Bombasta

When Bombasta, “San Anto's Barrio Big Band,” takes a stage, a stage is taken.

Ten members strong, the band, known for its Latin rock, etc., fusion, regularly worked the tiny stage at Saluté. But Bombasta is equally at home on large-club bandstands and festival spaces.

Friday, Bombasta will team on the big stage at Sam's Burger Joint with El Paso's Radio La Chusma, which mixes reggae with Latin and Afro-Cuban rhythms. Billed as “Barrio Massive,” the evening will feature the bands swapping sets and closing with a jam.

“What we do is in the Latin Alternative genre, but it's very much more San Antonio, more Americano,” said singer, songwriter, rapper and quatro player Roberto Livar. “Lots of the stuff we do is in English. We do cumbia, reggae, funk, salsa and rock, but it transcends those sounds. We draw from all those elements, but it's not just one of those.”

Livar, 38, graduated from Southwest High School and grew up playing guitar and singing in bands that worked places such as the DMZ Clubhouse. He went to Southwest Texas State (now Texas State), worked at Antone's in Austin with a band called the Humble Bums, took a four-year hiatus from music, then came home to San Antonio, where he and a group of friends formed Bombasta. The band got its start playing First Friday gigs and shows at Café Revolucion.

Bombasta is Livar, Rudy Diaz (drums), JP Leal (bass), Lauro Torres (percussion), Travis Vela (guitar), Jaime Ramirez (keyboards), Ali Friedrich (baritone saxophone), Dillon Buhl (trombone), Rolando Salazar (tenor saxophone, clarinet) and Jacinto LeFebre (trumpet).

“Even when I was on hiatus, I was writing,” Livar said. “I was writing in English, but the Latin rhythms would come out. I was driving a '65 Dodge Coronet that only had an AM radio. I always wondered why low riders only listened to oldies and cumbias. I realized it was because those cars only had AM radios. So I was writing cumbias before I knew I was writing cumbias.”

Influenced by classic cumbias as well as by the music of Celso Piña, Control Machete, Manu Chao and Café Tacuba, plus all the music they heard growing up, Livar and Bombasta have crafted a unique sound.

“We weren't trying to chase after a certain sound,” Livar said. “San Antonio has such a unique heritage, and we were exposed to so much music by our parents and grandparents. My parents turned me on to the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley. My mom used to jam Bob Marley's 'Exodus' out of the window of our house.

“And we all came up in the San Antonio public schools. We come from rock, jazz and blues backgrounds. It's worked out.”

Bombasta infuses songs with sociopolitical lyrics and a good-time vibe.

“At rehearsal, we'll drink beer and talk about politics and social stuff for an hour before we even pick up our instruments,” Livar said. “I was brought up in a union house. My father is an electrician.

“We try not to take ourselves too seriously. Our music is not just politics and not just party. We all come from different backgrounds, but our music comes from getting in touch with our roots.”

With their “Barrio Massive” shows, Bombasta has collaborated with area and touring bands, DJs and dancers.

“What better way to connect than with music?” Livar said. “The whole collaborative element is something we highlight at the Sam's shows. Radio La Chusma is long-term friends of ours. We've done shows with them for seven years. They have great, four-part harmonies, unique instrumentation including violin and these incredible Afro-Cuban rhythms.

“With the 'Barrio Massive' shows we take away the opener/headliner thing. We alternate sets and end with a jam session and that makes for a great show. We already take over the entire stage, so why not invite friends?”


- MySA.com

The party continues with Bombasta, SA's ultimate party band, now entering a new chapter in their career: professional management by Mark A. Richter, founder of the defunct San Antonio Opera and now General and Artistic Director of Opera Piccola of San Antonio and President/CEO of The Richter Agency. "I'm all over the place, anything from classical to conjunto, and I'm thrilled about having Bombasta," Richter told the Current. "They're like a barrio Big Band train." "He'll start handling our bookings and getting a game plan together for us to try to take it to the next level," Bombasta leader Roberto Livar told the Current. "I'm excited about having more time to work on music and spend less time managing the project." Besides Luminaria, in April Bombasta will play at the Houston International Music Festival and the Oyster Bake and Fiesta in San Antonio. In addition, in May-June the band were contacted to perform all the music for Woodland Theater's In The Heights. "The theater hit us up directly figuring we would be a perfect match, so we'll see" said Livar. "So all and all, we've been staying busy on multiple fronts and have been trying to spend as much time writing." - San Antonio Current

The party continues with Bombasta, SA's ultimate party band, now entering a new chapter in their career: professional management by Mark A. Richter, founder of the defunct San Antonio Opera and now General and Artistic Director of Opera Piccola of San Antonio and President/CEO of The Richter Agency. "I'm all over the place, anything from classical to conjunto, and I'm thrilled about having Bombasta," Richter told the Current. "They're like a barrio Big Band train." "He'll start handling our bookings and getting a game plan together for us to try to take it to the next level," Bombasta leader Roberto Livar told the Current. "I'm excited about having more time to work on music and spend less time managing the project." Besides Luminaria, in April Bombasta will play at the Houston International Music Festival and the Oyster Bake and Fiesta in San Antonio. In addition, in May-June the band were contacted to perform all the music for Woodland Theater's In The Heights. "The theater hit us up directly figuring we would be a perfect match, so we'll see" said Livar. "So all and all, we've been staying busy on multiple fronts and have been trying to spend as much time writing." - San Antonio Current

I said it before and I'll say it again: older bands can outplay anyone in town, and the younger acts could learn a thing or two about songwriting and how to put on a show. Los #3 Dinners is plain fun, simple rock and roll fronted by the disarming Lenny Friedland, an android equal parts comedian and singer.

The party continues with Bombasta, SA's ultimate party band, now entering a new chapter in their career: professional management by Mark A. Richter, founder of the defunct San Antonio Opera and now General and Artistic Director of Opera Piccola of San Antonio and President/CEO of The Richter Agency. "I'm all over the place, anything from classical to conjunto, and I'm thrilled about having Bombasta," Richter told the Current. "They're like a barrio Big Band train." "He'll start handling our bookings and getting a game plan together for us to try to take it to the next level," Bombasta leader Roberto Livar told the Current. "I'm excited about having more time to work on music and spend less time managing the project." Besides Luminaria, in April Bombasta will play at the Houston International Music Festival and the Oyster Bake and Fiesta in San Antonio. In addition, in May-June the band were contacted to perform all the music for Woodland Theater's In The Heights. "The theater hit us up directly figuring we would be a perfect match, so we'll see" said Livar. "So all and all, we've been staying busy on multiple fronts and have been trying to spend as much time writing."
- San Antonio Current

If you’re talking rock ‘n’ roll in San Antonio, you best learn to roll your Rs. Like most cultural touchstones in the city, popular music has been remixed with Latino rhythms, lyrics and influences that bend rock to a place where Tex meets Mex. The “San Anto” scene broke here in the late 1950s and ‘60s, built on the successes of The Champs’ “Tequila,” Sam the Sham’s “Wooly Bully” (remember it’s “one, two, tres, cuatro!), and Ritchie Valens’ “La Bamba,” an all-Spanish early rock hit. Today it stands on the shoulders of new pioneers of the sound and Robert Livar, a musician with his feet planted at the center of the rock en español wave and his fingers dipped in almost every other genre in town.

“San Antonio has a rich history of Latino music, both traditional and contemporary, with Sunny and the Sunliners, Sauce Gonzalez and the West Side Horns, Randy Garibay and Aniceto Molina all laying claim to the city,” says Livar, rattling off names from the music’s early days. He knows his stuff. Sunny and the Sunliners were the first Mexican-American group to perform on American Bandstand in 1963. Frontman Sunny Ozuna made a name for himself in Tejano and conjunto circles and earned a Grammy in 2000 with a new trio, The Legends. Livar, part of an eight-man mashup of music styles called Bombasta, sees continuity. Even as he muddles the old West Side sound with funk, reggae and soul, he speaks of it with reverence. “I think one
of the bands of recent years that have maintained that tradition is Sexto Sol,” he says.

Yet Livar, like many modern Latino rock acts, regularly bucks tradition. His porkpie hats and baggy khakis are a staple at explosive live performances and the recently established Day of the Dead celebration he dubbed Calavera Fest. Local like-minded Piñata Protest (think punk fused with Tejano on Prozac) helped pack Sam’s Burger Joint with more than 300 fans. “We are creating new and exciting music that is inadvertently based out of the San Anto experience,” Livar says.

En español rockers are flexing muscles in a city that embraces unconventional beats and lyrics. SA supports unlikely configurations of punk rock sister acts or a crew of primos jamming classic ‘60s rhythms borrowed from Freddy Fender and Doug Sahm of the Sir Douglas Quintet and Texas Tornadoes. (Liner note: Keep Your Soul: A Tribute to Doug Sahm drops in March, and a memorial to mark the 10th anniversary of his death is planned at Austin’s Doug Sahm Hill in April.)

The Cruzados, a band entrenched in the Spanglish rock scene, are part of the music’s transitional generation. “The Cruzados are definitively my biggest musical influence,” says San Antonio-born singer Patricia Vonne. The Cruzados’ sound is trademark to brother/director Robert Rodriguez’s film soundtrack. “Our big brother, Cecil, brought home The Cruzados on vinyl after seeing them open for INXS at the Majestic Theatre [in 1985],” Vonne says. Rodriguez and Cruzados frontman Tito Larriva collaborated on Desperado and Once Upon a Time in Mexico, in which Larriva’s robust rock sound punctuates high-action scenes.

Larriva’s influence bleeds through De Los Muertos, a bilingual rock outfit on the verge. Ruta Maya booker Alba Pena describes the group as “a Quentin Tarantino soundtrack with a sometimes crazy (and always dark) stage presence.” The once-underground Latino rock thing is out of the bag, Pena says. “They’ve saturated local venues to the point that it’s usual to see any given band perform once a week.” The growing pains of mainstream popularity are pressing on a scene once stuck in traditional cultural genres. “I’ve seen more Latina/o talent doing and performing punk, spacerock, rockabilly etc. in SA, compared to cities where the Latina/o music population is considerably smaller,” she says.

All-girl rock act Girl in a Coma is helping crowd the ticket. Signed to Joan Jett’s Blackheart label, the family-and-friends act is riding a new wave with a mainstream album and national tour that stretched to Europe. “I think Girl in a Coma has helped inspire other local artists in realizing that your location doesn’t define you as much as your own personal drive does, and if anything,” Bombasta’s Livar says, “they’ve helped shine a light on San Anto and the creative community that is based here.”

Coma drummer Phanie Diaz recalls her conventional upbringing. “When I was young, my grandfather would sit in the garage every Friday night and play his favorite records. He would sing the songs with such passion and nostalgia,” she says. There are hints of those influences in the Latina trio’s work. “There is definitely a feeling of accomplishment. We hope that we can at least open doors and break down some stereo-types,” she says. “Our music is not about race, gender or sexuality. It’s just rock ‘n’ roll.”

- Paul Saucido - San Antonio Magazine

Bombasta Article in Texas Music Magazine:

"SOUL OF SAN ANTONIO"

BOMBASTA mastermind Roberto Livar may look like a west side San Antonio hipster, but he's one highly educated, highly cerebral, highly verbal young man who often drops terms like "musical hybridization" into a conversation about his band or the San Antonio music scene.

Livar tried Austin for six years before returning to San Antonio, where his nine-piece Latin rock collective, which he describes as Barrio Big Band, nestled comfortably into the funky west side and the burgeoning San Antonio arts scene.

"I liked Austin and learned a lot up there, but I just started feeling like I needed to be here," Livar says. "The art community has really embraced us. No one here is looking to see what Austin is doing now- it's San Antonio-specific and organic."

It took Livar a couple of years to wean himself from the group of Austin players who came together to support his vision for a large Latin fusion band, but his current lineup is entirely San Antonio based and, according to Livar, totally committed to Bombasta. "All the guys I'm playing with now can gig with lots of people- jazz bands, blues bands, rock bands," Livar explains. "But Bombasta is priority one for all of us."

A totally do-it-yourself operation, Livar not only writes the songs, acts as lead singer and sometimes lead guitarist, accordionist and DJ- he also handles the booking, the finances and the travel in addition to mixing the band's new album."

“It’s a little overwhelming sometimes,” says Livar. “I’m mixing here at home myself, working on a song that has 84 separate tracks with all the horn and percussion parts.”

With a musical palette that draws from guitars, horns, accordion, keyboards, samples and turntable scratching, no wonder Livar finds mixing a challenge. A follow-up to the band’s previous 2006 EP, the new album (as yet unnamed) moves far beyond the primarily cumbia-based sounds of the previous recording, incorporating elements of hip-hop, blues, Tejano and that back-alley San Antonio soul that’s as natural to the city as Mi Tierra.

The album also has a bit of an angry, political overlay, and Livar delivers his ideas in an onslaught of Spanglish. His natural singing style is a rapid, almost rap-like delivery that sounds loaded and dangerous. “The funny thing about music is that once you get people’s attention you can actually say something to them,” Livar says. “I try to have something to say beyond ‘Hey, baby, I love you’ or whatever.”

– William Michael Smith - Texas Music Magazine

Bombasta teams with San Diego's B-Side Players for a night of one-world polyrhythms
By Gilbert Garcia -->body-->

Robert Livar's son, Manu, was born in September 2003, three months after the Spurs won their second NBA championship. So, naturally, all of Livar's friends in the Alamo City instantly assumed the baby's name was an homage to the court artistry of Spurs guard Manu Ginobili.

It was a logical assumption, but an erroneous one. The name came from world-music icon Manu Chao, a major inspiration for Livar's beat-crazy, seven-piece collective Bombasta. Chao has devoted most of his career to obliterating artificial barriers and consciously jumping, within the space of a single song, from one language to another and one set of grooves to another.

It's a lesson absorbed not only by Bombasta, but also by B-Side Players, an acclaimed San Diego band that Livar is bringing to SA for a special show at the Guadalupe Theater on October 26.

Any self-respecting musician will say that they don't want to be pigeonholed, that they're too restless and creative to be defined by any single musical category. It's such a common argument that it often feels like a politician's talking point, like part of the touring musician's stump speech. But in the case of Bombasta and B-Side Players, the argument is actually true.

B-Side Players formed in 1994 and have steadily built a zealous cult over the course of seven album releases and countless club dates. Their new album, Fire in the Youth (their first for the Concord label) serves as a microcosm of their 13-year career: The agit-prop "Nuestras Demandas" is a horn-driven Jamaican ska/dancehall number, "Pleasure and Pain" has a Brazilian bossa-nova lilt, and "Unplug This Armageddon" is salsified funk. Elsewhere, they appropriate cumbia, hip-hop, and hard-rock elements in combinations that would be unsettling if they weren't executed with such flair.

A longtime B-Side Players enthusiast, Livar noticed that they were coming through Texas on their Fire in the Youth Tour, and emailed them with an offer to have Bombasta open the shows. "They're such a good band," Livar says. "They're kind of similar to what we're doing. A little bit more on the reggae side, but it's still kind of a similar message that they're getting out there, and similar instrumentation. So it was kind of a natural thing."

B-Side Players thanked Livar for his offer, but informed him that their touring lineup was already set. Not long afterward, however, the band's Nashville-based touring agency contacted Livar with a request for help.

"They told me that they'd booked everything in Texas except for San Antonio, and they needed some connections down here. I sent them my contacts for different clubs and told them if they needed anything to let me know," Livar says. "They called me back about a week later and told me they weren't getting any responses, nobody was getting back to them. They were having a real hard time booking the show, so they asked me if I'd be interested in producing and promoting it."

Initially, Livar took the show to Sam's Burger Joint, but the club already had a gig booked for that night. Livar says Jack's Patio Bar & Grill showed an interest, but he felt an ideal venue "needed to be something centrally located." A child of the South Side, he recalls, "When I was growing up, everything was on the North Side. So I wanted this show to be accessible to everybody in town."

Eventually, he approached reps of the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, who were already anxious to reach a younger demographic by using the Guadalupe Theater as a music venue. With a lineup that also includes Salvador Santana (Carlos's keyboard-playing, hip-hop-obsessed son) and Hollywood's Cipes & the People, the show should make for a buffet of internationalist polyrhythms and love-and-unity exhortations.

The gig comes at a time when Bombasta is putting the finishing touches on an as-yet-untitled new album. They cut the rhythm and horn tracks at Austin's Ramble Creek Music and have spent recent months overdubbing vocals and other parts at their various home studios.

Livar says that the trickiest part of any Bombasta recording project is simply getting the group's seven members (and occasional cameo guests) in the same room at the same time. Between working a full-time job, taking graphic-art freelance assignments, booking and promoting shows, and spending time with his wife and son, he finds it difficult enough to get himself into a creative, music-making zone. But he approaches his tasks with a diligence that's come from years of learning that no one can be a better advocate for your music than you.

"When I was in my 20s, it was about partying and having a good time," he says. "But having a wife and a family, there's a lot more responsibility on my back, not to mention six other guys who rely on me to line everything up. I've got a lot of people depending on me, so I can't let them down." •

________________________________________________

LIVE MUSIC

B-Side Players
with Bombasta, Salvador Santana Band, and Cipes & The People
7 pm Fri, Oct. 26
$10 (advance); $12 (day of show)
Guadalupe Theater
1301 Guadalupe St.
271-3151
- SAN ANTONIO CURRENT

Sound and the fury
04/12/2006

Immigrant song

At press time, Latin-funk eclectics Bombasta were set to take part in San Antonios April 10 rally on behalf of immigrant rights. Part of a nationally organized Campaign for Immigrants Dignity, the local gathering was scheduled to move from Milam Park (with Bombasta providing musical entertainment/impetus) to the Federal Building on Durango Street.

An expression of concern over the current congressional debate on immigration legislation, the national campaign was also expected to include walkouts and a one-day spending boycott. In his announcement of the local rally, Bombasta frontman Roberto Livar said: "We urge everyone to unite and refrain from spending any money today, to let our voices be heard," adding, "Bombasta advocates massive change through non-violence and knows that when we all come together, nothing can stop us!"

- Gilbert Garcia - SAN ANTONIO CURRENT

INTERVIEW W/ EL ROBOTICO IN SA CURRENT FOR BARRIO MASSIVE 3

Bombasta and Sexto Sol create an old-school/new-school Latino fusion

When Barrio Massive booked an appearance on the KENS 5 morning show Great Day SA, a small problem developed.

The group would be limited to one song on the program, and since Barrio Massive is actually a funked-up combination of two groove-oriented local bands -Bombasta and Sexto Sol — the inevitable question came up: Which band’s song would they perform?

For Roberto Livar, the issue was particularly sensitive because when he returned to his hometown of San Antonio three years ago after a stint in Austin, he dedicated himself to bringing solidarity and positivity to the local music scene.

“Coming back from Austin, I really felt how divisive the whole scene is. There’s a lot of hating going on,” says Livar, frontman for Bombasta. “What I’ve really tried with Barrio Massive is to show the community that two bands can not only do shows and be supportive of each other, but actually work together.”

Some members of Bombasta and Sexto Sol suggested that Barrio Massive could solve its TV dilemma by playing a two-song medley, an idea which made Livar cringe. To him, only one option made creative sense.

“I said, ‘We’re all talented songwriters, we’re all professionals. Why don’t we just write something new?,’” Livar says. “That way it’s evenhanded, represents both bands, and really represents this whole notion of working together.”

Barrio Massive grew out of a mutual-admiration society between Sexto Sol, a band that specializes in ’70s Latino soul, and Bombasta, a wild, post-modern mix of hip-hop, reggae, cumbia, and rock. For a year, the two bands talked of playing shows together, but could never make their busy schedules mesh. Finally, last October, Livar says he received a call from Sam’s Burger Joint, telling him that Vallejo had backed out of a show which included Sexto Sol as an opening act. “It was a last-minute thing, and they wanted to know if we’d cover the gig,” Livar says.

Livar immediately agreed, and he wanted the performance to take on the aura of a special event. He suggested that the two bands should not only share the bill, they should actually play together onstage in a variety of lineup combinations. It was an idea Livar had previously kicked around with other bands, including Gonsemble.

“With Sexto Sol, it’s the perfect collaboration because both groups have roots in a lot of jazz stuff,” he says. “That first one we did in October everyone was a little scared about. I wasn’t sure if anybody was going to show up, and we didn’t rehearse or anything. We were just going by the seat of our pants. But it was amazing.”

With minimal promotion, the show drew about 200 people, and included representatives from INKA Clothing and various social organizations. After a quick follow-up in November, the two bands settled on a bi-monthly schedule for Barrio Massive gigs. On January 14, at Sam’s Burger Joint, they’ll play their third gig together.

Livar grew up in San Antonio and started playing with bands at age 15. Two years later, he moved to San Marcos and helped form Humblebums, a psychedelic Latino blues band that eventually established a residency at Austin’s blues mecca Antone’s. Livar says Humblebums stressed collaboration at all costs, and that he “shucked off the whole bandleader role then.” When the group’s drummer quit, the band, without a leader to keep them focused, simply crumbled. For the next four years, he didn’t play out. “I was still writing, but not putting the energy into it,” he says.

With Bombasta, Livar willingly took the leadership reins and drew inspiration from his latent fascination with DJ culture. Working house parties under the name El Sonidero R080T1CO, he specialized in mashing up rare, vintage Colombianas -which he finds at family outings to the pulga — with hip-hop instumental tracks.

“Coming out of a live-music mindset, it helps immensely, especially in the studio with arrangements,” he says of his DJ moonlighting. “When you’re DJing a house party you’ve got to read the crowd and see what tracks are hitting and what’s missing. That translates directly to doing a live show and reading the crowd that way.”

With Bombasta, he’s created a band that can best be described as a modern-day, Chicano Fishbone, a horn-driven collective that rampages across rhythmic border lines with a Dadaist glee. When combined with the classic, percussive brown-eyed R&B of Sexto Sol, the results can be riveting.

Sexto Sol singer/organist Sam Villela recently told Livar: “We kind of balance each other out. We have that old-school vibe going and when we do shows with Bombasta, you guys have a bit more of an edge.”

Livar says: “It works the other way too. They bring a little more dignified older vibe to what we’re doing and it kind of gives us a little more respect. And our different influences are rubbing off on each other. We’ll be practicing and I’ll hit something vocally and I’ll say, ‘Man, I’m hanging out with them too much.’” •

By Gilbert Garcia - SAN ANTONIO CURRENT

LOOK AND LISTEN: It's not politics as usual with Texas' Bombasta
Wednesday, 18 June 2008

THE BAND: Bombasta

THE MEMBERS: Roberto Livar, lead vocals, guitar, accordion, turntables; David Moreno, keyboards; Ali Friedrich, baritone sax; Dillon Buhl, trombone; Lauro Torres, percussion; JP Leal, bass; Rudy Diaz, drums; Jacinto Lefebre, trumpet. The members live in San Antonio, San Marcos and Austin.

THE SOUND: Energetic, horn-driven Latin funk that reflects the music the guys listened to growing up in Texas: cumbia, salsa and other Latin music, blended with hip-hop and reggae. The lyrics are in Spanish and English.

"I consider what we do to be very Americano," Livar said. "What we're doing is this unique mix of music from the Americas. It comes out in its own kind of mezcla, a mix."

The eight-piece collective prides itself on its political activism, and they're regular performers at events like the César Chávez march and the immigrants' rights march.

Their catchy, raucous songs are rife with no-holds-barred criticism of the war in Iraq, institutionalized racism and other issues. The song "Crack Nation" contains the verse "Mr. Bush don't give a f*** about you and me / tries to steal all he can see / he lays his bricks to build his Babylon / look how long this shit's been going on."

"It's real hard for me to sit down and write songs that might not have that much substance to them, like a lot of pop music out there," said Livar, who does most of the songwriting.
"The audience is giving me the opportunity to speak my mind, so I think it's our responsibility as musicians to say something that needs to be said, to create some consciousness about the world around us."

But the band manages not to sound preachy; instead, their songs tend to energize crowds. That fits in with Bombasta's general goal of building unity and celebrating cultural diversity.

"Everyone who comes to the show I hope feels some sense of familia," Livar said.

THE ALBUM: Ill Movimiento EP (2003). The band is hoping to finish its first full-length CD this summer.

THE WEB SITE: myspace.com/bombasta

CHECK THEM OUT: The band will be playing with Groove Movement at Limelight on Friday, June 20.

Jessica Belasco | 210SA contributor - 210SA