LATIN@ PUNK SHOWCASE!!!

This is kind of last minute, but tonight there is a punk show with a bunch of current Latin@ bands. Tonight it's THE OFFENDED, EKOLALIA, MALINCHISTA, AUSENCIA, and GENERACION SUICIDA @ The 5 Star Bar in downtown LA. While I don't particularly like bars, I Think this show should actually be pretty good. Only $5 and it starts at 8. Be there!

MUTANT ITCH - DEMO

The OCD in me HAD to re-edit the picture

Fresno, CA is one of those small towns that's in the middle of nowhere. Seriously, when we were there it was a quiet lonely town. It was the middle of summer and it was hot as FUCK too! Probably like 108 degrees, even at night. I remember when we were looking to buy beer and were directed to what looked like a small liquor store. Upon entering, it was like we were back in the wild west. A one legged guy with his one leg on a table watching TV, 2 other guys playing poker in a table across the room from him, and another guy behind ae counter. As soon as we enter, record skips, TV flickers, and everyone stops what they're doing to look at us. All we wanted was beer, but unfortunately all they had was warm beer. Nothing like warm beer in that 100 degree+ weather. So it is in this environment that we find MUTANT ITCH. Noisey hardcore that's as hot as the weather in Fresno. Live, these guys are a pogo fest. Think something along the line of EEL or EXTERMINACION . This tape, however, is super blown out noise at it's finest.  Definitely for fans of bands like CONFUSE, GAI, DUST NOISE, etc...

 

Don't take my word for it, tho. Check out the tape here

ELECTROCUTIONER - THE BLOOD OF THE PIG MUST FLOW IN THE STREET

LA is an interesting place. You have a lot of bands that rarely get the attention or recognition they deserve. Hype rules everything (not necessarily just in LA, but really everywhere). You also have a lot of things that are right under your nose and you'll never even notice them. Cue ELECTROCUTIONER. Mysterious, angry, brutal hardcore. Think along the lines of GISM, UNITED MUTATION, MOBS, etc... But with a UK82 twist. Yes, this is the kind of stuff everyone likes. It can be catchy, but so brutal at the same time. It's like you get the best of both worlds here. At under 7 minutes, the tape is pretty much over before you know it...

This tape is also dedicated to everyone that has been killed or locked up by pigs, a sentiment I think everyone in the hood shares. Yes, here where we are from, the reality of life is much different and the struggles we share are usually the only thing that can unite us. An angry community is pretty well represented here.

Anyways, this tape has been in my walkman all week. Now you can enjoy it all week too.

Download it here

LA EQUI - PRAXIS TAPE

Mondays always suck. Ask anybody what's their least favorite day of the week and they'll all tell ya it's Monday. But today, we have this little demo that will hopefully get you through it. LA EQUI (or is it LAEQUI?) is one of the newer bands from LA. They're a 2 piece that forgoes a bassist and keeps it strictly at just guitar, drums, and vocals. This band kind of reminds me of the bands that were coming out in 2009 in LA. This could easily have been coming out alongside RAYOS X, POLISKITZO, TUBERCULOSIS... All the bands that made LA unique for punk. This demo takes me back to a simpler time, before everything started to get gentrified and people from other states started moving in and telling us how LA punk should be... We won't talk about that (for now), so let's just crack open a 40oz, inhale some noz, and enjoy this demo.

Download it here.

By the way, noz is stupid. Don't do it. I lost way too many brain cells before realizing how dumb that shit is...

RAT'S REST - DEMO

 In 2013, GENERACION SUICIDA was on a west coast tour, when we finally drove into Eureka, CA. It was a long trip, marred by car troubles that started on our way back from Kamloops to Vancouver. You see, the trip between those two cities is pretty much 4 hours of nothing through a mountain. About 2 hours back into our trip to Vancouver, our truck just sputtered and died. This was on a desolate road, in Canada, 2 hours away from the nearest city, with no cell phone reception. This was also in early March... A period when Grizzly Bears are just starting to come out of hibernation. Needless to say, I was a tad bit worried. I was having visions of every horror movie and slasher flick I've ever seen. In a panic, we filled our pockets with rocks in case any would be killers (animal or human being) would come out of the woods. Eventually, a nice couple drove by and offered to drive one of us to the nearest small town to try and buy a new battery. We volunteered (sacrificed) our roadie for the trip to go and bring back a battery. An hour later he returned, alive and well, but more importantly with a new battery. The couple offered to actually drive behind us the whole way to Vancouver (it was along their way) just in case we were to break down again. They were the friendliest people I've ever met, and to this day I wish I could repay their kindness, but alas we parted ways as soon as we drove into Vancouver.
                   Unfortunately for us, as soon as we got back to Vancouver our car went dead again... right on the border waiting to cross back into the USA. We eventually got a tow truck that towed us across the border and right to the nearest mechanic in Bellingham, WA. That mechanic totally screwed us over and took a huge chunk of our tour money (In return, Juan ate all the complimentary pastries and took the biggest shit of his life without flushing). Once back on the road, I was tense. I couldn't help but feel that the truck was going to give out at any moment. I was worried it would break down in the middle of downtown Seattle traffic. I was worried it would break down going through the woods in Oregon. I was worried it would break down going through the small towns on the way to Eureka. Honestly, some of the homes in those small towns had confederate flags hanging from their windows. These were towns that were only about 3 city blocks long, but they were the most nerve wrecking little trips. As a truck full of Latin@s, being stranded in these towns would not be ideal (to put it mildly).
                      Finally, we reach Eureka. I don't know if you've ever been to Eureka, but it's an interesting town. A small town, where everything seems to close at 5 (much like Kamloops, actually). Once at the show, there was maybe like 10 people at the show, which is not surprising because it is a small town. After all that, I'm really not expecting much of the show (it was a folk and punk show), when suddenly RAT'S REST takes the stage. These guys were great. Punk that was both melodic and raw. They looked like they had just gone through similar troubles as they looked ragged and tired, and the singer kept chugging from a 2 litter bottle of Squirt (I'm assuming laced with Vodka) to get through the set. Watching them play to this small crowd was reenergizing after everything we had been through. So I did the only logical thing and bought the tape after their set. It was just a blank white tape in a silver bag with RAT'S REST written on it with marker. That was all the merch they had...
               The demo of course is killer! And you should definitely check it out for yourself. It's just as good as their live set and definitely something that will most likely go over everybody's head. Don't follow the crowd. Take a look in the cracks. It's worth the trouble every now and then.

Download the demo here

I actually downloaded the demo myself from the Remote Outpost blog (I was too lazy to rip it from my own tape). Check that out also as he has his own story of RAT'S REST. Check that out here

WAY BACK WEDNESDAY - LA VOZ (FINAL DEMO)

I've talked a lot about LA VOZ in the past (and you can download their 2009 demo here and their "Deprimido" 7 inch here). To me, they were one of the most underrated bands in the scene back in the day. I remember the first time I saw them play at the Boyle Heights house along with SILENT MAJORITY from Portland (man, I wish I bought their tape that night). They were pretty cool to watch live, though I think a lot of people didn't really give them a chance and so they just kind of gave up. I remember when I use to book shows at the Crash Pad back in the day and I would always hit up the drummer from LA VOZ to come play. They always bailed last minute though and there were always rumors that they had already broken up. For sure, the last show they ever played was a show in some little basement on Skid Row in Downtown LA. Anyways, these days Mario (the vocalist) plays guitar in GENERACION SUICIDA, and more recently we also added Elias (the guitarist) as our new bassist, so I guess in the end everything kind of worked itself out. This final demo is the last thing they ever recorded as a band. It appears that they only made 60 of these CD-R's, but it seems most of them are in my car (AKA the trash). That's a damn shame, cuz this demo is pretty good. You can really see the progression that they were making, as the songs seem a bit slower and more melodic. If you liked the first demo and the 7 inch, then you'll probably enjoy this too.

Download the demo here: Y YO QUISIERA!!

NO TE MUEVAS!!

A while back (almost 4 years ago actually), I wrote a piece about RIP and how they are one of my favorite bands to have ever come out of the Basque Country. I just found out yesterday that the ex guitarrist, Jul Bolinaga, has passed away. Needless to say, it's pretty sad, considering that "No Te Muevas" was and still is one of my favorite albums, and it was a huge influence on everything I did musically growing up (everything from ASKO to GENERACION SUICIDA has been touched by that album). Anyways, here's  the link if you want to see what I had to say about RIP 4 years ago (as usual, Mediafire is an asshole and has taken down my link, but the album is easy to find with a little help from Google). While I think a lot differently these days, this album still remains as one of my favorite records of all time.

Here is also a cool little documentary film about RIP. The audio is a bit weird and kinda blown out, but it's still great.

GENERACION SUICIDA - TODO TERMINA

Our latest effort. If you've been following this blog, you've most likely been following GENERACION SUICIDA as well. This record has been out for about 3 months now. It was recorded in March of 2014 at a tiny studio near Downtown LA. Everything except the vocals were done on that one day. In coming up with the idea to make this record, we intended to make something that was a bit harder and more raw than the first Lp. I'd like to think that we succeeded in what we were aiming for, as this record is faster and more aggressive than "Con La Muerte a Tu Lado". Anyways, we took the original picture for the cover ourselves. However, it was too low res to use, and so it was retaken during the "Todo Termina" music video shoot. Below you can see the original pic that was going to be used.

 



Not a huge difference, but yeah. Obviously, we have no idea who's grave that is...

Anyways, there was a lot of work put into this record and a lot of ideas that I'm glad we were finally put onto wax. Below you can check out the music video we did for the record:

You can stream and buy "Todo Termina" off our bandcamp here

Here's a youtube upload of the full album too

We've already begun working on writing material for a 3rd Lp, but let's just stop here (for now)...

PURA MANIA - REY DE RATAS (BOTH 7")

You should be familiar with these guys (you can find the awesome demo here, if you haven't gotten it already). Dark post-punk/hardcore/Oi/new wave sound. Really, it's a bit difficult to classify. The music has a dark desperate feeling, while the vocals are gruff and harsh. It's like if BLITZ when post punk (but none of that Second Empire Justice stuff haha). We recently went on an East Coast tour with these guys and they are just as good live as they are on record. A treat, every single night for 8 nights straight. Rumor has it that they'll be coming down to LA next February or April. Lets keep our fingers crossed and hope so.

You can download La Estafa Musical here
Download Musica Para Gente Fea here

Here's a complimentary photo of El Rey de Ratas himself, Rafa. Taken at the last show of tour at the Acheron in NYC.


It is MANDATORY to listen to this at full volume!