Moonblink Twilight Limbo

This is the cover design I made for unreleased The Sweet Leaf's 2009 demo, "Moonblink Twilight Limbo". You can listen to the songs here. 

Bye bye Sweet Leaf

Photo: Camila Jurado

I remember perfectly the very first jam with The Sweet Leaf. I was awakening for a long infertile dream. The way the songs reverberated in my head, the way I was feeling I was at last joining a "real" band, getting inside this very creative rock-conscious group of individuals who carried a breathtaking musical history and experience. That night I finally doze off around 3 a.m. I was so excited and felt so blessed. 

The last time I played with them was in a Black Sabbath Tribute on May 8th 2009, organized by Stoner Rock Mexico. We had major fuck ups and failed terribly. And after that, everything started to sink. I couldn't understand what happened to the band that night, as we were improving so good. 

Anyhow, some days later we were invited by this guy that wanted to set up the tribute in his bar, northern Mexico City. The guy asked for the same line-up so I asked him to pay all the bands. Shockingly, this attitude brought up comments by my band mates calling me "Classist". It apparently means that for them $100 pesos ($7.4 USD) might not be a difference whether deciding for playing or not. Of course, we don't make a wealthy living from playing in this country.  But what I still do not understand is why you are not morally allowed to charge a fee for your performance, knowing that the promoter is going to receive a lot of money from beer and tickets. Some band members uttered that their musical work is made for art's sake only, for the people. And this is where the term "Classist" comes up, implying that musicians even in a great opportunity like this event, knowing that one could be decently paid for gas expenses, performance and gear investment, shouldn't charge.  This is by no means arguing against that music should be free and for the masses. It is just a matter of self-respect. No wonder why in Mexico City there are several promoters and bar owners booking bands with no remuneration guarantee. No wonder why several Mexican bands are playing for free. No wonder why most of them are really very bad bands who are satisfied with some loads of beer and long-waited stardom dreams. 

Ivan Nieblas and me organized this tribute months ago. I believe we started at the very beginning of this year planning, setting up, contacting people and bands. Aside from gaining some bucks, what we really were pursuing was to introduce Mexican kids to the Stoner Rock genre. Some people would say that maybe a better option would had been a Saint Vitus or a Kyuss Tribute. But culturally speaking, Mexicans know more about Black Sabbath and that was the hook to give kids an option to listen new bands, "new" genres. None of these motives apparently helped. 

I had enough. I always believed TSL would be playing big, they deserved it. I deserve it. So I quit the band. After spending most of my time dedicating to promotion, selling their records, designing several layouts for their myspace page, answering fan emails, uploading videos overnight... Now, everything is gone and it's sad to tell. Not that I have suddenly turned into a bigoted rant! It's just that I have been "there" before, struggling with Mexican Rock bands fluff. It still amazes me that none of them truly believed the chance they had now with a Myspace page or a FB page. This band was formed in the nineties and struggled with the fact that you had to wait two or three months in order to receive any letter or review from magazines.  Now it  seems they prefer to rock comfortably in "reality" rather than spending some moments virtually giving some time to some of several fans from the US, Europe and South America that contacted the band since their Myspace page was kicked off. It seems they have given up. 

No wonder why in Mexico, Rock music is falling into the hands of the execs. If independent musicians do not ask for respect and decent remuneration for their performances, then they won't ever have it. 

This is a video from a gig in Xalapa, Veracruz. That venue was really small, but we had an incredible time playing there. I really enjoyed spending time on the road with these "forever-rock" fellows. This is a way to somehow preserve the good memories. 

Bye bye Sweet Leaf.

The Sweet Leaf new myspace

The Sweet Leaf has finally a new myspace!

Go and listen to some songs:

www.myspace.com/thesweetleafmx

The Sweet Leaf & Los Esquizitos

Howdy! I am thrilled to announce The Sweet Leaf's next show with legendary band Los Esquizitos at Foro Alicia on Friday February 6th, 2009. It is no casualty that both bands are playing together, as years ago, both TSL & Los Esquizitos used to share the stage with several bands that built the alternative scene in Mexico. On this very special occasion, Los Esquizitos are celebrating 15 years playing, so the party dress code will be the quinceañera style for girls and boys. I still wonder what to wear that night :P Anyhow, it's warm here. I'll be back soon! I'm off to some sunny days at the Caribbean. At last!  

//

The Sweet Leaf se presentará el próximo 6 de Febrero en el Foro Alicia celebrando los XV años de Los Esquizitos. Nos vemos allá vestidos de quinceañeros y chambelanas.

VIERNES 6 DE FEBRERO, 2009

LOS ESQUIZITOS

THE SWEET LEAF

FORO ALICIA

Av. Cuauhtémoc 91a, Col. Roma

México D.F.

www.myspace.com/foroalicia

The Sweet Leaf - Mexico

It was some months ago that Iván Nieblas encouraged me to join a band called The Sweet Leaf. I only knew the band by some brief references during my period playing with Occulta.  I never imagined I could enjoy singing in The Sweet Leaf so much. That very first rehearsal was dazzling and open eyed. After several months of shutting up my inner voice, I soon found myself in some special realm surrounded by melodies that speak of old. 

As every band that barely reaches widespread success and crawled into the underground due to a musical uncultured audience, TSL story has those drama aspects which fall behind the band's natural faculties. No matter how much they apparently failed to reach stardom in dark times, their solely striving makes The Sweet Leaf already a legend. 

The Sweet Leaf was founded by Fernando Benítez (Raxas, Acrostic, La Orquesta de Animales, THC) in the early nineties in Mexico City. By that time, stoner rock was unforgivably smashed by the mainstream, the mexican new wave of rock which stand for banning all English references such as lyrics and latin sounds were encouraged.

Despite these hurdles, TSL toiled in the club circuit playing with several punk, glam and testosterone-fueled biker-metal bands. One of their most important shows was as an opening act for The Obsessed, who hit mexican soil back in 1994.

A year earlier, they released a 7’’ called Rotten, which lately met the vehement ears of Cathedral’s Lee Dorrian and catched the attention of Germany’s Hellhound Records. This EP is very hard to be found and it raises in some retail collector’s stores up to 30€. In 1996, a cassette was self released titled Take a hit with Adela Mizrahi’s vocals. Yet again, this work is tough to get.

The Sweet Leaf quit the scenarios in 1997, and all members dedicated themselves to give birth to new projects that would take the lead for early mexican stoner bands such as El Diablo.

Adolfo (Sarabia) told me that during a nostalgia attack at some metal concert, he begged Fernando to bring the band back. It is also said that Claudio (Arellano) looked for Fernando too to revive TSL for many years. Whether the official reason for this come-back from the grave is clearly uncertain, The Sweet Leaf is back, and is playing with their last line-up and two new members:

Fernando Benítez (Drums)

Claudio Arellano (Guitar)

Oscar Montes a.k.a. El Compa (Bass)

Adolfo Sarabia (Keyboards)

Gaby de la O (Vocals)

The band hit the stage after 15 years on November 15, 2008 at the 4th Stoner Rock Festival at Foro Alicia in Mexico City. That night was packed with old fans that listened to the Sweet Leaf in the nineties and ventured once again to meet the band leaving their office suits at home and putting on the leather jacket. While my conversation with the band's espouses and girlfriends ran smoothly between how to rise a child properly and new waxing services, you could see younger kids stumbling upon the door enthusiastically. As mentioned before in this blog, stoner rock in Mexico is gaining some recognition gradually. Kids are asking for older bands and vinyl records, the ones that really emancipated the true rock n' roll tunes, the ones that originated that blasting spacey psychedelic sound that really crept to the bone...

[SOME PICTURES FROM THE 4TH STONER ROCK FESTIVAL / mexico city 

© Cuauhtémoc Escárcega]

We are getting ready for more gigs and a new website with updated pictures and information will be published soon. Meanwhile, you can visit the old myspace and the webpage, although you should consider to run across Adela's paintings rather than the TSL songs. Anyhow, her version of TSL history is quite interesting. 

Finally, Here's a sample of the band's sound. The song is "Rotten" from the Take a hit cassette (1996). Enjoy!

For some external references, and see how their 7'' gained so much recognition, check out the following links : 

The Sweet Leaf (Encyclopaedia Metallum)

The Sweet Leaf (Rotten) 30 €

The Sweet Leaf (Rotten) 12 €

Salute