by KCRW Host & DJ Raul Campos
Day 3 at the 2010 LAMC in NYC is somehow less but more busy today. Raul Campos and Superstar Producer, Brent Gordon, still blogging for you from the conference in the Big Apple.
We were up early (despite a late night of great music that had us criss-crossing the city), as Raul had the pleasure of introducing both LAMC Panels for the day: the first discussing the future of digital music, cloud streaming and other Technologies; and the second discussing Latin Alternative’s Global Rise in the Touring Market.
What we could stay for was interesting, but we were hustling back and forth to coordinate as many artists for appearances as possible, which was not easy given the high demand for much of the talent by a number of global latin press and music outlets.
Still we managed to land a guest DJ session with Uriel Waizel, Music Content Director for Mexico City’s “Ibero 90.9.” Uriel considers Ibero a kind of cousin to KCRW with its unique and free-format music, playing very little “pop” compared to the global, ecclectic, and independant music that is the majority of their content. (You can hear the session archived here.)
Uriel brought some really interesting and genre-bending tracks and our conversation with him regarding the tastes of Mexico City’s listenership was very interesting (the session is archived on KCRW.com and you can look up the track list–Uriel told us at least a few of them should be commercially available in the U.S.—but like any good DJ he brought some promo music no one can easily get their hands on).
It would be great to have talked more with Uriel, but we had to hustle over to New York’s famous Bowery Ballroom for another LAMC showcase. A jam-packed evening of music—seven acts, introduced by Raul, kicking off with Oakland based / Panamanian born – Los Rakas!
We got to see Los Rakas the night before at the Santos Party House, but tonight they featured a full band with horns. This brought more Panamanian musicality to their set and the melding of this with their plena, reggae, and latin-based hip-hop made the crowd jump!
It seemed no huge surprsie, right after their set, Raul took the stage to award Los Rakas the LAMC Discovery Award for new talent. But this was far from a denouement as the evening was just starting!
Afro Cuban Punk took the stage, followed by La Bien Querida-the singer-songwriter out of Bilbao, Spain. Columbia’s Isa GT brought a stage presence reminsicent of M.I.A. or Peaches, and Argentina’s Malena took the stage for two quick songs.
After midnight the energy jumped right back to the ceiling of the Ballroom, as M.I.S. tore down the walls, roof, stage, and maybe the whole city block with their charged set–the whole band dancing on stage, as much, or more than the crowd, as they performed.
Finally, Mexico City’s parody glam rock band, Moderatto closed out the night with big hair, sequins, glittering and gun-shaped guitars, and heavy metal takes on a number of pop songs.
It had been a very busy day, and even though we wanted some grub, our cab driver had no suggestions between the Bowery and our Hotel, and we were too tired to try hard figuring out where to go on our own. We wandered around the corner from our Hotel to a 24 hr “Deli” and grabbed a couple of sandwhiches before crashing out. Tomorrow is another big day.
Your on the road street team,
Raul & Brent
Follow Raul: @RaulCampos on Twitter
Follow Brent: @luminar on Twitter