Isla era band biography outline

1987 single by Madonna

For the island nicknamed "La isla bonita", see La Palma. For the album by Deerhoof, see La Isla Bonita (album).

"La Isla Bonita" (Spanish for "The Beautiful Island") is a song by American singer Madonna from her third studio album True Blue (1986). Patrick Leonard and Bruce Gaitsch created it as an instrumental demo and offered it to singer Michael Jackson, who turned it down. When Leonard met Madonna to start working on True Blue, he played the demo for her. Madonna came up with the title, wrote the lyrics and produced the song with Leonard. It is her first song with Latin influences. Its instrumentation features flamenco guitar, Latin percussion, maracas, and includes four lines sung in Spanish. The lyrics talk of an island named San Pedro, whose location has been debated. Madonna said the song was her tribute to Latin Americans.

Upon its release as the fifth and final single from True Blue on February 25, 1987, "La Isla Bonita" received generally positive reviews from music critics, who praised its Latin-inspired sound. Retrospective reviewers ranked the song as one of Madonna's best, and it features on her compilation albums The Immaculate Collection (1990) and Celebration (2009). Influence of the song has been noted in the work of contemporary artists. "La Isla Bonita" was commercially successful, becoming her eleventh top-five single on the Billboard Hot 100, and second Adult Contemporary number one. It topped the charts in Canada and several countries in Europe, including the United Kingdom, France, West Germany, and Austria.

In the accompanying music video, directed by Mary Lambert, Madonna portrays two opposite characters: A young Catholic woman and a flamenco dancer. The clip received mixed reviews from authors and contemporary critics; some saw the use of Hispanic imagery as a successful marketing strategy, while others accused the singer of cultural appropriation. Madonna has performed "La I

Like many musicians, I started out jamming in neighborhood garages before graduating to bedrooms, living rooms, and hourly studios that required a lot of gear lugging (good practice for shows). Over time I graduated to more luxurious lockouts where we could keep our amps, drums and microphones permanently set up.

When I think back to the various bands and musical configurations I’ve been part of over the years, my mind often skips the memories created at clubs and recording studios in favor of those generated in smoky, beer-soaked rehearsal rooms instead.

Magical spaces that were part clubhouse, temple, crash pad, makeshift venue, and mad scientist’s laboratory. Rooms where we could collectively work out the kinks, pushing ourselves before showing the cold and indifferent world what we created.

I assume that many of the structures I experienced over the years still exist, but the specific energy that we conjured together inside those walls vanished when we eventually handed over the keys—or got evicted—and moved on.

These are a few stream of consciousness memories from those long gone places.

It was only by chance that I got sat next to Keith Brown in a high school English class during sophomore year. We didn’t know each other, but quickly bonded over music. He was a trumpet player who recently switched over to guitar and I was budding punk drummer. We decided to make music together, so my mom drove me and my rickety gear from where we lived in landlocked North Redondo Beach, CA over to his mom’s place near the surf and sand in South Redondo (the two cities share a name, but really have little to do with each other, geographically separated as they are). His bedroom was down in the basement, a couple floors removed from his mom’s up on the third floor, so making noise was allowed. The first song we ever played together was “I Got You” by Split Enz, just Keith and me (take that The White Stripes). The band was eventually filled out by a k

Here are two seven inches by Ex-Ignota. They were from the greater Santa Barbara area, and back when I was a high school student in Santa Barbara during the mid-90s, I caught a bunch of their shows. I honestly don’t remember much from the shows, except that I enjoyed them very much, and often left them looking forward to the next time I would see the band play.

On their website, they note:

The group quickly became recognized for strange and extreme live performances consisting of the members dancing and crashing into one another amidst sounds ranging from pounding chords, to gentle guitars, to Italian zombie movie soundtracks. The band seemed to like nothing better than to challenge each institution they encountered, and audiences were turned on.

When they first got started, they were called IG-88. You may have heard the IG-88 song on the Heartattack #10 compilation. That’s Ex-Ignota!

One seven inch on this post is the Lazarus is Back… record put out by Ebullition in 1995. Ebullition:

The band consisted of kids that were going to the local university; many of whom were art students. Ex-ignota played hardcore that was definitely influenced by a lot of arty musical concepts; abrasive and melodic, with singing and yelling, and lots of variety. They strove to do things just a bit differently.

My record was the version with the oversized cover. And over the years it got tore up. So I had to get rid of the cover. But here is what it once looked like. After the break-up of the cover, my vinyl did NOT stay in top condition. So the two tracks from this contain snaps and pops. But I believe the record is not out of print, so buy it yourself if you want a fresh version.

Musically, these guys remind me a bit of St. James Infirmary mixt with Incurable Complaint and then mixt with whatever else. But that’s just me, and it doesn’t mean anything anyway. So here’s a preview track to help you decide for yourself.

https://blueskiesabove.us/noise/A

Globalisation or “World Music” is not a new concept. It has been something that has always existed. But since the nineteenth century it has picked up pace with new technologies in music, migration and the internet making cultures more accessible.

The paper written by John Connell and Chris Gibson as well as the paper written by Peter Symon tell a compelling story of music today.

John Connell & Chris Gibson

John Connell and Chris Gibson talk about “World Music” and its origins. It speaks of cultural and ethnic sounds being brought originally from African countries in to what we would refer to as popular music. They go on to say that it didn’t stop there. They mention that in the nineteenth century technologies such as the gramophone helped music from across the globe to be easily accessible, and how that then took hold of modern music and artists started using these sounds, rhythms and instruments in their own way. Artists like Paul Simon in his “Graceland” track which had African influences was one of these. Artists like Harry Belefonte, The Beatles and Bob Marley also used influences from all over the world in their music. It was people like this that gave birth to music styles such as Reggae and Drum and Bass. But the main question it seemed to ask was is this genre of “World Music” diluting our traditions? Is society more than just countries from over the world in their own deep routed traditions or are we merging into one people and with it our musical traditions? Peter Symon has his own interesting take on this in his paper.

Peter Symon (Jock Tamsons Bairns)

In Peter Symons paper titled “Jock Tamsons Bairns” he talks about the loss of Scottish Cultural identity or “Scottishness” through many reasons but mainly due to politics. It talks about how this effects our traditions but mainly our music. He goes onto talk about the rise of the band Jock Tamsons Bairns during the folk revival era in Edinburgh in the nineteen seventies. How important