SARGENT HOUSE

As many times as we’ve heard Morrissey exclaim through multiple songs and various PETA campaigns that meat is, in fact, a murderous act, it’s hard to ignore how cool of a stage prop it can actually be. I mean, who doesn’t like a severed, bloody pig’s head in conjunction with their favorite band? Since 17, Teresa Suarez, aka Teri Gender Bender, founder and guitarist of Mexican garage Punk band, Le Butcherettes, has been using blood and gore for her live performances for reasons that extend far beyond the grotesque, and into the ideals and ethics of the importance of the feminist movement.

With Sylvia Plath, Kathleen Hanna, and Chilean musician and artist, Violeta Parra as ongoing influences. Teri, now 23, has evolved from her days as a teen armed with a guitar and a bloody apron, into a woman who refuses to lose that fiery, teenage angst that continues to spread the word of feminism to whomever is willing to give a shit. Having already completed her sophomore album with fellow band members Lia Braswell (drums), and bassist/The Mars Volta , At The Drive-In guitarist, Omar Rodriguez Lopez, Le Butcherettes’ newest record will be less blood on stage mixed with literary references musically than their debut, SIN SIN SIN, but more references and possible inspiration from living life in a new country on Cry Is For The Flies. We interviewed Teri to find out what’s what.

VICE: You recently played Coachella. How was it?
Teri Gender Bender: It was crazy. We played around 1:55 pm, so it was really hot. I think that the set went by swell. Lia [Braswell, drummer], and Omar [Rodriguez Lopez , who’s on bass now, were fine, the heat didn’t affect them, but the heat got to me. I had a migraine the whole festival and I couldn’t even watch any bands, I had to go lay down in the van and ended up throwing up the whole time, and it happened both weekends.The heat was just terrible. But it was great. I’m not complaining.

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Without warning, it looks like Omar Rodriguez Lopez has dropped a new solo album, today! Check out Un Corazón De Nadie, released on Thursday, May 17, 2012. You can stream the 10-track album via Omar’s Bandcamp. It’s also available for purchase as a $6.99 download. The album is trippy and sexy, with progressive tones and ambient beats that will have you on your toes. You’ll here lyrics in both Spanish and English on this mysterious album. Click below to give it a listen.

(Source: grimygoods.com)

Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Teri Gender Bender & Lia Braswell of Le Butcherettes in their trailer at Coachella.

Inside a small trailer backstage at Coachella yesterday, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez was trying to cool down after his first performance of the day, and the dressing room wasn’t much cooler than the triple-digit heat outside. Rodriguez-Lopez pulled double duty on both festival weekends in Indio, California, playing lead guitar with the reunited At the Drive-In on the main stage just hours after a full set on bass with Le Butcherettes, the fiery garage-punk band whose next album he is currently producing in Los Angeles.

Rodriguez-Lopez is a full permanent member of Le Butcherettes, and during the trio’s raging 45-minute set, he stood back with a smile as Guadalajaran singer-guitarist Teri Gender Bender roared through anxious pop hooks with sharp edges, at one point tossing a big Casio keyboard into the moshing crowd. New drummer Lia Braswell slammed a heavy beat from stage left and fans waved Mexican flags, as they would again later for At the Drive-In. Soon after, Rodriguez-Lopez sat with Le Butcherettes for several rounds of bottled water and talked with Rolling Stone about their busy Coachella week.

Is playing two sets a day a challenge?
Rodriguez-Lopez: No, it’s a blessing. Go play music all day? I should be so lucky. Last weekend we played, then we cooled off, we ate, and then just when you really feel like you’re winding down, “Oh, it’s time to play.” It’s perfect.

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Film maker  Omar Rodriguez Lopez sits down to talk with Alanna Raben for Details Magazine about his new film “Los Chidos” and the At The Drive-In reunion. Shot in Austin, TX at the Driskill Hotel during SXSW 2012.

Le Butcherettes, O’Death & Murder by Death are first bands to be announced to play this years Do Division Street Festival which is set to take place from June 1-3 in Wicker Park. Le Butcherettes will be playing on June 2nd and will also play their own show at Subterranean on June 1.

That’s it for now. Stay tuned for more lineup additions.

(Source: artistdata.com)

See the first part of the interview: Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Is a Real Bastard

Our music feature this week focuses on Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, a giant of the progressive rock and post-hardcore scenes who seemingly wants nothing to do with them.

The mastermind behind The Mars Volta and At the Drive-In tries to tell us he’s not a musician, for all kinds of deep and philosophical reasons. He might start out talking about how many hours of sleep he gets nightly, and end up describing the principles of some ancient religious text. In other words, he’s one deep human being. Below are excerpts from our meandering interview.

On doing interviews:
People get bummed out or consider it arrogant when they ask me what are my influences and they want me to talk about records. I could care less about records. I’d rather talk about how my influences were my mother, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, Roberto Clemente’s life. Those are the real things. Because that’s music. 

On his own “music theory”
People who go and they buy the same amp Jimi Hendrix had or they play the guitar upside down — you ain’t never gonna sound like him because that’s not his music. His music was the fact that had a tumultuous relationship with his father that he never got figured out. His music was the fact that had a brother that he absolutely loved and wanted to be with all the time but he was in and out of jail. His music was the fact that he wanted to be accepted by the black community but he wasn’t until the very end of his life. That’s his music. The other stuff is just a vehicle.

Passion’s the only thing that’s going to make you good at anything. You can learn the technical aspects of anything but that ain’t going to make you necessarily good or tasteful. Look at how many awful musicians come out of Berklee and all these music schools — just faceless, mindless musicians that are being churned out under the concept of, like, ‘Well, you know all the theory so there you go, you’re good to go. You excel at theory.’ Like, big deal.

On why he doesn’t think of himself as a musician:
Musicians definitely get stuck in this pitfall of having to think about things in terms of theory and how theory fits together and why that can work or why it doesn’t work. I have absolutely no interest in any of that. I’m only interested in the simple element of does it move me or not. Because at the end of the day all I’m here to do is to express myself. I have to stay true to that. Any deviation from that path is treated like a dagger pointed at my heart.

I’m basically in most peoples’ eyes just a product, they know me as the At the Drive-In guitarist, The Mars Volta whatever. It’s funny to be diminished to just a guitarist, which I don’t even consider myself. It’s just one of many vehicles.

I had very informal music training. I had true music training, which is the fact that I come from a culture that is enveloped and surrounded by music. Everyone in my family plays music, none of them are musicians. When my ancestors were slaves, when they were conquered by the Spanish — I’m Puerto Rican, a lot of people think I’m Mexican — in any culture music and laughter is what gets you through any kind of trauma, you know?

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Omar Rodriguez-Lopez wears the same thing every day: teal-colored jeans and a fitted canvas jacket. His eyes are intent behind his glasses; his focus is acute. For the bulk of his 35 years he’s been consumed with expressing his creative vision. Relentless in the pursuit of his own voice, he has alienated friends and collaborators. By his own admission, he’s behaved like a dictator.

The brain behind Grammy-winning progressive rock group The Mars Volta, Rodriguez-Lopez has written all the band’s music, mixed the recordings by himself and fired musicians at will — sometimes without so much as an email to let them know.

“I’ve been a real bastard over the years,” he admits, perched on a couch in the top-floor sun room of his Echo Park production offices, looking out over L.A.’s sun-soaked Eastside hills. “All in the name of following my vision.”

Wiry thin, he has an Einstein-style wild mess of dark hair and big, round, smudgy spectacles. He’s the kind of guy who forgets to eat, shower or brush his teeth when he gets on a roll writing music.

He certainly has his admirers; devoted Mars Volta fans liken the band’s members to gods. They obsess over their innovative, genre-shattering, long-winded compositions, full of changing time signatures, singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala’s high-pitched howling vocals and Rodriguez-Lopez’s experimental guitar riffs.

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In addition to his rock-star duties as the guitarist for The Mars Volta, Omar Rodríguez-López has technically made seven movies, but he won’t let you see most of them.

The eccentric musician-filmmaker (formerly of At the Drive In, which recently announced plans for a reunion at Coachella) has worked on movies with a close-knit group of friends in Mexico, but has only allowed the last two to screen at festivals: “The Sentimental Engine Slayer” played at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2010, while the outrageous exploitation movie “Los Chidos” premiered in competition at SXSW this week.

A gross-out spectacle done in the style of Spanish telenovelas but positioned as a satire of male chauvinism, “Los Chidos” technically revolves around a Mexican family dealing with crime and other misdeeds while sorting out their interpersonal dramas. Intentionally dubbed and filled with countless provocative images, “Los Chidos” is one of those movies that begs for further explanation.

So I tracked Rodríguez-López down at Austin’s Driskill Hotel this week to figure out what he was going for. And boy, did I get some answers — not to mention a lengthy diatribe against the music industry and capitalism as a whole (he also trashed fellow Mexican filmmaker Alejandro Gonzalez Iñaritu). Frequently out of breath as he spoke, Rodriguez-Lopez sounded like one of The Mars Volta’s lively compositions.

It seems like you’re only making movies to satisfy yourself and your friends. But these last two have played film festivals. What made you more comfortable about getting them out there?

I wasn’t comfortable getting them out there, but I had to be responsible in terms of having a concept of other people. My editor and sound person sat me down and said, “Hey, listen, we respect your philosophy but we work really hard on these films and want to be able to put them out there.” I have to honor that, because they do work very hard. I can’t take the credit for it. Adam Thompson, my editor, he’s the reason we’re here and had the last one at Tribeca. He’s the one who fills out all the paperwork and is very passionate about that.

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Leave it to Omar Rodriguez Lopez to create one of the wildest, most innovative, and full on challenging films of the year. As a founding member of The Mars Volta, Rodriguez Lopez helped define a brand of progressive hard rock music known for its wild, innovative, and challenging nature. In LOS CHIDOS, Rodriguez Lopez shows he just about has the directing chops to be the force on screen he has long been on stage. 

Set in a modern day Mexican metropolis (it was filmed in Guadalajara), LOS CHIDOS is a fable that revolves around a family who run a roadside tire repair shop. The term run, however, should be applied pretty loosely, as the Gonzales family spends more time gorging themselves on tacos and watching TV than repairing tires, telling most customers to come back mañana. While service may not be their forté, these folks do excel at the art of drinking; their watering hole providing refuge at the end of each long day, usually leading to debaucherous nights indulging their sexual urges, perhaps even with each other. 

The excitement really begins when a handsome foreign man arrives at the tire stand in need of a repair. Dressed in his Sunday best and barely speaking a word of Spanish, the man waves around American money like the Gonzaleses have never seen. The Gonzaleses are immediately interested the opportunity to get a taste of both the stranger’s sex appeal and his cash. Naturally his car can’t be fixed until mañana, giving them the night to drink, fawn over, and incessantly berate the stranger for his poor language skills. One night turns into three or four as the man finds his place among the family and falls hard for one of the neighborhood girls. 

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Music and film worlds will be overlapping in more ways than one at this year’s SXSW Film Festival, and we’ve got the exclusive poster debut of The Mars Volta guitarist Omar Rodriguez Lopez’s feature film “Los Chidos,” which will be making its debut in the narrative feature competion. Surprise surprise, this is the fifth film he’s directed, but only the second one to be seen on the fest circuit. His previous effort, “The Sentimental Engine Slayer” played numerous festivals around the world, and was financed by Red Hot Chili Peppers axeman John Frusciante.

The official synopsis reads: Set amid the noisy outskirts of some unnamed Mexican metropolis, “Los Chidos” tells the story of the Gonzales Family. Proprietors of a tire repair junkyard sandwiched between two busy freeways, the Gonzales clan’s days are spent wallowing in lazy, mindless routine. When a confused American industrialist happens into the shop with a flat tire, the family’s place in the shame-free food chain is called into question. Family secrets begin emerging as love blossoms in Omar Rodriguez Lopez’s satirical dark comedy.

The satirical dark comedy was shot with a micro-budget and micro-crew in a Guadalajaran whorehouse and we’ve heard it bears a bit of an early John Waters-esque edge. It’s got a serious bent to it though, as in his director’s statement, Rodriguez Lopez says the film “served as a meditation that exposes the unfortunate size of our otherwise beautiful and unique culture. Namely, the inherent machismo, misogyny, classism and homophobic values passed down by our grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc.” He adds, “God is a black lesbian” at the end. Rad. We can’t wait to check this one out. SXSW Film runs from March 9-17.

Omar Rodriguez Lopez keeps his creative throttle set to interstellar overdrive. He doesn’t bask in the achievements of his previous band, At the Drive-In, his ten-years-and-counting blockbuster The Mars Volta, his production company, or any of his myriad film scores or solo releases. Rodriguez Lopez is always fully engaged, generating off-balance riffs, cosmically effected tones, and mind-bending song arrangements.

This year saw the release of Telesterion [Rodriguez Lopez Productions], a sprawling collection of all things Omar outside of The Mars Volta. Its seemingly boundless range spans everything from ear-melting monolithic rock to what sounds like salsa music on acid to intergalactic battle scene soundtracks. Subtlety is scarce. You might think that such a dedicated artist would have mountains of information about the material he creates and produces at his fingertips, but the Puerto Rican native and current Mexico City resident has difficulty detailing past tracks. He uses everything around him as inspiration for the day’s music. The next day, he clears his internal Etch A Sketch, and begins anew.

This interview took place in the wake of a GP Presents event with the Omar Rodriguez Lopez Band at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall—and another show when the Mars Volta opened up for Soundgarden.

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Set amid the noisy outskirts of some unnamed Mexican metropolis, Los Chidos tells the story of the Gonzales Family. Shady proprietors of a tire repair junkyard sandwiched between two busy freeways, the Gonzales clan’s days are spent wallowing in lazy, mindless routine. Barely able to converse without resorting to misogyny and homophobia, the six of them pass the time glued to a decrepit television and stuffing their faces with tacos, preying on the occasional unlucky motorist. When a confused American industrialist happens into the shop with a flat tire, the family’s place in the shame-free food chain is called into question. With his vehicle “out” for repairs indefinitely, a strange scenario unfolds whereby the pale stranger finds himself welcomed into their unpleasant fold. To complicate matters, he soon becomes infatuated with the newlywed bride of the family’s neighbor. As a new love blossoms, dark secrets begin emerging, and both the family and their guest are in for some surprises. Los Chidos is at once both delightfully funny and desperately depraved; a satirical, sociopolitical commentary on the dynamic relationships between exploiter and exploited. - SXSW OFFICIAL COMPETITION PAGE

Director: Omar Rodriguez Lopez
Executive Producer: JOHANN SCHEERER
Producer: Omar Rodriguez Lopez
Screenwriter: Omar Rodriguez Lopez
Cinematographer: Michael Rizzi
Editor: Adam Thomson

Additional Credits: Unit Production Manager/1st AD: Laura Vella, Production Coordinator: Ramon Villa, Gaffer: Kristofer May

Principal Cast: Kim Stodel, María De Jesús Canales Ramírez, Manuel Ramos, Cecillia Gutiérrez, Erasmo Rodríguez, Bruno Champiz, Maimuna Achleitner Jiménez

Director Bio
Omar Rodriguez Lopez is an intensely prolific Grammy-winning artist whose genre-defying career has resulted in over 40 albums. In the early 2000s, Rodriguez Lopez began film making. His debut, 2009’s The Sentimental Engine Slayer premiered at International Film Festival Rotterdam, and Tribeca Film Festival, screening at over 20 film festivals worldwide.

Artist: Le Butcherettes
Video: ‘I’m Getting Sick of You’
Highlight: “Being able to to play with Lia and Omar on MTV Iggy has been nothing but a pleasurable experience, wanting nothing more or less to create an understanding of the self,” singer/guitarist Teri Gender Bender tells Spinner. “This video, ‘I’m Getting Sick of You,’ is so special to me because this is a song I wrote in my bedroom when I was 17, in my home country Mexico. I was surrounded by my family’s love, which helped me focus anger at the third-world bureaucracies that occurred against the working class man and woman. I was sick of it. It’s just so amazing to me how the song’s energy could be transformed with time and get so far as going to another country, such a great opportunity for a proud Mexican girl of 17 (now 22). You should see the e-mails I get from my fans in Mexico saying how proud they are of me.”