CHICAGO, IL. (Top40 Charts/ Western Publicity) Mexican Blues-Garage Primitivists The Copper Gamins stage US tour in support of their album "Los Ninos de Cobre" over the summer with over 30 confirmed shows and more TBA...
"....this pair of Mexican junk-punk bluesmen create songs that are as lyrically dreamlike—often in a jarringly romantic way - as they are musically fierce. The
White Stripes meet Gabriel Garcia Marquez." M Magazine
TOUR DATES
WEDNESDAY JUNE 12th TRAILER SPACE RECORDS AUSTIN, TX
THURSDAY JUNE 13th TRIPLE CROWN SAN MARCOS, TX
FRIDAY JUNE 14th BONESHAKERS SAN ANTONIO, TX
SATURDAY JUNE 15th LEGENDARY WHITE SWAN AUSTIN, TX
SUNDAY JUNE 16th LOLA'S FT. WORTH, TX
MONDAY JUNE 17th J & J's PIZZA DENTON, TX
TUESDAY JUNE 18th TBA
WEDNESDAY JUNE 19th BLUE MAX MIDLAND, TX
THURSDAY JUNE 20th TBA
FRIDAY JUNE 21st THE UNDERGROUND SANTA FE, NM
SATURDAY JUNE 22nd TBA
SUNDAY JUNE 23rd SISTER ALBUQUERQUE, NM
MONDAY JUNE 24th (early) REVOLVER RECORDS PHOENIX, AZ
MONDAY JUNE 24th (late) THE ROGUE BAR SCOTTSDALE, AZ
TUESDAY JUNE 25th LA CITA BAR LOS ANGELES, CA
WEDNESDAY JUNE 26th THE ECHO LOS ANGELES, CA
THURSDAY JUNE 27th SHAKEDOWN BAR SAN DIEGO, CA
FRIDAY JUNE 28th TBA
SATURDAY JUNE 29th TBA
SUNDAY JUNE 30th FIRESIDE LOUNGE ALAMEDA, CA
MONDAY JULY 1st ELI'S MILE HIGH CLUB OAKLAND, CA
TUESDAY JULY 2nd TBA
WEDNESDAY JULY 3rd LUCKEY'S EUGENE, OR
THURSDAY JULY 4th THE KENTON CLUB PORTLAND, OR
FRIDAY JULY 5th BURT'S TIKI LOUNGE SALT LAKE CITY, UT
SATURDAY JULY 6th TBA
SUNDAY JULY 7th LION'S LAIR DENVER, CO
MONDAY JULY 8th HOUSE SHOW RAPID CITY, SD
TUESDAY JULY 9th CAUSE SPIRITS & SOUNDBAR MINNEAPOLIS, MN
WEDNESDAY JULY 10th ROCK AND ROLL LAND GREEN BAY, WI
THURSDAY JULY 11th WILLY ST. PUB & GRILL/ THE WISCO MADISON, WI
FRIDAY JULY 12th REGGIE'S CHICAGO
SATURDAY JULY 13th AL'S BAR LEXINGTON, KY
SUNDAY JULY 14th THE 602 FAY ST. COLUMBIA, MO
MONDAY JULY 15th CBGB ST. LOUIS, MO
TUESDAY JULY 16th SUMMIT COLUMBUS, OH
WEDNESDAY JULY 17th TIP TOP GRAND RAPIDS, MI
THURSDAY JULY 18th BUZZBIN CANTON, OH
FRIDAY JULY 19th TBA
SATURDAY JULY 20th TBA
SUNDAY JULY 21st OTTO'S SHRUNKEN HEAD NY, NY
MONDAY JULY 22nd TBA
TUESDAY JULY 23rd CALEDONIA ATHENS, GA
WEDNESDAY JULY 24th DRUNKEN UNICORN ATLANTA, GA
THURSDAY JULY 25th TBA
FRIDAY JULY 26th BEAR'S SHREVEPORT, LA
SATURDAY JULY 27th TBA
"Carmen shreds and twangs with unusual ferocity, but he's a master of silences as well."
San Antonio Current
"… this pair of Mexican junk-punk bluesmen create songs that are as lyrically dreamlike—often in a jarringly romantic way—as they are musically fierce. The
White Stripes meet Gabriel Garcia Marquez."
M Magazine
"They succeed not by unveiling new rock'n'roll vertebrae, taking quantum leaps, or reinventing the wheel but by making the songs feel ancestral, yet woven into their realities, all while exuding fleshy, vulnerable vibes."
Left Of The Dial
"…revolutionary blues destruction from the real deal. Right here, right now."
Fear and Loathing Long Beach
"This Mexican caveman blues duo is simply incredible"
Roctober
From the mountains of Mexico to the Mississippi delta to the garages of 1960s
America to the Hollywood silent film studios of yore, The Copper Gamins cover some major musical ground with just guitar, drums and vocals (and the occasional less-than-fully-strung mandolin). With a sound that ramps up primitivism into a modernist atomic blast, they play what The Big Takeover hails as "raw cacophonic trash rock with wild child naiveté" with "dirty, unrepentant 'bash the blues to hell' delinquency." They're launching a US Tour in support of their new album Los Niños de Cobre, a co-release from San Antonio's Saustex Records and Los Angeles based Latin Alternative imprint Cosmica Records. The new set has also been picked up by Mexican indie label/distributor Intolerencia for physical distribution south of the border.
It's just what comes naturally to singer, guitarist and songwriter José Carmen and drummer Claus Lafania. The result is "a kinetic ball of lo-fi goodness," as Rank and Revue described their 2012 debut EP on Saustex Media. Now with their 17-song strong first full album, Los Niños de Cobre, the duo splash their south of the border hot sauce onto the American roots'n'rock gumbo and offer up organic, visionary music.
The Copper Gamins glean inspiration from a spectrum of sources, be it the Disney movie "Snow White and the
Seven Dwarves" (the slow mesmeric blues "Hold My Name"), Oscar Wilde (the passionate anarchic love song "Nightingale"), the logical nonsense of Lewis Carroll and Latin American literary magical realism (the simmering stop/start trickster's tale "Silver Monkey") or the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema ("Angelitos Negros," a classic originally sung by screen idol Pedro Infante in the 1948 movie of the same name). And of Carmen's avatar, Charlie Chaplin, and their shared gamin muse, doe-eyed actress Paulette Goddard.
Or as Rank and Revue observes of these musical naturalists, "they hail a musical style as roots to
America as you can get. But like very few before them, they put a nice twist on the genre." Reared in the nearby Central Mexican towns of Metepec (Carmen) and Zinacantepec (Lafania), the two high school friends started playing music in teen bands that covered Latin and English-language pop songs - Carmen then on drums and Lafania on guitar - but after graduation went off in search of something truer to their souls.
Daunted at securing gigs at Mexico, they headed north to
Texas and barnstormed music clubs in San Antonio and Austin. The San Antonio Current was duly impressed by one gig, declaring the twosome "one of the most explosive, groovy openers of any show I've seen this year. His thing is to deconstruct the blues into a rhythmic mass that, when it's actually finished, works like a cannon." They also caught the ear of Saustex major domo Jeff Smith, who offered to release the band's recordings in the U.S.
Recorded like the EP on minimal analog gear, Los Niños de Cobre is a tribute to the fertile artistic creativity that comes from such limited technical options. By coincidence their line-up mirrors that of such successful guitar/drum duos as The
White Stripes and The
Black Keys, but at the same time reminds more of artists like instrumental rock guitar pioneer Link Wray, garage rock cult heroes The Sonics, punk-blues visionaries The Gun Club and fellow twosome Flat Duo Jets. And in the end, they've fashioned a singular sound that is like no one else but themselves.
"It's hard to describe," admits Carmen of their style. "It has some punk elements, some garage rock things, some folk. But mostly what we just try to sound like is just blues. I mainly create songs that I think would make Paulette Goddard, if she were alive, want to be my wife." And even though the sweetness and naiveté underneath it all is matched by raw and raucous dynamic tensions that create what the San Antonio Current calls "spectacular high points," the aim of The Copper Gamins is to fashion the musical equivalent of a Chaplin silent film: Something "really simple and really beautiful."
