la mi vida violenta

My Violent Life isn't nearly as hardcore/emo as their name suggests. Countless "death/dying/blood/etc" bands roll through my midwest, where I guess hardcore is still popular, but MVL are not one of them, and maybe that is why they seem to now be going by La Mi Vida Violenta instead. Instead, LMVV is from the east coast and have a new split EP out with Sentai.

LMVV's 'Oh Asbestos' could be a crazy remake of World Domination Enterprises' Asbestos Lead Asbestos if you took out the dissonance and darkness and substituted in horns and accordian; took out the venom and put in sugar. And lengthened the whole thing to a children's morning action-adventure television program. Does this make it the same song, I am not sure, but do they even know about the WDE song? Regardless, its fun.

They're leaving on tour right now for the Ruffian Records BFF Summer Tour and bringing Sentai and Hand Fed Babies along for the ride. All three bands should have you out of your seat and sweating up a double-storm in this summertime heat drench. Here is some pre-writ:

La Mi Vida Violenta is a huge and wonderful noise. With seven members and many more instruments (including multiple drum kits, percussion instruments, guitars, bass, saxophone, synths, flute, and cello) they play punk-afrobeat- funk-avant-garde-jazz-girl/boy revolution music. They've been expanding people's heads in DC and on tour with Q and not U and wherever else they go.

Sentai has a passion for the spazz and the noise but also have beautifully layered bits of sequenced keyboards, melodica, and toy instruments rubbing right up against the sections that sound like nothing so much as human musicians being tortured by robotic maestros. Think of it as the smart kids starting a riot in the asylum wing of the grade school and the sirens turning it into a party, or something like that.

Hand Fed Babies began when Hugh McElroy (ex-Black Eyes) started sampling old and odd records with the intention to create sample-based dance music. The intention still exists, however the music created falls somewhere in the middle of dub, early electronic experimentation, Central and West African rhythms, Go-Go, hip-hop and punk rock. Instruments include bass, samplers, thumb piano, a home-made dulcimer, synths, guitar, screws, PVC pipe, drum machines, pedals, and voices.

Check out sound files on both Hand Fed Babies and Sentai's myspace pages, they're quite good too, but I can't link directly to their songs... here are their tour dates:

Fri. 7/22 The Flywheel, Easthampton, MA
Sat. 7/23 Artspace, Gloucester, MA
Sun. 7/24 Studio 13, Glen Falls, NY
Mon. 7/25 American Legion Post 430, Cologne, NJ
Tues. 7/26 the Fire, Philadelphia, PA
Wed. 7/27 Modern Formations, Pittsburgh, PA
Thu. 7/28 Cincinnati, OH
Fri. 7/29 WIUS, Bloomington, IN
Sat. 7/30 Needle House, Chicago, IL
Sun. 7/31 Kansas City
Mon. 8/1 Slaughterhouse, St. Louis, MO
Tues. 8/2 Old Louisville Coffee House, Louisville, KY
Thu. 8/4 Nightlight, Chapel Hill, NC
Fri. 8/5 315 House, Charlottesville, VA
Sat. 8/6 Baltimore, MD
Sun. 8/7 Washington, DC

My Violent Life - Oh Asbestos