Premiere: LP3 and the Tragedy, ‘City of Dreams’

Kevin Bronson on September 14th, 2016

0

LP3 and the Tragedy (Photo by Guy Fernandez)

LP3 and the Tragedy are one of those “made-in-L.A.” stories that involve bloodlines, perseverance and synchronicity — not to mention the rootsy sounds that for decades have been a part of the city’s fabric. At the center of the fray are Louie Perez III, the son of Los Lobos’ Louie Pérez, and Ruby Rojas, the daughter of Los Lobos’ Cesar Rojas. Joined by Mike Berault, Eric Fuller and Carlos Guzman and abetted, they will release their debut album, the appropriately titled “Southland Hum,” on Friday.

The album track “City of Dreams” hums with the bittersweet energy unleashed in the past by the likes of X. “Musically, the song is an homage to the bands, and the predecessors of those bands, that we grew up with,” Perez says. “Lyrically, though, it takes on urban politics and gang warfare, things that have mostly only been addressed in hip-hop. I look at it from the vantage point of a spectator.”

While only 2 years old, LP3 and the Tragedy represents something of a comeback for Perez, who played for years with his “other cousins,” the Hidalgo brothers, in Los Villains before “putting music on the shelf for a while” and becoming a tattoo artist. He works at Mark Mahoney’s Shamrock Tattoo in West Hollywood. The band, though, has gained momentum playing support slots for X, Los Lobos and the Blasters on their Tres Bandas Companeros tour, among others. The album features guest turns from the elder Louie Pérez, David J. Carpenter (Dead Rock West/the John Doe Band) and Richard Stekol. And it sounds like the music LP3 and the Tragedy were born to make.

||| Stream: “City of Dreams”