moving out of the league anyway. We were down to them only owning Carolina and that was for sale for almost a year. There is interest there. I don’t know if that deal is going to close soon. Who knows? I think it’s a nice little setup there where they are, the stadium, the stadium deal they have, the potential with colleges there. There’s a lot of potential there. Traffic, to be honest, has managed it well and managed it well for years. Curt Johnson’s a good president but his hands are tied. Hopefully they’ll get a new ownership in there with local ties and they can move forward. I think that’ll be decided within the next couple of months. I don’t think there’s any list *??* going anywhere but it would be good for everybody if they got a good owner in there. They have a good president, they have a good head coach, they just need some good leadership and a good front office.
At the 23:04 mark:
Stover: So, anti-trust! You’ve seen a couple of articles. I’m not really at liberty to discuss this too much, but one thing I can tell you is those articles only scratch the surface of our position.
Audience member: Our position, you said?
Stover: Yes, NASL’s position on what is fair market practice. In case you missed this, our lawyer is as good as they come. He doesn’t take cases that he thinks he has a chance of losing. Kessler beat the NFL with the Tom Brady-DeflateGate thing. Not a little bit. He whipped their ass. This guy is good. He has won cases like this before. He is one of the most renowned attorneys in this country and just putting his name on the letter that was sent to US Soccer, we know for a fact sent fear through people’s minds.
Again, I can’t really speak specifics to what is in the letter but the bottom line is from when we started, when the Cosmos joined the NASL, there’s been a clear pattern of moving the goals on us. That is something that the Department of Justice looks very negatively upon. We have very compelling evidence for that.
For example, the Premier League would not be 1st division under US Soccer rules because…not Watford…
Audience member: Bournemouth.
Stover: …Bournemouth stadium is below 15, 000. La Liga wouldn’t be 1st division because Eibar and one other stadium isn’t 15, 000. These rules that keep changing time zones and number of teams, the capacity of the stadiums, the size of the city…Athletic Bilbao wouldn’t be allowed into an American 1st division. It’s just crazy and it’s changed every year for three years!
It’s not so much that we’re making an argument that we’re 1st division right now. We’re saying “how can we ever be 1st division if you keep changing the rules? Your committee is made up of nine people from MLS, someone from the USL, three from the women’s league, and Bill Peterson [of NASL].” How can we have a fair opportunity to grow our business?
In any other business in this country…I have an iPhone. It’s not some other organization saying iPhone is 1st division and Samsung is 2nd division and everybody should buy an iPhone. That’s technically what’s happening in soccer at this point.
Where this goes, I don’t know. I’m not involved in the day-to-day discussions. I know that the NASL is very serious and sent a letter to US Soccer and there will be discussions in the near future.
It certainly means a lot for our league. We go to Cuba and the first sentence says “2nd division.” We go to El Salvador and it says “2nd division.” There’s no question that that label on us makes it harder to sell tickets. It makes it harder to sell sponsorships. It makes it harder to do anything we do as a soccer club.
We unfortunately lost to [the New York] Red Bull[s], even though we thought the game was closer than the scoreline indicated, but their players said after the game was “2nd division, 2nd division, 2nd division, 2nd division.” It’s clearly a mandate to try to knock us down and marginalize us.
Their coaches came into our locker room and said “there’s nobody in MLS that would play us like that, who would’ve come out with possession and carve us apart” the way we did. We just made two really bad mistakes, three really, and didn’t finish a couple chances. That very easily could’ve been a very flipped-around scoreline and they knew it. They said that to us. Then they go into the press conference and all they say is “2nd division, 2nd division” so, it’s obviously a tactic being used against us. If we don’t have promotion and relegation in this country, which we’d sign up for tomorrow, there are laws in this country that prevent you, prevent businesses, from trying to put other businesses out of business.
That is really the discussion that’s in front of us. I think it’s going to heat up pretty significantly. That article about Carolina that was in the New York Times, that was placed by MLS and US Soccer. They put that article in the paper, so that’s what we’re going to be dealing with. I know we’re ready for the fight.
Matías Almeyda, nuevo entrenador/técnico de Chivas de Guadalajara, explica sus ideas fútbolisticas.
En tres partidos, Almeyda y las Chivas cumplen con tres victorias de 2 – 1 incluso a una victoria contra las Águilas del América, el eterno rival de las Chivas.
I joined the writing crew of ATTN as a freelancer a few weeks ago. My first story for them has just been published. Click the link below.
The 2 Biggest Lies About Immigrants In The U.S.
More about ATTN: ATTN is a company with a simple mission: inform and empower the next generation to make a social impact. Content is chief in pursuing this, and everyday on new media platforms, we share commentary, news articles, and videos that cover important societal topics (economic mobility, civil rights, education, criminal justice, the environment, etc) as well as incorporate meaningful calls-to-action.
Developing story
https://www.admin.ch/gov/en/start/documentation/media-releases.msg-id-57391.html
The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) has opened criminal proceedings against persons unknown on suspicion of criminal mismanagement and of money laundering in connection with the allocation of the 2018 and 2022 Football World Cups. In the course of said proceedings, electronic data and documents were seized today at FIFA’s head office in Zurich.
Nine FIFA Officials and Five Corporate Executives Indicted for Racketeering Conspiracy and Corruption
The Defendants Include Two Current FIFA Vice Presidents and the Current and Former Presidents of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF); Seven Defendants Arrested Overseas; Guilty Pleas for Four Individual Defendants and Two Corporate Defendants Also Unsealed
This article was written for and published in the 2015 edition of the Coachella Valley Music Festival CAMP magazine. The magazine is distributed free of charge to all Coachella attendees. The text is reprinted here in its entirety as it appeared in the issue.
In the late 19th century, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche shared with the world his ideas developed around the concept of eternal recurrence, a.k.a. the eternal return, a thought experiment based on the cyclical view of time that originated in ancient Egypt and Indian philosophies.
In the early 21st century, a group from Los Angeles named Chicano Batman has–whether by fate, design, or mere happy coincidence–reshaped the idea of the eternal recurrence as an experience based on music: a “cycle of existential rhymes.”
It’s a task these Latino musical übermensches have worked on since 2008, when singer/organist/guitarist Bardo Martinez, bassist/vocalist Eduardo Arenas, drummer Gabriel Villa, and (eventually) guitarist Carlos Arevalo came together to create music that throwbacks to a variety of classic Latino genres while remaining yet distinctly their own.
The band succeeds where many like-minded artists fail, in their ability to pull a unique sound out of their well-known and well-worn influences as Os Mutantes, Los Angeles Negros, Ritchie Valens, and a permeate mix of mid-20th century Latin soul, funk, oldies, rock, psychedelia, tropicalia, and cumbia.
As such, the question of “Who is Chicano Batman?” is a study in paradoxes. The band manages to be an homage to the past yet also absolutely original. Their music is the soundtrack to a romanticized ideal of the quintessential experience of life as a Latino in L.A., yet that same romanticism that can be felt and appreciated as a universal experience.
Chicano Batman’s most recent album, Cycles Of Existential Rhyme, embodies all of that.
The group’s second full-length release is an affectionate 14-song journey through their familial aural histories, as well as their own lived experiences. It is music seen through nostalgic filters, intended to resonate with the current generation as well as the one to come, in a continuous cycle–an eternal recurrence–of never-ending inspiration.
“For me, that’s what music is about” explains Martinez, “It’s about carrying the inspiration and trying to feel inspired at the same time.”
That loop is best summed up in the title track, in which Martinez sings of “the rhythm of our place and time in cycles of existential rhyme.” The wavy-haired crooner says his band creates the type of ’70s sounds their parents were dancing to in the prime of their youth. Both Martinez and Arenas have relatives who wrote and performed such music during that era, too. Arenas even plays the same type of bass one of his uncles once plucked.
So convincing is the mood of the music that one can envision an alternate universe where callers dedicate Chicano Batman songs such as “She Lives On My Block,” “A Hundred Dead And Loving Souls,” or “Itotiani” to their lovers on Art Laboe’s now-cancelled “Oldies But Goodies” radio show.
Still, though it evokes certain musical signposts thanks to the suggestive power of memory, in direct comparison their style matches none of the previously mentioned forms. And in that way, the music manages to be timeless, transcending the limits of labels and genre.
That organic formula proved to be successful among their hometown crowds.
Chicano Batman made an indelible mark on L.A.’s musical landscape with shows in Boyle Heights, Echo Park, downtown, and Hollywood in their early years. Their rise from backyard band to club staple to festival favorite has been steady.
The quartet performed at the Voodoo Music + Arts Experience in New Orleans in 2012, toured Japan in 2013, and most recently, opened for Jack White on a handful of U.S. shows.
That most recent tour thrust them further into the national spotlight, with mixed responses from audiences. Thankfully, the positives outweighed the negatives, as their music struck a chord with the right listeners at each stop. They were most surprised by the amazing receptions they received in states like Ohio and Oklahoma where the Latino population is scarce at best.
“The Norman, Oklahoma show was a big surprise,” says Arevalo. “The audience just ate it up. They understood it. It was the most interaction we got with any crowd–the biggest applause and the loudest screaming. It was a magical show.”
“That tour was the biggest task that the band has had,” adds Arenas. “We were all tense, but it was exciting! We had nothing to lose because we got to play for thousands of people. And if we got booed, who cares? At least we got to play for Jack White!”
Those tours were good practice for what would eventually come: a slot at a world-famous music festival in their own backyard, with a mix of hometown fans and international spectators.
It may verge on cliché to hear a Southern California artist to say that the opportunity to perform at Coachella is a dream come true, but the sentiment remains authentic. “I saw The Mars Volta play one of their first shows in 2002 at Coachella,” says Arevalo reminiscing on his first of many festival experiences. “They were still setting up their own equipment. They didn’t have roadies back then. I remember thinking, ‘One day I’m going to be on that stage.’ I didn’t think it would take this long, but better late than never.”
Chicano Batman is one of a handful of Latino groups scheduled to perform at the festival. Bay Area Hip-Hop duo Los Rakas, Tijuana legends Nortec Collective Presents Bostich & Fussible, Hard Rock outfit Antemasque, and Low End Theory alum The Gaslamp Killer (whose father hails from Mexico City) will also be on stage. Of this group, only Chicano Batman represents a melting pot of Latino cultures.
The members count three ethnicities–Mexican, Colombian, and Salvadoran–between the four of them, despite their name specifically referencing Mexican-Americans. Martinez, who is half-Mexican and Colombian, created the name nearly a decade before the band was even a consideration. He sketched a drawing of a Latino character dressed in a tanktop with a flannel shirt as a cape, and dubbed him Chicano Batman.
It wasn’t until the band released its self-titled debut album in 2010 that their Batman/United Farm Workers hybrid logo appeared, carrying with it as many political overtones as one wants to attach. The image of the Dark Knight vigilante fused onto the wings of the UFW eagle begs to be viewed from a number of social justice angles. The band, however, hasn’t pushed any overt agenda through its music the way that, say, Rage Against The Machine has.
“The whole way it came about was really random,” Martinez admits. “It was something I really identified with when I was in college–a separate entity within itself.”
That’s not to say that Chicano Batman hasn’t pulled a few politically influenced moves over the years. They performed a handful of shows across the southwestern United States under the banner of the “Outer City Limits Tour” last October. The title was a response to the lack of diversity in the lineups of music festivals like Austin City Limits, scheduled during the same month.
And in November, the quartet went north, to Oakland, to play the Benefit Concert for Migrant Children hosted by Chipsterlife and the Social Justice Collaborative. The latter is a non-profit that represents unaccompanied, undocumented minors in court.
Around that time, Chicano Batman suffered a loss, too–Isaiah “Ikey” Owens, keyboardist for White, The Mars Volta, and Free Moral Agents. Their longtime friend and fan passed away of a heart attack while on tour with White in Mexico. He had promised to produce the band’s next album. They’ve talked about releasing an EP dedicated to the late musician, and are currently working on that third LP.
“We have the material so we might as well do it,” says Arevalo. “I’m always a fan of more output sooner than later. It’s been a long time too with our first album in 2008 and the new one last year. I’m personally pushing to put stuff out every year whether it’s a 45′ or an album. That’s what it’s about anyway: making music.”
It remains to be seen whether or not the band will preview any new music at the festival. Either way, their presence at Coachella closes another cycle: that of the festival goers who evolved into festival performers, inspiring a new generation, all on the very same field.
Afroxander (aka Iván Fernández) 