Solidarity Rock
Ok folks/friends.
We just got home a couple weeks ago, and we’ve already got tickets to head back to the beautiful island of Cuba. This time, we’re going to do something even more astounding.
It gives me nothing but pleasure to announce that we’re bringing the ability to record and preserve the DIY rock music we’ve helped create over the years. 
Vancouver’s Jesse Gander, head recording engineer at the Hive Creative Labs is going to be joining us from July 21 to 28 for a recording session in Sancti Spiritus. William Garcia has found a spot to set up and get it done, and we’ll be recording his band Arrabio, based in Trinidad, and a band called Adictox from Santa Clara. Big things are happening with independent art and music in Sancti Spiritus, kids are growing up with punk rock, tattoo artists are moving in and setting up shop because that’s where all the “freakies” are, young visual artists are engaged with the musicians, creating a new and exciting creative community, and we hope that their ability to record music and disseminate it with fewer barriers will help that process even more.
When we first got to Sancti Spiritus, it was a sleepy town, now we can see how art and music can transform people and places.
Even better than that is the fact that we’re hitting the road again for what will be the 5th Solidarity Rock tour, and the 6th DIY tour ever, if you count the 7and7is tour in 2007 which started it all (and we do).
July 29 - August 8 will see some amazing things going down.
Jesse’s band the Previous Tenants will be ripping though our usual haunts and for the first time ever, we’ll be joined by a brave group of American musicians, a DIY punk rock band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin called Uh-Oh. We’ll be doing it international styles in Sancti Spiritus, Trinidad, Jatibonico, Santa Clara, Cienfuegos, Havana and more!
Not only that, but as always, we’re bringing Arrabio from Trinidad, and for the first time, Adictox from Santa Clara. We’ll be raising money at our upcoming Solidarity Rock shows in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto and Edmonton to accomplish our tasks. We hope to see you there! Watch out for Solidarity Rock shows and projects coming your way, be part of it all. Estamos Juntos en Esto! We’re in this together and we’re making a difference.
I asked our friends and partners in Vancouver and Winnipeg to write up some show reports from their latest Solidarity Rock events in those fine western Canadian cities!
Joel Tong from Previous Tenants and What’s Wrong Tohei waxed philosophical about Vancouver. The show was May 4th at Lana Lou’s and featured Safety Show, Philoceraptor and Previous Tenants.
We all but drowned in the heat and sweat of Vancouver. And this was the beginning of May on the darkened block of Powell Street. Solidarity Rock is set to bring us to Cuba in August. If my maths are right, we will return as drawn gazelles.
Thank you, LanaLou’s. You let a lot of beautiful people into your restaurant. Now that i have had my ears pierced by Philoceraptor i am shopping for an appropriate weed leaf and tennis racquet to hang from the new holes in my head. They changed me like a diaper. Also, it was good to see Steve Spielberg back in Safety Show again. Beyond putting alien worlds in both of my eyes, he reached into my soul. I swear, it was like i could touch him.
These are things that have been happening. This is going to happen again. This is the kind of thing that will bring Cuban underground music to the rest of the world.
-Previous Tenants
Well, Vancouver’s Vicious Cycles have indeed left their mark on Cuba. Arrabio’s hard shreddin guitar player Douglas has what’s probably the first ever VCMC tattoo!
Skinny Tim of the Vicious Cycles runs a guitar studio in Vancouver called Anchor Guitar Studio. He’s writing about his experience on the tour in his blog. Here it is.
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Cuba is a beautiful country, the biggest island in the Caribbean. Our caravan in Cuba was over 15 people, including two bands, The Vicious Cycles, and Arrabio. Photographer Sandy Phimister and tour liason Drew McIntosh from Edmonton, guitar tech James ‘eye drop’ Gamble from Calgary, three translators from Cuba, and our fearless Cuban tour manager William Garcia. The trip went off with very few problems considering how many people were involved.
We traveled around in an old school bus most likely form the 80’s, the bus was donated from a group in Portland called ‘Pastors for Peace’. The bus was painted by people and artists in Oregon, covered in slogans of peace, and community. Our bus driver used to race motorcycles, I would classify him as a first class driver, he could really get outta a tight spot. Once or twice we went the wrong way down a highway, luckily the mistake was caught before we got off the on ramp!
The streets in Cuban villages look like they are out of a museum, ‘art deco cities’, something all right about organized maze like streets in Cuba. We spent the first three nights in Sancti Spiritus, what would become our temporary home. We all got familiar with the streets, and places to buy ham sandwiches, and streetza (street pizza). The friends and family that we met in Sancti Spiritus took us in with open arms, feeding us, showed us around the city. Their hospitality was second to none, we wanted to bring all the friends home with us.
Rock and roll happened on the third night of the trip, and would continue till the end of our time in Cuba. We rolled up to La Feria, and found the stone pavilion we would be playing in. When we got to the spot there were no lights, no PA, no crowd, no power, in fact there was not much that we did not have. Luckily people are very handy in a tight spot in the Caribbean, within a couple minutes the lights showed up in the back of an old pickup, the stage was set with the PA, and speakers, and the kids started to stream in. That first night was something else, something to remember for a long time.
Click here for the Anchor Guitar Studios Blog
Sandy Phimester is a seriously talented photographer. He has accompanied Solidarity Rock on the last three tours in Cuba, and each time he blows everyone away with his work. Check out his latest series from the Vicious Cycles’ January 2012 Solidarity Rock tour! Unreal.
The Vicious Cycles - You Ain’t So Tuff -
Live cellphone video from Varadero, Cuba
Check out some live action from Vancouver’s Vicious Cycles in Varadero, Cuba.
THE VICIOUS CYCLES - I LOVE MY BIKE in Cuba - Music Video
Billy Bones’ of the Vicious Cycles put this video together from their recent Solidarity Rock tour in Cuba. If you like bikes, good times and rocknroll, you should check it out!
THE VICIOUS CYCLES - HIGH AND WILD IN CUBA
Our buddies in the Vicious Cycles put together a great little music video for their song High and Wild. It was shot entirely on a cell phone and looks great. In this video, you will see our friends and stomping grounds across central Cuba. Check it out!
Here is a write up from the AHS’s national page about the Vicious Cycles show that didn’t end up making it past two bands, because the power blew. They tried to re-route some juice from the street lights, but it was clear that it wasn’t going to happen. Either way, interesting words from the AHS site.
Banda canadiense Vicious Cycles.
Un viernes 13 con punk-rock en La Madriguera
Lázaro J. González González
La Madriguera, sede capitalina de la Asociación Hermanos Saíz, prepara para este viernes 13 a las seis de la tarde el gran concierto de punk-rock William Fabián in Memoriam. El espectáculo, que tendrá entrada libre, contará con la presencia de las bandas Kallejeros Kondenados, Limalla, Akupunktura, Eskoria, Gatillo, Arrabio y como invitados espaciales a la banda canadiense Vicious Cycles, de gira por Cuba en estos momentos.
El punk- rock es un género musical dentro del rock que emergió a mediados de los años 1970, caracterizado por su actitud independiente y amateur. En sus inicios, el punk era una música muy simple y cruda, a veces descuidada: un tipo de rock sencillo, con melodías simples de duraciones cortas, sonidos de guitarras amplificadas poco controlados o ruidosos, pocos arreglos e instrumentos, y, por lo general, de compases y tempos rápidos. A la vez, el punk ha creado una cultura: la de la libertad individual, que tiende a generar creencias en conceptos tales como el individualismo y el pensamiento libre.
William Fabián era el cantante líder de Escoria, agrupación que lideró ese movimiento musical en Cuba y falleció en el año 2010. A él se rinde este homenaje, el cual se realiza por segunda ocasión.
One Friday 13 with punk-rock at The Madriguera
J. Lazarus González González
El Madriguera, home of the Associacion Hermanos Saiz in the Cuban Captial, is preparing for a great punk-rock concert in memory of William Fabian, which goes on at 6:00 Friday January 13. The show, which will have free admission, will feature the bands Kallejera Kondenados, Limalla, Akupunktura, Eskoria, Gatillo, Arrabio and special guests from Canada, The Vicious Cycles, who are touring Cuba right now.
Punk-rock is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s, characterized by its independent and amateur attitude. In its beginnings, punk music was a very simple and crude, sometimes discounted, a simple type of music, with short songs, simple melodies, guitar sounds and loud, uncontrolled amplification. Few complex arangements or instruments, and generally bars of fast tempos. At the same time, punk has created a culture: that of individual freedom, which tends to create beliefs in concepts such as individualism and free thought.
William Fabian was the lead singer of Eskora, a group that led the musical movement in Cuba and died in 2010. This show is a tribute to him, which is done for a second time.
We Love You Cuba
The tour was Epic! The people amazing! The shows were all awesome! Still trying to get our heads around the whole thing… here are a few pics to start!
