Courtesy photo.
SANTA BARBARA — A curated conversation about the songs that shaped the lives of musical artist Camilo Lara and singer-songwriter Ceci Bastida of Mexrrissey from noon to 1 p.m. Friday, Nov. 3 at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Mary Craig Auditorium, 1130 State St., Santa Barbara.
Co-presented by the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and UCSB Arts & Lectures, as part of The Lynda and Bruce Thematic Learning Initiative
Free
Reserve tickets at the Museum Visitor Services desks or online at tickets.sbma.net.
About Ceci Bastida: Born and raised in Tijuana and now living in Los Angeles, Ceci Bastida joined the band Tijuana NO when she was just 15 and became one of the first women to rise in the ranks of contemporary Latin rock. Their song “Pobre de Ti” and their cover of The Clash’s “Spanish Bombs” are now considered rock en español classics. After she left the band, Bastida worked as a junior high school history teacher in Tijuana and then spent eight years as part of the touring band of Julieta Venegas, including a featured role in her 2008 MTV Unplugged special. Bastida embarked on her solo career in 2006 with the ep Front BC, and in 2010 released Veo La Marea (I See the Tide), a mix of electronica, rock, and hip-hop that The Fader dubbed “bodacious, clicky, and gongy” and the Los Angeles Times described as “a marching-band traipsing through the Amazon rainforest.” The album, which included hot-button songs about immigration, the Mexican border, featured guest spots by Diplo, Rye Rye, Niña Dioz, and Tim Armstrong and the drug war. It earned her a Latin Grammy nomination, appearances on NPR’s Weekend Edition and KCRW’s Morning Become Eclectic, and a spot on the 2011 Lollapalooza bill. Her songs have been remixed by Skeet Skeet, Julieta Venegas, Mexican Institute of Sound, Maria y José, Pepepe, Algodon Egipico, & others, and have appeared on TV and in feature films in both the US and Latin America (Mun2, HBO, Target). She is currently collaborating with members of Devotchka and Ozomatli on the music for Dreaming Sin Fronteras, a new musical based on the stories of undocumented youth. Her new solo album, La Edad de la Violencia (The Age of Violence) was produced by Luke Top (Fool’s Gold) & XXXChange (Spank Rock) and features a duet with Venegas dedicated to Bastida’s young daughter. The album includes songs inspired by the rise of everyday violence in the US and Mexico—from the drug war to the Sandy Hook shooting and the Boston Marathon bombing—and by Haruki Murakami’s novel Kafka on the Shore.
Courtesy photo.
About Camilo Lara: Lara distinguished himself as a musical trendsetter among his circle of friends with his annual Christmas compilation of the year’s best tracks and early Mexican Institute of Sound songs. This hobby led Lara to collaborate on remixes under the moniker of Mexican Institute of Sound for bands and friends such as Placebo, Le Hammond Inferno, Gecko Turner and Babasónicos. In 2005, he officially founded the M.I.S. project, relying on classic Mexican music samples ranging from the 1920s to the 1960s mixed with Esquivel vocal samples and modern scratches/beats. M.I.S. has 4 albums: Mejico Maxico, Piñata, Soy Sauce, and Politico; and 3 Eps: Extra Extra Extra!, Suave Patria, IMS vs Sant. New album to be released Nov 3rd, 2017 called Disco Popular.