Born and raised in East L.A., Raul Campos is a DJ that is both old school and new school. He knows the importance of keeping the party rocking, yet is deep in his selections and not one to play the same old jams. He has own show on 88.9 KCRW (Nocturna M-F from 10 p.m. -12 a.m.) and a new CD out on Nacional Records, Lotería Beats Mixtape, Volume 1. Raul will be doing an in-store performance at Amoeba this Friday.

Raul spent years playing clubs, parties, Quinceañeras, even doing a stint at "Radio Clandestina," a great pirate radio station out of Highland Park from the early 2000’s before starting at KCRW. An idea of the show’s eclectic play list ranges from Venezuela’s very cool Cuatro Poder, The Budos Band, Teddy Bear w/Iggy Pop and classics from Sonora Dimamita and Eydie Gorme Y Los Panchos.

In an interview with the L.A. Times, 106.3 Power Tools host Meraz is asked if Raul being Latino makes a difference from other Non-Latino DJ trying to play the same style:

"He's coming from a different space," says Meraz. "It's not just, 'Look what I found.' It's 'Look what I am.' "

For those who didn’t know, Lance Hahn passed away Friday after slipping in a coma a week earlier. Lance Hahn was a brilliant songwriter and a great musician. His band, J-Church (and before that, Cringer) recorded several album and many singles. He had friends all over the world, who when they get the news will be very sad.

I met Lance nineteen years ago. He was 21 and I was 19. We worked for nuclear disarmament organization. We would canvass rich liberal neighborhoods trying to sign people up as members much like Greenpeace does. It was a shitty job to say the least. The best part about it was meeting Lance. Lance was real funny and I loved the way he laughed. It was real. He and his friends moved to L.A. from Hawaii in the late 80’s because they thought the punk scene would be better in L.A. Unfortunately, they came right when the hair-metal thing was huge in L.A. and punk was out of vogue. His band Cringer only played a half a dozen shows in the three years they were in L.A. At the time I was taking a recording class at Harbor College. I told him that I could record Cringer for free. He took me up on the offer and we recorded Cringer’s “Zen Flesh, Zen Bones” E.P. It was my first time behind the mixing board. It sounded horrible and I knew it, but they released it anyways. I ended up playing a show or two on guitar with them before they moved to San Francisco. They asked me a few days before they left, "Hey, do you want to come with us?" I declined. Once they moved to up north they became a part of the Gilman Street community, released some records, did a few tours, broke up and became J-Church. I started playing in bands as well and every time I would come up San Francisco to play he would be at the shows. After the shows, we’d drink 40’s and eat burritos from one of the Mexican places on Valencia in the Mission District, then he load me up on punk rock gossip. He was like my punk rock comadre.

I just read two critical essays on Wes Anderson’s new movie, The Darjeeling Limited. I won’t bore you with a synopsis of the essays. You can check them out by clicking here and here.

Wes Anderson movies have been a guilty pleasure of min. Not a lot of heads in the barrio get his humor. His movies reminds me of having a privileged upper class white friend who is insightful and fun to hang around with one on one. But once you were around his friends, he acts differently and treats you as more of a token ‘ethnic” friend then a human being. Any person of color who has these friends knows what I’m talking about. I don't feel like I'm looking way too into this, Something in Wes Anderson movies always made me feel a little uneasy and I thing both these critics unveiled what I always felt but never could express.

I'll defend Wes Anderson just a bit, to be fair. In the movie, The Royal Tenenbaums, one of the only characters with any dignity is the character, Henry Sherman, played by Danny Glover. In the movie, Henry has depth. He is a good man, smart, supportive and descent. He is a friend and financial adviser to Etheline Tenebaum, The family’s matriarch who kept the family together throughout the years despite the family's many pitfall. Both Henry and Etheline fall in love with each other and their love comes from their friendship. There is no fetishism or tokenism involved, just two old friends who fell in love.

So...join the party. Good music, dancing, good looking people and the Señorita Margarita. What else could you ask for?

Manu Chao’s catalog sells well enough in the Latin Rock & Pop section of Amoeba Music Hollywood that it’s usually in our Top 20 World Music chart every month. In fact, Clandestino, Manu Chao’s first solo album, has been out since 1998 and is usually in our Top Ten every month. Imagine my surprise to find out that three of the four Manu Chao releases, (Clandestino, Proxima Estacion: Esperanza and Radio Bembo Sound System) are currently out of print. It’s a little odd, I must say. It’s like having a Reggae section without Bob Marley or the Rock Section suddenly without Pink Floyd.

Not to fear. Our head buyer, Roxanne, told me that she expects all those titles will be back in print in the future in some form or another. But in the meantime, if you head to the Latin section to find those titles and can’t find them, it’s not on us. Maybe it’s a good time to venture out and find some thing new music, eh? The new Café Tacvba, “Si No” will be out Tuesday, October 9th. Molotov’s supposed last album before they call it quits, “Eternamiente” will be out the following Tuesday (10/16).

We also have plenty of Fania Reissues, Hip-Hop & Reggae En Español, 60’s and 70’s Psychedelia from South America, Cumbia, Salsa, Merengue, Bachata, Reggaeton and Norteños. We have deep catalog of many Latin Rock classics from Soda Stereo, Heroes Del Silencio, Mana, Aterciopelados and Mano Negra.

..  And of course, we have plenty of the latest Manu Chao release, “La Radiolina” in case you still haven’t bought your copy yet.