Bonnaroo, say what?

Yeah, Bonnaroo, for those who don’t know (I didn’t) Bonnaroo is a Music and Arts Festival held annually in the city of Manchester, TN. (Tennessee? Random? Heck Yes!) The Great Stage Park is the place, multiple stages of live music including reggae, country, electronica, hip hop, gospel, alternative, Americana, folk, etc. (So eclectic, I love it!) Craftsmen and Artisans have on sale their unique and awesome work, which I think it’s pretty cool. Boonnaroo was named the “Best Festival” by the Rolling Stone Magazine in 2008 calling it “The ultimate over the top summer festival”. This year’s Bonnaroo will start rocking our summer from June 10th to June 13th, every year close to 80, 000 souls gather in the countryside to tear it up!
First held in 2002, with only 72 bands and artists on their lineup, Bonnaroo had a major success and has been that way for the past 8 years. In 2004 Bonnaroo had scheduled 2 Latin alternative bands for the first time, which were The Lonely Boys and Los Lobos. Bonnaroo has grown throughout the years from only less than half of the acts for this year’s festival, 8 years ago to 160 + on 2010.
Bonnaroo has gone all out for this year’s Latin alternative lineup, there will actually be a special tent featuring some of the best Latin Alternative acts these days, Nacional Records, who has already joined forces with Bonnaroo in the past, has been invited to assist at this year’s Bonnaroo for the Latino Alternativo lineup, so all day long on Saturday attendees will be jamming to awesome music from the Latin Alternative scene, plus djs, visual arts and more. Grammy award winners Los Angeles basedOzomatli *will be headliners at this tent and not only that but they’ll also be mc’s during the whole day, also Los *Amigos Invisibles (Venezuela),Aterciopelados (Colombia), Nortec Collective: presents Bostich y Fussible(Mexico), Mexican Institute of Sound (Mexico), Bomba Estereo (Colombia), who is on the top 5 bands to check out at Bonnaroo by Spin Magazine.
Bonnaroo is not done! If you are like me and love soccer, they’re screening World Cup matches over the weekend on the Field of Dreams on large screen projections of matches! Don’t you just love it? Don’t miss it!
For schedules, info, music and arts, tickets, activities + attractions, FAQ’s, contests and more check out www.bonnaroo.com or www.indieoma.com/

La Maldita Vecindad from a white girls perspective.

By Sindy Lagunas and E. C. Girls

I was excited to hear that one of my favorite Mexican rock bands, La Maldita Vecindad, would be playing at the House of Blues.

NAME: La Maldita Vecindad y los Hijos del 5to Patio (The damned neighborhood and the son's of the fifth patio.)

BIRTHDATE: Mexico City 1985

SOUNDS LIKE: Rock, Ska, and a bit of Mexican bolero.

WARDROBE: Pachuco ALL ABOUT: Adventures, dilemmas, delivering a positive message of peace and improvement in all societies. This was definitely one of the craziest Latin shows i have attended in a while. The energy was loud and the audience was eager to hear them play. It was around song #3 that Shannon and Mary found me, I must admit that i was nervous to invite them. I wasn't sure if they would like it or how they would react to the guys in Mexican wrestling masks and the loud aggressive girls. When i turned and saw them having a killer time all my worries melted away and went back to the screaming and dancing like the other nuts.

In between songs the singer would say a couple positive words, mostly about peace on earth, unity, and the best of all, "STOP THE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN"

I left the House of Blues soaked in beer, sore form all the pushing, and filled with great vibes from the people

Mary:

Knowing absolutely nothing about the band i was about to see other than Sindy mentioning that we should review it for the blog,  I finally entered the main concert hall after a mazeof halls and elevators leading form the plush and over the top Foundation Room  at the House of Blues.

The confusing and somewhat questionable route to getting to my destination made me feel as though i was going further down the rabbit hole, one step behind Alice herself.
Once the last door opened i Could hear the crowd, sense the energy of the fans as the rhythmic sounds of the aforementioned band ingested my being. I walked into a large performance space and was at once seized by th "Malditas" energys and endorphins. As i tried to ignore the energetic rotation of the mosh pit (yes, I said mosh pit!) in front of the stage i noticed the singer. He was jumping into the air, and skanking hard core, fueling an already ecstatic audience.

I was enchanted. I scanned the stage more carefully. The singer was wearing a wife beater with wide hanging trousers akin to the zoot suit style of the 20's, all whilst dancing up a storm in a pair of black and white tipped shoes. Near by the saxophonist played his part invigorating us with his sax solo riffs while clad in long black trench coat matching his long black hair.
These guys were stylish, musically trained and knew how to pout on a performance while having fun themselves. The band also consisted of a trumpet player, keyboard player, bassist and lead guitarist. The upbeat Latin ska style melody fed the hungry crowd and kept them going.

Upon finding Sindy standing center stage with her camera, Shannon and i joined in the fun. We were located directly between the stage and the mosh pit, our elbows only protecting us from the wave of equally if not more enchanted crowd going crazy. What a show!!! Crowd-surfing ensued the entire time as well as the rain of water and beer that was being thrown across the crowd. We danced, we cheered, we skanked and clapped our hands in the air as though possessed by a spell. I saw the largest man ever get carried by the crowd to the stage to the humorous dismay of the stage bouncers who caught all the crowd-surfers. The look on the fatty's face was of sheer accomplishment and disbelief. More than a few guys were sporting Mexican wrestling masks sans shirts, bringing to mind Jack Black in Nacho Libre thus adding to the hilarity of this sweaty and outrageous wonderland.
As i left the show, my clothes drenched in sweat and beer, my left elbow slightly skinned, my hair matted to my face, i couldn't help but feel as though i had truly been wonderful.

Shannon Pipper:

There's nothingn that i love more than my city, but music trumps Montrose and sometimes that means venturing out into the unknown... downtown. The Maldita had a message and i heard it loud and clear, streaming through the speakers, straight into my heart.
Music is love. Love is universal.

My kitchen Spanish is quite pathetic and it barely gets me through a work day. Needless to say, i probably only understood six words during the whole show and one of them was "Houston". That didn't seem to matter. I understood the passion that the lead singer spoke with. I felt his heart beat as he spoke between songs to the crowd who got louder and louder with every word he said. I understood the music because it knows no ethnicity, embracing anyone who will reciprocate the emotion.

Would i go back? Heck yess! i would and you guys are coming with me. After the show, our praises continue. We have told everyone and anyone about the show. The bruises i proudly sported for days have faded, leaving no proof of how we let go and got swallowed up by the Maldita Madness.

Source http://ecmontrosegirls.blogspot.com/ thanks to Shannon, Sindy and Mary. Y'all rule.

The Lollapalooza 2010 Lineup!

By: LucyRock

Hold on to your seats and crazy hats kids, because this years Lollapalooza looks to be crazier, cooler and better than ever; with some heavy Headliners: Green Day, The Arcade Fire, Lady Gaga, The Strokes, The Phoenix and 80's band Devo, anyone remember the classic "Whip It" with the band that had the red crazy hats? Well they will be there!

Other bands present will be; The XX, Grizzly Bear, The New Pornographers, Erika Badu, Chromeo, Wolfmother, Metric, Matt & Kim, GoGol Bordello, Frightened Rabbit, Venezuela's own craziest live act: Los Amigos Invisibles, Minus The Bear, Cypress Hill, Hot Chip and many more!

While at Spinning at Perry's; 2ManyDJ's, Empire of the Sun, Digitalism, Mexican Insitute of Sound, Cut Copy (DJ Set) and many more will be DJing. The festival will be held this August 6 - 8th in Grant Park in Chicago, Illinois. The tickets are selling out fast! So you might want to get them while you still can!

For more info go to: http://www.lollapalooza.com/

SXSW Music Recap: Thursday - NACO Showcase

 By: LucyRock

From street performances, pop rock, cumbia and so much more could be what describe the showcases that we went to for the second day of the music showcasing of South by Southwest. The two main stops we did were the NACO and the Tormenta Topical showcases.  Both were good as far as quality music goes to, at the NACO one we got to see Banda de Turistas, Sonidero Nacional and Gustavo Galindo and in the Tormenta Tropical we got to see awesome DJ’s like Nguzunguzu, Jubilee, Toy Selectah, Disco Shawn, Tanlines, Maluca and many more; not only that, but like typical Austin SXSW climate we got to see street performances from everyone to street hobos to un-known bands trying to break into the music scene.

The NACO Showcase

Although this showcase was not as packed like we have seen other showcases get filled up in the past, the bands that showcased their new album and work were fantastic. The Argentina boys that make “Banda de Turistas” gave a good and calm show, that with every little bit that their music gave people were dancing and singing along to, after that the very much awaited Sonidero Nacional, composed of Toy Selctah and friends like band members from grupo fantasma, DJ Dus and other out of the spur guests like the two chicas that got up in the stage and shook their hips, brought the crowd to full out life and made them shake their hips, spin and dance the good cumbia remixes that Toy Selctah was spinning while his friends played along with music instruments.

After that awesome hip shaking, spinning and dance the whole time cumbia set, it was time for a more fresa pop style of music and boy were we shocked, before Gustavo Galindo who is signed by Universal all we knew about him is that in his latest cd he had the same producer as one of our personal favorites Julieta Venegas. However the boy can fend for himself and gave a pretty good showcase, we can’t lie nor complain. Overall it was a weird mix of music from the beatles folk style of rock from Banda de Turistas, then the hip shaking cumbia of Sonidero Nacional with the music by Gustavo Galindo a guy that is inspired by musicians such as Juanes and Cafe Tacvba and opened for groups like Natalia Lafourcade, Babasonicos and Zoe.

After that, we couldn’t wait to get to the “Tormenta Tropical” paryt which was announced by the Sonidero Nacional boys by saying “you want more partying? Come down to our party, down that way on Iron Gate” and we said,  "let’s go right after Gustavo Galindo, last night was awesome so this one has to be awesome as well…" and after a short time of asking directions and finding our way... we got to the Iron Gate.

For more pictures of the Thursday music maddness simply go to our: Flickr

SXSW Music Recap: Thursday - Tormenta Tropical

By: LucyRock

Tormenta Tropical

Needless to say, the backyard was pumping people of every cultural background and from every place in town was present dancing and giving life to the place, when we go there Matt Shadetek was finishing his set spinning some sick old and new school rap then he was followed by two awesome girl dj’s Nguzunguzu and Jubilee, who had pioneer and master Toy Selectah, L-Vis 1990 and Kingdom and inside we had Tanlines and Maluca + Paul Devro.


 The place was crazy, full of people dancing, laughing, having a good tiem and every now and then they had mc’s grabbing the mic out of nowhere either spitting rhymes or presenting other DJ’s to keep the crowd alive. At one point hot mama Maluca even got on top of the table and danced, the stage was taken over by different people who did not dared to get on the table did dance in front of the speakers or even dared to hang in mid air while dancing.

 After that crazy night, we decided to get home and sleep, and evn thought our feet were saying no more, we only gave them a couple of hours rest to get ready to see School of Seven Bells, Los Odio, Hong Kong Blood Opera, Division Minuscula and many more!

For more pictures of the Thursday music maddness simply go to our: Flickr

SXSW 2010 RECAP

BY  Z

Hello Houston! we finally catch up on our sleep! These two weeks have been crazy, SXSW rocked our socks out, WMC can only get better and better plus lots of shows in the HTX and Austin. We are finally now writing it all down or should we say typing, as we sip on much needed coffee.

Wednesday day #1

Online magazine Remezcla and BMI came together for this year’s SXSW and hopefully many other projects in the Latin Alternative scene, their showcase took place at “Mi casa cantina” the party got the grove on with songs like “Chicle”  from Los Angeles based band, La Santa Cecilia opening the show followed by Maneja Beto representing Austin.

One of the bands we were really looking forward to see live was Palenke Soultribe, based in LA with Colombian roots and flavor brought together Electronic music with Afro-Colombian rhythms burning down the house with “Popular Music” and “The Color of your dreams” at one point Itagui from Miami-based mash-up masters “Locos por Juana” joined them to perform.

Vicente Gayo was also one of the bands we were dying to check out and didn’t disappoint us whatsoever!!  These kids from Mexico put on a hell of a show with songs like “No Move” and “Rec, Play and Stop” followed by Volovan and  Maluca Mala who made a cover from Mexican singer Gloria Trevi who drove the crowd nuts!

   

 Vicente Gayo  photo by: Mario Contreras

Sounds of Spain never disappoint us, it took place at Entourage this year, we made a list of shows we wanted to see with no doubt and Los Planetas were on it, ever since their song “Mi hermana pequena”  we haven’t stop tracking them down, of course we got pictures taken and all.  Huecco performed in Houston with Maldita Vecindad the day before and we still had to go check them out, they’re just awesome!! Amaral and Nudozurdo made the crowd sing along their song and they gave out Paella, a Spanish dish and red Spanish wine which was pretty cool in case you were hungry!

   Nudozurdo  photo by: Mario Contreras

                                                            
















 

Los Planetas photo by: Juan Rivas

                                                                                  
Next stop was Iron Gate, goods friends from Kinetic were spinning where all the real party was going down.

We checked out great djs such as Sonora, Chief Boima, Lazer Sword, Poirier, Geko Jones, which wasn’t playing that night but stop to say hi, Pagame Uproot Andy from Que Bajo was spinning when we got there, we could hear  “Brooklyn Cumbia” blasting on the speakers as we were walking down the street towards the venue!! Other djs we weren’t familiar with but loved their mad skills were Ghosts on tape, Jahdan Blakkamoore. They also had great music in the inside of the venue with Lemonade, delorean, Orion and Dj Dus in charge of the party, they took turns and their sets were unbelievable. 

Maluca putting it down at Iron Gate photo by: Lucia Ayala