Chicano Batman takes on the 800-pound gorilla with ‘Freedom Is Free’ – Los Angeles Times

Chicano Batmans new song, The Taker Story, is surely the first 2017resistance anthem to be inspired by a telepathic gorilla.

The L.A. bands frontman, Bardo Martinez, recently read and loved Daniel Quinns 1992 novel, Ishmael, a work of magical realism from the point of view of a primatewhose captive life gave him insights into humans self-destructiveness. Its philosophy that we cant escape natureand humanity needs new myths about itself to survive hit Martinez hard amid the fear and anger of the recent election season.

So on Taker Story, a ruminative single inspired by 60s radicalism and 70s soul, he wrote a new dispatch from the front lines ofecological collapse and cultural genocide.Its a centerpiece of the bands third album, Freedom Is Free.

I spent a lot of time writing that song, probably the most of any song in my life, Martinez said. The Bible is a cry of an oppressed people describing their slaughter, so future people dont make the same mistakes. But now were going to build a pipeline in the Dakotas on the land of a people whove been trampled on. Its an age-old story.

Freedom Is Free refocuses the sound of Chicano Batman, one of L.A.s singular indie rock acts (the band plays a sold-out show at the Roxy on Saturday and the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in April). Its members have always loved heartfelt oldies and the humid swing of the global south, but Freedom looks to varied blackmusic traditionsfor healing in malevolent times. It raises the stakes for a band thathas toured with Jack Whiteand redefined Latin Americans influence on todays L.A. rock scene.

Ever since its 2010 self-titled debut, Chicano Batman hasreconfigured vintage styles for young ears. Theres yearning East L.A. balladry:If youre Mexican American in L.A., you grew up with oldies, going to swap meets and listening to Art Laboe, Martinez said. But Chicano Batman was just as interested in overtones from countercultural Brazil and Peru.

The Tropicalia movement was kids in the hinterlands of Brazil saying, We dont want to play cheesy music. We love the Beatles and we love indigenous music, and we can do anything we want.Its about getting rid of stereotypes. We love black music and hip-hop and were in an indie rock scene, he added.

Freedom expands thesonic map to emphasizeblack music from pretty much everywhere Afro-Cuban rumbas to Fela Kutis hard-swinging resistance jams, Isaac Hayes virtuoso orchestral arrangements to hip-hops way of absorbingany culture it touches.

Theres a thread in all the music of the Americas, and thats the Afro diaspora and the way those rhythms have been being translated over the years, Martinez said. James Brown influenced music everywhere from Saigon to Rio. Black music is everywhere and all people can appreciate it.

This subtle shift yielded the best and most important work in the bands career. Angel Child and Jealousy feel like the grouptried to reverse-engineer hip-hop, taking the core of a well-constructed soul sample and writing full songs out of those woozy moments. The title track digs hard into guitarist Carlos Arvalo's wah-wah pedal for itsfunkiest track yet, but the stacks of female backing vocals add a dreamy, hopeful ambience.

This was the first time wed ever worked with a producer, and his aesthetic was right in line with ours, Arvalo saidof their time with Leon Michels, a longtimecollaborator for Sharon Jones, Lee Fields and the Black Keys. He had the equipment used on all those old records: an all-analog mixing board, 50s amps and a Hammond organ.

Michelssaw some fellow travelers in Chicano Batman, which also features bassist Eduardo Arenas and drummer Gabriel Villa. He liked how theyre a band steeped in old sounds,drawing on its backgroundto reach acrossneighborhoods and continents.

Theyre writing songs that mean something to them. We werent trying to make a vintage record at all, Michels said. Bands that have a Latin American spin are usually put in a certain box. But theyre young and modern, so its going to have that sensibility. Thats who they are.

The bands invigorated sense of purpose comes when huge,global forces are weighing down. As they sing on Friendship (Is aSmall Boat in aStorm) The sun is getting heavy /The cold is breaking my heart Better start swimming, brother /Cause Im running.

Even in L.A., a relative bastion of liberalism, debates about gentrification and displacement have roiled working-class,creatively vital Latino neighborhoods, the kinds ofplaces that created a proud but inclusive band like Chicano Batman.

I read about that gallery that closed in Boyle Heights, Arvalo said of the recently-shuttered PSSST venue, long a target ofanti-development activists. If you come into a neighborhood, include their art. But wevegot tounderstand that we all have the same wants in life.

I kind of understand how hipsters feel moving into a neighborhood, Martinez continued. People moving from the Midwest who just want a cheap place to live and to get into the culture thats not your enemy.

But at the same time, you know, la raza. Hipsters have to get their heads out of the clouds and stop being super-entitled. Just be cool to your neighbors. Theres so many things to connect on.

Martinez isnt naive about musics ability to heal everything. But like the Ishmaelthat inspired Taker Story, simply getting this all on record is an act of hope.

As people see corporations and the pillars of our society eroding, this band is promoting its own economy, Martinez said. Were just playing shows, but were promoting ideas that go against the status quo.

August.Brown@latimes.com

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Chicano Batman takes on the 800-pound gorilla with 'Freedom Is Free' - Los Angeles Times