Los Fabulocos to release new album

www.myspace.com/losfabulocos

As the CD title suggests, “Dos” is a second helping from Los Fabulocos on the independent blues and roots music label, Delta Groove Music and again shows the diverse musical culture hard at work, a heritage reflecting time, background and geography.

Delta Groove President Rand Chortkoff has termed Los Fabulocos’ music brand “Cali-Mex” — a variant on Tex-Mex with a strong Southern California groove and musical DNA produced from a confluence of a Mexican heritage, Mexican-American upbringing and exposure to one of the most musically creative centers in the country. And one that deserves more attention.
This would be East Los Angeles, Whittier Boulevard, ground central for Chicano rock and home to America’s largest Mexican American community.

From this neighborhood, Los Fabulocos - Chicanos all and singing in English and Spanish - use rock, blues and Mexican music, boosted by the group’s celebrated good time grooves.

“We’re also a party band,” says guitarist Kid Ramos.

Los Fabulocos’ first CD, released just over two years ago, leaned towards cover versions of rock and blues classics. This time out the group shows more range and focuses on original music (”a more ethnic, rootsy feeling,” says Chortkoff) mainly from Jesse (Jesus) Cuevas, one of the group’s founders.

To record the “Dos,” CD. Los Fabulocos went into the Burbank, CA. studio and put down all 12 tracks in a two day period - the mixing took a lot longer. But that was only part of the story: the CD was really two years in preparation and was actually test marketed before entering the studio.

“It’s the way we work,” says Ramos. As the group’s first Delta Groove effort was released, Jesse Cuevas began writing the “Dos” songs.. “I’d put something down, maybe just a bit of melody, and then head over to Dave’s (Kid Ramos) place and he’d give me input. Then maybe we’d forget it , work on something else. Eventually, the rest of the guys would come in with their contributions. A group effort.. Next we’d see how it went live. Songs were thrown out, others were added. Over time, we finally had the songs for the CD and were comfortable with them so the recording went fast, which is the way we like it.”

Los Fabulocos began about four years ago, started by Cuevas, singer and button accordion player, drummer Mike Molina and James Barrios, bass, plus another guitar player. Cuevas and Molina had worked together for several years in The Blazers, another East LA band – with its danceable brand of Ameri-Mex styles - generally regarded as the closest rivals to Los Lobos, superstars of the Chicano Rock genre. When the original Los Fabulocos guitar player left, Cuevas invited friend and fellow motorcycle enthusiast Ramos into the group. Over the years Ramos built one of the better reps around as a blues player (Fabulous Thunderbirds, James Harman, The Mannish Boys). And, like the other three, has been exposed to the multi lingual nuances of all kinds of Chicano music.
“The record label calls Los Fabulocos’ music Cali-Mex because that’s where we’re from, California, East LA. People don’t realize how long East LA and Whittier Boulevard has been home to a special brand of music going back decades, y’know Ritchie Valens, Thee Midnighters and, if I may say so, The Blazers,” explains Cuevas, “Now mainly people just relate to Los Lobos. We get that a lot.. The whole East LA music scene deserves more respect.”

For Ramos, the comparison with Los Lobos is something that any East LA band has to live with. “After all, Los Lobos has been the East LA yardstick for years with the public. But Los Fabulocos is coming at it in a little bit different way. I mean, James (Barrios) is a huge fan of country music, people like Buck Owens and Hank Williams.”

Barrios was introduced to country harmonies as a child through his father’s love of the genre and manages to insert some of that feeling into Los Fabulocos. This is not the case with Ramos, half Italian, and half Mexican. The music of his father - an actual member of the Metropolitan Opera - was highbrow and apparently drove Ramos into the arms of the blues. As a solo blues guitarist today, away from Los Fabulocos, Ramos still makes regular European solo tours, playing clubs and festivals.

“I’m very big in Norway,” he smiles.

Los Fabulocos also has a European fan base. Cuevas notes: “Even though Los Fabulocos plays rancheros and some zydeco, just mixing up a lot of different styles, the Europeans relate to it as American music. They are open minded adds Ramos: In Germany they particularly relate to the accordion sound in Los Fabulocos because a lot of Germans settled in Mexico years ago and brought their accordion driven polkas with them. Over the years the Mexican people put their own taste to it. Conjunto and Norteno music - that’s really the polka.”

This kind of knowledge and attention to both musical roots and routes influences what Los Fabulocos does musically and shows the care and attention the quartet pays to its music. Every band has its influences and its roots but, for Los Fabulocos, they are wider and go deeper than most.

The bajo sexto (sixth bass) - a Mexican 12 string guitar on steroids, mostly heard in traditional settings (conjunto, norteno and tejana music) but rarely elsewhere - is a case in point. Says Ramos: “Jesse said he needed a bajo sexto player so I said I’d learn it. It’s tuned differently to a guitar and very demanding and difficult to play, like a bass on the bottom strings and treble in the top strings.”

Cuevas admits: “It’s a tough instrument but David really got into it and it does give the group a really strong rhythm on the right material.”

Seen live, Los Fabulocos can rock apparently effortlessly and endlessly - East LA’s equivalent to an old Grateful Dead gig. A six hour show is no problem. “We don’t have a set list before we go onstage,” says guitarist Kid Ramos. “We react to the audience…”

And vice versa.

A further example of how tight knit the group is: Los Fabulocos’ Mike Molina produced the original “Day of the Dead” type painting for the “Dos” cover.

http://www.myspace.com/losfabulocos