Juanita y Juan –a historic punk duo for our time
I’m a bit of hazy about after I first encountered Alice Bag. It was within the 2000s, presumably on the Echoplex or Los Globos golf equipment in LA. A pal informed me there was a cool punk band led by a outstanding girl taking part in that night time, and I ought to go. I wasn’t a fan of punk, however I’ve at all times been a fan of outstanding ladies in music, so I made a decision to see what the joy was about. The joy was about Alice Bag.
In fact, I had heard of her. Finest often called the fierce frontwoman of the pioneering punk band The Luggage, she was a vocal drive for feminism and Chicana id inside rock for many years and had been taking part in in East LA (and different locations) since then -way earlier than I returned to LA, my hometown.
I used to be blown away. This was not the punk I knew – the uncooked, fast-paced, and rebellious type of rock that emerged within the mid-Seventies with bands like The Slits, The Runaways, The Avengers, and, after all, the Luggage. It was all of that, but it surely was additionally intelligent, sensible, brash, humorous, pointed, and totally satisfying. I began to observe Alice, interviewed her on my radio present, and adopted her albums Alice Bag, Blueprint, and Sister Dynamite, launched within the 2000s.
Now she has a brand new album out with Child Congo Powers, Jungle Cruise, underneath the duo title of Juanita y Juan, a dynamic collaboration born from their longtime friendship. They debuted Jungle Cruise in April, which showcases their “Loud Lounge” sound—a genre-bending fusion that displays punk roots whereas incorporating lounge, synth pop, and a distinctly Latin taste in melodic, generally talkative, and generally muted songs filled with nostalgia combined with vibrant innovation.
Child Congo Powers, Juanita y Juan’s co-founder, is a celebrated guitarist whose credit embody foundational roles in bands like The Gun Membership, The Cramps, Nick Cave and the Dangerous Seeds, and his personal Pink Monkey Birds. His distinctive, reverb-heavy guitar textures, mixed with Bag’s dramatic vocals and stage presence, evoke the experimental spirit that first introduced them collectively in LA’s Seventies punk scene, however in a cooler, extra refined manner. Collectively, their music embraces Spanish- and English-language lyrics, cumbia, punk, glam, and the improvisational aptitude of cabaret—what they’ve described as “occasion at a Mexican seashore,” with a punk twist.
Jungle Cruise originated from a fee to jot down a tune for the NBC/Peacock sequence “The Resort” in 2022, the place they found the artistic spark that may turn into Juanita y Juan. This collaboration gave them a platform to precise their Mexican-American heritage and to experiment freely with music that invitations each dancing and reflection.
Dwell, Juanita y Juan have prolonged their 2025 punk ethos to new audiences: their performances have included collaborations with the Bob Baker Marionette Theater, utilizing marionettes as playful backdrops for his or her electrical, genre-twisting units. By means of their music and visibility, Bag and Powers proceed to encourage a brand new era of Latinx punk and various artists, retaining the revolutionary spirit of East LA punk alive and related for 2025 and past. Try the album on Spotify and main platforms.
Patrick O’Heffernan
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