by Marcella Ortega
Daily Lobo
There is no place like home for Stoic Frame.
"For us - the Launchpad, Albuquerque, N.M. - it doesn't get any better for us, because that's our hometown, and that's what feeds the soul of this band," guitarist and vocalist Keith Sanchez said.
The Latin alternative band, now residing in Los Angeles, will perform at a few venues in Albuquerque this weekend for the release of its album Spinning the
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Roulette God.
In 2005, the band's single "Demonios del Asfalto," off its Spanish album Justicia, reached the No. 1 position on the National Latin Alternative Radio and Records chart. Stoic Frame was the first independent band to reach the position.
"That's kind of a little milestone for us," Sanchez said.
Sanchez, of Belen, N.M., said he and his brother, bassist Todd Sanchez, met drummer Matias Pizarro in 1986, when their parents moved to San Salvador, El Salvador.
"We started playing together when Todd and Matias were in middle school," Keith Sanchez said. "We've been playing together forever - not as Stoic Frame, but as kids having fun learning how to play rock 'n' roll."
Pizarro, of San Salvador, said the members split in 1992 when Sanchez's parents moved back to New Mexico. He said they reunited in 1993 and formed Stoic Frame.
"We always had the kind of illusion, the dream of reuniting and forming a band," Pizarro said. "So, as soon as Todd and I graduated from high school, Todd was like, 'Hey, what are we going to do now? Let's give the band a shot.' It was kind of across long-distance phone lines that we started talking to Keith. Three months later, we were there (in Belen) with our gear."
Pizarro said Spinning the Roulette God was recorded in Vancouver, Canada.
"It was a really cool project because we spent 35 days there," Pizarro said. "We rented a house with a studio in the basement, and we just lived music 24-7. Whoever wasn't recording was upstairs cooking, taking care of business. But we were just completely living together and isolated from
the world."
Pizarro said the band worked on the album with Canadian producer Rob Shallcross and Mike Lazer, who helped master Gnarls Barkley's St. Elsewhere.
"It's definitely, by far, a bad-ass international collaboration," Pizarro said. "It was done with a lot of talent and a lot of love."
Spinning the Roulette God will be available nationwide April 3. It will be sold at the Launchpad on Saturday for Stoic Frame's CD release party. As a custom, the band will perform Friday outside
the SUB.
"We've always been involved with the college scene," Keith
Sanchez said. "A lot of our fans are UNM students and have been for years. So, we love to play in front of the SUB. It's kind of a tradition."
Stoic Frame
Friday
Outside the SUB
Noon
Saturday
Launchpad
618 Central Ave. S.W.
9 p.m.
21 and over
$7
Sunday
The Cell Theatre
700 First St. N.W.
7 p.m.
All ages
$7
