The Premiers were an American garage band in the 1960s, best known for their 1964 hit, Farmer John.
The band was formed in 1962 in San Gabriel, CA by brothers Lawrence Perez (guitar) and John Perez (drums), and neighbors George Delgado (guitar) and Frank Zuniga (bass).
They practiced in the Perez brothers back yard, encouraged by their mother, and soon started drawing crowds to their rehearsals. They were discovered by Billy Cardenas, who managed and produced other Chicano bands in the East Los Angeles area and won the group slots supporting artists such as Johnny “Guitar” Watson and Chris Montez. [Mas…]
East L.A. pochos Ollin channel Irish band the Pogues in Ollin’s Annual St. Patrick’s Day Pogues tribute at the Satellite in Silverlake tonight. And look! A green font!
Rage Against the Machine’s debut album turns 20 this week and their legacy is still shrouded in confusion and ignorance. Back in the day, the band stormed the mainstream scene with angry Chicano rock, only the mainstream never noticed the Chicano part.
Chicano rock? You mean Santana..?
What always strikes me about Rage is how little so many of their fans know about their music or message. Recent failed VP candidate Paul Ryan is the personification of that ignorance. He claimed that Rage is his favorite band. Rage’s guitarist, Tom Morello was outraged by this and replied that Ryan is part of the machine the band has been raging against the last 20 years.
Well, no shit! But how could Ryan be so confused…? [Mas…]
Two parts of Chicano hip-hop culture in particular have become popular in Japan:
the music, and the cars. When the Japanese do Chicano rap, they still rap in Japanese
instead of English, Spanish, or some mixture of the two. But the beat, the clothes
and the look are quite matched.
Peep this short video of Japanese lowrider hydraulics: [Mas…]
A fan’s video captures of the magic of New Orlean’s Iguanas’ sassy take on the classic soul tune Got You On My Mind. In this session they sound very Kiko-era Los Lobos, and that’s a good thing. Here’s what video creator Missy Wyatt wrote:
Hailing from New Orleans, where Latin and Caribbean music have a long and glorious history of interaction with R&B, blues and jazz, the Iguanas was formed in 1989 by guitarist/accordionist Rod Hodges and Joe Cabral, who alternates between saxophone and a traditional Mexican stringed instrument known as the bajo sexto… The two also share lead vocal duties… Within a few years, the current longtime lineup that includes bassist Rene Coman and drummer Doug Garrison was assembled.. The Iguanas emerged as one of the most popular bands in one of the world’s most musical cities… Their sound has been described as combining Chicano rock, R&B, Conjunto and various Latin styles into a deep groove…
East L.A. pochos Ollin channel Irish band the Pogues in Ollin’s Tenth Annual St. Patrick’s Day Pogues tribute at the Satellite in Silverlake tonight. And for us that’s a good excuse to feature this video as well as the super cool poster for the show (below.) Mira! The shamrock and the chile share the musical and artistic stage. Also we get to use this green font. Meanwhile, what is the deal with the Irish in Mexico? [Mas…]
Today marks the sad anniversary of “the day the music died,” the 1959 airplane crash that took the lives of rock stars Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens. Valens, from the L.A. suburb of Pacoima, was born Richard Steven Valenzuela and some consider him the father of Chicano rock. Pocho Valens didn’t espeak [...]
