Raul Campos, Music host

No Santa Monica City Council meeting tonight, so we get to spin music.  Tix for Chuck Love at King King this Saturday.  New Junip feat. Jose Gonzalez, Tracey Thorn Remixes, LCD Soundsystem and much more.  Hit me back with requests and I'll try to make it happen.  Tune in from 10-midnight 89.9 KCRW and www.kcrw.com

I'm glad to be back in the basement after a very cool weekend.  It's gonna be a fun show filled with tons of new music, including new remixes of Tracey Thorn, Booka Shade, Morcheeba recorded live at KCRW, School of Seven Bells and much more.  If that wasn't enough, we have tickets for our subscribers to check out David Gray with Ray LaMontagne at The Greek on September 7, 2010.  Tune in tonight from 10p-midnight 89.9 KCRW or www.kcrw.com .

The last day of LAMC and it’s still not completely over as of this writing.  The panels were finished so we could sleep in a bit today, following our late night trek to Times Square) but the last Central Park Summerstage showcase started early in the afternoon, and the threat of rain was looming.

 

The humidity, the forecast, and the World Cup game didn’t stop lines of people from showing up to the park very early—most all of them clearly here to see the final act of the day-Maldita Vecindad.

 

Raul introduced this last official showcase by bringing Ocote Soul Sounds on stage.  Before they went on stage, we got to hang out with the guys from The Pinker Tones.

You can check out more videos and pictures on the LAMC Blog at KCRW.com.  Despite the heat they had the crowd dancing by the end of their set.

 

None of that could compare to the giagantic mosh pit, shoe throwing, and body surfing during Mexican rock veterans Maldita Vecindad.

What a fantastic week of music!  We’re heading out to dinner and maybe a few last showcases tonight in the city before our flight tomorrow morning back to L.A.  As fun. As it was, it will be nice to get home.
 

We’re on the run again today so a quick recap of yesterday’s fantastic events at Day 4 of LAMC in NYC, with Raul Campos and BG in the house.

 

We opened the last few panels of the event before having a number of artists roll into the Studio for live sessions:  Ozomatli, Ana Tijoux (where we spoke with her while playing a few of her songs as performed Live from Central Park earlier in the week), and Discovery Award Winners, Los Rakas!.

 

We barely had time to get over to Prospect Park in Brooklyn, to take in Toy Selectah, Fidel Nadal.  The night was capped with Raul introducing Ozomatli and the crowd expectedly turning into a huge party.

 

Day 3 at the  2010 LAMC in NYC is somehow less but more busy today.  Raul Campos and Superstar Producer, Brent Gordon, still bloging 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.

 

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.  

What a second day!  Raul Campos and danin’ machine Brent Gordon blogging for you listeners each day from LAMC in NYC.

 

Following a night of some much needed rest, we were (mostly) ready to roll.  We obtained the rest of our equipment to do our live sessions from NYC and tried to grab some late breakfast across the street.  We got a great taste of the early New York lunch crowd…with lines, lines, and lines…and umm…New York’s hospitable charm

 

We got to work readying what will serve as our LAMC broadcasting studio for the next few days and headed down to the Mezanine of the Hotel Roosevelt which was filled with lines of people registering for the event.  Though it was busy when we popped down earlier, it was crazy now with only an hour until the Central Park Summerstage show kicked off.

We grabbed a cab and rolled over to Central Park, where there was already a line of folks waiting to get in.   Raul opened the show introducing Ana Tijoux.  Once her beats filled the air, the crowd started to grow very quickly.  We recorded a few live tracks we’ll be playing for you when we interview Ana live from LAMC Friday night.

Spain’s El Guincho took the stage, and with the World Cup semi-final victory only a few hours won, the Spanish fans in the crowd were especially charged and sporting their team’s colors as they danced to his set.

We were sending so much live content back to KCRW, our freshly charged iPhone 4 was already drained, but the tech savy maestros of Nortec Collective’s Bostich + Fusible were  so awesomely generous they let us recharge it from their own laptop as they warmed up to take the stage!

By now the park was packed with an amped crowd, and the light breeze made for a more forgiving temperature, but when we introduced Bostich & Fusible, the heat turned right back up!  The masses went crazy thanks to B&F’s awesome visuals and stylized stage, (they used iPads to DJ part of their set).  The night was so energized the crowd was a bit frustrated at Central Park’s hard curfew.  But we didn’t have time to worry about it…

We were back to the Hotel to set up our Studio and do our sound check so we would be ready to broadcast live tomorrow and then rolled over to The Mercury Lounge..  We got there just in time to see Chico Mann take the stage to close out the showcase.  After the set, we got to hang with the “Mann” and he handed us his new Album that we’ll debut Thursday night.

It was almost 2am, but that didn’t stop us from hitting the bangin’ Los Rakas show at the Santos Party House.  The place was packed to the walls, and the brick building was bulging outward from the booming beats of this much hyped Panamanian duo!

Although the party didnn’t even tap the breaks afteir their set, ended near 3am, we realized we had an even bigger day tomorrow which started early, so best to hit the sack, but only after we grabbed a late night bite at L’Express on Park Avenue…yum, hit the spot.  Even still, we were way too amped after such an awesome day of music to hit the sack before 5am.

 

Your on the road street team,

 

Brent and Raul

We’re in New York City for the 11th annual Latin Alternative Music Conference!  My trusty assistant and road dawg, Brent Gordon and I have hit the streets of the big apple.  No sleep before our 6am flight may not have been the best idea, as any delusions of sleeping on the plane were quickly dashed.  We hear the air conditioning at KCRW is on the fritz but that can’t compare to walking out of the airport and being greeted by over 100 degree  NYC heat and humidity.

 

We waited for a taxi next to Edgard James Olmos (who was on our flight from L.A-big star sighting!), and our driver, apparently amused by our “schtick” dropped us off at our accomadations for the week and central location for the LAMC, The Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan.

 

Most of the lobby was sitting at the lounge focused with rapt attention at the Uruguay vs. Netherlands World Cup game.  But once we threw our luggage in the room we were off to the first event of the week, Ana Tijoux performing live at the Apple Store in SoHo.  This Apple Store was a respectable sized theatre/performance space and sound set-up, and all of the seats were already filled once we arrived just as she started her set and it was already standing room only.  We watched her short but crowd-pleasing half-hour performance, picked up our new iPhone 4 so we can bring you live videos and photos of events as they happen, and were met by Brooklyn based House DJ Jon Cutler.  We also ran into Uriel Waizel, DJ and Music Director of Mexico City’s “Ibero 90.9. (who we Hill  have a live guest DJ Session on Thurday night…so stay tuned)”  Jon took us all to a tasty Latin fusion joint around the corner called “Gonzalez Y Gonzalez” (definitely recommend if you find yourself wandering thru the neighboorhood).

 

After grub, Mr. Cutler drove us over to Williamsburg, North Brooklyn to check out some relaxed spots where he likes to chill.  We cooled off at the Union Pool, a joint with a the AC on full blast and a nice patio in the back to continue our conversation.  We hadn’t eaten all day, so we were still ready for the DELICIOUS tacos offered by the El Diablo Taco truck wedged into the back patio.

 

It was still baking in the 90s outside, so we popped into one last place to cool off, the “Barcade” also in Williamsburg.  It featured about 30 old-school arcade machines inside a modest draft house with a selection of gourmet beers on tap.  Jon Cutler logged in a long session on his favorite old school machine “Asteroids” and we CAME within just a few thousand of the top score on the “Ms. Pac-Man” machine.

 

We all parted ways, and Jon dropped us off back at the hotel in Manhattan.  A long, hot NYC day, and no sleep made deep slumber a gaurantee for last night.

 

Now the first big day of LAMC as Raul hosts LAMC Music Night at Central Park Summerstage, with Ana Tijoux (hopefully, having her live in Studio later this week), El Guincho, and Bostich + Fusible of Nortec Collective.  The show’s gonna be at least as hot as the weather! 

 

More to come…..Brent and Raul

WMC in South Beach, Miami is always a great time.  It was a blast to be out there for the 25th anniversary of this event.  The hotels, streets and nightclubs were packed with dance music fans from around the world and it was an honor to bring the show from the road once again.  The exquisite Setai Hotel was the spot once again to host our broadcasts.  Click on the links below to listen to the archives and check out some pictures with the guests!

Save the date...March 20th will be the next installment of Flow with Steve Beltran and yours truly at King King Hollywood.  Once again, it'll be free before 11:30pm and there will be CD giveaways!  See you there.

Super excited about tonight's program.  In addition to lots of new tunes, we'll have tickets for our subscribers to check out the one and only Poncho Sanchez at The Conga Room in downtown LA.  Tune in tonight from 10-midnight on 89.9 KCRW or www.kcrw.com