Here's Radio Insecto

Bill Stair and I debuted our Oaxaca based cowpunk band Radio Insecto at La Jicara October 28th. We had a blast! The last table was filled as we opened with my tune Jack Black. We went on to cover tunes from the Velvet Underground to Cracker and the Cramps among others, with a stack of originals peppered throughout the night.

 As I pretty much play guitar like a cave man, it was my great pleasure to hit the stage with Bill Stair on bass and mandolin, Matt Cowe on lead guitar and Samuel Paloma Aquino (El Lobo) on bongos. We had a driving, tasty sound with these guys at the controls. Sam counted off each song and played tight and funky. Bill picked some brilliant bits on mando, nailing solos that hailed from Tennessee to Eastern Europe, and shook the walls real bad and funky on bass. Matt laid into swamp blues on Human Fly, yet dropped in gorgeous, emotive solo work on tunes from the Spanish influenced Camelita to the Celtic keening of Dirty Old Town. He snapped off a perfect bit of 12 bar blues in E in the middle of Ripe Pineapple Drunk, an original by Bill Stair and myself.

Best of all, we had Mr. Bill Blak himself on washtub bass for our more country blues and bluegrass numbers, and he punched up the sound, shook his thing and drove the ladies insane. People got up and danced, the place was hummin'. OK, so I sang like a cow gargling cactus on Baby's In Black, but you gotta stink it up somewhere!

All in all a fine debut for Radio Insecto! I'll post more about our adventures as we forge ahead.

Photos by Jeff Charles.

A New Chapter in My Life as A Teenage Werewolf

Since I moved to Oaxaca almost 3 years ago, I've sort of been drafted into The Bodega Boys, a local "Oaxacabilly" band. Inspired by the thrill & fun of playing live music, I've penned a number of my own tunes and I'm gonna be performing in the U.S. this summer as I tour in support of my upcoming graphic novel, El Vocho.
I've begun experimenting with recording and I'm looking to issue an Ipad version of the book which will include the songs in it. That being the case, I'm trying to figure out how the hell to post music on the web in some functional way that is relatively easy for me, and accessible to anyone foolish enough to listen to my caterwauling.
So here it is, a link to my page over at lastFM. This is just a little trial to see how it all works.
Truth is, I'm gonna get myself in a decent recording studio and get down some reasonably tight, well recorded versions of my tunes before going much farther with posting music, but ya gotta start somewhere and assess how to proceed, so there it is!
There are two songs on the page, a cover of the traditional tune John Hardy, and my homage to the Cramps, You Got That Hair.
They are set up for free download.



You Got That Hair!