BUENOS AIRES, JANUARY 2007
It’s hot and there’s nothing to do!
Six crazy punk and roller girls decide to self exploit the cumbia queer side of their personality by means of what they called tropi punk
By the End of 2006 Ali Gua Gua was travelling by bus all the way down from Mexico towards Latin America exploring the Cono Sur. SHE DEVILS were organizing their 8 th Belladona festival of rebel women in Buenos Aires while Juana Chang was on tour playing everywhere she could with her cd “El Camino del Indie”..
They met in the reharsal room, had some beers, and jammed for a couple hours. They felt so good that they knew they were bound to do somehting together.
Ali was firmly in opposition to forming another rocknroll band so she persuaded the bunch to try with cumbia. Ines who is a passionate fan of the style and the keyboardist accepted immediately. Then Juana`s typical good mood, together with Pilar`s determination took the band to the punkest thing they hade ever done in their careers: this spontaneous mix of kumbia with punk rock. They would turn some of their favourite rock songs into kumbia.
KUMBIA KINGS, (the Miami tribute cumbia band to the Gipsy Kings) gave them inspiration for their name, it was clear that Kumbia Queens was no good for KQ who thought QUEER would fit much more into their style and that is how KUMBIA QUEERS came to be.
KUMBIA NENA which is their first LP contains covers of Black Sabbath, The Cure, The Ramones, Madonna, Nancy Sinatra and Bronco plus three original songs by Kumbia Queers. The LP was released in Argentina, Mexico, Chile and Japan!!.
In february 2007 a month after they started the band, Ali returned to her band Ultrasonicas in Mexico and in Buenos Aires the remaining five Kumbia Queers finished the recordings of their debut long play while they collected money from any available place and friend to afford their flights to Mexico where they were bound to meet in June. In July 2007 they played their second show with thousands of people as audience in the closure of the Lgbtttbqi Pride Day on the stage of Zocalo Square in Distrito Federal, Mexico.
From then onwards they came and go from Mexico to Argentina for a couple years then they added Chile to the route and as time went by they included more countries to the list Germany, Belgium, Holland, France, Spain, Sweeden, Denmark, Austria, Italy, Usa, Canada, Colombia, Uruguay and Brazil.
In 2010 vinyl label Comfort Zone (from Austria) released a 10 EP “God Save the Queens” and in 2011 they also put out “Scream Queers at the Kumbia Club” a 7 inch vinyl split with KUMBIA QUEERS and SCREAM CLUB.
During 2011 they released their second long play called “La gran estafa del tropi punk” (“The great tropi punk swindle”) produced by Pablo Lescano and with such special guests as Quique Rangel from Café Tacuba, Toy Selectah, Hugo Lobo from Dancing Mood, Flavio Cianciarullo from Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, Mariano Rosatti from Papas ni Pidamos, Carlos Segovia and Victor Torres from Damas Gratis and Lechuga from the local band Lechuga.
KUMBIA QUEERS have taken part in the soundtracks of “Rudo and cursi”. “Bala Mordida”, the serial “Capadoccia” and the local tv shows “El Puntero” and “Càrceles”.
The band has very successfully taken part in many festivals: Vive Latino (México), Fusion (Germany), Rec Beat (Brazil), Pepsi Music (Argentina), Fem fest (Chile), Queertopia (Sweeden), Festival Mundial (The Netherlands), Grito Rock and Vaca Amarela (Brazil).
KUMBIA QUEERS have played in a wide range of places such as jails, public schools, old pensioner houses, graduations, weddings, bars, discos, book fairs, Lgbtttbqi pride parades, feminists meetings, boats, islands, former churches, universities, squats, and a very long etcetera.
At the moment (january 2012) they are producing and recording their third long play.
They still are an independent do-it-yourself band, they have their own record label called Horario Invertido.
KUMBIA QUEERS are
ALI GUA GUA …………………vocals and guiro
JUANA CHANG……………….. vocals and charango
PAT COMBAT ROCKER……… bass
FLOR LINYERA……………….. keyboard
INESPHEKTOR………….………drums and percussion
PILA ZOMBIE………………….. guitar backing vocales
VIVI STALLONE……………….management
LUCIANO MAZZEI…………….art and design
RAFA PAZ……………………….photography
URIEL VALENTIN……………...web design
In Europe ……………………malavida management
In Chile and New Zeland Loreto Cisternas Productions
Keyboard players who have taken part in Kumbia Queers
Rocktavia Bevilacqua, Juan Pablo “Fok Electrochongo” Malvasio, Gretel Pellegrini, Esteban Garcia, Fernanda “Parranda” Martinez.
