Y La Bamba

830 E. Burnside St.,Portland OR 97214

31 December, 2021

Description

Y La Bamba with Frankie Simone 21+ NYE Celebration - Night Two! PROOF OF COVID-19 VACCINATION OR NEGATIVE TEST REQUIRED FOR ENTRY Doug Fir is currently requiring COVID-19 vaccination proof, or proof of a negative Covid-19 test result, taken within 48 hours prior to entry. For full, up to date information, please visit dougfirlounge.com/covid THIS EVENT IS 21+ VALID U.S. ID OR PASSPORT REQUIRED Y LA BAMBAY La Bamba has been many things, but at the heart of it is singer-songwriter Luz Elena Mendoza’s inquisitive sense of self. Their fifth record, Mujeres, carries on the Portland-based band’s affinity for spiritual contemplation, but goes a step further in telling a story with a full emotional spectrum. Coming off Ojos Del Sol, one of NPR’s Top 50 Albums of 2016, Mujeres exhibits the scope of Mendoza’s artistic voice like never before. “Soy como soy,” Mendoza says, and that declaration is the bold— even political— statement that positions Mujeres to be Y La Bamba’s most unbridled offering yet. The record exists in the post-2016 landscape of a national identity crisis, and Mendoza explores what it means to be a Mexican American woman by leading us through places we are afraid to go. Mujeres ventures in to the discomfort of the stories we tell ourselves. Those of our past, our futures. We all have these stories somewhere inside of us, but with Y La Bamba, Mendoza forges new narratives from old stories of heritage and family, tracing history while forging modern chicana feminism. “Music is an extension of everything I have inside. It’s how I emote,” Mendoza says. The raw honesty of Mujeres is in fact the raw honesty of Mendoza. Armed with the emotionality of traditional música mexicana and the storytelling of American folk, Y La Bamba’s artistry is not just their musical ability but Mendoza’s search for unadulterated truth. It is in an ancestral, spiritual journey in which Mendoza comes to terms with the influence and limitations of her upbringing. Mendoza’s experience of childhood summers in the San Joaquin Valley listening to mariachi, of being raised strict Catholic by immigrant parents, of being a woman having to prove herself to the boys, paints strokes of both melancholy and healing on the tracks. “From the way that my family struggles, to the way they shoot the shit… it’s so different from whiteness,” Mendoza says. “It’s a different dimension.” Y La Bamba exists in the dimension of the Mexican American imagination: somewhere cynical and optimistic at the same time. While there is a celebration of the Mexican creativity that has informed Mendoza’s life, there is a darker side to reconcile with. Where do mujeres fit in to the American story? What are the sins for which we are all guilty? How do different generations interact with the world? How can a culture become visible without tokenization? It is no surprise that in Mujeres, Y La Bamba’s first record with Mendoza at the helm of production, Mendoza contemplates these questions to tell her story. But it is not just Mendoza’s story. Challenging a narrative and dealing with the emotionality of that effort— that is everyone’s story. Mujeres was recorded by Luz Elena Mendoza and Ryan Oxford at Color Therapy Studios and Besitos Fritos Studios in Portland, Oregon. Mixed by Jeff Bond, with Grace Bugbee on bass, John Niekrasz on drums, Margaret Wher Gibson on keys, and Ed Rodriguez and Ryan Oxford on electric guitar. FRANKIE SIMONE Frankie Simone offers a vision of pop music as a conduit for collective enlightenment, self-empowerment and awakening. Pop rarely transcends the constraints of dominant culture — but Simone’s incantations of radical self-love aren’t just transcendent, they’re transformative. Frankie Simone’s music exists, she says, “to celebrate every type of human.” It’s a message Simone has worked hard to communicate, through youth outreach programs and community work—and in various musical projects over the years. And in 2014, she had a breakthrough: She put together a collaborative, experimental music project with her wife —dancer and performance artist Che Che Luna—and crowdfunded a west coast tour that began in their then-hometown of Santa Cruz, California and wrapped up in Portland, Oregon. Simone and Luna fell in love with the city, and decided to move there. Portland, one of the least diverse cities in America, may not seem like the likeliest home for an emerging queer, Puerto Rican pop star. But after overcoming the initial shock of the city’s constant rain, she found friends and allies in the city’s deep-rooted artistic community. And on many levels, Simone is a quintessential Portlander: she reads tarot cards, she carries crystals in her pocket. Her vision is confident and fearless—especially for an artist just getting started on her musical journey—and she’s eager to share the credit with Luna. Sharing the stage, they create something both powerful and vulnerable, soulful and radical. “We are each other’s biggest fans,” Simone says. “We champion each other and we push each other. We have big dreams, and together we truly know we’re unstoppable.” Simone is a High Priestess of Pop: the stage is her pulpit, and her message of love and acceptance is universal. Doug Fir Lounge is an intimate Music Venue located underground below the full service Doug Fir Restaurant and Bar. We are just a few blocks east of the Burnside Bridge on the corner of 9th and East Burnside in Portland, Oregon.