La Bestia from Ya Veran by QUITAPENAS

Head an hour east of Los Angeles and you’ll find yourself in the Inland Empire of San Bernardino / Riverside, where a thriving Latinx DIY music and art scene is on display to a melting pot community and audience. It is out of this grassroots local scene that QUITAPENAS developed their unique rhythm and following. At the heart of the group is a tropical Afro-Latin combo, brewed under the warm California sun with a certain liberation in their sound as summed up in the meaning of their name: QUITA (remove) PENAS (worries). With this carefree openness the crew has honed a distinct and hypnotic take on the influential guitarra / tambora roots of golden-age soukous, chicha, compa and champeta.

Following up their well received, self-released debut, QUITAPENAS has teamed up with Brooklyn-based label Names You Can Trust to release a pair of original songs. These tracks not only explore and capture the musical roots of their expansive Afro-Latin history, but offer a lyrical view of a decidedly present-day landscape from the perspective of America’s vast multi-cultural immigrant experience. YA VERAN (You’ll See) is an inclusive call to see the inherent beauty of our various shapes, sizes and colors, while LA BESTIA (The Beast), warns of the perilous form of travel in which people board on top of a series of trains through Central America and Mexico in order to reach the United States.

nyctrust.com