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"Portland, Ore., quintet Y La Bamba makes fractured folk that sounds as if it comes from dog-eared diaries. The author is statuesque Luz Elena, the daughter of Mexican immigrants, whose vintage vocals seem to come from the 78-rpm era." - Buzzbands.LA

"The Portland, Oregon, band mixes Devendra Banhart-influenced art-folk with hazy femme vocals and traditional Mexican sounds to weirdly entrancing effect." - LA Weekly

"Luz Elena of Y La Bamba has become a beacon of 2009 shedding her light upon sounds of the genuine, spiritual, and struggling. This stunning woman and her band have put together - I need to use this word again - a no less than stunning album of classic struggles with family, God, and the experience of sickness more awful than most experience in their lives..." - The FMLY

"Luz Elena, the lead singer of Y La Bamba, is an illusion in flesh and bone, a mirage that turns out to actually be there. A six-foot tall only daughter of Mexican immigrants to the USA, she looks like she peeled off of a National Geographic cover, spun through a tattoo parlour and hitched a 1000 mile ride on a mule. She seems 'of the earth' but writes songs that leave all our usual perceptions earthbound. Her lyrics, flowing as if from the pages Gabriel Garcia Marquez, are in fact shaped by classic struggles, with family, God and the experience of an extended and debilitating illness." - Oregon Public Broadcasting

"The band continues to build up steam, maintaining its core strength in the voice and posturing of Mendoza. Her vocal lines swim out from a haze of guitars and dreamy percussion, often looping back into a cacophony that is eerie in effect but still somehow comforting, like the song that comes floating through in a fairy tale when the children are lost in the woods and just about to despair." - Portland Mercury

"The songs were like mature lullabies, brooding and rich, playful but never lingering on the surface...It was difficult not to be seduced." - The Stranger

"She sings from a different altitude, where the air is thinner and the footing shakier. Luz Elena Mendoza, leader of Y La Bamba, sings with the bright and humbling flicker of a meteor shower. Untampered folk’s answer to St. Vincent, Mendoza sounds like she’s crooning to the Victrola tube amp that her satin-soft guitar strums blossoms from." - Willamette Week

Y LA BAMBA BEGAN IN EARLY 2008 AS LUZ ELENA MENDOZA BEGAN PLAYING SHOWS, AND WANTED A NAME OTHER THAN HER OWN TO PLAY UNDER. SHE BEGAN WRITING AND MAKING HOME RECORDINGS OF HER SONGS ONE BY ONE. DURING THIS PROCESS SHE BEGAN HOSTING AN OPEN MIC REGULARLY AT A SAKE BAR IN NORTHEAST PORTLAND. THIS IS WHERE Y LA BAMBA BEGAN. SHE MET BEN MEYERCORD, WHO ELENA DESCRIBES AS, “ONE OF THE MANY BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE I MET WHO OPENED ME UP AND SAVED MY SOUL.” MEYERCORD AND MENDOZA BEGAN PLAYING TOGETHER AND BROUGHT IN LUZ ELENA’S LONG TIME FRIEND AND COLLABORATOR, MIKE KITSON ON DRUMS, WITH THE ADDITION OF DAVID KYLE ON LEAD GUITAR AND ERIC SHRAPEL ON ACCORDION. Y LA BAMBA WAS COMPLETE.

LUZ ELENA WENT THROUGH A MAJOR TRANSFORMATION UPON MOVING TO PORTLAND IN 2008, CITING THE LOCAL MUSIC SCENE OF PORTLAND AS A KIND OF SAVIOR. COMBINED WITH THE HERITAGE OF TRADITIONAL MEXICAN MUSIC LENT TO HER FROM HER PARENTS SHE DESCRIBES HER INFLUENCES AS “LOCH LOMOND AND DEVENDRA BANHARDT, A LOT OF OLD SCHOOL MEXICAN 30’S MUSIC, BASICALLY IT COMES FROM MY PARENTS.... SERIOUSLY, ALL OF THEIR MUSIC” IT BECOMES EVIDENT UPON LISTENING TO THE MUSIC OF Y LA BAMBA THAT LUZ ELENA DRAWS FROM A DEEP WELL OF VARYING INFLUENCES.

WHAT BEGAN AS A JOURNEY OF SELF-ACTUALIZATION AND MUSICAL REDEFINING FOR LUZ ELENA HAS DEVELOPED AND EVOLVED INTO WHAT MANY NOW KNOW AS Y LA BAMBA. THE BAND HAS ATTRACTED A LOT OF ATTENTION IN THEIR HOME TOWN OF PORTLAND, OR. PDX POP NOW! A FREE FESTIVAL PUT ON EVERY YEAR FEATURED Y LA BAMBA’S “FASTING IN SAN FRANCISCO” ON IT’S 2008 COMPILATION.

“ALIDA ST.”, A COLLECTION OF THE HOME RECORDINGS BY LUZ ELENA WAS RELEASED IN DEC OF 2008 BY START-UP LABEL “GYPSY POP RECORDS” TO MUCH EXCITEMENT. LOOK FORWARD TO A WHOLE NEW COLLECTION OF SONGS, TO BE RECORDED WITH THE FULL BAND BY Y LA BAMBA LATER THIS YEAR!

ON “ALIDA ST.”

“It’s the perfect soundtrack for a Sunday afternoon” - Adam Rabinovitz, IODA MARKETING TEAM

Y La Bamba has, “been steadily impressing me with their willingness to play and experiment with folk and acoustic.” – Luciana Lopez, The Oregonian "dear creature of truth... my mind has trapped itself in your darkest cave. It has been filled with the spirit of the mother sea aroused by the waves of our intimate behaviour your voice has remained within... announcing every feeling from your heart. and even on this train i can still hear the emotions crashing against every little rock. we ask for healthy addictions On our bleeding knees we have received Love.

leaving a traces of our honest intentions

Let us dance soldier
Let us dance on this filthy battlefield
Let us swim warrior
Let us swim in all seven seas.
Let us dream lover
Let us fly into the darkness
let us believe brother
let us change the world with the power of light

I honor our communion for it has been blessed by the sun. and the stars are in agreement with what has been said and what has already been done. i have come face to face with you...my beautiful angel I can still feel your eyes haunting my every thought sending pleasant shivers down my spine. believe.