/posts/2010 Coachella Line Up Announced

Start looking online to book your flight now. This year's Coachella line up is out and it looks to be another good one.

Start looking online to book your flight now. This year's Coachella line up is out and it looks to be another good one.

Ocote Soul Sounds is the combined musical genius of Adrian Quesada and Martin Perna. Both come from big bands, as in bands with lots of members and popularity, while coming from different worlds. Many of you may have seen them live recently with their friends, Thievery Corporation. They’ve played with some of the biggest names and most talented of musicians known and less known. With Coconut Rock, Ocote’s third release, they may have created something unique that holds its own that will make people forget about all of that.

Austin, Texas. What a great city for music. What many outside of Austin fail to realize is in between the madness of South By Southwest and ACL Fest, Austin has a plethora of locally based musical talent playing here on a daily basis. Austin is the city that is home to Spoon, Alejandro Escovedo, Black Joe and The Honeybears, The Sword, The Riverboat Gamblers and Grupo Fantasma just to name a few. Speaking of Grupo Fantasma, its funky little brother and Austin staple, Brownout, is releasing their new album this month. The follow up to Homenaje, the new Aguilas y Cobras album out does its predecessor by leaps and bounds.

Mexican Institute of Sound (MIS) is musical master mind, Camilo Lara. MIS is a large part of the strong electronic dance music coming out of Mexico and all of Latin America. Having always the recipient of great international critical acclaim, MIS is still relatively unknown to the casual music listener here in the States. Only hipsters and Latin scenesters have MIS albums it seems. Fans of Moby, The Chemical Brothers, Nortec Collective or even The Verve (yes, The Verve) should have MIS’s new album, Soy Sauce, in their collection.

RH+ is a band that may surprise you after listening to their new album, Quintana Roo. Being on Nacional Records, home to international superstars such as Manu Chao and Plastilina Mosh, one might expect something more “Latin” sounding. With English vocals and no sign of any cumbia or salsa influence, one might guess that RH+ was a European group. I know Chile is a breeding ground for great rock en Espanol, but RH+ is more along the lines of Stereo Lab or Joy Division.

The BMX DJ duo is no stranger to Austin. I caught them hanging around after SXSW last year at the Gogol Bordello concert on St Patrick’s Day. They were walking around with bicycle helmets with wheels spinning on top of them. That alone should have tipped me off that these guys were different. Monareta is returning to Austin for SXSW again this year. Be on the lookout for them, as their show is not one you want to miss. For those of you who are strangers to Monareta, read and learn why Monareta's Picotero is one of the coolest albums I own.

Austin’s own Latin rock band, Bocastria, released their first full length album in October. We have it here on cdFuse. Texicana is unique combination of rock en Espanol, traditional Mexican ranchera and Tejano. Led by vocalist Tanya Martinez, Bocastria offers Latin music lovers in a variety of influences on one CD. Texicana picks up where their debut 2006 EP, Enter The Groove, left off.

Rock en Espanol in Austin has a new voice and youthful energy with Kalua’s debut album, La Novedad. What’s hidden in that youthful energy is an old spirit that summons the old Mariachi classics of our abuelos. Every song is passionately sung in Spanish, the native tongue of all four Kalua members, who hail from Mexico, Columbia and Venezuela respectively
Bloodshot Records recording artist, Cordero, released their latest album this fall. I have had it on my desk in my stack of CDs for sometime now. After opening it today, I was pleasantly surprised at what I heard.
No Way Jose is a three piece punk band from Los Angeles, California. If the music of Los Lobos and NoFX slept together, No Way Jose would be their love child. I met them as they were hanging around Austin during SXSW this year...
