New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Beloved Latinx So Cal punks Audio Karate have partnered with Wiretap Records, A-F Records, and SBÄM to bring new music to their fans. The band reunited in 2018 and released a 7″ with two "lost" songs from the aborted follow-up to 2004's 'Lady Melody,' and now they're gearing up to release the full "lost" album, titled 'Malo,,' on October 18 via Wiretap/A-F Records/SBAM Records.
During 2018, guitarist Jason Camacho dug up his old MacBook which contained the Protools files for the 13 songs recorded in 2007 at Lady
Melody Studio. A time capsule of sorts, AK learned the songs were a lot closer to complete than previously thought. Many of the songs they had forgotten they had ever written and recorded. Enlisting the help of their old friend Mike Jimenez (Rufio) who now owned
Modern Fuzz studio in Pomona, AK remixed the album taking special care to not re-record any parts and rely on the rawness and spontaneity of the original sessions. The result is Malo, a snapshot of AK in their prime."
A music video for "Sin Cuchillo" is streaming at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU64X8VLipA.
Pre-save the album on Spotify: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/audiokarate/malo-2
Vinyl pre-order: https://wiretaprecords.limitedrun.com/products/651144-audio-karate-malo-12-lp?fbclid=IwAR2cFyj3QUrJWuRC2VF64Wf1KeWwntDSEtOuC6Jr8lJSc_z30V5e95BNiTA
Audio Karate will perform at the sold-out 25th-anniversary show of famed recording Ft. Collins, CO recording studio The Blasting Room, taking place at Washington's FoCo on Saturday, November 23rd, alongside such acts as ALL, Rise Against, A Wilhelm Scream, Hagfish, Armchair Martian, Wire Faces and more.
Upcoming shows:
OCT 31 Fest Presents: Halloween Bo Diddley Plaza - Gainesville, FL
NOV 1 Downtown Fats - Fest FL 18 - Gainesville, FL
NOV 22
Streets Denver - Denver, CO
NOV 23 The Blasting Room 25th Celebration SOLD-OUT!! Washington's FoCo - Fort Collins, CO
DEC 14 The Hi Hat (Audio Karate, Decent Criminal, Bandaid Brigade, Pity Party) - Los Angeles, CA
From Audio Karate:
Audio Karate is 4 Mexican-American guys that got our start playing backyard shows in El Monte in the late 90's. The San Gabriel Valley (SGV) being a culturally rich area of predominantly first and second generation Hispanic and Asian immigrants, the shows were equal parts skaters, punks, jocks and cholos/skinheads.
Through luck of the draw, we met Joe Escalante and were offered a record deal. We recorded and released our debut album 'Space Camp' on Kung Fu Records in 2002, before we could all legally drink. The album spawned a minor hit in the UK with "Nintendo 89" thanks to some good MTV2 airplay, and domestically with some choice compilation placement (Warped 2003, Hopeless Rec's Cinema Beer Buddies). Lots of domestic and foreign touring followed.
We recorded our follow-up 'Lady Melody' in the winter of 2003 at the Blasting Room in Fort Collins, CO with Bill Stevenson. Bill took us in as family and was equally stoked on our songs as he was Jason's mom's cooking. Released in 2004, more international touring followed into 2005.
Bill and Karl of
Descendents have both been quoted as saying 'Lady Melody' is one of their favorite records to have been recorded at the Blasting Room.
In 2006, we built a small studio in an alley in Montebello, Lady
Melody Studio. We spent 2006/2007 writing and recording 13 songs. Art and Jason were living together at the time in East LA about 3 miles from the studio, and would spend entire days drinking "2 Buck Chuck" (Art worked at Trader Joes) and learning the ins and outs of recording and on-the-fly production (neither formally learned music production/engineering).
Art wrote and recorded most of the vocals spontaneously without a written lyric sheet, opting for phonetic melodies over lyrical fanciness. By 2008, Art and Jason were no longer living together and AK was essentially done.
As often happens, people went their separate ways and Art, Justo and Gabe formed the band Indian School. The four members of AK didn't play a
note together until 2016 when Jason was asked to stand in for Justo on bass for some Indian School shows (which ultimately didn't happen).
In 2018, Rob from Wiretap approached Art about reissuing 'Space Camp' on vinyl. The band agreed and committed to doing a handful of shows to
support the release. On a whim, Art reached out to Bill Stevenson and mentioned the reforming of AK and offering support if
Descendents ever
needed any. As luck would have it, Bill was in the process of booking Tourage 2018 and added AK to the west coast leg.
AK played a sold-out headline show in LA to celebrate the reissue of 'Space Camp', was invited to Fest 17 in Florida (a first for them) and finished 2018 with a sold-out
Orange County show supporting their old label mates and friends the Vandals.
During 2018, Jason dug up his old MacBook which contained the Protools files for the 13 songs recorded in 2007 at Lady
Melody Studio. A time capsule of sorts, AK learned the songs were a lot closer to complete than previously thought, many of the songs they had forgotten they had ever written and recorded (except Justo he remembers random stuff). Enlisting the help of their old friend Mike Jimenez (Rufio) who now owned
Modern Fuzz studio in Pomona, AK remixed the album taking special care to not re-record any parts and rely on the rawness and spontaneity of the original sessions. The result is Malo, a snapshot of AK in their prime. An eclectic mix of songs unlike their two prior releases, the album begs
the question: What might have been had AK released the album in 2007 at the height of mall emo and eye-liner pop-punk?
https://audiokarateisback.com
https://wiretaprecords.com
https://a-frecords.limitedrun.com
https://shop.sbam.rocks
