Y La Bamba

2010-05-12T14:07:00.000-07:00

This month's Rolling Stone has some groovy cats at the bottom.

Two Rawr Updates!

2009-06-23T12:06:00.000-07:00

Tour is so fun. So fun in fact that I never want to take the time to write about it. Actions speak louder than words. You are what you do, not what you say. Etc... My band mates, feel differently and told me that I had to blog.

The last couple of posts have been regarding the Ace Hotel, where we spent a three day residency. Pretty fun. The rooms were luxurious. The clientele was hip. The pool was dialed in to the perfect temperature. Above my bed I found a very welcoming picture. Which I will post here.

We made oodles of videos, but for the sake of sparing you time/boredom we have selected what we feel is possibly the best video from our pool sessions. It stars our Merch Girl Extraordinaire Sarah Atkins (like the diet).

But like all good things, our stay came to an end. We moved on to Fresno. It was pretty cool - we played a live on air acoustic set at KFSR at Fresno State. The DJ, Jefferson, was pretty cool and actually knowledgeable and had a good convo. I think the songs will be posted at this page in a few weeks or so. I am sure that we will alert you via the blog when it is up. Later that night we played at Aqua Shi, a pretty classy sushi joint. After some confusion of the price of the sushi (when the owner of a restaurant says that he will "take care of you" that sounds like free food, right? but they were very cool by night-end) we played a cool show with Joey No Knows and Wheels of Fortune. Also a little three year old was having a birthday party. At a sushi place. With no kids. She seemed into it though. I am not sure if the local authorities should be alerted, but I witnessed the three year old make love to the camera. We got to stay with a really cool gal, Brenda, who we met through Couchsurfing.org. She lives in a cool artsy work/living space, that is apparently where all the artsy people live. As it turns out, she was neighbors with the guy who set up both of our Fresno shows, James Brittain Gore (who also plays drums in Wheels of Fortune). James also knows my roommate Amanda in Portland. Small world. Brenda is super awesome. This morning she made us waffles and we made her bacon and eggs. Today Brenda said she would show us the sights of Fresno.

I'll check in with you later.

hottest boys at the pool

2009-06-21T14:00:00.001-07:00

poolside at Ace Hotel in Palm Springs

2009-06-21T13:56:00.000-07:00

yes, band life is tough.

luz and merch girl, sarah. hottest people at the pool.

Still in Palm Springs

2009-06-21T12:47:00.000-07:00

Here's a link to our Flickr for the tour. Good stuff.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/63501351@N00/sets/72157619922834009/

We're in the pool this afternoon until our show here at the Ace Hotel and Swim Club. Yes, it's the same Ace Hotel us Portlanders are familiar with. Stumptown representing with their coffee as well.

After the show this afternoon we're headed to Long Beach for a show at Que Sera. Tomorrow it's to Fresno for a radio show and gig at some sort of sushi place. mmm.

If I lived here as a youth I would have used my burnt sienna crayon in one weekend.

Ben's Skate Moves in Ashland

2009-06-20T10:27:00.000-07:00

Ben's legs look tiny in this but I assure you they are powerful.

Tour post #1: Palm Springs

2009-06-19T13:32:00.000-07:00

After playing at the Bottom of the Hill last night we found no room at the inn so we drove through the cool bay night and into the desert heat. Slicing through barren terrain only interrupted by Joshua Trees then wild fields of windmills and pseudo palm tree cell towers, we have arrived in our chosen SoCal hub: the familiar yet foreign Ace Hotel and Swim Club.

Next, Hotel Cafe in LA this evening.

Here we are last night. Lots more media to sift but mostly we seek a swim, shower and sleep.

Tour Preparation

2009-06-14T13:31:00.001-07:00

Hey folks,

I'm sitting here burning CDs for the show tonight at Mississippi Studios and the upcoming California tour. I take care of the CD burning and the rest of the band does the creative covers. I prefer the left-brained work while they take care of the right. Typical drummer...

I'm also trying to look over lyrics to a new song we're performing tonight. I don't think I'll have them memorized by then. Here's my favorite line:

It's so mechanical to be breathing but underneath there's more.

I suppose there is.

See you tonight or in the upcoming couple weeks in SF, or LA or Palm Springs or Redding, or Merced or Davis, or Santa Cruz or Oakland or Long Beach or even Ashland.

Mike

Y La Bamba at SXSW Day 1

2009-03-19T11:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my first day of SXSW. It was super fun. I started the day by playing a set at the Ioda stage with Y La Bamba. Directly after our performance we were interviewed by Dave Allen of Pamplemoose. It was nice to see some familiar face. Not only was Alicia there, a friend who used to live in Portland but now resides in Austin, but we had the pleasure of having Cohen of Gypsy Pop Records on stage with us playing mandolin. Ben's Dad and stepmom and sister and her friend David were there too.

We went and got on the guest list for the Decemberists show one of the many perks of having your band produced by Chris Funk. We hung out a bit backstage which was cool because I was no longer surrounded by very drunk people shouting "wooooo!". Then I went back out to see them play their entire new album Hazard's of Love. It was cool because it was a rock opera. Also I bumped into a bunch of Portland band folk including people from Loch Lomond and Laura Gibson's band. Later after wards I saw Cary Clarke from The Mercury. Then we dispersed to go and get some sleep.

Y La Bamba Live at SXSW 09 from Dave Allen on Vimeo.
This video is from Pamplemoose

Photos of the process.

2009-02-26T12:30:00.000-08:00

Hello folks,

yesterday when I made a post I was unaware that Jason Quigley has a blog. You can see the blog here. He was kind enough to post some pictures of our recording process. They look fantastic.

- Y La Bamba

Photo by Jason Quigley

Y La Bamba has a press kit. aka Local Cut beat us to the punch.

2009-02-25T16:34:00.000-08:00

So yesterday, Local Cut spilled the beans before we had a chance to blog about it. You can find their post here. It looks pretty cool, no? The pictures that Jason Quigley took look awesome. I will give him a shot out right here. "What's Up, Jason?!??!".

We continue to work record the album and hopefully we can post some more pictures (maybe even video?) soon.

-Y La Bamba

Welcome to our world.

2009-02-16T12:02:00.000-08:00

Hey there Internet,

We, Y La Bamba, just wanted to let you know that we now have entered the "blogosphere". We have a lot of excited things happening right now. Last week we started recording our new record with Chris Funk (he plays in some band called The Decemberists). It is exciting because it will mark the first time the full band. You can purchase a Alida St., the album that Luzelena made all by her lonesome at Gypsy Pop Records. The band for the forseeable future is as follows: Luzelena (vocals and guitar), Ben Meyercord (vocals and bass), Mike Kitson (vocals and percusion), Secret Codes (guitar and etc...), and Eric Schrepel (accordian). We also will have some guests on the record. Right now, we have our friend Tobias from the Yard Dogs Road Show playing saw and we anticipate many others to play on the record in the form of a string section and a brass section. Needless to say we are beyond stoked.

So keep a look out as we will have tons of news coming up.

And for your audio and limited visual pleasure, here is a practice session of the new arragement of Crocodile eyes.