Los Llamarada at The Charleston 11-12-08 podcast

I'm beginning to like the Charleston... maybe it's the rules posted in capital letters on their myspace page:
5. WE ARE A DIY VENUE, RESPECT AND UNDERSTAND WE CAN GET SHUT DOWN FOR BEING TOO LOUD and/or STUPID.

7. DON'T BE STUPID.

What's rule #6 you ask?
Bands drink draft beer for $3...really just a guideline...but it makes sense after you drink the cheap beer, reread rule #7.
I have to say I never really went to see anyone there before, let alone go in there period. It's right off the L and probably annoying every Friday and Saturday...good for them, they get everyone passing by...and have free pizza with every drink.

But the downstairs is a different story...the typical basement..move the kegs to the side, set up some half benches, throw in some stools and you have the best venue for a band like Los Llamarada. I saw they were playing Cakeshop and Maxwells, but this would be the place to go in the middle of the week to see what that no-fi rock was all about.
I made it just as hank IV was ending their set and a ton of people were exiting...I ended up picking up the single before the lead singer made his way upstairs.

Finally Los Llamarada was up, having just come from a show in Ohio the night before. It was like some kind of seance, or fringe church in a basement...the avant guard church. The lights are bare bulbs, concrete walls. It wasn't overwhelming in volume, but the performance is mesmerizing.
What sounded like a soundcheck, all fills and feedback slowly worked it's way into the first song. Primarily everything is grounded in a typical beat and then a lot of drone keyboard is underneath...almost feedback...that John Cale sustained tone that adds this layer of noise to everything, the sound that never ends, that doesn't need to change to get attention...you can lose track of it after a while.

Johnny Noise on guitar has huge restraint for this avant noise sound...it's really pared back garage style...it's not guitar focused in it's delivery. It's the right ammount for the droning keys, it takes the front by default, to lead off a song and work on rhythm with the drums.
Estrella Ek Sanza has this vocal delivery that's half spoken word, half chant, swaying back and forth with his eyes closed, head lifted up, straining to find the microphone. The music can fall of and he's still ranting...he's got to fill every hole with a word.
Halfway through Estrella moved over to synth and Sagan took over vocal duty in the same style with more yelling. But not aggressive, kind of a yelling in the middle of the forest, by yourself.

Live, this is loose for sure, more psyche, less looking for the right takes, messy, you chose to go along for the ride more and watch exactly whats happening in front of you.
The pieces are all interesting, they aren't hitting you over the head, combining all kinds of elements, switching off on vocals...mostly their recording style, or lack of, is a huge part of their sound, the imperfections, hearing what you want out of the mud...but they prove they can deliver an entirely different side to their music live.

This is challenging, without a doubt.

Go get the live show MP3's here.... that's the podcast for this week.
I'm using megaupload for hosting, put in the code and get downloading.

Los Llamarada on Avant! records

I thought I'd skip ahead a few reviews in the stack next to the record player and jump right to Los Llamaradas in hopes of catching them tonight at the Charleston....my neighborhood 'friends basement' venue.

Avant! was kind enough to contact me and airmail a copy from Italy...this single all started with Rocco from Disordered and I have to give Avant credit for picking up the torch on this one and finally releasing this gem.

Los Llamaradas roughly translates to 'Sudden flare up'...but I swear I saw this word printed on a deli awning the other day riding around and thought, 'Hey maybe that band is some product inside?', but no...now I'm more confused than ever.
The A side 'Against the day', starts rock/post punk enough but then a harmonica is piercing through the ultra low fidelity of the entire track, that's a new one. Mexico's own Times New Viking?(....are they the new standard to be judged against for this shitgaze sound?)
Whereas TNV are almost upbeat....matt & kim, this is dark, lots of yelling...and now I think the harmonica sound turned into a synth on the B-Side?
'The Last time' (B-1) is a slower number with what has to be a melodica warbling over distorted vocals and slow beat. I honestly am not sure at times if this is entirely in English or it's just in universally no-fi, I don't even care...you can appreciate the raw primitive rock. I just love the sound quality of this....it's a recording that you're just glad they made at all....no gimmicks. The B side is a little softer, but it's pure loudness that digital can't capture...that's funny that the cheapest cassette can have a wider overmodulated range than any digital recording... it just complately clips it off.

This could be an example of the globalization...or lets say global music movement with this kind of sound. Stripped down.... recorded practically on the most inexpensive rig, the drums have that flat shallow sound with no room size captured at all. Could there be a future with enough cast off instruments and amps that bands could spring up all over the globe and just press record? I could be listening to Tyvek or NoDozzz, any number of bands from all over the US right now, but instead this band from Mexico come to me via an Italian label. There's thousands of miles in these grooves....the masters crossed oceans to get here. Columbus (The explorer or OH? whoa) of shit gaze.

It's still available from the source, Avant!.
From LL's myspace: (I love this description 'the sensation of being adrift', like one of those sense deprivation chambers)

Just received our new 7", released by Avant! Records (Italy). Three songs recorded live and straight to a radio / tape recorder, amps over couches; the same living room where we recorded most of The Exploding Now. A certain apocalyptic air had returned to our city. I think those were the closing times of some era. Flooded streets, increased police presence (except when they are actually needed, of course), and a crowd of dead bodies would soon reveal the face of the city. Newspapers kept a body count and discounted it when the numbers became both dull and embarrasing.

Estrella brought her melodica and played it near the tape recorder in selected moments, and sang one of her confusion rock songs. Juan played guitars that sounded both old and new. Daniel walked and runned in the same place. Then we went out for more beers. The recordings had a feeling of something found, not made. I trying to reach some point both below the ceiling and outside of it. In those days I liked to walk along a recently built fake river right in the middle of the downtown area, one of the distractions built by the local government; a suitable monument to itself. A friend was afraid of stepping into it. I had visited it during its construction, it looked like an excavated civilisation, or a sudden burial of our own. A sensation of being adrift.

We selected those songs and other tape recordings for a CD-R, The Olympic Scheme / The Next Life Stroll. Then Rocco from Disordered Records asked us for some tracks. His label later stopped its activities so we continued with Andrea from His Electro Blue Voice. The cover was designed / drawn by Herla. And now it's out, and Scott Soriano will also distribute it (http://www.s-srecords.com/) , and we will have it for sale during our East Coast shows, as well as our new S-S Records LP (Take The Sky, our first 4 track recordings), which should be out very soon, along with a new pressing of The Exploding Now (2007). November will probably see the release of some recordings by Estrella and Daniel's former side project, The Love Is So Fast (a five song vinyl on Siltbreeze records). And we've been recording new stuff and checking old tapes, so in 2009 we'll release something from the archives....

2 full lengths also just became available on S-S distro...
Look for a review of tonight's show later this week...