Still Howling

Los Lobos has demonstrated survival skills more successful than the wolves in Yellowstone to become one of the greatest California bands of all time.

The East Los Angeles quintet returns to the Ventura Theatre for a Tuesday night gig for those oblivious to the continuing trials and tribulations of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and her ex-boyfriend, Angel.

Originally called Los Lobos de Los Angeles, after popular Tex-Mex outfit Los Lobos del Norte, the band began in the early ‘70s when David Hidalgo, Cesar Rosas, Louie Perez and Conrad Lozano met at Garfield High School. Now 26 years, 10 albums and three Grammys later, the band has a new recording, “This Time.”

According to Perez, the new album fits into the group’s musical cosmology thusly: “A lot of the record was written while we were recording, even written in the studio, so we didn’t spend too much time second-guessing ourselves. . . . We wanted to do something different. We wanted to find out who we were. . . . With ‘This Time,’ I think we’ve managed to maintain our sense of diversity and our enthusiasm, without willfully recreating the things we’ve done before.”

And Los Lobos has done lots of things before. Originally the party people’s choice, the band learned more than 150 traditional Mexican songs and played weddings and backyard parties all over East L.A. In 1980, friend Tito Larriva of the Tex-Mex punk rockers the Plugz (and now of Tito & Tarantula) got the band a gig at the Olympic Auditorium opening for Public Image Ltd. That was the band’s unofficial coming-out party.

Next they hooked up with the Blasters and started playing more blues and rock songs in gigs all over Hollywood for all the punk rockers who were starting to get it. By the time they signed with Slash Records in the early ‘80s, the group had been together for nine years and had outlived the “creative differences” period fatal to many bands. In those days, Slash was the happening label with a roster that included X, the Blasters, Rank & File, the Violent Femmes, Fear and the Gun Club.

In 1982, Los Lobos gained its fifth member, sax player Steve Berlin, who also played with the Blasters. Two years later, they won their first Grammy for “Anselma,” the best Mexican-American performance. In 1987, the band’s soundtrack for “La Bamba” went double platinum and spawned a No. 1 single of the same name. The original by the first Mexican rock star, Richie Valens, only made it to No. 22--so much for justice.

The band members are no strangers to our area. Their last local appearance was a few years ago at the Further Fest, a Deadhead thing at the Ventura County Fairgrounds and a celebration of Jerry Garcia’s birthday. Los Lobos stole the show.

While Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez and the Taco Bell Chihuahua seem to be the representatives of Latino culture this week, it’s Los Lobos that has the track record. Through the years, the band has prospered with its invigorating mix of Mexican, blues, funk, country and roots rock music. They sound just like, well, Los Lobos, and they have more good songs than we have room to list. In English, in Spanish, on Mars or at Taco Bell--Los Lobos rocks.

DETAILS

Los Lobos at the Ventura Theatre, 26 Chestnut St., 8 p.m. Tuesday; $25; 653-0721.

*

In addition to the grating of wheels and the thud of bodies crashing onto concrete, there will be a new sound at Skate Street in Ventura on Saturday night in the form of an all-ages punk rock show. One good thing about punk shows is their affordability. No $90 Sting tickets here, and better yet, no Sting music--just tickets for 10 bucks, loud and fast songs that are over before you can get tired of them and cheap T-shirts.

Headlining will be Santa Cruz thrashers Good Riddance with more than a decade of experience and four albums, including “Operation Phoenix,” their latest on Fat Wreck Chords. Also on the bill is more punk from Epitaph Records’ H20, which also has a new album, “F.T.T.W,” an exercise in truth in advertising that stands for “Faster Than the World.”

Also playing are Creep Division. As to the local angle, opening will be Oxnard’s Burning Dog, definitely not the Taco Bell Chihuahua’s favorite band.

DETAILS

Good Riddance, Burning Dog, H2O and Creep Division at Skate Street, 1990 Knoll Drive, Ventura, 8 p.m. Saturday; $10; 987-2026 or 650-1213.

*

Now in its sixth season, the wildly successful Sings Like Hell series will be offering a Helliday celebration tonight featuring a pair of female singers--blues belter Sista Monica and San Luis Obispo-based singer / songwriter Jill Knight.

Queen-sized Sista Monica Parker was one of the headliners at the 1996 Bowlful of Blues in Ojai, where the oak trees are just now recovering from her vocal onslaught.

Originally from Chicago, Sista Monica is a former Marine sergeant and an engineering headhunter for high tech companies who began singing gospel songs. She relocated to Santa Cruz in 1987, started a consulting service in Silicon Valley and things were quiet. But after seeing MC Hammer on television one night, Sista decided she could do at least as well, and things stopped being quiet.

“For a while, I didn’t sing at all, but then one day in 1992, I decided to pick up a mike and do something,” she said. “At first, I just did Aretha Franklin stuff, then I studied Etta James, Katie Webster and Koko Taylor and I started writing my own material. People started calling me ‘The New Blues Lioness,’ wherever that came from. There’s already too many queens, so I guess I’ll accept that.”

Sista Monica has released a pair of high-powered blues albums with a third on the way. The Bammie Award-winning singer and her five-piece band tour constantly these days, an in-demand act on the blues circuit in the United States as well as in Europe.

“Some people think the blues is sad music, but blues is a healing music,” she said. “It’s about telling the truth and healing.”

DETAILS

Sista Monica and Jill Knight at the Lobero Theatre, 33 E. Canon Perdido, Santa Barbara, 8 tonight; $28.50; 963-0761.

Bill Locey can be reached by e-mail at blocey@pacbell.net.