Raw Travel... the indie show for indie travelers, launches this October in the U.S. We’re independent and want to remain that way.. but independence comes with a price. We must finance our own stuff. What this means is we are borderline broke all the time as money heads one direction and one direction only… OUT and AWAY (at least at the beginning) That’s not such a bad thing always. It enforces discipline and requires creativity to approach challenges and situations.
In this case, our music budget is non existent. I hate canned, library music. I also was inspired to produce “Raw Travel” in part because of the plethora of clueless shows on the air showcasing a destination like Brazil with a soundtrack of salsa music, displaying the producers’ ignorance of the very culture they were attempting to enlighten upon others. I vowed from Day 1 any show I produced would NEVER do that.
Luckily, we already invested in a pretty extensive library of original music when we first started producing the show, but we’d like to add to it.
Now, I know this is a punk blog (hence the name “Punk Outlaw”) and thus punks worldwide are reading this, but please punks, understand, while I love punk music and the punk aesthetic and philosophy will be on full display throughout the show… that is not the type of music we are looking for at this time. That musical need will mostly be filled by punk, ska, reggae, rockabilly, psychobilly and yes, even hip hop (non commercial, socially conscious of course) or any other type of music that fits the show’s independent thinker, citizen of the world theme, when we feature bands & artists from the different destinations we visit.
What we specifically are in need of now is more of a “world music” or “ambient” vibe. Artists that are weaving some of their local flavor into their music and can create tracks that reflect a particular destination or mood. Ideally, we don’t want vocals, only musical tracks (the music generally will be played underneath voice over / narration).
What does the artists get out of this?
1) Publishing – If you are a member of a publishing rights organization (ASCAP or BMI here in the U.S.) depending on how big and successful the show is (how many markets, how long it airs, etc.) you will get royalties over time from the TV channels who pay the rights organizations every time your music is played. If you don’t have a publishing agreement we may be able to set you up through Punk Outlaw Publishing.
2) Exposure – The thing everybody is clamoring for when they fill my inbox with free music tracks, videos, pitches for stories etc. for this small but dedicated blog. Imagine Punk Outlaw being about a thousand or more times more powerful and you get the picture of the exposure a hit TV show can bring. We want to turn the world on to talented, independent musicians, that is why we began Punk Outlaw Records (certainly not for the $). This is another way to turn people on to talented artists.
If we like your music and choose to use it in the show, we’ll be featuring the artists from the show on our soon to be relaunched website at www.RawTravel.tv on a special Raw Travel Music page. That page will be aggressively promoted on the show and will feature the artists bios, links to artists web pages (facebook, bandcamp, etc.) and can link to any music you may have for sell. You will also get a credit in the show of course.
Down the road, our goal is to put together a collection of the best music used for “Raw Travel” and offer it as a compilation CD or digital release and promote it on TV.
Everything is on a case by case basis at this stage and determined on our need and the fit of your music with the show.
Free music for a TV show in exchange for royalties & exposure ? It’s not for every artist and every artist is not a fit for the show.
But if you think you are a fit, then leave a comment for me with your email and we can get started with the process of evaluating your music and get you details about the technical aspects, etc.
Our destinations (in addition to the ones already produced) for Season 1 are North & Central America including the following Mexico (Mexico City & Yucatan), Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Belize and in the U.S. Oregon, Utah, New Mexico & Louisiana.
Music indigenous to these regions are our highest priority at the moment. Bands in these destinations feel free to hit me up for potential coverage as well as we begin our travels in June/July.
Season 2 is Southeast Asia & Eastern Europe. Season 3.. we’ll we haven’t really planned that far ahead yet but I’m feeling Africa, Turkey & Parts of Russia plus Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan including all of the “…stans”.
If you want to find out more about Raw Travel, be sure and like us on our facebook pageand follow us on twitter and stay tuned. It’s going to be a wild and ridiculously fun ride. Actually… it already is.
This just in.. Tim & Snik (AKA the Russian Interns) and their band Degrees of Freedom (DOF) are opening up for electronic / alternative rock band Orgy next Monday 4/15/13 at the famed Whiskey A Go Go.
Come on out and show some support and hear some good old electronic goth music, early aught style. or was it late 90s? Oh well, hopefully our cameras will capture all the action! Hope to see you there. More info on the event HERE!
I’m heading to the land of grunge with a 3 day trip to Portland/Seattle and yes, I’m taking the camera… so stay tuned. Word is there is still a pretty damned healthy punk scene still kicking around those parts. We hope to find out.
In the meantime, we’ll see you at our buddies at Torino Lounge down in Paramount, just next door to Compton so maybe Ice-T will show up! He’s part Irish right?
If that doesn’t float your boat well the Adicts are in town so here are some other things going on the city of Angels this weekend and beyond courtesy of PunkRockers.com
Punk Shows in SO CALI
THIS SUNDAY March 17th the Adicts at the House of Blues of Anaheim!
Here are some amazing ALL AGES shows coming up at the VEX in Los Angeles
THE VEX
5240 Alhambra Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90032
Toll Free # 1-800-660-9015
April 18, One Way System , The Briggs, DI. 13$,
July 14 Black Flag
June 8, Full 8 FEST. Dickies , Agent Orange , Narcoleptic Youth, Evacuate , 8kalacas , Red Store Bums, South Central Skankers, Nino Zombie
Generally, I’m not a St. Patrick’s Day guy. Drunken idiots roaming the streets of NYC cured me of that long ago. Any travelers ever notice how the U.S. seems to infect each culture or ethnic group with that falling down du
Yeah, I’m heading back to Cal-i-forn-i-a and I am thrilled at all the punk, psychobilly and rockabilly getting ready to feast upon. Assuming I’m all recovered from this marathon travel I’ll be hitting more than a couple and you can see video & photos right here.
Here is one I’m definitely going to try and make and if you are on the west coast, maybe you can too. It’s a good event, for a good cause.
Hope to see you there.
The 6th Annual Latina/o Student Union Rockabilly Festival
MARCH 9th, 2013 11 A.M.-6 P.M. Pitzer College
MUSIC, CAR EXHIBITION, VENDORS, ART & MORE! FREE event, All Ages, open to public
With performances by:
Vicky Tafoya and the Big Beat The Wiseguys – Big Band Machine Moonlight Trio Jonny Come Lately Los Bandits
This year, proceeds made at the event will go towards Pomona High School’s MEChA College Scholarship, come support!
I’m in Denver (cool) en route to Chicago (cold) en route to Miami (hot) on the “no sleep” express which is to say Southwest airlines at god awful early flights in foreign time zones that is zapping my energy and yes, my will to live. Thank God for coffee.
Assuming I survive this 15-20 city tour of duty I hope to be back in LA in time for a couple of cool events coming up from our good buddy Von Badsville. He’s the guy that put on the kick ass Calavera reunion show last fall. If you missed it, catch it HERE.
If you are in the LA area, are a bit of a psychobilly nut then you may want to hit them up to as these are some 1st class psychobilly bands. More info on the show can be found here.
If I don’t survive and can’t make, then please by all means, carry on with out me.
Hopefully I’ll see you there.
Psychobilly show in Los Angeles
Then, the very next month in March, Valentin and some friends from Klubfoot USA is putting on a big 3 day psychobilly event called the KLUBFOOT STOMP around St. Patrick’s day weekend (March 15-17th) and you can bet your lucky charms, if we’re in town, we’ll be there, camera in each hand to cover it for ya.
This event is still taking shape so keep up with them on their webpage HERE and their Facebook event page HERE.
Looks like it’s going to be a psychotic 2013 in Los Angeles.
Black Friday, Grey Sunday, Cyber Monday… shop, shop, shop til you drop and if you happen to be religious, try to remember the true meaning of Xmas, if you can. I prefer Xmas in Latin America where gift giving and consumerism are not of Olympic proportions…and where incidentally, recent studies have just reflected, reside citizens in 7 of the top 10 HAPPIEST countries in the world (I won’t tell you where the U.S. ranked, but I bet you can guess). More on that in another post.
What do the holidays mean to you? Are you sick of all the consumer driven holiday ads being crammed down our throats since mid October? What about the stress of gift giving?
I love the holidays but hate what it’s become, which is an excuse to get the American consumer further in debt in the name of corporate profits for the wall street beast and their greedy caretakers who will never, ever have enough, no matter how many billions they make.
So how can you celebrate the holidays without buying into idea that happy holidays must include the brand new flat screen for the family, video game for little Johnny or Janie (or chances are Javier and Maria) and gifts you can’t afford for others you hardly know but feel obligated to give something to?
How about some punk themed Holiday music? Yes, it’s been a tradition since the Ramones who ironically are credited with so much punk history, yet had no problems putting out special Xmas songs and capitalizing on their success. They even had a Ramones cartoon that aired briefly on U.S. TV for God’s sake. Yes, somewhere, somehow the so called punk “purists” who preach that no one should ever make any $ for their music are going to have to come to terms with that big fat fact.
I’m not sure anybody tried more to make the almighty buck more than the beloved Ramones, at least in the punk genre. It continues today as the Ramones are reportedly some of the most litigious estates around. I don’t criticize them for this, I think it’s ok to do this. It’s actually necessary. People have to protect their right to $ from their music. So long as they aren’t picking fights with fans or people or small companies who don’t know any better (and to my knowledge they don’t).
Maybe that is why hip-hop is so popular. There is no hypocrisy or double standard when Russell Simmons buys a golden toilet for one of his massive mansion. Hip-Hop is a blatant money play and the Ramones, as successful as they were, never, ever made Russell Simmons type of $. And even if they had, I’m pretty sure none of the guys would have knelt so low as to take care of their crass physical needs via a solid gold toilet.
But I digress. What does any self respecting punk get on their Xmas lists without selling out or buying into a corrupt system?
These are your traditional Xmas holiday musical classics redone with a punk beat by a variety of artists. The compilation was put out last month by “Punch Bowl Records” . Good idea fellas. I think. Check the compilation out on iTunes here.What do you think?
Once again put out by a variety of artists, but with recognizable names like “The Dickies” and “Stiff Little Fingers”. I don’ t have the CD but it got some decent reviews on Amazon and the samples are cool. Check it out on Amazon here.
3) Give a goat!
And finally, what holiday season wouldn’t be complete without keeping the world’s less fortunate in mind. You and I know there are plenty to go around. I argue, that this is the true meaning of Xmas. You can easily combine your need/desire to buy gifts for loved ones while at the same time helping others by giving charitable gifts given to someone in need in a developing country in your loved one’s name.
I tried it a couple of years ago and it was a huge hit. My mother loved the brood of chickens I gave her (or more specifically to the family in Haiti, in her name) and my dad the goat I gave an African family.
If you’d like to give it a try, do it, see what you think. I predict you’ll be back for even more next holiday season. It’s truly fulfilling.
Which ever route you decide, even if you go to Best Buy and get that flat screen, I hope you have a safe, peaceful and healthy holiday season. Ho, Ho, Ho!
My wish for the new year? May the NRA (National Rifle Association) go away, far, far away or if not, then rename themselves more accurately as (NARKIPA) National Assault Rifle and Killers of Innocents People Association.
I don’t like plugging random punk shows and events too often because there are so many and our readers are from so many different locations it isn’t useful to everyone. But considering such a large % of our readers are from Colombia and Latin America I thought it might interest people to know about this big festival coming up in Medellin. It’s also a good chance to hear our good buddies from Punk Outlaw Records,“Los Suziox”and other excellent local punk bands.
And in case you missed the article we put out on the Colombian Punk scene in Remezcla magazine, you can check it out HERE.
or I’ve posted the “un-edited” raw version just for you, our loyal readers. Enjoy!
LIKE A GOOD PUNK SONG, IT BEGINS WITH INJUSTICE
I remember it clearly, or as clearly as anyone of us can remember anything. I was at an outdoor café in Parque Lleras in the upscale neighborhood of Poblado in Medellin, Colombia. This was my first visit to Medellin and I had been there just long enough to realize how ridiculous of my irrational fears of being kidnapped or killed in a drug war shootout were.
Lleras was an appropriate spot for a semi-nervous turista to grab some food and people watch. It felt “muy tranquilo”. Most people looked as if they were lifted out of a scene from a hot nightclub in Miami or Los Angeles. The girls were dressed sexy and the guys were sizing them up unabashedly while drinking beer or shooting aguardiente, a Colombian liqueur sometimes called firewater.
Suddenly, I saw something I’d never seen in my travels to Latin America heretofore, a trio of hardcore looking young punks, two guys and a girl, walking around plying their handmade leather wristbands and jewelry to the visitors and upscale denizens of Medellin.
I don’t remember specifically what they were wearing but there was no doubt they were punks. They were of the mohawk wearing, tattooed and pierced variety, the kind you might see at an Exploited or Casualties show moshing it up and stagediving, not posers.
“There are punks in Latin America?” the naïve nature of my first thoughts would later be cause for much amusement. I would find that “por supuesto” (of course) there were indeed many punks in Latin America with a rich history at that.
WHERE AM I & HOW DID I GET HERE?
At this point in my life, I was a fairly new observer of the punk lifestyle not realizing that even though I was not of the Mohawk, tattooed, pierced variety, I can now confidently state that I was pure punk. Though always slightly rebellious and suspicious of authority, even in my native Tennessee, my theory is that I’ve been a punk since birth, but that my “punkness” had lain dormant. I was a punk and didn’t realize it until I’d lived in New York City for a few years and against some pretty heavy odds, tried my hand at becoming an entrepreneur and changing a small but ugly part of the media business.
“A punk-rock businessman?” you ask. Yes. They, like Colombian punks, also exist. At the time when I began my entrepreneurial pursuit of producing English language TV for young, American born Latinos, it seemed it was me (a white farm boy), my friends (almost all Latino) and our cause (representing Latinos in mainstream media) against a largely ignorant and biased media world run by large corporations and their just as hefty corporate sponsors.
At the beginning, my small, bootstrapped and grossly underfunded company was often on the verge of extinction but we found strength in our commitment to fight the status quo of corporate media giants and their sometimes willful ignorance. In my eyes at the time, they represented an intellectually lazy culture that was largely intent on keeping things the same. We represented a new, open minded culture that demanded change.
Money didn’t motivate me, (I viewed it more as a tool to stay alive and fight the good fight), as much as the cause, which felt more and more like the right thing as many people first ignored us, then laughed at us and finally attacked us ( the 3 stages of success).
It was at this time in my life when I mistakenly thought I would fail but had pledged I was going to go down swinging, blacking a few eyes along the way, that I also mistakenly bought Social Distortion’s “White Light, White Heat, White Trash” CD. This happy accident was a bridge to a genre and lifestyle that would take me on a journey to points the world over and would forever change my life.
At this point of the Colombian punk sighting, I was not an entirely seasoned, independent traveler just yet either. Most of my travels had thus far consisted of staying in chain hotels confined to the safety of tourist zones in places like the Dominican Republic or Costa Rica. I had a lot to learn about both the punk lifestyle and independent travel.
MY ACCIDENTAL JOURNEY
Watching these punked out Colombian teens, my curiosity was peaked. I wanted to speak to these guys and even though my Spanish was rudimentary, I wanted more information. Information like; “How did they become punks?”, “Was there a big scene in Colombia?”, “What bands influenced them most?”, etc.
I followed at a distance trying to catch up. The sight of a running gringo is rarely a sign of anything good in these parts, so I briskly walked to the corner of the main road where a bus was making its stop.
Bus routes or collectivos in Colombia and most of Latin America are run by private drivers and though they are subject to some government oversight, it feels a bit like the wild West at times. Each bus is often “hooked up” with chrome trimmings while brightly painted designs and nicknames on the front or side reflect the personality of the driver and even its destination.
The rides can sometimes be rough. Years later, when I actually lived in Colombia for a few months, I regularly took the bus and once witnessed a lady literally getting bounced out of her shoes. Had we not grabbed her she may have bounced right out of the open, back door of the bus!
Now this is the part I have replayed in my head many times since. As the punks attempted to gain entry, the bus driver, who looked like a decent guy but had the posture of a hardworking man who’s run this route 6 days a week, 12-15 hours a day for a while, shook his head vehemently “no”, refusing to open his doors and drove away trailing a smelly, cloudy diesel exhaust to a chorus of “puta madres” and “hijo de puta” protestations from the trio of young punks.
After witnessing this discouraging scene, alas, I lost my nerve to approach the now irritated punks. I had wandered off tourists’ reservation and felt the sudden need to head back to familiar territory.
But that incident with the punks and the bus in Medellin was firmly tattooed on my brain and inspired me to bring my video camera on what would become many subsequent trips. I would attempt to document the punk scene not only in Colombia but all of Latin America and even the world! I now had a host of other questions like “Are punks regularly discriminated against?”; “Do police harass them?”; “What do their families think?” “What’s it like being a punk in the developing world” etc.
Since that incident, my travels have taken me on several journeys throughout Latin America including Guatemala, Argentina, Uruguay, Honduras, Chile, Peru, Ecuador and even Cuba with plans to hit the meccas of Mexico and Brazil. I’ve also traveled to Trinidad & Tobago, Spain, Russia, Romania, Ukraine, Hungary and Serbia. My goal is to visit every continent, even Antarctica. .
So far I’ve conducted scores of interviews and watched dozens of punk bands perform. I’ve posted some of them on my video blog PunkOutlawBlog.com which also serves as a rough outline for the bigger project, a documentary film entitled “Punktology” with the ever-evolving tagline “The Power of a Punk Planet”. I began a digital record label called Punk Outlaw Records to bring some of this punk and underground music to audiences in North America and Europe.
So much has been documented about punk from the U.S. and U.K. perspective, but what of the rest of the world? I also attempt to cover not just punk but other related, underground genres like Rockabilly, Psychobilly, Ska, Reggae, etc. in an attempt to find out what makes the scenes tick and tied together.
These bands and scenes aren’t merely extensions of the U.S or U.K, but separate and divergent with their own uniqueness set in a larger global ecosystem that while unorganized somehow has a natural order, almost like a collective consciousness in a punk parallel universe.
It’s the same but different at the same time. Same enough to have this love of punk in common yet diverse enough with their own cultural idiosyncrasies to prove interesting.
That punk/bus incident in Colombia inspired me to look further and see what stories had been left untold about the music I love from the rest of our planet.
COLOMBIA – A PUNK SORPRESA
I like surprises, like the Social Distortion CD or punks in Colombia where I had done no prior research and had no idea what to make of it. Maybe that’s why years later even after all these other travels, I still find myself fascinated by the depth and passion of the punk movement in Colombia.
From Bogota’s rough and tumble scene (which often may feature an element of danger or a riot ending with the police firing tear gas) to the “usually” more peaceful but equally fuerte scenes in Medellin and surrounding coffee country lands of Manizales, Armenia and Pereira to the coastal areas of Cali & Cartagena and even the Amazon. Colombia’s punk scene is as diverse as the country itself.
BOGOTA FOR THE BRAVE – ROCKIN ROLOS!
Many start their journey to Colombia in the big, bustling, high altitude capital of Bogota. If you hit a punk show here it’s probably going to start off calm enough but stick around and it’s almost guaranteed to get crazy. At a Casualties show I covered in 2009 the police had a showdown complete with tanks and teargas with the punks in the street who were partying outside the venue. Thankfully the concert inside went on and was an utter blast.
Then of course, there is Rock Al Parque, a huge free outdoor music festival organized by the government that last for days, garners hundreds of thousands of attendees and features acts from all over the world. It showcases diverse styles of music including Rock, Metal, Reggae, Ska, World and some Punk.
While Punk is somewhat represented at Rock Al Parque, the selection process to play has become politicized and rife with controversy, so much so that many punk bands say “f*&k it” and play instead at simultaneous, smaller underground shows. .
In 2010 while covering Rock Al Parque, I left my press credentials behind and attended one such event and for a brief moment thought I might not make it out with my life, much less my camera. Unbeknownst to me at the time, there had been a stabbing outside. The police arrived and too many people rushed inside, resulting in serious overcrowding for a venue with only one rear entrance serving as the exit. I was thinking “fire trap” and unable to get the tragic “Great White” concert in Rhode Island out of my head. I found myself in the midst of some very drunk & rowdy punks and unable to navigate to the lone exit.
When I finally did make it out of the too small venue, it was around 2 AM and the big crowd outside had completely disappeared. It was just me, in a lonely and decidedly non-touristy part of Bogota toting around a fairly expensive camera with a few desperate souls lurking in the shadows. I never felt more like a target in my life. Eventually, I made it home safely with incredible footage but unclear if I’d truly been lucky or just another jittery Gringo.
If Psychobilly is your thing, well there is an emerging Psychobilly scene with bands Los Chiclosos Desmembrados and Salidos de la Cripta doing their part, but it’s clear that for most underground Rolos (nickname for Bogotanos), Punk rules.
MEDELLIN IS A MECCA – PUNK PAISAS
Maybe it was my emotional connection with the trio trying to catch that bus, but I think it goes deeper than that, whatever the reason I was immediately drawn to the punk scene in Medellin.
On subsequent trips, hanging out in Parque Poblado (a working class alternative to the nearby and higher priced Parque Lleras), I was able to get to know punks in Medellin first hand. I discovered, through interviews and web sites like ColombianPunk.comand Punk-Medallothat Medellin was a mecca and had been since the 1980s & 90s when the FARC, Narco Trafficos and Colombian government were in a bloody war that ripped the country apart. Each had demanded that punks take their side. Most didn’t and as such were targets from all sides. In the U.S. it was cool to wear a mohawk, in Colombia, it could be deadly.
Maybe it is the fact that the Paisas (a nickname for Medellin’s residents) survived such a devastating war (this was after all Pablo Escobar’s home turf) but you’d be hard pressed to find a friendlier, more hospitable bunch than the Paisa Punks of Medellin. More notably, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the depth of punk musicianship that I’ve encountered in Medellin anywhere in the world, including modern day Los Angeles or New York City.
In Medellin you have famous, legendary veterans like I.R.A., a co-ed trio of punks who over their nearly 30 year career are still putting out music and toured the U.S. and even CBGBs in 2004.
Then there are I.R.A.’s hardcore peers, Fertil Miseria fronted by Viki, her tatted bald head instantly recognizable to fans throughout the country. Viki, with the rest of her band mates and other friends in the tightknit scene, also run “Rock N Roll Tienda”, a store where you can get hooked up with punk & metal gear, patches and pins.
Bands like Los Sornos (garage punk) and Neus (industrial punk), Estoy Puto, GP, Desaptadoz, Disastre Capital, Infeccion Sikosis, Lokekeda and many, many more have been performing excellent punk music in Medellin and surrounding areas for years now. International acts like the Casualties, the Addicts and Konflict roll through town on a semi regular basis. And while psychobilly is more of a Bogota thing there is an emerging rockabilly scene with the excellent Dorados Rockabilly Trio spreading their rockabilly rhythm with shows at tattoo conventions, motorcycle shops, etc.
But perhaps the headquarters for punk music in Colombia is Medellin’s northernmost neighborhood of Bello, a rough and tumble barrio 45 minutes away by car from the more comfy confines of Poblado. Bello is where the leader of Los Suziox (The Dirty Ones), Andres Ocampo lives, works and produces at his DIY recording studio and where on the streets of this decidedly working class barrio, he is a bona-fide celebrity.
In Bello punk almost feels main stream. It is just part of the culture and no one waves the Bello moniker more proudly than Los Suziox who have performed their infectious melodic punk for thousands of frenetic fans all over Colombia but strangely never at Rock Al Parque.
POR QUE?
Why is punk so big in Colombia? David & Monica from I.R.A. say that it is because of the suffering Colombians have experienced over the years and that punk music’s popularity comes from “the hearts of the youth who are living with unemployment, violence and intolerance” on a daily basis.
In my travels, I have to agree. Misery is great fodder for a punk scene, but it doesn’t really explain the full story. Places like Guatemala, Honduras, Venezuela and Ecuador have also seen their share of misery yet have comparatively smaller scenes. Indeed the misery index is high in many places where the punk scene is a fraction of the size and depth of Colombia throughout Latin America (in Argentina punk was outlawed during the military dictatorship, Peru was ripped apart by terrorism and war in the 1980s as well and don’t get me started about Cuba).
But Andres of Los Suziox, who doesn’t shy away from heavy subjects like global politics in his lyrics, says that Colombia’s casual, good time culture also has a lot to do with it, matching up favorably with Punks DIY and democratic method of delivering a diverse message. Andres states that “Every punk in Medellin has a band. Even if two drunks are in a park strumming a guitar, they can be a (punk) band. This is real music, music from the gut. There are no rules. You don’t have to be a virtuoso. You don’t have to be pretty, look at me!”
Colombia has been known for many things; a brutal war that once made inter country travel almost impossible, thuggish drug cartels, government corruption, and crippling poverty in a capitalistic economic system that still too often leaves the weak to simply fend for themselves.
It’s also known for incredibly diverse ecology, cultures and geography, delicious food, cheap beer an emerging middle class and some of the friendliest people you’ll ever meet. Oh and one more thing, now it can be known as a place with some of the best punk music you’ve ever heard.
I can hear the Colombian tourism bureau’s new tagline now “Colombia… the only risk is that you’ll get a mohawk”.
In June/July I traveled to Budapest, Hungary and was blown away by some of the excellent psychobilly bands there. One of the bands I was most impressed with was Silvershine. Their live performance simply rocked. Missed the write up? See it HERE.
I’m heading to France & Spain next in my continuing effort to bring you pics, video, sights and sounds from the global punk, psychobilly and rockabilly scenes and I’m pretty excited. But I’m also pretty bummed that I’m going to miss our friends from Silvershine as they head to the U.S. and Los Angeles to be part of what looks to be a damned good line up which includes the Rocketz, Los Difuntos, Los Creepers and more.
If you are on the west coast of the U.S., don’t miss your shot to see these guys who are more than a little bit punk and more than a little bit pyschobilly, but still not really 100% punkabilly either. I don’t know how to describe them. I guess you’ll have to see for your self. More info on the show HERE.
And here is a little video clip we took of the guys when we were in Budapest in June.
I don’t know if there is such a thing as MexiCali Psybhobilly, but if there is, then Calavera are it. Calavera is a semi-legendary Mexican-American (mostly) psychobilly band from Los Angeles with some familiar names, like our buddies, Alex & Ito of Normandie Blue who have played in the band.
Calavera back in the day
But it’s Cesar, founder and lead singer, who decides when and where the band plays and they haven’t played in a long, long time. If you are on the west coast this weekend, then you might want to make your way over to the Voodoo Lounge for their long awaited reunion.
We’ve covered them over the years, including giving the band national TV exposure with our old show “American Latino TV” back in the day, I think around 2006 or 2007. They broke up and went on hiatus shortly thereafter demonstrating the awesome power of our once proud national television show. I guess the glaring spotlight of the show was just too much to handle, ha, ha!
One of the events we covered was put on by Rich Greedie, excuse me, Rich Vreede of Black Cat Entertainment infamy (the Bernie Maddoff of CON-cert promoters) so I guess chances are they didn’t get paid. Or maybe it was just time to chill. I’m not sure.
But this Saturday the band is back in action and we hope to be there and provide some coverage for those of you who can’t take the show in live, so be sure to tune in next week.
In the meantime below are a couple of videos form Calavera from back in the day.
Hope to see you Saturday at the show put on by Von Badsville. Oh and here is a LINKto more information on the show. See ya there.
We know why people do voting contest right? It’ drives mad traffic for their website. And we act like monkeys and respond by voting, and asking our friends to vote, etc., etc.
Yet it’s not every day one of our artists gets a chance to be MTV’s favorite artist of the week, so I’m going to be the monkey now and ask you to vote for our buddies Dorados Rockabilly Trio.
You have until next Friday 8/24/12 @ 9PM EST. The future of Colombian rockabilly rest squarely on the tips of your hairless (hopefully) little fingers. Remember, with great power comes great responsibility.
My name is Robert G. Rose (I use my middle initial because I’m not Robert Rose the Jewelry Designer, Robert Rose the football player or any of the other thousands of Robert Rose’s in the world).
I travel all over the world and document punk rock music. This page is dedicated to Punk music and it’s [...]
