Chicago favorites Allá have taken on an archeological excavation of their favorite musical Digs – and they want to share their findings with us. Tomorrow the trio will release a six-track album featuring Allá-flavored remakes ranging from Kanye West to The Residents. After the critical success of their debut album, Es Tiempo last year, the band takes this creative follow up to match the hype behind their innovative sounds. Also coming up for the group: opening up for Ximena Sariñana at the House of Blues on April 24th.
Listen to their cover of Kanye’s “Love Lockdown” (curiously enough, we heard Los Angeles’ Ceci Bastida sing another version of this hit at South By Southwest Music Festival in Austin in March):
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The Residents – “New Hymn”
The Residents, for me, are completely underrated – The Beatles from an alternate universe. They absolutely changed and shaped my musical outlook at the impressionable age of 12. Their ability to shape a world using the same technology as everyone else… I mean, they are human, right? This song is one of their most dramatic, beautfiul, cinematic and emotional, and has become a blueprint for Allá.
Terry Riley & John Cale – “Church of Anthrax”
Allá sets always veer into free improvisation, which can mean chaotic sheets of feedback and drone, but always with an insistent rhythm track to keep things from falling apart. So, when I discovered this track from this collaborative record between composer Terry Riley and John Cale (known for his work with The Velvet Underground but a great solo artist too), I immediately associated it with what we do in our concerts. We tracked this song live free of overdubs: at one point Angel even drops his sticks, but keeps the rhythm going with his persistent kick drum. Chance operation… didn’t John Cage say that?
Los Dug Dugs – “Smog”
This is our salute to one of Mexico’s finest psych/pop bands from the 60s-70s. Taken from their second album, which, unlike their first, is all sung in Spanish. Modern Latin rock starts with Los Dug Dugs and it’s only appropriate that Allá looks back into our history before we can take a step forward into the future.
Faust – “It’s A Rainy Day Sunshine Girl”
The purest and most powerful expression of rock music ever. One chord, one beat, a song that can be played forever…pure punk rock. It takes an obsessive amount of discipline to perform music like this. We have been ending our live sets with this song. We let it all out.
Kanye West – “Love Lockdown”
We have always admired Kanye’s amibition, style and creativity – plus he’s from Chicago like us! This song is so powerful and minimal that our mind was filled with so many interpetations… Kanye is not writing hip hop anymore: it’s pop, it’s universal. He has changed the perception of what a producer and artist can do within their genre, and we like to think that Allá is following his inspiration.