An eclectic bill featuring Y La Bamba and Durand Jones and the Indications sold out and packed in a crowd of lovers at Scoot Inn on Friday night.

Luz Elena Mendoza gracefully leads the indie-encompassing folk group, Y La Bamba. Established in 2008, the band released their latest album, Entre Los Dos, in fall 2019. Menodza dances like a black flame on stage - with each cha cha step she moves with magic and belongs to herself, an embodiment of her music and experience. The musicians surrounding her are just as beautiful, all alive in their eyes. The sound is mystical, and performed with a tacit invitation to engage in the spiritual healing of their music.

The indie rock and latin infused sounds of the album are a fertile landscape for Mendoza’s songwriting. The lyrics unwind the way good poetry transcends. There may be added mystery to the bilingual lyricism, especially if the listener doesn’t know Spanish. From the album’s namesake song, “Entre Los Dos,” Mendzoa longs, “y yo me saltaré de mi ventana/y la muerte ahí me espera con otra vida” [“and I will throw myself out my window/and death waits for me there with another life”].  Although the poetic lyrics are somber, the sound is zestful, delivering a juicy juxtaposition of emotions.

“Paloma Negra,” [“Black Dove”] from the Mujeres single from 2018, had the everyone aye-aye-ing and ooh-oohing. Another song that embodies Mendoza’s divine feminine energy balanced with dark motifs and jovial affirmations: “Voy lentamente pero bien segura” [“I go slowly but very sure”]. Would you like a taste? Y La Bamba’s Tiny Desk Concert features “Paloma Negra” as the first song. Or, just see them when they come back through Austin, destined to play a headlining bill of their own on a larger stage with another enthralled crowd.

-Melissa Green

Y La Bamba’s latest release, Mujeres, weaves a complicated and beautiful story. Each song situates you in a space both abstract and defined. There, you and Mendoza are free to explore. As you go through the album, it expands and contracts and expands again. The limitations of memory, diving into raw and vulnerable identities, and re-imagining histories: Mujeres tackles all of these and more. In exploring her relationship to her Mexican heritage and background, Mendoza forges new spaces and histories. She challenges her audience to do the same with their own narratives. She deftly pucks your heart out of your chest and asks you to see it in a new light.

Of course, this story would be inaccessible if the narrator wasn't so dextrous and intuitive. Mendoza’s voice is at it’s strongest that we’ve seen thus far. Atmospheric and resolute, she turns each song into something that’s strikingly tangible. You can feel her hands shaping the music, akin to a potter sculpting clay. In “Perder” she sings in long, slow waves, only to end the song with hushed, repetitive muttering. The muttering continues on to the next song “Mujeres” and blends the two together. It’s masterful manipulation. It would be surprising if someone doesn't get goosebumps while listening to Mujeres.

 -By Avril Carrillo

Y La Bamba has announced a new album, Mujeres, which will be out February 8th via Tender Loving Empire. The band has provided an early release of the titular song "Mujeres". In the announcement accompanying the release, vocalist Luz Elena Mendoza stated, “This song is for my mother and for all of us women who have and still battle the fight to be heard.” Mendoza herself wages a fierce battle with her breakneck pace and nuanced vocals. The urgency thrumming underneath her confidence plays well with the muted bass and heavy beats. If every song is as good as this, the album is sure to be one for the ages. 

Check out a live performance of the song below, provided by KEXP. Y La Bamba is kicking off their fall tour tonight, October 25th at Mississippi Studios.

  -By Nick Hartman, Photo by Corbin Corbin

Dishing out insatiable classic pop for the last five or so years, New Move go about their creative exhibition employing hints of glam, indie rock and lurid doo wop. Their new album, Back in the Habit, drops today and it features a variety of local artists, including Illmaculate, King Who, Radiation City and more. For the track we're sharing today, we're focusing on this banger with Chanti Darling and Ripley Snell on the mic.

"The City Life" has an interesting beat from Cameron Spies on keys, Jesse Bettis on guitar and bass, and a soulful vocal melody from Chanti Darling that lasts throughout the track, playing with some very silkily delivered bars from Snell. Everything about it is just delightful, and worthy of many repeated plays.

New Move are having a release show for Back in the Habit tonight at Mississippi Studios along with some sets from Y La Bamba and Hustle & Drone. Minden, Boone Howard and the Domestics will all be making guest appearances as well.

     The music of Y La Bamba is steeped in mysticism, in part by the Mexican American heritage of silvery-haired raven Luz Elena Mendoza. As front woman, Mendoza tells stories with the spirits of her voice. Smoky and strong at one moment and rising to delicate cries of emotion the next. As a band, the members unify to create harmonies. On their first release, Lupon, "My Love is a Forest Fire" showcases the vocals of many members, while the track "Juniper" holds attention as Mendoza and bassist Ben Meyercord call out to each other like songbirds in the dusk. 

     After an enigmatic recognition of Lupon, producer and Los Lobos member and Steve Berlin took notice and stepped on board with the band to create this year's Court the Storm. Storm continues to conjure melodic intimacy, orchestrating classical guitar, foot stomping and sometimes calypso sounding beats with trumpet and accordion. The album still picks from indie folk such as the road trip romance track "Ponce Pilato", but also pulls deeper from traditional mariachi and Latin folk including tracks such as "Michoagan”, in which Mendoza sings in a flawless cascade of the Spanish language. - Brandy Crowe