It’s a summery, late-afternoon Saturday on the yard garden of LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes, with the form of heat and number of sounds, sights and smells which have outlined weekends in lots of Los Angeles neighborhoods for generations. This one occurs to be for a KCRW Summer season Nights occasion headlined by East L.A. soul revivalists the Altons, however the mix of demographics, cultures and backgrounds on show provides it an authentically native really feel that might be mistaken for a casual block celebration in any decade — besides maybe for the display screen printer creating band merch and a design of Snoopy humping an ice dice with an expletive about Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
That very same mix of historical past and cultures that has introduced Los Angeles collectively throughout generations can be what’s given the Altons their signature sound and made them one of many metropolis’s newest breakout stars. Once they go on tour and produce their distinctive mix of soulful “oldies,” fashionable rock and bilingual R&B all over the world, they aren’t simply sharing their music but additionally their tradition.
“On any given weekend, you can have some party down the street playing cumbia or music that your parents grew up on, their next door neighbor might have a punk rock show, and another guy down the street that’s just listening to oldies and Art Laboe,” vocalist and guitarist Bryan Ponce explains concerning the roots of the Altons’ numerous sound stemming from their collective Los Angeles childhoods. “We all grew up on all of this music that we’d hear in our neighborhoods, so all of our influences just came together and came out in our music.”
The Altons members Adriana Flores, Caitlin Moss, Bryan Ponce and Joseph Quinones carry out at LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes on June 28.
(Brian Feinzimer / For The Occasions)
For a band that began with modest expectations almost a decade in the past, the Altons now discover themselves heading out on worldwide excursions and enjoying to hundreds of individuals at a time — as they are going to Saturday once they rock the Oldies 2 Souldies present with Los Lonely Boys on the Greek Theatre. And whereas their rise has been extra of a gradual incline than something significantly stratospheric, they’ve carved their very own path with out compromise. They’re keen to fuse genres, languages, tempos and sounds as they see match and primarily based on what they really feel will work finest for the songs and messages they’re desirous to ship as an alternative of catering to what could also be widespread within the second, a alternative that’s made them the face of the “oldies revival” now that millennials and Gen Z are falling again in love with tunes from their grandparents’ day.
“It’s incredible to play a show where a grandmother’s there with her daughter and grandkids, and just have multiple generations of people come together,” vocalist Adriana Flores says. “There’s not a lot of shows that I would even take my dad to, so I think it makes the music even more special and I’d like to be one of the bands shedding the light on what’s been happening in L.A. We’ve been doing it for years and just sharing the types of music we like — which is the retro sound of soul mixed with other elements. We like to show people what’s been happening in L.A. that’s not just Hollywood.”
The Altons’ Adriana Flores and Bryan Ponce carry out at LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes in late June.
(Brian Feinzimer / For The Occasions)
That want to indicate the “real” L.A. that they know and love is a driving pressure for the Altons, significantly as they go additional and farther from dwelling. All of them — Flores and Ponce together with Joseph Quinones on guitar/backup vocals, Chris Manjarrez on bass, Christian “Elyzr” Meraz on keyboards and drummer Caitlin Moss — are proud to symbolize their East L.A. roots for many who solely see the California that will get offered on tv. The group eagerly reminisces a few fan they met at a present in France who had by no means set foot in California however beloved the tradition a lot that he dressed the a part of a traditional cholo. “He looked like he could have been related to me or went to school with me,” Ponce says with fun. “He was bald, he had the Locs on, the Pendleton on and he was screaming our neighborhoods.” They recall the occasions they’ve felt like cultural ambassadors bringing their hometown heritage to cities like Boston.
However the self-placed weight of representing and sharing their lifelong tradition isn’t at all times all enjoyable and video games. Only a matter of weeks earlier than they have been strolling by the halls of LA Plaza’s museum to see their brand-new exhibition on the significance of East L.A. musicians, they have been on tour within the U.Okay. feeling helpless as they watched the ICE raids and protests flood town.
Bryan Ponce and Adriana Flores onstage at LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes.
(Brian Feinzimer / For The Occasions)
“You couldn’t really grasp what was going on,” Ponce says. “I would watch videos and see stuff online, but I didn’t really see it until we came home for a couple of days before we left again. [Manjarrez] and I live close to each other, and we started seeing videos of all these places and stores and people in our community. It was just devastating to have to leave again and see that they’re getting even closer to your house and seeing it happening on your street. You’re trying to go and play music to entertain people, but you’re also trying to find a balance. It’s like ‘Are we going to speak on what’s going on?’ Because some people thought that L.A. was burning down, and that’s not really the case.”
“Watching the community go through something so heartbreaking while being away was really difficult,” Flores provides. “It was really tough seeing our community being targeted, but I’d like to believe that music and being creative and spreading joy is a form of resistance. I hope that people can come to our shows and escape. Even though this is way bigger than us, we have to use our platform to be vocal about what’s going on. It’s scary times, but another scary time was the ‘60s when the whole civil rights movement was happening, and some of the best music came out of that because people were finding that outlet and creating.”
