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!

GENERACION SUICIDA // PURA MANIA EAST COAST TOUR

GENERACION SUICIDA and PURA MANIA will be touring the east coast this summer. Check out the tour poster for dates and cities. GS will have our new LP out in time for this tour, as well as new shirts, pins, and armbands. See ya on the east coast!

PROXY AND RULETA RUSA IN SOUTH CENTRAL LA TONIGHT!!

Tonight at The Dog Haus, get your fix with PROXY, RULETA RUSA, GENERACION SUICIDA, POLISKITZO, and DAMAGES. PROXY is making the long trip all the way from Montreal, Quebec Canada and are ex-members of INEPSY, so you know what to expect! You can count this show as a pre-burnout fest show, as tomorrow will be the first day of Burnouts en Baja (which if you haven't got your tickets yet, you are fucking up!). Burnouts en Baja will feature bands like PROXY, LOS MONJO, RULETA RUSA, CATASTROPHE, CALAFIA PUTA, DFMK, and a grip of other bands from both LA and Tijuana.

 The main point of this fest is to bring LOS MONJO closer to the USA so people from here can go see that band (since LOS MONJO can't cross into the USA due to legal problems). It's actually quite ironic then that there are a lot of punks that love LOS MONJO in the USA that still won't be able to go see them, due to the fact that they live in the USA undocumented and can not cross the border themselves. Well, let's just hope that eventually LOS MONJO can work out their paperwork problems and come play LA to a crowd that would seriously appreciate them.

SOUTH CENTRAL LA: THE OTHER BARRIO

One of the most common misconceptions about not just GENERACION SUICIDA, but really ALMOST ALL LATINO bands in Los Angeles, is that we are from East LA. Although I mean no disrespect to East LA and all the obvious Latino culture there, I do want to point out that Latinos are not only found in East LA, but are found everywhere in Los Angeles. South central LA is where GENERACION SUICIDA was born and where you will find a very strong Latino punk scene that includes many bands that are often erroneously attributed to East LA.

Although there are many similarities between East LA and South Central, we can't ignore that they are still 2 separate areas where residents identify themselves with their own unique ideas and perspectives on culture. To snowball every Latino band into one geographic location denies the chance at getting a unique individual perspective, a point of view that may differ from someone else regardless of race, barrio, or color. All you'll see is another "East LA 'Mexican' punk band".

While we're at it, I just found a very interesting interview with Tito Larriva from THE PLUGZ who are often considered an integral part of the 80's East LA punk scene. Here's what he had to say:

"I’ll be honest with you. Coming from Texas, and coming to L.A. and living here for so many years, I never felt in Texas that I didn’t fit. Then when I got [to Los Angeles], suddenly the Plugz, my punk band, are from East L.A. I must have told the L.A. Times and the L.A. Weekly 200 times, “I’m not from East L.A. I live in Hollywood. Hollywood. H-O-L-L-Y–.” They even started calling us 'Los Plugz.' I gave up"
 
Leonardo Nevarez of Musical Urbanism gives a pretty good explanation for this simplistic view on geography:
"'East L.A.-based punks,' [is a] reference [to] the city section synonmous with its Mexican barrio... This geographical tag was a way for gringos, punk or otherwise, to get a simplistic fix on [bands]".

 Anyways, this post was a bit different to my usual post about music, but I think it was something important that needed to be addressed. I included these pictures of my neighborhood because one of the most common question I get asked during interviews (from those that know what's up) is "what is it like to live in South Central"? I never really know how to answer that question, because to me everything seems normal. I have lived here for 24 years and don't really know what else to compare it to. So, here are some pictures of my neighborhood for you to see for yourself.