To check out extensive LP label and price guides, head to the Vinyl Beat website!

What if there was a band that could play great rock & roll, cool R&B, plus hot Mexican and Chicano grooves?  On top of that, what if this band could also synthesize those influences into their own wonderful songs without losing any of the flavor or intensity of the various original genres?

Luckily for us, Los Lobos can do all this and more. Their body of recorded work is staggering in its breadth, beauty, and rhythmic groove. They are truly a national treasure and define the term “Americana band.”

David Hidalgo on lead guitar, vocals, and assorted other instruments gives the band a lot of its diversity and musical muscle. Steve Berlin on sax and keyboards is the newcomer in the band, having joined in 1983! Cesar Rosas is also an excellent lead guitar man and a soulful singer. Louie Perez writes much of the material, used to be the drummer, and now plays rhythm and sings. Last but certainly not least, Conrad Lozano always plays strong solid bass lines.

Other bands have successfully combined styles and, in some cases, created a whole new genre. However, I don’t think there’s ever been such an eclectic band as Los Lobos. As you can hear below, they cover a lot of bases.

"Chuco’s Cumbia"

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Last Thursday, I took part in the debut of Radiosombra.org, a new Internet radio station based out of Boyle Heights in East Los Angeles. My show was one of several that debuts that night as part of a new collective. Among the debuts were The Tao Of Funkahuatl hosted legendary Ruben Funkahuatl Guevara, Art & Grooves, an aptly titled show by art curator and deejay Reyes Rodriguez. Another show is Merkado Negro, hosted by Nico from Los Poets Del Norte and DJ Libre. their show concentrates on everything underground in the real Eastside from subversive art and music to community –building projects. My personal favorite is the brilliant Heart Break Radio, hosted by Lady Imix from Imix Books. Just like the title insinuates, it's a collection of songs to cry yourself to sleep.

Discos Immigrantes is the name of my show. It will focus on the migration of records and people, which in some cases are quite similar. In future shows, I will have interviews from folks who have either immigrated to the U.S. or who are the product of immigration (i.e. first generation Americans) The show will focus on their stories and music they have brought with them, whether in the physical form or in their memories.

Radio Sombra is the brainchild of Marco Amador, a musician and long time community activist, who set up the station and for the time being, is financing the operation. I spoke to him briefly on why he felt the need to start an Internet station in the heart of East L.A.

What made you start this station?

       

To check out extensive LP label and price guides, head to the Vinyl Beat website!

Tex-Mex, the melding of rock and roll with Chicano music, started in San Antonio and L.A. in the late 1950s. It quickly spread to all Mexican-American communities throughout the Southwest. It wasn’t called Tex-Mex in L.A., but there was a similar aesthetic in all the Chicano communities and I’ll lump them together for the purposes of this article.

Some of the more famous bands in Texas were The Sir Douglas Quintet,Sunny & the Sunliners,Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs, Little Joe & the Latinaires, Freddie Fender, Rocky Gil, and The Royal Jesters. In L.A., it started with Ritchie Valens and Chris Montez, and the mid-‘60s saw the rise of Thee Midnighters, The Premiers, Cannibal & the Headhunters, and a host of lesser known bands.

A few people have wondered why I don’t use the Amoeba Blog to promote myself, so here I go. I promise to return to World Music and Amoeba Hollywood on my next blog.

As a deejay I’ve had some great gigs recently. I have performed with the likes of Celso Piña, Very Be Careful, B-Side Players and Buyepongo. Anda! A monthly retro- Cumbia/Salsa/Merengue party that DJ’s Juan Lennon, Gazooo, Mando Fever and I started three years ago is still going strong. Our Next Anda on May 7th will have DJ Nu-Mark as our guest. If you haven’t heard Nu-Mark’s latest mix, “Take Me With You” on the Mochilla label, you are in for a treat. It is a mixtape of Jurassic worldly proportions, to say the least.


I have a new residency at the Grand Star in Chinatown, joining the Intensified crew every second Saturday of the month. Intensified features great Reggae, Rocksteady and Latin sounds with The Lawless One and King Steady Beat. I am very happy to be joining them. Speaking of King Steady Beat, we will be releasing an all-vinyl Cumbia mixtape as The Mucho Lucho Sound System. That will be released in May. Artist Lalo Alcaraz did the artwork for the CD. He is the creator of the nationally syndicated comic strip "La Cucaracha” and it’s an honor that his art will be on the CD.

Shin Miyata and I have been friends for over ten years. He owns a record company called Music Camp Inc, which distributes such labels as Six Degrees and Nacional Records in Japan. But if you ask him, his true love is his own subsidiary label called Barrio Gold, dedicated to reissues of classic Chicano Rock and Soul artists as well as new Chicano artists coming out of the barrios of East L.A, San Francisco and Texas. Back in 2006, I was fortunate to go on package tour dedicated to promoting Chicano culture in Japan with the band Quetzal and writer Luis Rodriguez, author of the infamous book Always Running. It was an honor and something I’ll never forget. When Shin visits L.A., its always a great time. It’s about seeing lots of great music, going to his favorite Mexican and Japanese restaurants, having a few drinks and digging for vinyl. Truly, a man after my own heart!

Naturally, after the earthquake and tsunami hit, I contacted Shin. Even though he lives on the outskirts of Tokyo and far from the damage of the north, I was still concerned about my friend’s wellbeing, as are many of his friends across the U.S. All those horrible images on the news and the threat of nuclear fallout doesn’t help, either. After e-mailing back and forth over the last couple of days. I asked him if he wanted to do a quick interview just to let some of his friends know how he is doing. I thank Shin for taking time to do this in a very difficult time for him and all of Japan.

So where were you when the earthquake hit?