LOS FABULOCOS FEATURING KID RAMOS Source: San Antonio Current Date: 09/2009 Writer: Enrique Lopetegui

Aural Pleasure

East LA’s Los Fabulocos is what you get when you combine two former members of the Blazers (José Cuevas on vocals and accordion, and Mike Molina on drums), a former Fabulous Thunderbirds guitarist (the superb Kid Ramos, who also learned how to play bajo sexto for this one), and a Buck Owens fan (bassist James Barrios). At its best, their bilingual mix of frantic roots rock, blues, norteña and mellow accordion-based ballads is dynamite: Santiago Jiménez’s classic “Un mojado sin licencia” (“A wetback without a license”) and the Ramos original “Burning the Chicken” (a fast-driving boogie-woogie jam mostly played by drums and guitar alone) are worth the price of the album. I wish there was more of that. Los Fabulocos insist strongly that they are “a party band,” so you better check ’em out at one or both of their two shows on Saturday: at 6 p.m. at the Plaza Guadalupe (free), and 10 p.m. at Casbeers at the Church ($12).