For the third time, Chicano Boulevard will host the H-Town Raza Takeover at Dan Electro’s on July 4, celebrating Houston’s long-standing and powerful Chicano music community.
Chicano Boulevard, founded by Isaac Rodriguez, also known as DJ Mr. Simmer Down, has been honoring his vision of celebrating and preserving Houston’s Chicano history and culture.
He will be on site spinning the best in brown-eyed soul highlighting Houston’s significant Chicano contributions to R&B and soul music of the ‘60s and ’70s.
The evening will also feature performances by the rocking duo, St. Judas and The Black Hymns as well as longtime Houston favorites The Flamin’ Hellcats. The evening closes out with the incomparable Los Skarnales before they fly overseas to perform at Sjock Festival in Belgium.
Los Skarnales founder Felipe Galvan has always championed pride in his Mexican roots and a desire to help represent and push forward other “raza” artists.
“Starting at Fitzgerald’s whenever we had the privilege to pick and choose who can open for us, I always supported raza bands because a lot of them are my friends and a lot of them are real fucking good and talented chingones,” says Galvan.
“You don’t have to be raza to open up for us,” he clarifies before discussing the fine line between pride and racism that exists for any culture. This movement does not intend to exclude anyone but instead invite everyone to highlight the local community of Chicano artists and the idea to perform on the nation’s birthday was intentional.
“All it takes is a little bit to cross the line,” says Galvan who has been happy with the massive success of the other two H-Town Raza Takeovers this year. “This time for the Fourth of Julyit was more meaningful because of all the bullshit that’s going on with this clown in the White House and people just having a different mentality now against immigrants. We got to go back to what really made America great back in the day which is people from all over the world.”
While Galvan sees the event as an honoring of Houston’s Chicano community, he’s also looking ahead to another milestone for Los Skarnales. “It’s going to be like a kickoff show before we go do this big festival in Belgium so we are all excited about going.”
Their anticipation of performing at the Sjock Festival is almost five years in the making. Galvan remembers that a festival organizer saw the band perform at the Continental Club in Austin and reached out to try to get them involved in the festival.
After years of back-and-forth, the band is ready to go and join an amazing lineup featuring bands like L7, The Dwarves, Joan Jett and many more. “Five years in the making and it’sfinally going to happen, so we are excited about that and the fact that we get to go over there and represent H-town. It’s badass,” says Galvan enthusiastically.
Bringing their talent and hometown love to wider audiences is a perfect manifestation of the groups unbridled energy. Since their founding in 1994, Los Skarnales have always served as a sort of rite of passage for Houston musicians. The band has historically had many band members move through the lineup without ever affecting the quality of the music.
“I just feel that we are blessed and hard headed enough to keep doing it since we changed so many members,” says Galvan of their longevity. “I get it, it’s hard. We’re not a cover band that gets paid good and a lot of our musicians end up leaving to make real money.”
Galvan credits a combination of including younger musicians in the lineup with maintaining the band fresh along with the encouragement to always be themselves and add their own twist to old songs. “I just let everybody bring in their style maybe that keeps it different because every time we play, we play this shit different.”
Los Skarnales have been a shot in the arm for Houston’s Latino and Chicano community helping the scene grow and flourish. When asked about teaching younger musicians about the pride and history behind the music Galvan explains the natural transference.
“The way it rubs off on the musician, it’s very organic. They’re living it. It’s not like you sit down and teach them by the book or something like that.” Much like the way their energy is contagious to their audiences, Galvan says, “You get that pride just by being in the band. It just rubs off I guess.”
Los Skarnales will perform with The Flamin’ Hellcats and St. Judas and The Black Hymns as part of the 4th of July H-Town Raza Takeover, 8 p.m. at Dan Electro’s, 1031 E. 24. For more information visit danelectros.com
