Yes, indeed, sublime Gil, Caesar, Carlos, Omar + Uli officially announced @ the July 1 California Plaza gig that they are now living full-time in Los Angeles!!!!!! (Rendering them not only the best band in this hellacious city, but all of North America.) We all knew that they'd been here for months @ a time, and I had the surreally magnificent pleasure of running into Gil on two separate occasions—attending Bugz in the Attic @ Transistor Lounge way back (when I talked to him for more than a half-hour about Brasileiro and Japanese sonics, and miraculously didn't faint), and later @ the El Rey for Robi Draco Rosa (when he was in a rush and an odd mood), but somehow their having relocated from Monterrey and living here on a daily basis feels altogether more miraculous. Hence two more upcoming gigs: July 26 @ JC Fandango's, and opening for Manu Chao @ the Shrine Auditorium on August 1 (a burnished lineup if EVER there was one).
As for the July 1 gig, it was characteristically colossal/powder-keg incendiary/city-leveling and blisteringly brilliant, and the first time in L.A. that they've really unfurled the new jewels from disc 3, Reina, out September 7 (to be preceded on July 26 by the limited edition (first round 750) Rarities comp (see preceding entry) available for pre-order via the dope-as-ever Sonic360 store). In lieu of a track list I'm loathe to remember new titles, but remember that one gently percolating love song (the definition of graceful and lustrous electronics) is achingly radiant, and that several others were ribcage-shattering dancefloor killers as only the Kinky chicos can bless us. Per the vintage anthems, "Soun Tha Mi Primer Amor" was heraldically astonishing as ever, and featured Gil actually playing live trumpet while standing in all his loveliness atop a mountain of speakers, and my anthem "Sol (Batucada)" remains to soak in an enveloping and preternaturally warm cascade of Brasileiro drum fire.
On to Sidestepper, the equally jewel-like aggregate seem to have consolidated their two performance modes with epic result. If you've ever heretofore seen sly boy Richard Blair and co. more than once, you might know what I'm speaking of: as a rule, outdoor festival performances were strictly centered around the vivacious (verging on poppy) Afro-Cuban-inflected d+b-ish sides to send the crowd into giddy, elated orbit—and the late night club sets regenerated into 2 1/2-hour+ marathons of DEEP AS HELL Santeria descargas to make even the mighty Osunlade weep in envy (just a figure of speech, I know he'd love it). Now they've at last seamlessly blended the two into a nectar that defies articulation. You simply MUST hear it. And one other new contributory factor that's taken Sidestepper to a whole other instellar level is the addition of a crushingly EXQUISITE long-haired Latin boy guitarist, who I'm not only COMPLETELY FUCKING IN LOVE WITH, but breathless in admiration (alright, the breath-defying might be coming from more than admiration...) at his Pat Martino/Gabor Szabo-worthy, utterly miraculous flamenco-drenched skills. And did I say that he was fucking BEAUTIFUL? He's 5th from the left in the above photo. If anybody has any better ones please please please let me know.
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