I learned of Portland, OR band Y La Bamba late one night while scrolling through the twitter feed and saw @NekoCase tweet the following:
This was a recommendation I could not pass up. I logged onto Spotify that night and listened to their newest album Court The Storm. I was instantly captivated by singer Luzelena Mendoza’s haunting vocals, which held onto me until the album finished some 46 minutes later.
Court The Storm‘s songs are flavored with latin-inspired rhythms and melodies that work wonderfully with Mendoza’s vocals. The band’s label, Tender Loving Empire, set me up with the two songs below, opening track “Squawk” and track #2 “Bendito”. Both songs are fantastic, and a great preview to how cool this album is. I highly recommend it.
Y La Bamba – Squawk from Court The Storm (2012)
Y La Bamba – Bendito from Court The Storm (2012)
It’s the day after Thanksgiving and I’m still thinking about eating. Even the music I’m listening to reminds me of eating. Enter Boy Eats Drum Machine. It’s somewhat of a misnomer because Jon Ragel the multi-instrumentalist behind the moniker is all grown up and no, he didn’t eat a drum machine. Instead, he joined forces with a who’s who line-up of Portland indie rock drummers via a local drum break series called Bridgetown Breaks. Drum credits go to the drummers of Viva Voce, Talkdemonic, and Menomena among others. Ragel adds everything else and it’s a plateful: turntables, synths, tenor sax, guitar, organ, and yes, bravely, vocals. RJd2 didn’t even step behind the mic until his second album. From record one (Booomboxxx is his third) Ragel’s armed with one turntable, one microphone and all the goodies mentioned above. The result is a scratchy, earnest pastiche of jazz, breaks, spaghetti western soundtracks, and soulful crooning. A delicious mix of sounds for the whole family to feast on this holiday season!