New Austin Vida live videos coming soon

Be sure to follow Austin Vida(.com) at the following links to stay up to date with all of our new live videos featuring Sour Soul, The Young Maths, Vinyl Dharma and more.

http://www.facebook.com/austinvida

http://www.twitter.com/austinvida

(11/12) Grupo Fantasma Anniversary Show at Antone's

Austin's biggest and baddest Latin band is celebrating ten years of awesomeness. Seeing Grupo Fantasma on New Year's Eve is a tradition for many and one I look forward to this year when they do it again at La Zona Rosa with Black Joe Lewis. The anniversary show will be at Antone's on Friday night, Nov. 12, and is sure to sell out quickly so be sure and get your tickets here.

Nacional Records Listening Party at Mi Casa: Chocquibtown & LFC Tribute

 

We're doing it again Austin! My Austin Vida crew and I are teaming up with our friends at Bemba Entertainment to host another Nacional Records Listening Party at Mi Casa Cantina on 6th street. On March 2nd, we'll be celebrating the release of not on, but two cool new albums from the world's hottest Latin Alternative record label. Just like before, we'll be giving away cool prizes while eating tamales. You how we do....

Also our boy DJ Chorizo Funk will be spinning the new records for us and doing his own thing before and after. Here is some information about the new albums we'll be celebrating. I hope you can join us. We'll post pictures and such on our Austin Vida blog. 

ChocQuibTown – Oro – Release date: March 2

Take a listen here:  http://www.myspace.com/chocquibtown

Fresh off a Latin GRAMMY nomination for “Best New Artist,” ChocQuibTown present their U.S. debut album. The group is an Afro-Colombian hip hop act, which formed in the Chocó region of Colombia’s Pacific coast. The group fuses hip hop, electronic and funk with traditional Afro-Colombian rhythms. 2009 was a banner year for ChocQuibTown, beginning with the their U.S. debut concert at SXSW in Austin. In addition to the Latin GRAMMY nomination, they showcased at WOMEX and toured from London to Paris and all the way out to India and Las Vegas.

 

Various Artists – Vos Sabes…Como Te Esperaba! –A Tribute to Los Fabulosos Cadillacs – Release date: March 2

Take a listen here:  http://www.myspace.com/losfabulososcadillacs

This special Fabulosos Cadillacs tribute release features new versions of classic Cadillacs tracks by a variety of leading Latin alternative acts, including Colombian music icons Aterciopelados, Tijuana’s electronica stars Nortec Collective, Puerto Rico’s reggae masters Cultura Profetica and Venezuelan disco funk rockers Los Amigos Invisibles. A Tribute to Los Fabulosos Cadillacs has already topped the album sales and radio charts in Argentina and Mexico.

There you have folks. I hope you'll mark it down on your calendars now and join us.

Two Great Latino Singer-Songwriters: Vicci Martinez & Arthur Yoria

This week on AustinVida my good friends Sarah Vasquez and Alysha Hernandez featured two great singer-songwriters, both Latino. I just wanted to share a little about these artists with you all and link you to the interviews. I do it to also show the wide variety of genres covered on Austin Vida, something I don't think anyone else really does in terms of Latino media based out of Austin.

The first interview is with Seattle based Vicci Martinez. She came through here last month sometime and performed at Momo's, a great venue for this type of genre. I got wind of her when I was reading something online one day and saw her name. Truth be told, I thought it was a friend of mine by the same name that I hadn't seen in years. I "Googled" her and came across a musician's MySpace page. Coincidentally, singer-songwriter Vicci had an Austin date on her tour schedule and the rest is history. She has a great voice, especially from someone who is so little. This girl has something. Give her a listen and check out Sarah's interview with Vicci Martinez.



Read the full interview here: Austin Vida interview with Vicci Martinez

Also on the singer-songwriter front this month on Austin Vida is Arthur Yoria. I have known about this dude for a while, but he hasn't blown up the spot like I think he's capable of. He is of Colombian descent but born and raised here in the U.S. He is a creative dude to say the least, but not in that weird sense where general audiences would be turned off. Some of my crew and I saw him at Momo's recently, at midnight on a Tuesday. It was the best Tuesday at midnight show I remember seeing. Yoria was like the Carrot Top of singer-songwriters, pulling out different instruments left and right.

Yoria uses some sort of music recorder mechanism that records sounds and loops that sound it records. He then creates another sound, records it and adds it to the loop. It makes him a one man band, literally. It is not something I haven't seen before, but it's been so long and the last time I saw someone do it live it didn't impress me like Yoria did. Watch this video all the way through to get the idea.



Click the link below to read the Arthur Yoria interview by Alysha Hernandez on Austin Vida:

Arhtur Yoria on Austin Vida

If you like what you hear, please check out the links on Austin Vida. While Vicci Martinez doesn't have anything on the books for Austin anytime soon, Yoria will be here again in December. See the article for details.

FREE Latin Alternative Showcase at Mexic-Arte Museum

Those of you who are looking for free shows during SXSW should definitely check out The Mexic-Arte's day party with Pilar Diaz, Leche, Cosmopolitan and my personal favorite of the bunch....Monte Negro. This is one of the better Latin music showcases this year and it is free.

I know, this is one of any things you could be doing on the 20th. Before you dismiss this show all together for something else, watch the vids I posted below.

Pilar Diaz

Pilar Diaz at Quiksilver's siteLA siteStage from Ravi Dhar on Vimeo.

Although I much preferred her with the now broken up Los Abandoned, her solo stuff will be very appealing to not just Latin music lovers, but to anyone in attendance. I think she'll win you over if you aren't a fan already.


MONTE NEGRO, Me Duele No Estar Junta A Ti from Edward Chen on Vimeo.

Monte Negro is one of the best bands in the Latin Alternative scene right now in my opinion. I have seen them live three times in Austin during the last year and they never disappoint. I only wish there were more people at those shows while they played to take notice. Seriously folks, time to pay attention. Their guitar player, Jason, is one of the best guitar players you'll find in any band of any genre. I have nothing but good things to say about these dudes. Check 'em out for free.

Entrevista por Kalua a Austin Vida

Kalua ha estado tocando música en Austin desde el primer show de Austin Vida en 2007. Tuve la oportunidad de sentarme con el baterista Andrés Delgado y cantante/guitarrista Juan Díaz para platicar acerca de su nuevo disco, un video nuevo, de Led Zeplin, la música Latina en Austin, la Copa Mundial de Fútbol y hasta heavy metal.

Visita Go Hispano aqui

Hacienda Appearing on Late with Night Conan O"Brien

Boerne, Texas's own Hacienda will be appearing tonight on Late Night with Conan O'Brien as Dan Auerbach's (The Black Keys) backing band. You can catch Late Night on Austin's NBC affiliate, KXAN at 11:30 central time. Do check it out if you're staying in tonight. For all you attending SXSW this year, it will be a preview of what you can see in March if you are one of the fortunate ones who can get in to that show.

New February Austin Vida Online Now

Visit Austin Vida to check out DJ 2DQ talking about the switch from The Beat to Hot 93, Pangaea Live, Vinyl Dharma on MTV2, Puerto Rican punk rockers, reviews, sports talk with Dennis De La Pena and more.

Hacienda to Perform at Fashion Freakout

Photo By Sandy Carson

San Antonio's own Hacienda will be performing on February 6th at The Mohawk in Austin for the second annual Fashion Freakout. This rock and roll fashion show...
Click here for full details

New Chris Perez Project

We launched the new Austin Vida!!!

After a three month layoff and an ownership change, Austin Vida is back and better than ever in 2009. With a new team and attitude behind it, Austin Vida has more to offer than ever before. We will be featuring music, reviews, business spotlights, news on the arts, blogs, and sports. That’s right. We’re introducing sports to Austin Vida this year.

Sports is the theme for our first cover, which features Austin MMA champ Nick “The Ghost” Gonzalez. Nick sits down with us to talk about growing up in Austin, his new management and major network deal. Nick is quite the charismatic personality with a lot to say. Austin Vida is proud that he represents Austin.

As always, Austin Vida will continue to support the local Latin Music scene with articles, Q&A’s and album reviews. After all, Austin Vida was originally founded to support Latin Rock in Austin. Be sure to check out our Ozomatli feature as well.

Also in this edition, we will be featuring book reviews, a business spotlight on Carlos Santana’s new restaurant, and our contributor’s blogs about whatever is on their mind. Be sure to click on the share buttons at the end of every article, add Austin Vida to your myspace friends, and “tweet” with us on Twitter.

Finally, we wanted to thank Austin Vida founder, Brian Stubbs, for creating this wonderful and much needed webzine for Austin’s Latino community. We needed something like Austin Vida that was uniquely ours...something that represented our viewpoints. We promise to hold ourselves to the same high standards Brian set forth for Austin Vida.

60 Tigres at The Sound and The Jury Competiton

Last night I ventured out to Antone’s to see one of my favorite new Latin rock bands from Mexico, 60 Tigres. Hailing from Monterrey (the coolest city in Mexico it seems) , 60 Tigres brought a unique and original sound to The Sound and the Jury competition. They are a good mix of psychedelic and bass heavy funk, with a Latin percussion of course. They also have two singers, their bassist and their drummer.

The bands at the showcase last night were chosen by online fan voting. That being said, it was an amazing accomplishment just to be there. I know that sounds PC and cheesy, but considering the amount of quality competition, being there as one of the top vote getters speaks volumes. I think it speaks especially well of 60 Tigres being that they were the only foreign band in the top group.

Now I knew going into Antone's that they weren't going to win. The odds were against them as they were going against local favorites and other top vote getters. The competition was judges by the in house crowd and a panel of industry judges. There were other factors that were against them also, such as the fact that they sing primarily in Spanish. It is often hard for people sometimes to get into a band at first if they don't understand the language they are singing in. The other factor they were going up against was that they had equipment issues. Luckily for them one of the other bands, T-Bird and The Breaks, were kind enough to lend them equipment.

T-Bird and The Breaks was also the band that went on before them, and up to that point they were the band with the best crowd support. Man did I feel for 60 Tigres after they finished. Hell, even I thought T-Bird should have won if 60 Tigres couldn't. They were awesome and more original than the other generic indie rock bands playing. That's just what ACL needs right…more indie rock.

60 Tigres, like the other bands on the bill, only had about a 20 minute set. Despite their short set, I honestly think they made a good impression on the majority gringo crowd there at Antone's. That is one thing I love about this town. People are open to different types of music and embrace it even. Of course the Hispanics there were going to love them, but seeing everyone else nod their heads and dance (thanks to the beer I suppose) was great to see. 60 Tigres noticed as they made it a point to thank everyone for listening and let the audience know how honored they were to be there.

I hope they make it back to Austin next year so more people can get a chance to see them. They were great live and if you like to dance at concerts, then you'll love 60 Tigres. Having got a chance to speak with them after their set, I got the impression that they want to come back as soon as they can. They loved it here. In the meantime, you can check out their music for free on their website. Click here to check them out, and do check out this video from the show:

Listening to Lysa Flores for the first time....

After a long day such as today, one thing I like to do is hang out with my lap dog and listen to some music. Now as much as I love Rage Against the Machine or Rancid, I just wanted something I could relax to tonight. I wasn't in the mood for country or jazz. As I looked through my Itunes, I remembered I burned some CDs the other day from someone else's music collection. The guy I borrowed the music from is really into Latin Alternative, a genre I figured out I have lots to learn about still. Well, one of the CDs I burned was by a woman out of East L.A. named Lysa Flores. This particular album I picked up was called "The Making of a Trophy Grrrl!".

I played the album with no expectations what so ever. I had never heard of her before yesterday, nor did I research her online the way I would with most artists. In fact, I am not sure why I picked up her CD to burn. It was just in a pile of CDs I grabbed to burn into my Itunes. I just wanted to hear some new stuff in this Latin Alternative genre. Once I clicked play on the album, I was immediately drawn in. It wasn't just background music anymore, as I actually began playing close attention to her voice, the lyrics, and the musicianship of it all.

So while I was listening, I "Googled" her and found both her website and myspace. According to her website bio ,she is a first generation Mexican American artist with three CDs to her credit. After looking through her pictures and listening to her music, she strikes me as the kind of person one would label or tag as "earthy" or "creative". There is definitely some element of Frida Khalo mixed with some Annie DeFranco.


Lysa Flores sings in both English and Spanish, which as a Latino I appreciate. While her English tracks are good, I think she sounds better in Spanish. Her song "En Que Te Falte" sounds like an early, raw Shakira. For those who don't know, Shakira was not always blonde and did not always sing in English. Before she "crossed over", she was more amazing than she is now. Now Flores is not the entertainer Shakira is, but certainly an amazing artist. Because I have no liner notes, I don't know who writes her songs but I imagine that she does most if it. Other noteable tracks I liked were "Novia" and "I won't forget you".

While doing more research online about Flores, I was disappointed that I did not see any Austin or even San Antonio dates coming up. In fact, there are zero Texas dates on her schedule thus far. Not chido Lysa. Not chido at all. Her album I just listened to is fantastic and it would be cool to see her live. Oh well, one day perhaps.