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LYSA FLORES
"A flower who's only just begun to bloom!" VIBE magazine
"Feminist rock at its best!" LA Times
East L.A. native Lysa Flores returns with her third solo release Immigrant
Daughter, a song-cycle chronicling the struggles of a Chicana in 21st
century California. The record features such luminaries as Tex-Mex superstar
Flaco Jiminez,, indie-rocklegend Jonathan Richman, John Doe, David Hidalgo
(Los Lobos), guitarist Bill Frisell, and drummer D.J. Bonebrake (X, the
Knitters). Her band has performed with the likes of Rage Against the
Machine, Victoria Williams, Ozomatli, Green Day, and Mexico’s leading rock
group, the Jaguares.
Flores, a first generation Mexican-American, has been a pioneer in the “east
Los” alternative scene since her teens and was named by Newsweek as one of
“20 young Latinos to watch in the new millennium”. Throughout, she has
experienced a cultural rollercoaster -- from the initial prejudice towards
her ethnicity /language (due to her embracing her bilinguality) to the
backlash of not being “Latin enough” during the height of the Rock Espanol
scene (for refusing to sing in Spanish exclusively). Throughout, Flores has
stayed true to her experience, refusing to vacillate with the trends,
neither denying nor exploiting her ancestry. Her voice is more relevant
today than ever, and has even proven prescient, amidst the escalating U.S.
immigration and border struggles.
Her reach extends beyond music alone. She had a starring role in the
critically acclaimed indie-film Star Maps --a favorite at 1997’s Sundance
Film Festival-- and, for this, she earned a ?Best Debut Performance?
nomination from the Independent Spirit Awards. She also served as the
project's musical director (which was the first feature film highlighting a
track by folk cult-hero Nick Drake). Additionally, Lysa was the lead-guitar
player in seminal L.A. punk-pioneer Alice Bag’s all-female group, Stay at
Home Bomb, as well as having toured the globe as a member of
performance-artist El Vez’s band. In 2008, Lysa's trio (featuring Marco
Renteria from the Jaguares and Alfredo Ortiz from the Beastie Boys,
Ozomatli, Morningwood) began a weekly Friday-night residency to
standing-room only crowds at the Chicano-punk bar EastSideLuv in east LA's
Boyle Heights' district.
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