Luna Fuentes-Vaccaro: Percussion, Guitars, Backing Vocals
Katiana Vila: Percussion and Backing Vocals
Bob Sanders: Guitars
Joaquin Zamudio: Electric Bass Danny Cao: Trumpet
Melissa Cruz: Drums and Flamenco Dance
For the past 11 years, Oakland-based LoCura has crafted their own unique musical identity: "Califas Mestizo Music," a blend of Latin American and Iberian rhythms such as rumba, cumbia, salsa and flamenco influenced by punk rock, ska, rap, dub, reggae, dancehall with local and global lyrical themes. The band's name ("it cures it") reflects their ethos of making music a remedy, a theme which permeates lyrics such as "la cultura cura la locura (culture cures the madness).”
With three powerhouse women at the helm, their live shows are a soul-stirring punk-edged party mixing cajon-driven rhythms with mutilingual lyrics that reflect the unique intersection of cultures in the Bay Area. Ana Tijoux meets Manu Chao with a touch of Lhasa.
Spanish-American vocalist Kata Miletich, expanding on the group's influences, notes "one big inspiration for the ways we consciously and unconsciously connect different music is this idea that styles and rhythms travel from Africa, Europe stretching across the Americas and mixing with indigenous sounds. Culture is alive in so many different ways, and shows up in different places to tell a story." LoCura has toured the U.S, Canada, Nicaragua, Mexico and Spain playing music festivals and sharing the stage with artists such as Bombino, La Cuneta Son Machin, Ziggy Marley, Beats Antique, Quetzal, and Nortec Collective. In the California Bay Area they have opened for Sergio Mendes, La Santa Cecilia, The Seshen & Bomba Estereo and have sold out The Great American Music Hall and The Independent in San Francisco. LoCura has released three full length albums and is currently writing and recording music for their fourth album.