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Aztlan Underground Celebrates 20th Anniv. with Concert in East L.A.
Aztlan Underground Celebrates 20th Anniversary
with Concert in Los
Angeles
At The Blvd., Saturday, June 18, 2011, 8pm - 2am
The Blvd., 2631
Whittier Blvd, East Los Angeles, CA
$10, 18 and over
Los
Angeles, CA - Industrial/Indigenous Punk Rock band Aztlan Underground celebrates
their 20th anniversary with a full concert line-up featuring musicians and
musical groups who have been influential in or part of the band’s history.
Reuniting on stage will be original band members performing early recordings off
of their Decolonize (1995) album followed by songs off of their latest
self-titled album, Aztlan Underground (2009)*.
“I can hardly believe
that it has been 20 years since the founding of Aztlan Underground,” said lead
singer Yaotl Mazahua. “All we wanted to do was play music that spoke to us as
Indigenous people living in Los Angeles dealing with contemporary issues of
identity, place, dreams, and convictions. I am humbled that our message has
touched so many of our fans for this many years and I can only hope that we can
continue to do so for more years to come. Thanks to all of our fans, friends,
collaborators, and those that have inspired us.”
The concert is hosted
by KPFK 90.7 FM’s Pocho Hour of Power show and will feature art, comedy, guest
speakers, and music. Musical performances include the equally established
Indigenous punk band from the Diné Navajo Nation, Blackfire; as well as 2Mex; Of
Mexican Descent (OMD); Victor E. of El Vuh; La Bestia featuring The Brat’s
guitarist; and Marco Amador of Subsistencia Arise and Chicano Son. Theatre and
comedy by Lalo Alcaraz, author of nationally-syndicated La Cucaracha comic
strip; Esteban Zul; Las Ramonas; Javier Gonzalez; and Che Castro. DJ Arboles
Pintados will spin during the breaks.
Live silk screening by Roots
Factory of San Diego and an art show will feature the works of AUG bassist Joe
"Peps" Galarza. Pioneer Chicano musician and musicologist Ruben Funkahuatl
Guevara will speak along with additional special guests to be confirmed.
*The latest self-titled album "Aztlan Underground" (2009) is available
now in stores and on iTunes. Images, album, and select downloadable songs
available to press upon request.
Calendar Listing
Azltan
Underground’s 20th Anniversary Concert
Saturday, June 18, 2011, 8pm -
2am
The Blvd., 2631 Whittier Blvd, East Los Angeles, CA
$10, 18 and
over
Aztlan Underground celebrates their 20th anniversary with reunited band
members and a full line-up featuring art, comedy, speakers, guest musicians, and
performances by Blackfire, 2Mex, Of Mexican Descent (OMD), Victor E. of El Vuh,
La Bestia and more.
About Aztlan Underground
Aztlan Underground’s
music reveals the unrestrained voices of global indigenous peoples combining
hypnotic Native rhythms with modern industrial sounds. For 20 years, they have
cultivated a grassroots audience across the world from Europe to Australia and
Canada to Venezuela. At home, they are an institution influencing a new
generation of musicians, bands, and free-thinkers. They challenge their audience
to look within, to their own life-giving forces, and human potential. Their new
self-titled album features an evolution towards a global, humanitarian struggle
while remaining true to their name and beliefs by playing political rallies,
underground venues, and anywhere the doors open.
Collaborating as a
circle with no bosses and no leaders, each member contributes their personal
story to the creation of a song. Four versions of the same story are told in
four different ways at the same time. With this ritual, Aztlan Underground has
independently produced and distributed three albums: Decolonize (1995),
Sub-Verses (2001), and the self-titled album Aztlan Underground (2009)*. The
band’s albums reflect a process of self-discovery and realization evolving from
the anger of Decolonize to the new self-titled album featuring an evolution
towards a more global, humanitarian struggle. The new album maintains the
indigenous infusion of sounds and timelessness where the songs stretch the
boundaries of the standard composition and become 8- to 9-minute nonconformist
journeys.
Website: www.aztlanunderground.net
Facebook: facebook.com/aztlanunderground
YouTube: youtube.com/aztlanug
Aztlan Underground is:
Joe "Peps"(Comanche**): bass, rattles, Native
American wood and clay flutes Maker of his own gourd rattles, clay flutes, and
bird calls, Joe is as much a visual artist as he is a musician. He joined Aztlan
Underground in 1994 after a chance performance at the now defunct Popular
Resource Center in Los Angeles, well-known for having inspired cultural
movements. Growing up in El Sereno, an urban reality surrounded by the Chicano
experience of Los Angeles, he fostered his talent as a painter, sculptor,
feather-work artist, bass player, and Native musician. He captures his thoughts,
indigenous worldview, and oral histories through his art and music combining
both on-stage with Aztlan Underground. Joe currently teaches art to youth in
juvenile detention facilities. His intent is to pose questions through art and
music and address urban social issues within a global age of poverty and
oppression. “The power of music is beyond just me. We’re simply a vehicle to
inspire and send a message to empower, and enlighten. The world is at stake--the
war--we’re all part of the puzzle. Everyone is being conscious, aware that the
earth is speaking, things are changing.”
Caxo(Huichol-Mexica**): drums
Ignacio “Caxo” Lopez comes from a long line of musicians such as his cantina
guitarist grandfather Luis, flamenco and orchestra musician brother Rodolfo, and
upright bass player brother Rosendo. Together they grew up amidst the
flourishing barrio music scene of East Los Angeles listening to his mother sing
while his father blared music by Perez Prado, Roy Orbison, and Jose Alfredo
Jimenez. Still, as most colonized Native children, he attended church at 6 am
every Sunday morning while longing for the mindless entertainment of Sunday
morning cartoons. It was there that a pint sized lady named Lucy inspired Caxo
to create music as she belted out prayer songs with enormous strength and
conviction. Her powerhouse voice inspired Caxo to imagine creating music around
it. He since has delved in to writing, art, and music. Performing since junior
high he joined Chronic Atrocity and the death metal scene followed by
Tezacrifico and Kontraattaque in the do-it-yourself hardcore punk rock scene in
Los Angeles. Caxo joins Azltan Underground in the 2003 where his unfiltered
expression fruitfully emerges. “It’s about the language of expressing what we
see in one another, helping give voice to the voiceless and shedding light on
injustice.”
Yaotl Mazahua (Raramuri/Mazahua**): vocals, Indigenous
percussion Founding member of Aztlan Underground, Yaotl brings to the microphone
the raw intensity of the concrete jungle that is the modern urban experience and
combines it with the meditative chants of Ancient America’s timeless trance. The
married father of four is determined to create a better world for the next
generation having experienced a rough childhood filled with violence, abuse, and
neglect. Having survived gang initiation and a violence-induced coma, Yaotl
turned to music. “Music saved my life,” he says. Heavily influenced by punk rock
and "do it yourself" ethos, he left the gang life and formed his own band.
Listening to punk bands like Minor Threat and Rudimentary Peni who were
anti-drugs, -alcohol, -war, and -authority, Yaotl began studying anarchism and
thus began his insatiable thirst for information and truth. Fatherhood, he
feels, has changed him completely. “It’s a reality check about the frailty of
life.” It now fuels him even more to create a better life, another place,
another way of co-existing.
Alonzo Beas(Apache**): guitars, keyboards,
synthesizer, native percussion, sequencing Alonzo Beas is the electricity behind
the innovative guitar playing and soundscapes found in Aztlan Underground’s
music. Creating musical textures and beats through various instruments, guitar
pedals, and computer software, he ignites the spark that takes listeners on a
mystical voyage. His home base has always been the guitar, finding his center on
the instrument. This is evident on-stage or in the studio. His musical
influences are those that go beyond the scripted into the provisional, from rock
to breaks, noise to industrial or even mariachi. He grew up in Northeast Los
Angeles to Mexican parents and identifies strongly as a Chicano. His Mexican
roots gave way to his vast knowledge of music. Always seeking a higher
consciousness, he reaches beyond the barriers of labels to blend his past with
the present to create cutting-edge uninhibited music.
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