CHICAGO, IL. (Top40 Charts/ Western Publicity) San Antonio,
Texas band Piñata Protest perform a thermonuclear fusion of Tex-Mex and punk rock that "just blew my mind" and is "pretty brilliant," raves Jasmine Garsd, co-host of NPR's Alt
Latino show. On their second album for Cosmica Records/Saustex Media, El Valiente, accordionist/singer/primary songwriter Alvaro Del Norte and his crew serve up a sound as bracing as a shot of tequila. El Valiente hits stores May 21st, and NPR
Music gave it their stamp of approval with a First Listen album stream the week previous to release. https://www.npr.org/2013/05/12/182864934/first-listen-pi-ata-protest-el-valiente
"That's the ultimate lesson of El Valiente: that the combination of accordions and punk represents an organic expression of the bicultural life lived by millions across this country." Felix Contreras, NPR
With noted Grammy-nominated producer Chris "Frenchie" Smith (The Toadies, And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, Built to Spill), behind the board, the disc climbs into the ring like the masked luchador pictured on its cover and vanquishes any preconceptions and musical cliches to thrill listeners with what LA Weekly praises as "fiery punk rock" that "use[s] the traditional squeeze box in unexpected ways."
While songs like "Vatos Perron," "Tomorrow, Today" and the title track take a jet-fueled lowrider cruise through living and partying en el barrio. Piñata Protest also takes on the classic Latin standard "Volver Volver," an essential number at any fiesta. The band delivers it faithfully, but with a deconstructed arrangement and their inimitable stamp. On "La Cucaracha," a number known around the globe, they ramp up the signature Mexican song up to its zestiest max. Then the band closes the set with a pummeling 45-seconds of wham, bam, thank you ma'am punk rock fury on "Que Pedo.
The group rapidly rose from being "one of the most original forces on the local music scene" (San Antonio Current) to cutting a feisty debut album, Plethora that earned the band such praise as "The
Clash of conjunto…" (San Antonio
Music Blog). It launched them onto the road playing with such acts as Girl in a Coma, Reverend Horton Heat, The Hickoids, Brujeria, Lower Class Brats, Voodoo Glow Skulls and
Mustard Plug plus appearances at such festivals as South By Southwest, Chicago's
Latino Fest and the American Sabor
Music Festival and Tejano
Music Awards Fan Fair in San Antonio.
Along the way, they've honed their sound to a razor's edge sharpness and high wattage energy and racked up media praise in their wake for the band's rollicking powerhouse live performances. "This bilingual accordion-fronted quartet is committed to the notion that old-school punk rock and old-school Latin border music can be fused into something modern. And loud," notes The New York Times. As Del Norte stresses, it's simply an organic development out of the differing sounds that the band members all heard as they grew up and came of age, and from his belief that music should first and foremost provide a fun release from the rigors of everyday life. Along with del Norte, Piñata Protest is comprised of guitarist Marcus Cazares and his bassist twin brother Matt and drummer JJ Martinez.
PINATA PROTEST LIVE:
Thu, May 16 - Austin, TX - Antones
Fri, May 24 - San Antonio, TX - White Rabbit
Thu, June 6 - El Paso, TX -
Tricky Falls
Mon, June 10 - Oakland, CA - The New Parish
Tue, June 11 - Sacramento, CA - Harlow's
Wed, June 12 -
Santa Barbara, CA -
Velvet Jones
Thu, June 13 - Scottsdale, AZ - Pub Rock
Sat, June 15 - Tucson, AZ - Club Congress
Sun, June 16 - Albuquerque, NM - Launchpad
Fri, Aug 13 - Fort Worth, TX - The Live Oak
Sat, Aug 10 - Austin, TX - Antones
Sun, Aug 11 - Helotes, TX - Floores Country
