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Austin Ticket Giveaway: Girl In A Coma, Los Skarnales and Piñata Protest at Mohawk

June 7, 2015 By Austin Vida Staff

GIAC posterSan Antonio’s Girl In A Coma have left a permanent tattoo on the hearts of music lovers with their piercing songs and nuclear performances. They’ve blazed a singular trail since Nina Diaz joined the band at age 13 and have found champions and comrades along the way including Joan Jett who signed them, Morrissey, Sia, Tegan and Sara, The Pogues and Amanda Palmer who have hand selected them for tours. Girl in a Coma are that rare feral band, unaffected by trends, that has managed to stay wild and thrill us at every turn.

On Friday, June 12, Girl In A Coma will be performing a headlining concert in Austin at Mohawk. They will be joined by Houston’s Los Skarnales and San Antonio punkeros Piñata Protest. The best part? We have two tickets to giveaway to one of our lucky Austin Vida readers.

The giveaway will be conducted as a raffle from our email list. Just click “enter the drawing” below after submitting your full name and email address. Only submissions with full names will be officially entered. We will pick the winner from these submissions before 6 p.m. on Thursday, June 11, the day before the show. The winner will be notified via email from Austin Vida.

Mohawk is located at 912 Red River. All ages are welcome. Doors open at 7 p.m. The event will be on the outdoor stage. Advance tickets for this event are available for purchase online here.

Girl In A Coma

Los Skarnales

Piñata Protest

Filed Under: Giveaways, Music Tagged With: girl in a coma, indie, los skarnales, mohawk, Piñata Protest, punk, ska, ticket giveaway, transmission events

[4/23] Preview: Making Movies, Migrant Kids at Lambert’s

April 21, 2015 By Ian Morales

Migrant Kids posterThursday, Apr. 23, Austin atmospheric-indie rockeros Migrant Kids will be celebrating the release of their new single at 2nd Street hotspot Lambert’s. They will be joined by fellow Austin indie band O Conqueror and Kansas City Latin Alternative favorite Making Movies.

Formed in 2011 in Detroit, Migrant Kids began their musical journey together in Michigan with cousins Miguel Ojeda and John Zakoor. They became a trio when the group moved to Austin, which is where they found the 3rd member of the group, Bryan O’Flynn (drums). The released their self-titled debut in 2013 and have been working on their follow-up album with popular Austin band Bright Light Social Hour. Migrant Kids headline at midnight.

No stranger to Austin, bilingual rockeros Making Movies are led by brothers Enrique and Diego Chi (singer/songwriter/guitarist and bassist respectively). The quintet fuses elements of American rock with traditional Latin rhythms effortlessly. They have been multiple Austin Vida showcase performers over the years and also performed at Pachanga Latino Music Festival in 2014. For their most recent release, A La Deriva, the group worked with Steve Berlin of Los Lobos. Making Movies open the show at 10 p.m.

Melodic-indie quintet O Conqueror fill the middle slot at 11 p.m. The show will serve as their single release for their new single, “Raucous Love.” Listen to the teaser below.

Lambert’s is located at 401 W 2nd St. Doors open at 9:30 p.m. 21+ welcome. Advance tickets for this event are available for purchase online here. Those who purchase advance tickets will receive downloads of the new singles from Migrant Kids and O Conqueror on the morning of Apr. 23. Advance tickets Visit the Facebook event page here.

Migrant Kids

Making Movies

O Conqueror

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: indie, lambert's, making movies, migrant kids, previews

[2/21] Preview: Vinyl Dharma at Vulcan Gas Company

February 19, 2015 By Ian Morales

Vinyl Dharma posterSaturday, Feb. 21, Austin-based indie-electro band Vinyl Dharma is performing a headlining showcase at popular new(ish) venue Vulcan Gas Company. The show may come as a surprise to some as the venue is known primarily for hosting electronic dance music (EDM) or DJ sets. If you are familiar with Vinyl Dharma, it should make complete sense for them to perform there as their music is heavy on the synth and very danceable, almost like a modern day disco.

For those not yet familiar with Vinyl Dharma, the group is composed of young Mexican-American musicians from the Rio Grande Valley area in South Texas. After moving to Austin is the mid 2000s, the group eventually made their way onto the MTV2 airwaves as a “Band On The Rise” in 2008. Last year they were a runner-up in an X-Games Battle of the Bands competition that yielded the band a $10,000 cash prize. Vinyl Dharma are performing in support of their latest release, The Lost Years.

Austin-based experimental electronica duo Sune opens the show. The duo is composed of members Audri Acuña (San Antonio) and Jonas Margraf (Berlin).

For those staying late, DJ/producer George Horn closes the night out with one of his signature DJ sets.

Vulcan Gas Company is located at 418 E. 6th Street. Doors open at 9 p.m. 21+ welcome. No cover. Visit the Facebook event page here.

Vinyl Dharma

Filed Under: Events, Music Tagged With: indie, previews, Sune, vinyl dharma, vulcan gas company

Austin Ticket Giveaway: Nina Diaz + Sarah Jaffe at The Belmont

January 27, 2015 By Austin Vida Staff

nina diaz posterNina Diaz is known for being the lead singer and guitarist for popular San Antonio-based indie band Girl in a Coma (GIAC). While with GIAC, she  released four critically acclaimed albums with the band and toured the world with everyone from Morrissey to Tegan and Sara to The Smashing Pumpkins. In early 2014 she took time off from the band to write and record a new solo project she is currently finishing work on.

On Saturday, Jan. 31, Nina Diaz will be performing live in Austin at The Belmont. The concert is a co-headlining show with Denton-based singer-songwriter Sarah Jaffe. The best part? We have two tickets to giveaway to one of our lucky Austin Vida readers.

The giveaway will be conducted as a raffle from our email list. Just click “enter the drawing” below after submitting your full name and email address. Only submissions with full names will be officially entered. We will pick the winner from these submissions before 6 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 30, the day before the show. The winner will be notified via email from Austin Vida.

The Belmont is located at 305 West 6th Street. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. Show starts at 8:30 p.m. All ages are welcome. Advance tickets for this event are available online here.

Nina Diaz

Sarah Jaffe

Filed Under: Giveaways, Music Tagged With: indie, nina diaz, sarah jaffe, the belmont, ticket giveaway

Q&A Interview: Roberto Lange aka Helado Negro

October 22, 2014 By Ivan Fernandez

Helado Negro
Roberto Lange is Helado Negro. See him at Empire Control Room & Garage on Sunday with SINKANE. Courtesy photo.

Roberto Carlos Lange is one busy guy. Years ago, Lange moved from his home in south Florida to New York where he turned the dial up on his artistic endeavors. However, it wasn’t until about four years ago when he put much of the painting and sculpture to the side and focused solely on his music. The result of that output is five albums, tours across the hemisphere, videos, and collaborations galore.

Lange, who performs as Helado Negro, will be in Austin this weekend to perform songs from his latest album, Double Youth, and others. I spoke with the prolific artist by phone who explained why he has no filter when it comes to releasing his unique type of electronic music (seriously, just try to pigeonhole it), why he considers each concert a unique experience beyond being in a different city with a new crowd, and how he composes songs in English and Spanish.

You’re a busy guy!

Lange: Well…you know, you gotta do something.

Is that your philosophy in life? Because you’ve published a lot of material in recent years.

Lange: Umm…yeah! I would say so. I make music because that’s what I enjoy to do. I’d rather spend time doing that than spend time not doing that.

Yeah, didn’t Invisible Life come out last year?

Lange: It did. It came out last March.

And now you have another full-length album released last month too.

Lange: It’s not like this is rare or anything. I would say, in reference to musical history like in the sixties and seventies, groups used to put out albums every year. That was a pretty common practice. I don’t think it’s that rare personally. I’m not trying to belittle the work that I do but it’s definitely…it’s just keeping up with my own ideas and I’m lucky to work with a label that wants to keep up with me. It’s a good back-and-forth between them and the people I work with.

It’s rare for a label to do that too, isn’t it? Usually they want an artist to release an album and follow it up with a lengthy tour before they even think about writing something new.

Lange: Yeah, there’s definitely that and I think there’s different philosophies behind that. There’s no good perspective on that in terms of what works and what doesn’t. Everyone sculpts their own path on how they make music, how they want to release it and how to share it. For us, it’s kind of like we’re always adapting or mutating to what the music is. That comes first and then deciding what I want to do show-wise and, for the label, they’ve been really supportive and they’re not pressuring me to feel or shape or do specific things.

It’s wonderful how open they were with your Island Universe EP-trilogy project.

Lange: Making that series is parallel to the albums. It’s as steeped in tradition as making an album is but…more experimental in the economies of what music is and sharing it and it’s really about what it is now. It’s a lot more prevalent to share a lot more stuff in abundance and, I think, we’re just finding different vehicles through that series and make a lot of music, so we’re just constantly exploring how to share it, more than anything, and give people access to music. The exciting thing is, for me, I’m giving people who want to listen to my music the option to plug in whenever they want to plug in. It’s nice to have context with what I’ve done in the past but you can just dive in at whatever point you want to. That’s what that series establishes for me.

You’re going to perform music from that series at a special event in Minneapolis next year. That sounds exciting!

Lange: Yeah, it’s not so much performing that series specifically. What it is is a part of that series. The idea of the series doesn’t mean it’s just the release. The part of sharing music is also extended into performance of the recorded music into however you can experience it. It’s just another extension of the idea than anything. That night in Minneapolis is going to be a series of reinterpretations of music I’ve created that are songs from that series but also of songs that are on different albums and a couple of newer things but it’s all reorganized and rearranged.

'Double Youth' is available now via Asthmatic Kitty.
‘Double Youth’ is available now via Asthmatic Kitty.

How are you interpreting Double Youth and other songs on this tour?

Lange: I tour and play on stage by myself so it’s not that I reinterpret it but I just try to figure out a way to make sure there’s enough of what I want people to hear musically. It’s just me, my laptop, and some electronics and I sing. It’s really straight-forward and I also work a lot with creating a stage atmosphere to have a visual representation of my songs.

I saw your performance at Vive Latino in Mexico City this year and your setup was very elaborate. It looked more like a play complete with actors in costume.

Lange: That’s awesome that you were there! I made those costumes specifically for that concert. That was a catalyst to keep moving forward and figure out how that can be elaborated on. I’m using this tour to better study what it means to be in a performance and better interaction with the crowd and working our these ideas. It’s interesting because people interpret it in different ways. It’s almost like a distraction for your eyes to disorient you and, as you’re bring disoriented, you’re listening, and as you’re listening you’re getting lost.

So you get to create a unique experience for each show you perform.

Lange: Yeah and I get volunteers in each city to come in, so that’s exciting, to meet some people and figure out ways to talk to people about it and it’s really cool.

You’ve collaborated with LOTS of artists. What is it about collaboration that you enjoy?

Lange: It’s always a challenge and I know that’s probably a cliché but it’s a challenge in that you have your own sonic expression when you want your sound to be arranged and other people hear things so much differently than you do so finding those bridges between yours and theirs ends up being the exciting adventure. Sometimes it’s a disaster, sometimes it’s amazing, sometimes it’s just really dull. When it’s extreme, it’s really exciting and that becomes a really interesting thing more than anything. A lot of my music isn’t written or performed in a traditional song format…it becomes like sonic architecture. You’re building parts, you’re building rooms in a building and you’re figuring out how everything is going to flow together.

Is there someone you really want to work with that you haven’t yet? Like, a dream collaboration?

Lange: A lot of people ask me that question and a lot of times I’ve answered that with my favorite is to collaborate with people that I know, and not just people that I’ve known but people that I’ve gotten to know. In a way, recently, I’ve wanted to get to know a few newer people and people that I’ve been interested in their music. There’s a Japanese musician named Harry Hosono who started that group Yellow Magic Orchestra. His trajectory is because in the sixties he was making the music of that time, then all that changed in the eighties when he was doing Yellow Magic Orchestra and now he just makes pretty bizarre music. It’s cool because you can tell he’s seeking it out. You can tell he’s looking for something. Those are the people I really want to collaborate with, the people who are trying to find something. That’s exciting.

This new album has a pretty even mix of lyrics in English and Spanish. I didn’t even notice it at first because it comes off so naturally. Did choosing which language to sing come naturally or did you have to work on it?

Lange: It’s very much a flow of words and sounds. A lot of times when I’m shaping the lyrics for the music, I’m mouthing words phonetically and when I do that, that shapes words in English or in Spanish. Then I start building words and I’ll record that and sometimes it doesn’t make any sense. Then I’ll start making more sense of the content I want it to be. There’s a song on the album that’s called “Our Game” and, the most literal example of what I just said, I say the words “blanco, negro, azul” and those were the words that built the melody. It didn’t have any context and I used that as a way to start building the song and build the lyrics. That created a really small, contextual underpinning, “blanco, negro, azul” as the color of bruising and the progress of it.

__________

Watch the official music video for “Invisible Heartbeat” from Helado Negro below.

*Helado Negro performs at the Empire Control Room this Sunday, Oct. 26. Buy tickets here.

Filed Under: Events, Features, Slider Tagged With: electronic, empire control room & garage, helado negro, indie, interview

Rey Pila announces fall tour that includes ACL Fest performance

August 1, 2014 By Austin Vida Staff

rEY pILA
Promo photo by Tito Fuentes.

Mexico City indie quartet Rey Pila announced they will be supporting Interpol on their upcoming tour, starting Sept. 15 in Vancouver, BC and have been added to this year’s Austin City Limits Festival line up. The band is currently wrapping up details on their sophomore full-length album, recorded in New York City with producer Chris Coady (Yeah Yeah Yeahs/Wavves/Smith Westerns), details of which will be announced in the coming months.

Rey Pila is composed of Diego Solorzano, Rodrigo Blanco, Andres Velasco and Miguel Hernandez. The group originally began as Solorzano’s solo project after the dismemberment of his previous band Los Dynamite. They release their self-titled debut in 2011 and is currently signed to Cult Records, of which the founder and boss is Julian Casablancas of The Strokes. In July, Rey Pilap released a new track, “Blast”, available for free download below.

Listen and download Rey Pila’s single “Blast” below.

Filed Under: Events Tagged With: acl fest, indie, mexico city, rey pila

Chilean indie stars Alex Anwandter and Gepe to release collaboration album ‘Alex & Daniel’

July 7, 2014 By Austin Vida Staff

Chileans
Chile’s most celebrated pop pioneers Alex Anwandter and Daniel Riveros (Gepe). Photo courtesy of Nacional Records.

Alex Anwandter and Gepe, two of Chile’s most popular indie stars, announced that they will come together to release a collaborative album Alex & Daniel on Aug. 19 via Nacional Records. According to the official press release, the two were brought together by a mutual admiration of the other’s music. Latin Alternative fans can expect an album composed of Chilean dance-pop and heartfelt balladry.

Daniel Riveros, otherwise known as Gepe, began his musical career playing with Chilean singer Javiera Mena. His solo career has been a major influence on the emerging new Chilean pop sound, with a combination of folk and electronic music with contemplative songwriting and undeniably catchy melodies.

Alex Anwandter, celebrated by critics and fans alike as the “Prince of Chilean Pop,” is one of the leading names of Chile’s new vibrant pop scene. Alex Anwandter brought together 80’s-influenced dance music to his debut solo album Rebeldes, released in 2013 via Nacional Records.

Filed Under: Events Tagged With: alex anwandter, chile, Gepe, indie, nacional records

Juana Molina releases music video for “Sin Guía, No”

April 29, 2014 By Austin Vida Staff

Juana MolinaArgentinian singer-songwriter Juana Molina released her new music video for her song “Sin Guía, No.” Directed by Argentine filmmaker/artist Dr Sepian, the video was shot in Tierra de Fuego, at the southernmost tip of the South American continent. It’s inspired by the Hain initiation ceremonies which used to be performed by the Shelknam people, who were among the original inhabitants of Patagonia. Young men on the verge of puberty were sent out alone in the forest, and had to perform a series of tasks (such as hunting, or fighting demons of the forest) before being considered as grown men and allowed to come back to the fold of the tribe.

“Sin Guía, No” can be found off Molina’s latest album, Wed 21, released in October 2013 via Brussels-based label Crammed Discs. The label has also reissued Molina’s back catalog that includes her four previous albums: Segundo (originally released in 2000), Tres Cosas (2002), Son (2006) and Un Día (2008). All of Molina’s albums are now available through all main digital stores worldwide, as well as on Crammed’s online store.

Watch the music video for “Sin Guía, No” below.

* Juana Molina will perform at the Latin Alternative Music Conference (LAMC) in New York City in July. For more details, visit www.latinalternative.com.

Filed Under: Events Tagged With: argentina, indie, juana molina, music video, singer-songwriter

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