Photos by Jim Bricker

Juanes: LOUD & Unplugged Tour
Bayou Music Center
June 8, 2013

Unplugged: to perform with acoustic rather than electronically amplified instruments. That is what Juanes' current tour is supposed to be. And when you think about it, taking a guitar player's axe away should severely diminish his or her effectiveness.

But Juanes is not your ordinary guitar player. This Colombian rock star has enough talent, charisma and energy to power and carry any stage he sets foot upon, seemingly with his heart alone. Plus it helps that he is, as one of my Twitter followers puts it, a "drop-dead sexy beast of a man."

Indeed, his current show may have been unplugged, but the energy at Bayou Music Center Saturday night was as strong and loud as I've ever experienced at a Rock En Español show. In fact, I would argue that this concert was more enjoyable than his show at Toyota Center two years ago. That show seemed like just another tour stop. Saturday night was magical.

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Photo courtesy of Press Junkie PR/Nacional Records

Rocks Off: What is worst song in the world, and why?

Julio Briceño (lead singer): It is hard to name just one because most of the time,what may seem to be the worst song for some people, is the best song for other people because it gets really famous. Lately, I could mention Gangnam Style. It doesn't say anything, and the front guy is not sexy at all but... It's a HUGE hit!

RO: What is the best lyric in the world? Please include title and artist.

JB: For me it could be either "Imagine" by John Lennon or "What a Wonderful World" performed by Louis Armstrong.

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Welcome to the Rocks Off 100, our portrait gallery of the most compelling profiles and personalities in the far-flung Houston music community -- a lot more than just musicians, but of course they're in there too. See the entire Rocks Off 100 at this link.

photo by Marco Torres

One of the city's hardest-working musicians is a percussionist known simply as "Chapy." Whether sitting behind the drum set for Los Skarnales or on the congas with The Suffers, this beat keeper interjects an unmatched energy and soul into every project he produces.

Who?"My name is Chapy, also known as Jose Luna," says Chapy. "I'm 24 years young. I come from a family of musicians, my entire childhood revolved around music. I have memories of my cousins and I dressing up as KISS and putting on concerts with buckets and cardboard guitars in my grandma's garage when I was about five years old.

"The best shows we ever put on were always during the holiday season, because we got to use fireworks," he adds. "One time we even had to cancel a show because we used an atomic smoke bomb in a closed garage and almost suffocated."

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Texas music lovers have one more thing to celebrate as of today. The United States Postal Service is issuing a new series of stamps titled Music Icons, and Houston's own Lydia Mendoza is the first honoree.

Long before Selena, there was Lydia Mendoza. A master of the twelve-string guitar, Ms. Mendoza became the first female star in the all-male field of Tejano music when, at age 18, she cut her most famous tune, "Mal Hombre" (essentially "Evil-hearted Man") for RCA Victor subsidiary Bluebird Records in 1934. The track has been called the first Tejano music recording.

Mendoza immediately became a regional and then national radio star in the era before television. But under the musical leadership of her mother Leonora and the management of her father Francisco, Lydia Mendoza had already been performing in the streets, markets, and bars of San Antonio.

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Photos by Marco Torres

Pachanga Fest Latino Music Festival
Feat. Los Lobos, Celso Piña, Intocable, 3BallMTY, y más
Fiesta Gardens, Austin
May 10 & 11, 2013

Since 2008, the annual, family-friendly Pachanga Fest Latino Music Festival has showcased the vibrant blend of Latino-created music and art and its impact on American culture. That includes rock, alternative, Tejano, mariachi, cumbia, salsa, electronic, funk, hip-hop, and their many blends and mash-ups. A portion of the proceeds benefited FuturoFund, a collective effort to engage the Austin community through philanthropy and leadership.

My journey to this year's festival was long and wet. What normally takes a bit over two hours took almost four due to traffic and a string of strong thunderstorms that blew over Texas that day. The show was postponed for about an hour on Friday night due to the heavy rains, which made for an interesting and very fun dance party under the covered pavilion near the main stage as the show continued with a strong performance by DJ trio 3BallMTY.

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Photos by Jay Tovar/ courtesy of Bombón on Facebook

One-fourth of the Bombón crew, DJ Panchitron continues to evolve as one of the best DJ/Producer combos in Houston. His ear for combining cumbia, tropical and tribal with rap creates some of the most adventurous, hard-hitting, and downright funnest music in the city.

Who? Panchitron is a native of Mexico who was raised in L.A., born Francisco Javier Briones. He moved to the Houston area -- Alief, specifically -- in early 2000, and in 2007 began studying the DJ arts with mentor Toy Selectah.

"Spending time and touring with Toy around the U.S. molded my style," Panchitron says today.

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Photo by Marco Torres

Oscar de la Garza (center) at the recent Tejano Music Fest 2013 in Humble.

Accoding to the group's Facebook page, Oscar de la Rosa, lead singer of Houston-based Tejano stars La Mafia is recovering after an assault early Monday morning outside an unnamed Houston bar. This messsage was posted on La Mafia's page earlier today:

Oscar De La Rosa was assaulted around 1:30 a.m. this morning leaving a local bar in Houston. He is still in trauma care at Memorial Herman Hospital (sic). He has suffered severe face lacerations and possible damage to his right eye.

A police report has been filed and the the identity of the assailant has been confirmed, assault charges will be filed as soon he is located.

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Photos by Marco Torres

The Greater Northside Management District classifies "The Northside" as the "24 square miles north of Downtown Houston" between Interstate-10/Katy Freeway on the south, Studewood/Yale on the West, Little York to the north, and Interstate-59 Eastex Freeway to the East (although for this article, we set the boundary at Hardy Street). This is the real heart of the city, the real Northside... as opposed to Spring or The Woodlands. Scattered within the working-class barrios of Northside Village, Lindale and Northline Park are several hidden gems in the form of ice houses and drive inns that are arguably Houston's best.

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Photo courtesy of Houston International Festival

The 43rd Annual Houston International Festival kicks off its Brazilian-themed, two-weekend affair this evening with an opening gala at the Hobby Center featuring Grammy Award- winning pianist and musician, Sergio Mendes. Opening for Mendes will be Casa Samba, a samba school located in New Orleans.

Bookending the concert will be a Chairman's Reception before the concert and an opportunity to meet and greet with concert performers Mendes and Casa Samba after. Rocks Off got an early start on the latter, speaking with Mendes by telephone about this evening's performance.

"[There will be] a lot of great songs and great music," promises Mendes, confirming that he will perform his classics, his hits and newer songs from 2011 album Celebration: A Musical Journey.

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Welcome to the Rocks Off 100, our portrait gallery of the most compelling profiles and personalities in the far-flung Houston music community -- a lot more than just musicians, but of course they're in there too. See the entire Rocks Off 100 at this link.

Photos by Marco Torres (except as indicated)

Any conversation about Tejano music is incomplete without a mention of internationally successful, Grammy award-winning supergroup La Mafia. One of the primary elements of the band since the beginning has been keyboardist and background vocalist David DeLaGarza, whose music and infamous gritos helped shape the sound and heart of Tejano music.

Who? I was born and raised in Seguin, Texas, to a family of musicians," says DeLaGarza. "My father and all my uncles were musicians. My father played with some of the early greats of Tejano music such as Sunny & the Sunliners, Latin Breed, Agustine Ramirez and many more.

"I started playing with my father and uncles at the age of 12," he continues. "I moved to Houston at the age of 19 in January of 1989 when I joined La Mafia."

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