Music. Interviews with musicians from around the world.

  • Discover In Situ Sound, Austinites by way of the Valley

    Discover In Situ Sound, Austinites by way of the Valley Every January in Austin, the Red River live music district is home to a weeklong, venue-hopping rite of passage known as Free Week. Free Week can best be described as the music festival for Austinites; there isn’t the influx of tourists that other music festivals bring, no badges or tickets are required and there are…




    Tags: Indie
  • New year and new album for Boca Abajo, rock en Español veterans

    New year and new album for Boca Abajo, rock en Español veterans Boca Abajo is a family affair. The Austin rock en español quintet's members are all related: Patrick and Lionel Salinas are brothers; then there are the nephews Conrad, Peter and Joe. "We’re one big happy family," says lead vocalist/guitarist Patrick. The Salinas family is originally from Pearsall, about 50 miles south of San Antonio. The band's…




    Tags: Latin Rock
  • Nine best songs of 2009

    Nine best songs of 2009 While 2009 has come and gone, we still find ourselves bumping some of the best songs of the year while we anxiously await what 2010 has in store for us. The Latin alternative genre was alive and well last year, and no one seemed to fair better than L.A.-based Nacional Records. Los Fabulosos Cadillacs returned…




    Tags: Best Of
  • Inside out with Kat DeLuna

    Inside out with Kat DeLuna International Latina superstar and Latin Billboard award-winner Kat DeLuna dazzled Austinites last fall with rapper Pitbull at the Austin Music Hall. Her electrifying performance gave fans first listen of new songs not on her debut. She left many fans wanting more and wondering about when they can expect her new album. Well, fans can rest…




    Tags: Pop
  • Riffing with Zechs Marquise's Marfred Rodriguez-Lopez

    Riffing with Zechs Marquise's Marfred Rodriguez-Lopez I gotta be completely honest: Zechs Marquise is a band I discovered in between Mars Volta albums a few years ago when I was a TMV fanatic and needed a prog/punk/experimental fix in between Volta albums (a downtime that averaged 15 months maybe, but still...). The best-known of the Rodriguez-Lopez brothers from El Paso is…




    Tags: Indie
  • DJ profile: Taste the flavor of DJ Chorizo Funk

    DJ profile: Taste the flavor of DJ Chorizo Funk The hip hop and Latin flavor found in DJ Chorizo Funk’s musical style is 10 years in the making, beginning with his move to Austin. “When I came to Austin was the first time I heard DJs performing live,” explains Eddie Campos. “[Hip hop] really caught my ear. People like DJ Mel, DJ Baby G.…




    Tags: DJ
  • Video: El Tule, the working man's cumbia band

    Video: El Tule, the working man's cumbia band El Tule is an Austin-based cumbia/salsa hybrid group who have been a regular around Austin's Latin clubs and festivals for several years now. The band takes its name from El Árbol del Tule, a world-famous tree in Oaxaca, Mexico, where lead vocalist/guitarist John Dell and his wife (and El Tule bassist) Tracy Chavez Dell spent…




    Tags: World
  • He can, she can, we can... Arthur Yoria can

    He can, she can, we can... Arthur Yoria can Arthur Yoria writes songs with a giddy yet witty depravity—almost in a Bukowski-esque manner. His angelic voice sings about drinking, sex and popping teeny blue pills called Xanax.It’s a strange and refreshing paradox because with Yoria, it’s always no holds barred and you would never expect to hear such a beautiful voice and music sing…




    Tags: Singer-Songwriter
  • Vicci Martinez stays true to herself

    Vicci Martinez stays true to herself Pint-sized Vicci Martinez stepped onto the Momo's stage with just her acoustic guitar. Wearing blue jeans and her Chucks, she belted out several of her gritty folk songs to an intimate audience. Martinez is only 25 years old and her powerful voice has given her many opportunities since she sang her first note at the…




    Tags: Singer-Songwriter
  • Coming a long way with Whitman

    Coming a long way with Whitman I attended Whitman's first show in January 2005, when the now-defunct venue Redrum was in a small, upstairs facility. Musically, they played it safe, as those first songs were this mellow indie rock that almost crossed over to experimental territory.Vocalists Ram Vela and Ryan Ermis appeared timid and unsure of their voices. On their first…




    Tags: Indie
  • Kinky for 10 minutes

    Kinky for 10 minutes Over the past decade, the Latin alternative genre has grown by leaps and bounds. The music is more diverse and more modern in comparison to its rock en español roots of the '80s and early '90s. The Monterrey, Mexico, music scene is responsible for a large part of that growth and evolvement. Monterrey's own Latin…




    Tags: Latin Alternative
  • Tumbledown, the other side of Mike Herrera

    Tumbledown, the other side of Mike Herrera Mike Herrera is known to most people as the bassist and frontman of the popular punk band MxPx. What many still don’t know is that Herrera is also an avid classic country music fan. He has been writing country songs with his own style and twist for many years now. It warms my heart to…




    Tags: Punk
  • Catching up with 2Mex, hip hop's DIY underground legend

    Catching up with 2Mex, hip hop's DIY underground legend 2Mex is one of the hardest-working rappers in the underground scene. With his earliest recordings released in the mid-1990s, 2Mex—also known as SunGodSun—has been sharing his words and wisdom with his solo projects and other groups for more than 15 years. His discography is impressive, as he's partnered up with hip hop groups such Visionaries,…




    Tags: Hip Hop
  • Alex Cuba's beautiful life

    Alex Cuba's beautiful life Alex Cuba calmly strums his guitar backstage at Stubb's. His tour manager, Dennis, bustles around him. It’s almost time for Cuba and his two-man backing band to hit the indoor stage.But before he does, I take a seat next to him on the low black couch. Austin is just one stop on his tour promoting…




    Tags: Singer-Songwriter
  • The rock and soul of Angel Ferrer

    The rock and soul of Angel Ferrer Austin Vida Live: Angel Ferrer's Daylight Sessions from Austin Vida on Vimeo. Earlier this year, Austin Vida featured an exclusive backstage interview with The Chris Perez Project at Pachanga Fest. Not surprising to the staff, we were flooded with emails about more videos, mp3s inquiries and other general questions about Chris Perez. What was a little…




    Tags: Soul
  • Video interview: Nortec Collective presents Bostich + Fussible

    Video interview: Nortec Collective presents Bostich + Fussible Nortec Collective Presents Tijuana Sound Machine: Bostich & Fussible - Interview & Live PerformanceFree Music Videos at www.blastro.com Since the early part of the decade, Tijuana's Nortec Collective has produced a unique and infectious blend of techno music and traditional northern Mexican folk ("norteño" plus "techno" equals Nortec). Two members of this loose collective of musicians,…




    Tags: Latin Alternative
  • Video interview: Eyes Set To Kill

    Video interview: Eyes Set To Kill Feature Interview: Eyes Set To Kill from Austin Vida on Vimeo.  They've toured Brazil, released their sophomore album and were dubbed the hottest chicks in metal by Revolver Magazine. It's been a crazy 2009 for the Arizona screamo metal band Eyes Set To Kill. We caught up with the band at Emo's to talk about all…




    Tags: Metal
  • Dignan, the orchestral sound of South Texas

    Dignan, the orchestral sound of South Texas Austin Vida Live: Dignan from Austin Vida on Vimeo. Using their vocals and instruments as brushes and palettes, five friends from the Rio Grande Valley paint rural and summery musical landscapes. Their haunting voices and poetic lyrics mix like hints of green and blue and fiery yellow woven into the fullest tapestry of sound.Hailing from McAllen,…




    Tags: Indie
XYX: Mexico's Strange and Brilliant Musical Savants
Written by Alysha Hernandez   
Wednesday, 29 July 2009 16:07

Austin Vida Live: XYX from Austin Vida on Vimeo.

Mou + Anel.

Old friends and part of a burgeoning creative movement in Mexico, Mou Ortiz and Anel Escalante are the pieces of Monterrey’s XYX. Playing loud and spastically, the duo hit the ground running at their first show in a two-week tour at Emo’s Austin.

Categorized as noise-punk, avant-punk or, no wave, they are walking proof of seeds planted in a cultured, music-infused metropolis more than a hundred miles from the Texas border. The two are proud to be a part of a city that is undergoing a music Renaissance. Within the last couple of years, South By Southwest has featured a number of Monterrey’s artists, including XYX, Los Llamarada, Nina Dioz, Plastilina Mosh and another of Mou’s bands, Bam Bam. (XYX also played a number of shows during this year’s hardcore feast, Chaos in Tejas.)

XYX’s music is chaotic, trippy and relentless, comparative at times to the Stooges, the Liars or their beloved Butthole Surfers. They are minimalist with drums, bass and Anel’s voice as their instruments. She delays and distorts her voice while she screams, wails and laughs through songs.

Fervent in their friendship and love of music, they spearhead a record label together, Nene Records and collaborate in a rolling number of bands. Both are college-educated, but have decidedly shaken off the career-oriented life for a higher calling. When they aren’t touring, they pursue a lifestyle centered on music and burgeoning creativity. They like to lie around for days just listening to records. During these musical hermetic fits, which are ofttimes enhanced by their teeny appetite for psychedelic drugs, they urge themselves to grasp onto whatever kernel is beautiful and unique about a certain song and hold onto it forever.

They are touring on the cusp of their latest and limited release, Momento ácido contemporáneo. More known and available though is the group’s first 7” Sistema de Terminación Sexual. Hailed by Maximum Rock’n’Roll, it’s available online in an extended digital version that includes the four original songs from the record, a remix of Microvibraciones and a live version of Momento ácido contemporáneo.

Austin Vida sat down with the duo outside of Sound on Sound Records to talk musical projects, chemical inspiration, and the Monterrey music scene. Anel – clad in a black dress, tights, and wrestler-esque boots – stared into the skyline. She seems quiet, but on stage she sings and screams like a banshee – her heart’s contents on display for all to see. Meanwhile, Mou wore dark-rimmed glasses; his hair was characteristically unkempt, with curly tufts shooting into the air.
 
XYX Promo Pic
 
 
 
First things first: Where does the name XYX come from? Does it have to do with the XXY chromosomal pattern responsible for the birth of androgynous males?

Mou: Maybe it has to do with something chromosomal. There is no XYX; that combination does not exist in nature. But, I guess for us, it was more visual. Well for me, anyway, because it’s like symmetrical.

Anel: And simple… it’s very easy to remember. When we started playing music together, we didn’t know what we were going to be playing and we thought that XYX was a mathematical thing.

How long have you two been playing music together? I know that you are in a couple of different projects together. How did you meet? What’s the back story?

Anel: We met a long time ago. I had just started playing music in another band when I met him. I think he was booking a show for my band like several years ago.

Mou: Yes, she was in a band when we met, so I guess we met at a show. But we started to make music two years ago.

Aside from XYX, what are your other groups together? There’s Mama Burger...

Mou: Yeah, but that one I guess is dead now, Mama Burger. Everyone started to enjoy other projects.  It was that those other projects just got more interesting for us.

Anel: It’s dead? I guess we don’t play anymore, we have other projects. Mou has this other group, Bam Bam and we have another Penetración Cosmica and the other girl that played the bass in Mama Burger has another band. It’s hard to keep up.

So out of all your projects, right now would you say what you are doing with XYX is the most interesting?

Mou + Anel: Yeah!

The live version of Momento ácido contemporáneo from SXSW this year is on the extended digital version of Sistema de Terminación Sexual. What does the song title mean? Does it mean you like to drop acid a lot and record music or is it a joke?

Mou: No, haha! We don’t make music on acid, that’s hard!

Anel: We just got together because we were dropping acid. We met that way. Then we started playing together but we don’t write on acid it’s kinda hard. The reason we use the delay and the reverb on the vocals and everything is because its music you can listen to while you’re tripping on acid.

Mou: Mostly what we do is just listen to records. We try to listen to things you normally don’t listen to. You’ve got to do that to make music. In some mental states, you can get other things and then you take those things and bring them back to the music you are doing. It’s like a whole process. It’s fun.

Anel: It’s a different way to be. Not only when you’re dropping acid but it’s a different way to live your life. Like, we started making music, not only because that’s what we do, because it’s our mission. We understand when we drop acid and listen to records and we really understand what the people who were making that record were thinking or talking about or doing, it’s like, ‘That’s the way we want to do it now.’
 
Monterrey is booming with arts and music, kind of like here in Austin. What is it like to be in the midst of all of that, as a part of it?

Mou: I’ve lived there all my life and I started playing in bands 12 years ago. I’ve seen all the changes that Monterrey has been going through. When we first started playing music in the nineties, there weren’t too many groups. Now, there are different bands playing different types of music – some hip-hop, some punk. What’s happening in Monterrey is interesting because now you see more people from art and music getting together to do stuff more seriously.

Anel: There are a lot of people making music right now.

Mou: You can pinpoint the people who are really interested in making music. I was thinking a couple of days ago. Two years ago in Monterrey, when we did gigs, every Saturday there were five or six gigs at one time. There were lots of bands everywhere and suddenly I was thinking, what happened to those bands? A lot just suddenly disappeared. Some of the people who played in those bands aren’t playing in other bands, they just disappeared.

Anel: It’s like other bands that we have even been in died somehow, but we are still making music and there are only a few people who are still doing it.

Mou: For some people it seems as though it’s just something to do before they get married.

Anel: Or before they figure out what they want to do with their life.

And this is what you want to do with your life?

Mou + Anel: Yeah, yeah!

Anel: It’s our purpose.

Mou: It’s our life.

Now, let’s talk about Nene Records. Tell me about your mission. I know there is a whole page online that describes everything extensively, but if you could just tell me in your own words that would be great.

Mou: Nene Records started in 2000 but other people were involved. Anel started playing with those guys and I had another band. And, suddenly, in 2007 there were a lot of good bands in Monterrey and we started inviting them to play with us. But they didn’t have records or any recordings. So, we thought of making a compilation of the bands we liked in Monterrey, and we did. It took more than a year to record like 10 bands, about two songs per band. And we would just record anywhere, in different places, like where we were living or in the houses of the bands. And, that was the first thing that Nene Records did more seriously. We had to do it in an online release.

Anel: In Mexico, it is really hard to get people to buy your records.

Mou: In Mexico there is no culture like in Austin where you can play in a record store and at the end of your show people come up to you and ask if you have a record for sale and other people give you a donation for gas or food.

Anel: Even more, in Mexico, people are not thinking of making their own records.
Three years ago, no one was thinking of making a CD to give away or sell to people. If you have a record, they think someone else has to put it out for you, not that you could possibly put it out yourself.
 
How does it feel to be touring and playing at Emo’s?

Mou: Even before I came to Austin, I heard about Emo’s Austin. And suddenly to play there it’s like, ‘Wow, how did we make it?’

Anel: I know there are people in Mexico that we tell them, ‘Yeah guys we are gonna play a show at Emo’s again.’ And, they are like ‘WHATTTT!’ It’s really cool that when we come here, we have a following. That’s something we barely have in Mexico. And, because of that I feel like this is my second home.

To download the extended digital version of Sistema de Terminación Sexual, check Nene Records:
 
 

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