Los Bitchos Sure Know How to Party
I like a lot of unusual music styles. If music is the spice of life, I like my life as hot as extra hot chicken wings. (No, I won’t say Buffalo Wings. That’s not what we say here in Buffalo.) The weirder and more unique, the better. Most of the time, however, it’s much easier to describe music by tossing it into a category that is easily understandable.
This presents a dilemma with Los Bitchos and their debut release Let the Festivities Begin! The exclamation point is part of the name which is about the only clue they give to their style of music. It is definitely party music. After that, it gets hard to define. They are instrumentalists, although some vocals pop in once in a while. Many songs, including the lead off “This Link Is About to Die” as well as “FFS” are heavily infused with surf music. That’s as close to a base sound that you will find on the album. Then again, there is the straight-out reggae of “Tropico”. Ok, reggae and surf, that’s been done before; Nothing weird there. But wait – “Las Panteras” is a slow, Latin and bluesy number lead by… a flute? It’s as if Jethro Tull was covering a Tito Puente song. It’s really weird but a lot of fun. This pattern shows up later on “Tripping at a Party”. From the name you’d expect it to be hard core surf. Nope. It’s starts with the Tull-like flute and then goes all out Latin, almost mariachi at times.
What makes Los Bitchos so great is the unexpected twists and turns their music takes. “Try the Circle!” sounds like 80s club music. Where did that come from? Who cares? it’s just fun! The essence of Los Bitchos is just that – having fun. It’s the type of music you want to play at a party because it is all danceable but eschews conversation killing vocals. It is surf, Latin, new wave, and reggae as well as none of the above all at once. It’s rare to find a band that exudes pure joy strictly through their music without the aid of vocals.
Los Bitchos is new, unique, and awesome party fuel. Let this be your 2020 party soundtrack!
