music

Cuando Las Leyes Se Escriben.

Frausto 16 Comments

Here’s a song from today that Pepetorias and I created while hanging out. It’s in demo form since we only worked on it for a few hours. Maybe we’ll go back to it one day, and work on it some more. Usually though, we just end up starting something new.

Cuando Las Leyes Se Escriben

Mira, mira como cai,
El pueblo se tira,
Y la mentira se estira.
La mentira se estira.

Aqui no habra espacio
Pa’ que existan
Todos los pueblos
Siempre unidos?

A que este mundo tan confundido.
Queremos vivir en paz,
Pero con tantas guerras-
Pues ya no se puede.

Y donde cabremos
Dentro de este sistema sin frenos?
En donde acabaremos
Si nunca se nos ha tomado en cuenta
Cuando las leyes se escriben
Y se las inventan?

Mira, mira como cai,
El pueblo se tira,
Y la mentira se estira.
La mentira se estira.

Yo no llegue,
A mi me trajieron para aca,
Y yo no escoji en donde naci.
Soy ciudadano del mundo.

Yo decido
Como me identifico,
En que idioma me explico,
Y con que lengua describo
A el universo que exploro
Al soñar y al despertar.

Al soñar y al despertar
Salgo siempre a navegar
Con un plumón y mil palabras
Traigo ojos como una camara
Para no olvidar.
Para ya no olvidar.

Mira, mira como cai,
El pueblo se tira,
Y la mentira se estira.
La mentira se estira.

07.09.14

Listen to the track here on SoundCloud.

Quien Se Acuerda?

Frausto 7 Comments

Here’s a song my friend, Pepetorias, and I created last week.

Quien Se Acuerda?

Quien se acuerda cuando fuimos?
Quien se acuerda lo que fuimos?
Lo que somos?
Seguiremos siendo?

Como una ola del mar,
Ó una piedra rolando
Que en el camino se encuentra.
Como una brisa del viento,
Una caricia y un beso
Del planeta y universo,
Un instante y un momento
Pues es lo mismo
Si nuestro amor es eterno.

Tu me quieres.
Yo te quiero.
Yo te amo.
Tu me amas,
Y como pájaros, los dos,
Brotamos alas
Para no enredarnos
Entre las ramas
De nuestro jardín.

Hasta convertirnos
En oxigeno para los dos
Para sobrevivir,
Para poder existir.

Sin ti yo no quiero seguir.

Tu me tienes.
Yo te tengo,
Y así vamos andar
Como unas olas del mar
Ó piedras rolando
Que en el camino se encontraron.

Quien se acuerda cuando fuimos?
Quien se acuerda lo que fuimos?
Cuando lo que somos,
Seguiremos siendo
Es lo único que importa.

Y nuestra pequeña familia.

07.02.14

Listen to song here.

bands for young folk

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So before a lot of people start to assume that I listen only to hip hop and rap, or others that I’m an over-aged angry punk rocker, here’s a list of newer folk music I really enjoy. I think deep down when all is said and done, I am really just a big time hippie.

I don’t know what folk music really is, nor do I like putting music into genres, but this is just what I think of when I think of folk music, and I really like the fact that it seems to be coming back, at least commercially it is much more visible. There is no order to this (and that’s just the way I like it) list.

1. Bowerbirds 

I heard this band with my wife, then girlfriend, after one of her best friend’s weddings. They had planned for those that were still up for partying to accompany them to the show. We bought their album that night, and fell in love with this band. But besides the emotional connections to our memories, their music always makes me yearn for a good walk through a forest away from the city for a bit, which is probably intended since they have been known to write a few songs, and albums in fact, amongst nature’s wilderness. They also use an accordion, which is very cool when it is made to rock.

2. Devendra Banhart 

This guy’s music just blows me away, not because it’s so complicated, but because it seems so simple and effortless. It just seems like so much fun. It’s also very worldly, and if you read any information about him, you’ll understand why. He might be a bit theatrical for some, but I find it comically refreshing.

3. Beirut 

His electronic stuff might not be so folky, but his music displays the sounds of the world and of the past. He delves heavily into eastern European sounds, a bit of Paris mixed in, and has even recorded half an album with a Mexican folk band. I include him because he plays the ukulele.

4. Y La Bamba 

I must admit that this is a band that I have only found recently and am a bit disappointed with myself for not having found them earlier. Their name was something that kind of scared me away at first, but after watching a few videos on Youtube, I was impressed. Their from Portland, which, no way, really, but yeah, they are very cool. I just really liked all the harmonizing that this band has going on.

5. Animal Collective 

This band is a whole different animal if you will. The collective is really just four guys, that pretty much exchange leads on songs, and not always with all four members. Though they include a lot of electronics, I find their approach to be very folk, especially at how songs sound like jam sessions. As they’ve gotten bigger, their projects have gotten more ambitious, but their is still a lot of soul to their music. Avey Tare and Panda’s solo projects are also very good, and in my opinion much more focused than Merriweather Post Pavilion.

6. Andrew Jackson Jihad 

I will admit that the name was the first thing that made me want to check out this band. Let’s face it, it’s evocative. And sometimes, there music is as well, but for the most part their music is a lot of fun. There’s a lot of videos where you can check them out using a stand up bass and a washboard. They have a song about people that eat people being the luckiest people of all. Check them out if you have a sense of humor.

7. CocoRosie 

Two sisters. Something about Americans going to live in Paris, and making music. They use children’s toys as instruments, and often sing in child like tones, which are actually more haunting than soothing. This is hippie music for the ex-goth kid.

8. Kimya Dawson 

As half of The Moldy Peaches, Kimya Dawson demonstrated quite a sarcastic wit. With the soundtrack for Juno, she demonstrated a much softer and mature side, which is where she is usually at now as a solo artist. She also creates children’s music, which she performs where half of the show is meant for the kids, while the second half is aimed at their parents. I’ve also heard a few songs from a project she’s working on with Aesop Rock, which I have been eagerly anticipating.

9. MGMT 

These guys’ music makes me very happy. It is a bit commercial at times, and sometimes I do feel it’s more about aesthetics with them, but I must admit that they put on a good show.

10. Akron/Family 

Although since losing Ryan Vanderhoof the band does not sound completely the same in my opinion. They are still a very good band, which jams out like the best bands of the 60’s and 70’s. I guess I really like bands that have a lot of harmonizing.

Maybe the only thing these bands have in common is that they fill me with nostalgia.

bands for a young punk

Frausto 1 Comment

One of my favorite things has always been to recommend bands to younger people. As I’ve been getting older, sometimes they recommend music to me, but for the most I have still been able to keep with new bands and new music, but still I think it’s important to get a taste of the range in different genres, and especially to learn what has come before.

Below is a list of bands I like that I’d burn or recommend to a student that told me he liked punk (whatever that really means now) music. In no particular order…

1. Sex Pistols 

So I will admit that anytime I sang in high school with the Scrubs and later Crying Laurel, I was always pretty much just trying to sound like John Lydon, (Johnny Rotten). These guys have been written about enough, and love or hate their attempt to continue to tour while being the same age as my parents, their emergence was prolific.

2. The Clash 

As I got older, I really began to appreciate the Clash more and more. Once I became politically aware, the Clash’s message becomes much more radical than that of the Sex Pistols. The Clash also managed to age much more gracefully probably because of their point of view is much more informed and mature.

3. Bad Religion 

I love this band. They’re intellectuals. They’re political. Greg Graffin is a college professor, and his solo album Cold as Clay, was also pretty damn good. I used to ride the train in high school, and while I listened to “Stranger Than Fiction”, I felt like I was listening to stories about the future that we are still all becoming.

4. At the Drive-In 

This band became Mars Volta, which is also an awesome band, and a lot of the newer stuff that Omar Rodriguez-Lopez is doing is just way ahead of its time. But there was a certain energy to At the Drive-In that is only found in those albums.

5. The Jesus Lizard 

Being that they never reached the success of Nirvana, those of us from Chicago always felt like the Jesus Lizard were our own secret. The energy. The angst. The noise. And a hint of weirdness.

6. The Blood Brothers 

The combination of vocals is freakin’ awesome. They’re from the Seattle area for whatever that’s worth, and though I found about this band pretty late, they quickly became one of my favorites.

7. Nirvana 

Perhaps over-rated for some, but I was 12 when Nevermind came out and barely discovering music. Nirvana changed my life, and made high school so much more tolerable because those that identified with not identifying could easily identify each other because of our identification with the band and what they stood for.

8. Green River 

This band determined who were the posers, and who was really into grunge and punk for my friends and me. The members went on to form Pearl Jam and Mudhoney. Anyone interested in what was going on in Seattle in the early 90’s had to check these guys out to understand the full story.

9. Rage Against the Machine 

Rage Against the Machine’s members all had roots in hardcore scenes. So it was easy for someone like me that really didn’t like rap music at the time. Rage changed all of this for me. The music still had the energy and edge of the bands I liked, but I was also able to appreciate Zack de la Rocha’s rapping style, which at moments had more in common with hardcore screaming than rap. Their politics also introduced me to the history of the world.

10. Iggy Pop 

Without sounding too much like a punk snob, but if you don’t check out Iggy Pop then you have no business saying you like punk rock music. Yeah he’s old, but this is where punk started, especially his work with the Stooges. Fortunately, the movie, Trainspotting, helped him become relevant again.

I know there are a bunch of other bands I could have named, but these are the ten bands that I chose today, maybe if someone had asked me yesterday or two days ago, I would have said something else.

my year in lists – topics of interest

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So I will be compiling random lists of tens. I guess until I run out of ideas. Each list will be about a specific topic. None of the lists will be extensive, but merely reflect the mood I am in. All of the lists will be presented in no particular order, but probably more or less the order in which I thought about them.

If anything these lists are meant to help me keep mental inventory of my interests.

Topics of Interest

1. Graffiti 

piece by Blu

I love the city, and am an urban brat. With that said, maybe it’s because of the neighborhoods I’ve grown up in, but graffiti has always intrigued me. The level of expression and the level of illegality make the art form attractive to all urban rebels, especially since many of its messages have yet to be deciphered.

2. Yoga

Viribhadrasana

I know it’s trendy as all hell, but for someone who grew up disliking jocks, yoga is a happy medium. The stretching is something that gets me going, and ready to head out into the city streets. The fact that I can practice yoga anywhere I have my mat is something, which ensures I maintain my yoga practice. Plus the meditation aspect of yoga is perfect to help shut off the city noise when so desired.

I’m personally a big fan of Rodney Yee, and watching his DVD’s really helped get my practice started which has now lasted over two years.

3. Shamanism

Shaman vision

My initial interest began with Jim Morrison. Eventually, I read Carlos Castaneda books. In my travels through Mexico, I have at several times attempted to connect to my indigenous past through shamanism and my ancestors magical past.

Anyone with a little of consciousness can sense that something is very wrong with the world. You don’t have to be an economist or rocket scientist to have a feeling that we are heading in a very dangerous direction. Perhaps, now more that ever, we are in need of the Shaman. Our rock stars no longer fulfill that need, the way the Doors intended to do.

4. Indie–DIY

As someone that grew up on punk music, this is just a further extent of the culture into adulthood. I am glad that the DIY movement is extending outside of the music scene and into very pragmatic everyday things like generating one’s own electricity. The mainstream will never know where it’s at until it’s too late because the kids are all doing it for themselves.

5. Environmentalism

Being green.

This is a no brainer. The planet is on everyone’s minds, well at least those of us who believe in science. I’m really excited by the do-it-yourself aspect of a lot of environmental initiatives, especially those in the inner city and in “underdeveloped” countries.

6. Mexico

painting by Orozco

Mexico is the country where my parents came from. In order to better understand who I am, I have had to learn about where they came from. This has helped me understand them better, but also myself. The country to the south is like a grandparent I hardly knew growing up, but with which I have become very familiar with as an adult. Mexico is for all intents and purposes still a post-revolutionary state.

corazon Zapatista

7. Education

 

Let me be clear, I am interested in an education of liberation, and not simply in a liberal education. Until that distinction is made clear, all conversation and dialogue will be futile.

8. Poetry

Saul Williams

"Coded Language" on Def Poetry Jam

Poetry is my passion, my friend, my retreat, and my weapon. Poetry fills a lot of spaces in my world. I first started writing regularly when I was 12, but I didn’t think of myself as a serious poet until I was 16. Still I wasn’t able to refer to myself as a poet until I came up with the moniker, po’ E.T. about 4-5 years ago.

Will post a post about my favorite ten poets later, or at least my ten favorite that day.

9. Vinyl

not just for hipsters anymore

I got into vinyl into seeing something on the history channel. They found these vases that had grooves on the outside, which they tried to play with a needle and a speaker. They explained about how if we were to lose access to all technology, we’d still be able to play vinyl as long one had a needle and something to use as a speaker. It made me think, “I better get some vinyl to ensure I got some tunes for the apocalypse.”

10. Black & White Photography

Beatriz's great grandfather

Nothing beats being able to process your own film and develop one’s own photos. I miss having access to a darkroom, but digital photography compensates for it, and requires much less space and no inhaling of chemicals.

freestyles.

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freestyles from the last two weeks.

there’s a hole in the ground.

recorded on 06.27.11.

don’t exist, in this country.

recorded on 07.04.11.

soldiers @ heart.

recorded on 07.11.11. additional instrumentation and vocals beAtreez.

learning to be like everyone else.

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recorded and written on 05.28.11.

   in amsterdam 2008        in amsterdam 2008      
tell me how i’m supposed to be.
tell me what i’m supposed to see
as i drown ever deeper into the sea
of an ever overflowing memory.
where exactly is it that you and i exist,
and what exactly is there that still persists?
how after hundreds of centuries,
do humans still resist
the universe’s pull back into mother nature’s womb?
is this ground space for growing seeds or just our tomb?
and i’m not sure how we make any more room anymore,
so then we got to learn to get along, don’t we?
and who exactly do we listen to?
well, not no fool on tv that’s for sure.
the world revolves and it turns.
the sun expands and it burns.
and children go to school, but never learn
anything that’s really reflecting their reality.
simply expected to fit in a box,
connect the dots, filling in bubbles,
but never to express their thoughts.

oh, but i forgot, but just for a second though
that this government’s run so corporate,
and deals get made behind closed doors
of which most of us will never know,
since records won’t get released till everyone’s gone,
and most of us will simply follow along.
seems so much more simple to just follow along
than drag my sorrow through the streets,
and go out and start screaming what it is i’m thinking,
what it is i’m feeling
about how we need to start listening to children’s poetry,
and find the young that have been the real victims of decisions
made by governments and their dissidents,
and find the young and instead of guns
hand them a camera and microphone,
so that the whole world can know
what’s become of their community and their home
because of all the violence around domestic and abroad.
we are all so far gone and already feeling so done,
but what exactly is there to be won.
05.28.11

 

 

waking up to terrorists on the front lawn

Frausto Leave a comment 
yo, this country’s killing everybody. 
starting with you and me, 
and how we got sold to some entity that’s corporate- 
all based on who had the highest bidding in your state. 
how many tax breaks can we afford to make 
for people and companies that just want more and more to take? 
how much more can i take before 
i feel like just another corporate whore? 
and really when i stare at the future, 
i’m not sure what it is that we have in store 
as everything becomes a giant grey blur, 
and it’s at times like these when one needs love more and more 
than ever before. 
man, they got me feeling like an alien being 
cause i’m not understanding their thinking or reasoning. 
it’s like it’s not even the same language that we’re speaking. 
it’s like we don’t even exist on the same planet, 
and all these fanatics on a pulpit 
got me feeling like a maniac. 
man, i swear to god, 
i think i’ve had it with the chaos that surrounds, 
that’s created in this country. 
why is it my country produces so many weapons? 
and am i just its orphan son cause i disapprove? 
and where exactly is it to that zealots expect i should move? 
am i just the prodigal son 
that never learned to get along, 
but why is this the only way the west can be won? 
and was mao right, 
does all power come from the barrel of a gun, 
or was he simply stating a historical observation and analysis? 
leaving it up to us to learn the lesson 
and change the basis for what progress is. 
man, they got me feeling like an alien being 
cause i’m not understanding their thinking or reasoning. 
it’s like it’s not even the same language that we’re speaking.
it’s like we don’t even exist on the same planet.

recorded and written on 05.23.11

me he acostumbrado

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music written, recorded, produced, and back up vocals by pepetorias on 04.18.11

caminando por la isla que es mi mente

me pongo a pensar en que hay mucha gente,

y todos piensan muy diferente,

y si el pasado y el presente

se podrian unir para formar un mejor futuro,

y si el mundo nos esta escuchando.

yo pienso y escribo y pienso,

pero escribo mucho y nunca digo nada

por la pena que me da la cara del otro,

el rostro del projimo. prefiero mantenerlo todo oculto

a que el mundo y todos me rechazen.

prefiero caminar como un fantasma

sin que nadie me reconozca

por donde nunca nadie sospecha.

se escuchará un poco egoista,

pero es que solo me he acostumbrado a la compañia mia.

vamos a hacer todo lo que queda faltando.

vamos a empezar por donde nuestros padres se han quedado,

a terminar todo lo que se ha dejado,

y a empezar todo lo que nunca ha funcionado.

vamos a hechar mano hermanas y hermanos,

a mejorar el camino para los que por aqui pasaran en el futuro.

por favor, vamos ayudarme a creer que todo es posible

cuando el pueblo se une y se forma un mundo diferente.

caminando por la isla que es mi mente,

me pongo a pintar y dibujar

un nuevo lugar en donde se pueda escuchar

sin tener que rechazar para entender

lo que dice, piensa, y haze el otro,

el reflejo detras del espejo,

porque es que solo me he acostumbrado a la compañia mia.

aqui no se presta ni se fía,

porque por aqui en nadie se confía,

y por favor no se ría tía.

pero es que por aqui andamos como los perros,

unos se creen valientes y otros muy feroz.

y yo solo pensando en un taco de arroz,

en mi amor en su jardin con una flor en su mano.

¿y es que que paso?

yo tenia entendido

que nostros los humanos

eramos todos hermanas y hermanos.

me han engañado, dejado confundido,

las acciones del otro, mas grande y mas fuerte

como un animal.

caminando por la isla que es mi mente,

el reflejo detras del espejo,

y todavía me estoy acostumbrando a la compañia mia.

04.18.11