The Observer, April 8, 2005
Volume XXXVII, Issue 24
Xe La hits home with Clumbsy Luv
While recorded songs deliver, nothing beats a live performance.
Playing tracks from his third album, Clumbsy Luv, at Arabica coffeehouse last Friday, Alx Alvarez, a.k.a. Xe La, moves his head to the howls of his guitar, singing as though melodies are being pulled out from deep within.
This 29-year-old musician knows the local music scene like the back of his hand.
Before Xe La came into this world, Alvarez head-banged a solid reputation at 16 with his rock band, Cows in the Graveyard. Fliers inked with his graphic talents were left as remnants of their gigs at coffeehouses and bars across town, and soon enough the band was tasting success.
Yet its lead vocal was getting restless.
"I was always appreciative of other music, but I had no discipline, I had no school, so I was always going to the library and picking up obscure CD's, listening to world music," Alvarez said. "I wanted to do all these things that my band just did not get."
So in 2000, after years of "hippie grunge," he said goodbye to his fellow bandmates and reemerged as Xe La.
Clumbsy Luv brings, blues-infused numbers, as well as hints of jazz and folk intermixed with the sweet sounds of violinist Ed Canner. "I never really looked for a particular genre to adapt to because I was inspired by so many different sources of music," Alvarez said. "The labeling thing didn't make sense to me."
In half an hour, Clumbsy Luv takes us through the punchy beginnings of love ("Oh My") to a sensual ballad of long honey-like notes ("So Duh Licious"). By the end of the eight tracks, we're left with a bittersweet "She Got Way." Produced with Tri-C engineer Dave Kennedy, it's an ode to love's travails.
Through his falsetto vivacity, Xe La ties the various music styles he encountered into a cohesive, independent style.
"I kind of looked for the street knowledge of what music is all about, and that's manifested in so many wonderful schools of rhythm and melody," Alvarez said. "My father is a musician himself from a third-world country who sought music as a discipline through education and was very successful with it most of his life."
Although at times ideals of success diverged within his family, time had brought both acceptance and respect.
It also brought change in the industry. With his album in hand, Alvarez spoke of technology's role in the music business.
"One of the funniest things about making a physical thing like this [is] nowadays it's almost obsolete," he said. "You're feeding the industry a different way, so it's almost futile to assume that you're going to make money on creating a physical album that people would buy."
There is no tinge of nostalgia or sadness in his acknowledgment of the new ways. While many musicians resent the fact that their final product can be easily downloaded and acquired, Xe La welcomes it readily.
"For the first time in the world, independent artists have an angle on the industry, both to either jump into it, or completely avoid it all together; to get the music out there that only the industry could do at one point, but now people can do on their own volition," Alvarez said.
To keep the local music scene buzzing new talents, Xe La hosts an open stage for musicians to come out and jam together at B Side Liquor Lounge every Monday night. Info can be found at www.luvmutha.com.
Xe La is an artist that keeps commercial photos out of his albums, and lets the music speak for itself. It's no wonder that his definition of success lies in the craft and not the financial benefits.
"My heroes in the music biz are the guys who lived to be like 75 after running whisky houses playing music back in the 20s or 30s, and they're pushing mops in a city hall; people who didn't burn out fast because they wanted to be rock' n' roll," Alvarez said. "Success to me is in those smaller parts of the trip."
