La Santa Cecilia isn't a person — or she isn't a live person, rather. It’s a band fusing all sorts of worldly influences — cumbia, bossa nova and blues, to name a few — named after the patron saint of musicians. But you could’ve been fooled into thinking frontwoman Marisol Hernandez was a saint herself, given the way she commanded the stage at Amoeba Hollywood April 30.

Her booming voice soared over a bluesy opener, generating rapturous applause from the show’s sizable audience. The band then went into an upbeat song driven by Jose “Pepe” Carlos’ riveting accordion playing, with Carlos and bassist Alex Bendana backing up Hernandez with trade-off vocals. Hernandez seemed to get choked up as she thanked people for coming, later saying it was an honor to play in the store. As though driven to please those she had just thanked, she danced, jumped and sang her heart out through the band's next bilingual jam. The band paused for a break while medical personnel attended to a concert-goer in medical need (who was shortly doing fine, it was announced).

They came back and introduced legendary drummer Pete Thompson, who carried them through a spirited romp as the band worked to restore stability to the show, while Hernandez rapped and roared through another song complete with blazing guitar solo. She gushed about receiving an email from Elvis Costello saying he wanted not only to perform but write on the album as well, sending lyrics for the song “Losing Game,” from their just-released Treinta Dias. Though Costello wasn’t present, Hernandez made up for it by doubling her already formidable stage presence and voice through the song’s swinging New Orleans feel.

La Santa Cecilia will be performing at Amoeba San Francisco on Thursday, May 5th in celebration of their latest release, Trienta Dias.

There are two videos that caught my interest of late, dealing with the subject of immigration. One is overt and the other, a bit subtle. The first is a video from La Santa Cecilia from their new album, Treinta Dias. The song "El Hielo" (ICE) The video shows the daily lives of various undocumented immigrants as they go on their daily routine of getting ready for work and school, living in the shadows in order not to be detected. The tension of the workers as they watch the news of  ICE raids and look at photos of loved ones left behind weigh heavy on their faces. It also shows an ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) officer also getting ready for work. It's not the usual face one puts on the Immigration officers, rather the new faces of first or second generation Mexican Americans who often work in deporting immigrants. The tension of the video comes to the climax at the end when the work place of several of the immigrants is raided by the ICE force, who look just like the immigrants themselves.
 

 

 

In celebration of their brand new Tom Morello produced Future Rock EP (available at Amoeba Hollywood) the group Outernational are currently on a two month tour with stops this week in Texas, Arizona, and California where they will play Fulton 55  in Fresno on Thursday (Aug 16), El Callejon in Salinas on Friday (Aug 17), and at The Satellite  in Los Angeles on Saturday (Aug 18) along with Las Cafeteras and Los Hollywood - all before traveling up to Canada, down South, and back East for more dates on the current tour that goes through the third week of September.

Along the route of this tour Outernational have been attracting new and old fans of their instantly likable world music flavored revolution rock. This is the second tour in the past few months by the hardworking Brooklyn NY based band. Their earlier 2012 concert trek was a unique two month, 2000 mile, tour along the Mexican border when they played venues not typical for touring rock bands including "the farm fields of California" as part of their Todos Somos Ilegales: We are All Illegal' tour 

Refreshingly outspoken Brooklyn, NY based band Outernational kick off their new tour, titled after their brand new album 'Todos Somos Ilegales: We are All Illegal'  tonight (April 4th) in the border town of Brownsville Texas at Galeria 409. That fitting border town location was chosen in the same vein as the setting for their new Jessica Habie "The Beginning Is Here" video above - by the band whose message is "torque una revolución sin baile no es una revolution" - a revolution without dance, isn't revolution!

The band's excellent new bi-lingual album addresses the issues and meanings of the border, the policies of the US government, and it directly questions a system that they see as criminalizing those who create the wealth it rests upon. The tour will travel along Texas border towns and onto the IM Festival in South Padre, TX with Los Amigos Invisibles/Nortec Collective. It will then travel to Arizona (the hot spot of immigration and border issues) with a highly anticipated April 12th show at Arizona State University. The band also have numerous California dates a big one on May Day at The Echo in Los Angeles.

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?