I promise you can be dancing by the tip of this put up, no matter dancing could imply to you: reducing the rug full spin, transferring your hips on the chair, or only a mild rhythm nod.
There is a self-evident cause Austin, Texas, is named the world’s reside music capital: an abundance of gifted artists working and residing within the metropolis. And just like the hen that hatched itself from an egg, the connection between origin tales and progeny continues to draw music lovers from throughout the globe. Some of these music lovers keep and alter the town. These are the individuals whose lives are linked to position, not solely the potential for fame.
The 36th rendition of SXSW simply occurred – New Order was one headliner. One of the various, many bands that performed throughout the town’s central core was Como Las Movies, a musical lineup with deep roots in Austin, Texas, and Mexico. But first, slightly little bit of historical past.
Austin gentrifies itself – repeatedly and once more, i.e., land growth is in USian genetics. Michael Dell ensured that Austin could be a hub for nerd birds from Phoenix, Silicon Valley, and the nice moist Pacific Northwest. And regardless of the well-organized efforts of group teams and politicos, artists are priced out of the locations they as soon as inhabited, not as harbingers of gentrification as in different cities, however as individuals who wished to “keep Austin weird,” because the well-known saying goes. But maybe the excellence is irrelevant, and perhaps that was gentrification? One factor that was by no means bizarre in Texas was land politics. Land is energy.
This put up is about musicians who’ve stayed in Austin during the last three a long time throughout the peak of hipster invasions with settler-colonial beards and overflowing credit score. Artists that proceed to make distinctive, crowd-magnetizing music. Specifically, Nelson Valente Aguilar and his new musical venture, Como Las Movies (Like the Movies), deserve a pay attention. Here is their Instagram.
The identify Como Las Movies is from the second that Valente Aguilar had with a buddy and that maybe all of us have had when witnessing an occasion or second that looks as if a larger-than-life scene that’s particular, distinctive, memorable, and recognizable, “Like the movies,” (Como Las Movies). It was a home get together, and all the weather of pleasure, dancing, and conviviality have been at hand—an already current but surprising script that unfolded a story with costumes and background. There was music within the evening and the identify.
Valente Aguilar was a part of the legendary and experimental crossroads musical collective Maneja Beto, which produced two albums and one EP throughout their tenure.
“An Austinite by way of border town McAllen Texas is chief composer for his indie-cumbia-pop project, Como Las Movies. He combines his pan-Latin and contemporary influences into a duality that NPR described as ‘…a colorful, cultural soundscape from a unique blend
of instruments’ while KCRW observes that their music ‘occupies a space where traditional Tejano, Cumbia, and Son Jarocho music meet face to face with synth-heavy new wave inspiration. It’s not a dense space with many inhabitants…in fact they may be there by themselves.'”
In “Café,” you’ll be able to hear them cleverly out “there by themselves,” gathering melodies and rhythms from the borders of what sound imagines. Valente Aguilar’s guitar work jogs my memory of the orchestrations of Johnny Marr. It jogs my memory, not a comparability.
Check out the official video for “La Inconforme” which options murals from throughout Austin spanning a long time, the photographs put collectively by ATX Barrio Archive, “atx_barrio_archive A community archive celebrating the culture & history of Austin’s Black & Brown barrios❤️.”
You can discover all Como Las Movies social media, movies, music, and interviews right here.
