The woman has got a straight up mean flow — better, nay, head and shoulders better, than anything the female rap game here in the U.S. has to offer (well, at least of the rappers that are in the spotlight). I wrote a nice little story to accompany Ana’s visit to the Bay Area and she was actually here not too long ago with a Nacional Records tour stop. BUT, my car went all stupid and I missed that show. NOW, she’s back. Tuesday. At the Independent in San Francisco. I’m super excited. Ana will be performing from ‘LA BALA’ which you need to get. She’ll be there with Oakland’s own, Los Rakas.
Despite the interview with Julieta Venegas falling through, one of my proudest moments from the festival came with working on this story about Latina artists at Outside Lands. As those of you who know me are aware of, my main responsibility at the Daily Journal is to cover sports. But I love music, in particular, Latino artists that influence me every day. Opportunities like the one that presented itself at Outside Lands are priceless — and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what my side project would be this year. Picture below is that of Ana Tijoux, who I talked to on Saturday, being interviewed by Union Rockera (who are some of my new found friends).
I put the finishing touches on the story on Monday, and it came out on Tuesday. An excerpt from the article, if you may: Standing a smidge above 5 feet, a petite Anamaria Merino, better known in the Latino hip-hop scene as Ana Tijoux, stepped out onto the Twin Peaks stage at Outside Lands. Imposing? No. But that changed very quickly. It didn’t take very long, maybe a couple of bars, for those who at first asked, “Who is this? What does she sing? Is it true she raps?” to realize that San Francisco had in its midst a special kind of talent. Outside Lands, the music, food, art and wine festival has come and gone now, but it didn’t leave without allowing the Latina to leave a lasting impression. And that wasn’t just Tijoux’s doing; when the lineup for the 2011 version of Outside Lands was announced, fans of Latin American music, in particular the female genre, must have been thrilled — not only were they getting the future in Tijoux and Ximena Sariñana, but the current queen, Julieta Venegas, was performing as well.
So, why was it one of my proudest moments though? Well, for two festivals now, I’ve been trying to find my way onto the Outside Lands’ PRESS page. It’s where they post some of their coverage. Two years now, I’ve sent in my review, two years, nothing. This year, with my Latina story in, I made the page. Smiles, all the way around. Including me. Haha.
One thing before I finish this one up, Ana Tijoux will be in town on September 11 as part of a Nacional Records card that includes Los Amigos Invisibles and Nortec Collectivo. They’ll be at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco. It’ll be well worth your time. Like I’ve mentioned before, she puts ALL of today’s female MCs to shame/school. Cannot wait to see her again.
I have labeled Day Two of Outside Lands 2011, “The Monster.” By far, it was our busiest day. Not necessarily because I’d be filing anything on this day, but because a lot of great stuff was happening on Day Two, and I wanted to hit up all of it. Three-person crew on Saturday, with Matt coming again and my girl, Heather Murtagh, grabbing a camera.
Yes, that would be Muse frontman, Matthew Bellamy, as shot by Heather Murtagh. As I mentioned before, all these shots belong to the photographer who took them, and come with the copyrights and all our special tracking devices. Don’t steal, man. Just email and we’ll be like, SURE. Go ahead. Anyway, the day started with a bang. I get there and I have have have to see Ana Tijoux. It was a must. Why? Because I heard she was awesome. Actually, the day before, while I was trying to confirm my interview with Julieta Venegas, I got ahold of her press contact at Nacional Records and he arranged for some interview time on Saturday. #Winning. And everything I had heard about Ana was right. Girl has got mad skills on the microphone. I tweeted plenty while I was catching her set, but to sum things up, Ana puts all current and most former female MCs to shame. Manaj, Brown, Kim, they really don’t have jack on Tijoux. Here’s a bit of her set (performing, “A Partir de Cero”), which was awesome.
I caught a nice chunk of that and tracked down my photographers. Heather was in the building, but Matt got HIT BY A FREAKIN’ CAR! He was on his motorcycle, details details details, the man is OK. But that sucks for his day. I told him to take care of business and get ready for The Roots, this was after we got some shots of Ximena Sariñana, another Latina artist I wanted to talk to — which was part of my plan (more on that later).
Ximena is another great Latina talent. After her set, giving Heather and Matt the game plan for their shoots and sending them on their ways, it was time to get ready for my interview with Ana Tijoux. I went to the media tent early, got a couple of texts and got my camera ready. The plan was to record the interview and post it on the Daily Journal’s Facebook page. And that would have worked great, were it not for OK GO! starting their set at the exact time that my interview with Ana started. Urgh. Actually, going back through the video after the fact, we would have been just fine because you can hear her clearly, but I got scared you wouldn’t be able to, so I switched to my audio recorder. Which was actually worse. FAIL. I got good stuff anyway, and Tijoux was a joy to talk to. Here’s us after the interview.
While chilling in the media area, Ximena showed up and her PR guy was kind enough to grant the Daily Journal a couple of minutes. She looked tired … actually, when I asked how she was doing, she kind of gave me look like, “umm, dude, how do you think I feel?” Oops. I asked for 60 seconds, I took 142. But she was fun to talk to. This is me, being a journalist.
Interviews out of the way, it was time to make a stop at the Heineken Domes (FOR THE MEXICAN INSTITUTE OF SOUND) and then march on over to the Twin Peaks Stage for The Roots. Did I mention I was super excited to see The Roots? Probably did, but worth mentioning again. Well, Matt didn’t send me any photos from our time at the Dome, but THE MEXICAN INSTITUTE OF SOUND was the shit. Those that know me know very well that I hate House music. It’s a waste of time and your ears would be better off listening to say, a lawn mower, or fingernails on a chalkboard. But the MIOS was terrific. They mixed and spun records that I have never heard before. If they’re ever in town, I’m going to see them again.
I’m going to cut this post off here, because The Roots and Muse deserve their own separate posts. So, Day 2 Part I is done with. Day 2 part II to come in the very near future.
Oh My July! 