Cumbia at The Casbah

ANA TIJOUX
Ana Tijoux is a politically outspoken artist from Chile. Four years ago, she released her breakout record, “1977” which alludes to Tijoux’s generation of Chileans whose parents fled the 17-year regime of General Augusto Pinochet.

She lived in France’s immigrant-refugee community. As a child, most of what she knows about her homeland came from discussions over family dinners. She’s born in France to a French mother and a Chilean father. She moved back to Chile in 1993 after the country’s return to civil power.

She first started rhyming in French, then in Spanish. In the 1990’s, she was the front woman of the influential Chilean hip-hop group Makiza. Their style resembled New York underground sound inspired by Native Tongues, a collective of late 1980’s and early 1990’s hip-hop artists known for positive Afrocentric lyrics and for pioneering the use of eclectic sampling and jazz-influenced beats. They also stood out because they lacked the “machismo” of most rap songs.

In 2006, the group broke up and Tijoux launched her solo career. She draws from Chilean folk singers such as Violeta Parra and Victor Jara. Tijoux released her first single “Ya No Fue” on November 2006. Her first album “La Oreja” was never released because of issues with her record label at the time. Two months later, she collaborated with Julieta Venegas on her song “Eres Para Mi” and achieved major success in Latin America.

She finally released her first solo album “Kaos” in September 2007 under the independent label Oveja Negra. She was nominated at the Latino MTV Video Music Awards under the categories Best New Artist and Best Urban Artist.

She recently performed at South by Southwest (SXSW) Music and Media Conference in Austin, Texas as part of the SXAméricas edition, which featured artists from Puerto Rico, Colombia, Argentina and Brazil.

Her new album, “Vengo”, will be released March 18. This album is a follow up to Tijoux’ Grammy and Latin Grammy nominated sophomore album “La Bala”. For more info, like her Facebook fan page at facebook.com/anitatijoux/ or follow her on Twitter: @anatijoux.

KUMBIA QUEERS
Kumbia Queers is a Cumbia band of six women from Argentina and Mexico. The women came from a couple of different punk bands, the most popular being Las Ultrasónicas (Mexico) and She Devils (Argentina). About seven years ago, out of boredom of the punk rock scene at the time, they decided to do something different.

At the Belladona Festival in Buenos Aires, they met in a rehearsal room and immediately clicked. They jammed for a couple of hours over beers. The impromptu session felt so good that they knew they are bound to do something incredible together.

Singer Ali Gua Gua was firmly opposed to forming another rock ‘n roll band so she persuaded the group to try with cumbia. Keyboardist Ines accepted immediately as she is a passionate fan of the genre. Juana’s good mood and Pilar’s determination helps push the band to be more punk than they’ve ever been in their individual careers with spontaneous mix of cumbia and punk rock.

The Miami tribute band to Gypsy Kings, Kumbia Kings, gave them an inspiration for their band name. It was clear to them that Queer would be a better fit for their style than Queens and that it how Kumbia Queers came to be.

“Kumbia Nena” which is their first LP which contained covers of Black Sabbath, The Cure, The Ramones, Madonna, Nancy Sinatra and Bronco plus three original songs, “Chica de Calendario”, “El Veranes”, and “Kumbia Zombi”. The LP was released in Argentina, Mexico, Chile and Japan.

In February 2007, a month after they started the band, Ali returned to her band Las Ultrasónicas in Mexico. The remaining five Kumbia Queers finished recording the debut album.

Five months later, they performed in front of thousands of people at the LGBTQ Pride day in Distrito Federal, Mexico. From then on, they toured between Mexico and Argentina for a couple of years.

They have performed in various countries including Chile, Germany, Belgium, Holland, France, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Italy, USA, Canada, Colombia, Uruguay and Brazil. They have played in a wide range of places such as jails, public schools, old pensioners’ houses, graduations, weddings, bars, discos, book fairs, LGBTQI pride parades, feminists meetings, boats, islands, former churches, universities, and squats.

Their energy is intense, instrumentation raw and totally irreverent. Their rawness and “aggression”, mixed in with some electronic elements, is atypical to the genre. Their lyrics are mostly about female empowerment with a healthy dose of humor. Even if they aren’t attempting to be political, (sadly in even at this day and age) being an all-female cumbia is a political statement in itself. They still are an independent do-it-yourself band; they have their own record label called Horario Invertido. For more info, visit kumbiaqueers.com.ar.

CUMBIA MACHIN
Cumbia Machin is an Electro-Cumbia project that began in the spring of 2010. It combines the use of live electronics and sequencers to create an original Dub-Style Cumbia. It features Joaquin Hernandez on Zendrum and Sequencers. The project was nominated at the 2013 San Diego Music Awards for the Best World Music category. For more info, visit www.cumbiamachin.com.

Ana Tijoux,Kumbi Queers and Cumbia Machin will be playing at The Casbah on March 23, 2014. For tickets and info, please visit www.casbahmusic.com/event/4629/