Celebrating Music! Tikal Sun! The Metaphors!

Picture of Tikal Sun‘s Nelson Alburquenque (above) and Juan Cardenas (also from Tikal Sun) and poetess Jessica Wilson Cardenas of The Metaphors (bottom picture).

There are times that I need an escape. Times when I feel that I’m overwhelmed with the mundane routine of work, paying bills, making end’s meet, trying to stretch every dollar to make it in this economy, traffic on the 101 and the 405, Carmageddons, global warming, nuclear radiation, children illiteracy and the zombie apocalypse á la Walking Dead. I worry a lot, that is very true, so I need a release, an escape, a musical escapade to help me deal with it all.

I recently discovered SoundCloud through a friend of mine who hangs his recordings on it (look him up under Matt Vibes, soulful voice that covers such artists as Marvin Gaye, Sublime, Bill Withers, Sam Cook among others) and I was hooked. I found myself looking for different music and, quite honestly, I was tired of my own songs on my iPhone as well as I Heart Radio, Spotify and Pandora. I needed something fresh and new. I began looking for my friends’ recordings like Michael Ray De Los Angeles, Cunaomusic, Jenuine Poetess, Matt Vibes, Ceasar Avelar, Jason Brain, Iris de Anda, TranSe among many others that I run into my open mic crawl and found myself falling in love with their poetry and music all over again, getting fresh ideas for my own poetry (and yes, you can also find me under Victor Sotomayor).

And then I found Tikal Sun. Electric guitars, flute, drums, indigenous instruments that recreate rain soundscapes, tambourine and more… Tikal Sun is always evolving; its eclectic sound can be compared to Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Enigma and whales… Sorry, I’m getting whales right as I’m listening to Navajo Windcry on SoundCloud as I write this article, so my apologies. And just for the record I’m not high, I swear!

Tonight is a very special night for Tikal Sun is playing a long set of their best songs (Ubuntu Goddess! Totem! Taíno! New songs!) at the Brass Monkey located in Koreatown at 659 Mariposa Avenue in Los Angeles preceded by music and poetry by The Metaphors with Jessica Wilson Cardenas and Juan Cardenas at 5:30PM. Last time I was at Brass Monkey I felt as if I was somewhere down South, nowhere near Los Angeles so I’m ready to be transported to different realms and musical dimensions tonight.

Be adventurous! Take a hallucinogenic acid and fall down the rabbit hole where music is colorful, where guitars roar, where flute musical notes float above the eucalyptus trees, where a tambourine and drums summon spirits. Yeah, it’s that kind of Sunday. And, once again, I’m not high, people!!! Wait, did you guys just see that pink and purple elephant over the Hollywood sign… Well, did you?

Do yourselves a favor and listen to Tikal Sun on SoundCloud, you will thank me later. Tikal Sun is: Nelson Alburquenque, Juan Cardenas, Levon Arzuyan, Joe Willis and Matt Gottesman.