Historias de Barrio Track-by-Track Breakdown

Historias de Barrio

This song tells stories of, or is a mini history of, the barrio. Songwriter Hector A. Vaca uses his own proximity to the Austin Package Bombings, oral histories of his neighborhood back in Ecatepec, México, and the killing of George Floyd by the hands of police in 2020 to illustrate these unjust histories. Hector studied at the same dojo as the 17-year-old victim of one of the package bombs, and since he’d played cello while he was alive, I felt it was important to have cello in the song - our dear friend Huitzin Chavez nailed the part and also ended up contributing vocals on the bridge.

It was also featured on Roots and Basses 2: A Latin Ska Compilation curated by Esteban Flores & which included legendary acts such as Sekta Core and Inspector - this was strictly on vinyl, so Sept 23rd is the official release where the song can be more widely heard.

Feliz, Feliz

This is a cover of a super popular song by Mi Banda El Mexicano. A few years back, we were asked to be on SPI’s Songs for Moms compilation that raised funds for Prevent Cancer - the idea was to cover a song that was your Mom’s favorite. Poncho chose “Feliz, Feliz” and we had so much fun doing our own Kurado-style version of it. Ever since we DIY recorded it in our 500 square foot house, we’ve wanted to re-record it better & more produced - Drew LeClair at Dogstar studios helped us make that happen.

We Are Austin

A bunch of our members are avid fútbol followers, so we wrote this as an ode to Austin FC, Austin’s first MLS team! We released it as a single in May of this year with a music video to coincide with the team’s season.

Pedazos de Galleta

Our bass player, Bruce Alvarez, used to sing this song’s chorus, “Pedazos de galleta mi amor mi amor” (pieces of cookies my love my love), to his children and grandchildren as a lullaby when they were little. He then wrote it into a lovely, danceable, Los Kurados cumbia.

Take Everything (barrio version)

More or less, Los Kurados introduced trombonist Kurt Armstrong to cumbia, and he became obsessed with the genre. So, naturally, our band’s first cumbia was written by him, partially in English (kinda backwards, right?) back in 2017. For years, we’ve joked about making a “rebajada” mix of the song, and this is the album where we made it happen! For those not familiar, rebajadas are a phenomenon that happened accidentally in Monterrey, México when a DJ played a cumbia vinyl at the wrong (slower) speed - the crowd loved it, so playing cumbias slowed down/chopped & screwed became this huge thing.

Once again, Drew LeClair came in clutch, slowing our song down with an actual tape machine to give it the rebajada sound. Then, we decided to let our drummer, Eric Brown, shine by putting a slew of Latin percussion on it in lieu of the original guitar solo.