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MAD JUANA BIO The members of Mad Juana change hats so often – from old-world tarantella to international reggae to downtown NYC art rock to the Eastern European gypsy punk of Gogol Bordello– one finds it difficult to envision a place and time where they don’t fit. The band, led by NY Dolls bassist Sami Yaffa on acoustic guitar, counts instruments varied as tenor saxophone, accordion, violin, trumpet and congas in its 8 member lineup. Front-woman Karmen Guy’s always-on-edge voice evokes the gruff caterwaul of The Slit’s Ari Up with such sharp teeth it’s questionable whether she made a deal with the devil for it. Spiritually, the originator of the band’s name, comes from Patti Smith’s 1978 book “Babel,” ties its disparate threads together with an overarching theory of swagger, theatrics and rebelliousness. Mad Juana is a band created for a block party if there ever was one… by Andrew Frisicano/NYC Deli Magazine

Discography: "Acoustic Voodoo" was released in Europe thru Diesel Motor Records in 2005 and in U.S. 2007 thru Azra Records to critical acclaim and is available through Azra Records, iTunes and various record stores in Europe and the U.S. “Bruja on the Corner” was released in Europe 8/8/2008 and U.S. 8/12/8 and is available through www.acetaterecords.com, iTunes and various record stores in Europe and the U.S.

Shows: The band has toured Europe and U.S. extensively attracting ever growing enthusiastic crowds, playing multi-diverse venues ranging from LES punk dive bars, to Las Vegas street festivals, London art-house parties to theaters in Pais Vasco Spain. Being compared creatively to the likes of Gogol Bordello, (with whom they toured in Oct. 2008) and Manu Chao makes a point but Mad Juana is definitely it's own distinct blend of musical styles mixing Mariachi/New Orleans horns, Balkan/Punk tempos, R'n'R and surreal textures of wall of sound and echoes of dub-reggae to a savory gumbo of pure explosive musical energy.

Video: Director Fernando Apodaca (of Pearl Jam, Chris Cornell fame) directed the band’s most recent video “Valhalla” filmed on location in Zagreb, Croatia and Tijuana River Valley.

LA WEEKLY REVIEW
Thursday, Oct.2, 2008

EVERY WITCH WAY
by Falling James


"You take the world for granted as you float up on your cake," Karmen Guy purrs with a deceptive sugariness on Mad Juana's new album, Bruja on the Corner (Acetate Records), before digging in the knife. "You think you're some kind of a dignitary, but you're nothing more than a fake," she declares while accordionist Marni Rice, saxist Danny Ray and trumpeter Nico Camargo serenade her with merrily bittersweet, soused and swanky rejoinders straight out of old-time New Orleans. So many musicians invoke witchcraft and voodoo without ever sounding magical, but the New York group are indeed bewitching, with a timelessly exotic blur of Gypsy-punk influences akin to Manu Chao and Gogol Bordello that's taken to another level of enchantment altogether by Guy's sultry chanteuse persona. Her songwriting partner in crime, guitarist-bassist Sami Yaffa, lays down some considerable groovy grooves that go far beyond his previous contributions to Hanoi Rocks and the reconstituted New York Dolls, such as the dreamy dub interlude in the otherwise madcap "Strangers in Paradise" and the stormy acoustic guitars and haunting melodica-flecked sadness of "Circus Downtown." It all culminates most impressively in the sinuously mesmerizing "Revolution Avenue," whose dueling horns, loping dub bass, psychedelic sound effects and Guy's border-dissolving imagery echo the febrile moods of Tijuana No's classic album Contra-Revolucion Avenue.

MAD JUANA-LA WEEKLY TOP PICKS!
August 24, 2008

You might remember Sami Yaffa from his days in the early-’80s Finnish hard-rock band Hanoi Rocks (although he’s apparently not involved in their reunion). He recently passed through town as the bassist in the reincarnated New York Dolls, and he wrote the hypnotically descending riff to "We’re All in Love," the catchiest tune on the Dolls’ 2006 comeback CD. But Mad Juana, his ongoing project with his wife, Karmen Guy, is stranger and more exotic than anything else he’s ever done. "Domingo," from the New York band’s upcoming CD, Bruja on the Corner (Azra), starts with mariachi horns and segues into an Old Word vibe with accordion and violin melodies that evoke Manu Chao, Gogol Bordello and Balkan Beat Box. However, Ms. Guy’s bewitching singing takes things to a feverishly madcap place where dub, reggae, flamenco and punk collide seamlessly. It all comes together on "Revolution Avenue," which sounds a little like Nina Hagen fronting Tijuana No! Wicked stuff. (Falling James)

MUSIC CONNECTION REVIEW
Sept. 20, 2005 - Issue ..20

Mad Juana
Viper Room
West Hollywood, CA
(Contact: madjuana@gmail.com)

Material: There is nothing normal about Mad Juana and their spicy jambalaya of gypsy-bohemian rock. Their material is a bizarre wonderland inhabited by groups such as Gogol Bordello. MJ kick it up a notch by combining European sensibilities with classic American rock. The result is a style of music they call acoustic voodoo. It's a strangely liberating and totally compelling concoction that takes the listener on a wild ride, as it annihilates convention and alters everyone's consciousness.

Musicianship: With exotic instrumentation and maddening skills, these players are outstanding. Each musician seems to have a unique approach that gives the music a deep, dark patina. Karmen Guy's vocals blend Cajun inflections with a bluesy bayou sound that makes her voice come across like a humid summer - swampy, sweaty and devastatingly sexy. For a couple of tunes, she even stretched her range into Edith Piaf territory and nailed that French songbird quality.

Performance: Normally, with musicality so high any action onstage is like icing on a cake. But Mad Juana obviously refused to settle for anything as simple as that. Instead, their show was a cabaret of warped dimensions and hypnotic visions. Indeed, magical hardly begins to describe it. Intense and spellbinding, their performance was more than memorable.

Summary: Hailing from New York's East Village, Mad Juana are like a band of gypsies intent on entertaining the villagers. Breathtaking in execution, their music stirs the soul and inflames passion. And, though some may see them as quirky and strange, this act has created their own genre, and could easily become a niche-market phenomenon.

-Bernard Baur
MAD JUANA "Acoustic Voodoo" Gaz-Eta Review [Azra, www.azrarecords.com],Gaz-Eta, Polish online magazine

If Concrete Blonde were more blues oriented or did mariachi music and had a sex goddess as their lead vocalist, they may sound something like Mad Juana. Former glam rock [Hanoi Rocks] bassist Sami Yaffa [he actually plays acoustic guitar in this formation] joins powers with accordion player Marni Rice, tenor saxophonist Danny Ray, trumpeter Jimmy Vespa and percussionist Paul Garisto. Let's not forget the star at the centre of attention, vocalist Karmen Guy, who also takes turns playing melodica and percussion. First off, the sound the sextet makes is spectacular. Without a doubt, their low-key acoustic approach is both raunchy as well as quite risqu__. Provocative phrasings and sultry lyrics escape from Guy's mouth. More often than not, her phrases are stretched out in that sex-me-over devilish sort of manner. Save for a few pieces where he wails, saxophonist Danny Ray is underused and when he's used, his work tends to get rather conformist. Yaffa's guitar work is all over the place. This is blues stuff, mean and rotten to the core. The trumpet and accordion add for some nice colouring, but it's the percussion that is absolutely thrilling. The congas played by Paul Garisto are multi-layered as is the percussive shtick. The band's version of "Venus in Furs" is unlike anything you may remember from Velvet Underground. Its acoustic bareness and wailing tenor sax just scream with intensity. Guy being the centre of attention gets star billing. Those stretched-out phrases are intoned just right. Emotion is inserted in all the right places. The place just rocks solid. "Acoustic Voodoo" is one of the more pleasant surprises so far this year. - Tom Sekowski




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