R.I.P. Fresno mariachi singer Raoul Javier ‘Charro’ Hernández
Also, Sahab teases musical animation series, a Fatty Cakes mini tour and new music from Life Jacket.
Fresno mariachi singer and guitarist Raoul Javier “Charro” Hernández died on Monday at the age of 43.
Hernández has long been a staple in the community, performing as a solo artist, with various mariachi groups (Mariachi Garibaldi, among others), and in collaboration with the likes of Omar Naré (for his Exitos de Mariachi concert is 2014) and author Tim Z. Hernández (the pair, no relation, did two albums of music and poetry together, along with a performance of the Woody Guthrie protest song “Plane Crash at Los Gatos”).
A celebration of life is for Hernández is being held 6 p.m. Feb. 2 at the Chapel of the Light Funeral Home on Belmont Avenue in Fresno, with visitation beginning at 5 p.m.
More reading: Vide en El Valle has a full obituary on Hernández.
Sahab teases animated ambient music series
In my mind, Sahab has always been as much a visual artist as a musical one.
It makes sense that he would pair the two, which appears to be the idea behind “Donuts from Mars,” a series of weekly livestreams he’s debuting Thursdays in February.
Sahab has been teasing a series of animations on his Instagram account and made an official announcement on Thursday.
“Hand drawn animations and visual edits set to downtempo ambient music all made by myself.”
The episodes will air live on Youtube with a Patreon available for hardcore fans.
Fatty Cakes and the Puff Pastries want you addicted for upcoming tour
Last month, Fresno grrrl gang rockers Fatty Cakes and the Puff Pastries, released some images vaguely teasing a future announcement.
Those images turned out to be a slick Robert Palmer-inspired rebrand for an upcoming west-coast mini-tour. Amber Fargano dons Palmer’s signature shirt and tie with the rest of the band in black body suits.
The Addicted to Puffs Valentine’s tour kicks off Feb. 11 at the Bob Baker Marionette Theater in Los Angeles and culminates Feb. 19 at the Partisan in Merced.
The tour seems to be built around a Valentine’s Day show at Strummer’s, where the band is opening for Japanese noise band Melt-Banana.
“Death By Stereo,” Life Jacket
Life Jacket would describe themselves as a “pop and punk” band.
That’s opposed to it being a “pop-punk” band.
That might not be a distinction that needs to be made, but it’s one that kind of makes sense listening to the band’s new single “Death By Stereo.”
The song is certainly poppy in a radio-rock kind way (it’s right there in the lyrics). And it has its share of punk elements.
But one might not put it directly into the “pop-punk” label, if they were checking things off a list. Or, maybe they would. You tell me.
You can catch the band live Jan. 29 at La Maison Kabob with 1135, Iwanaga, Mindless Society and Cieba. They’ve also been added to Stoneshiver’s just-announced March 4 show at Full Circle Brewery District.
“Death By Stereo,” drops tomorrow across streaming platforms.
You can here a premier of the song (along with my interview with band) tonight at 8 p.m. on NewRock 104.1’s Homegrown show.
That’s it for this week. Remember you can now hear me on the Homegrown Show Sundays at 8 p.m. on New Rock 104.1 FM. If you have anything you think I need to be looking at or listening to, feel free to let me know: jtehee@gmail.com