We just finished a magazine called Off the Wookie to give away during SXSW. This was an article that got in just a bit late but was well worthy of inclusion. Ice Cream Man and Bessie are leaving on Thursday to drive three days to Austin to give away thousands of free ice creams and throw a party with some great people. Scroll down for more info.
When the combination of Mexican Wrestling and Burlesque, otherwise known as Lucha VaVoom, made its triumphant return to the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles in February (see review here), Jeremiah and I had the pleasure of interviewing its resident DJ, none other than, Senor Amor. One of the funniest and most charming people we have met, Senor Amor has been DJing at Lucha VaVoom almost from its inception. He provides an amazing soundtrack to the event from his even more amazing record collection. As of late though he has been rather busy and he is just about to open a vintage furniture store/art gallery in Los Angeles called Retropia. Because he loves everything old, including records and clothes, it was a perfect fit to open up a vintage furniture store. When he’s not DJing Lucha Va Voom, he continues to do his radio show, The Molotov Cocktail Hour, on LA’s own KXLU, where he has been for 16 years. He’s even known to DJ weddings too!
Interview by:Vanessa Herzog and Jeremiah Garcia
Article by:Vanessa Herzog
Photos by:Jeremiah Garcia
Vanessa:How did you get into DJing to begin with?
Senor Amor:I’ve been collecting records since I was a kid and I started DJing actually in High School, at Beverly Hills High School. They have a radio station and a cable station.
V:What are you top three records for Lucha VaVoom?
SA:Joe Cuba, “Bang, Bang”. Mongo Santamaria, “Cloud 9”. Los Apson, “Satisfaction” (Spanish Rolling Stones cover).
Jeremiah:What do you think the most obscure record that you play is?
SA:Most obscure record? Um, well let me see (digging in crate). Well, you know what, one of my favorite records, I’ll say this. This is La Lupe, “The Queen Does Her Own Thing”. Her version of “Touch Me”, (dramatic pause) well it’s a show stopper.
V:So how is it with the CDs now?
SA:It’s great! It’s easy!
V:No more carting vinyl around?
SA:Well, I still do. I mean I have 15,000 records. But for this, it’s just easier because of the theme music. When you have six people in one match it’s a lot to do. Sometimes I play CDs and records and it makes it easier. You get exact seconds with CDs, but I’ll play anything. I mean I love records and it’s great, but you can’t play five records in a minute. It’s not going to work.
V:So where do you store 15,000 records.
SA:In a storage place. It’s a lot.
V:Are they cataloged?
SA:I have part of the collection cataloged, about half if it, that’s all. That’s all I could do.
V:Where do you go shopping for records?
SA:Anywhere and everywhere. Thrift stores, any time I go out of town I always try and go record shopping and grab a little audio souvenir from wherever I was. But around here, of course Amoeba is always a great place, but it’s pretty overwhelming.
V:So since you play all these weird records, how do you even find out about them?
SA:Well a lot of it just starts off with looking. If you’re buying something for a dollar and it has a good cover, I mean.
J:That’s why you have 15,000 records.
SA:Yeah, that’s true. And the drag of it is that you learn after a while that you actually have to make sure that it’s the same records when you take it out of the sleeve, because that’s just the biggest bummer when you can’t believe you scored and then you say I can’t believe it, it’s Lawrence Welk.
J:I want to ask you one last random question. Describe you childhood nemesis.
A: My childhood nemesis? Ummm, I would say. I’ll tell you my childhood nemesis was cockroaches. Because my mom was lax enough, and didn’t know that I shouldn’t see the movie Bug, that was rated R, and I saw it in 1975. And for those of you out there that are reading this and don’t know the plot of this movie, it takes place in California. There’s an earthquake and these prehistoric giant cockroaches come out of the earth and they invade suburbia and they crawl on you and then they light you on fire.
J:And that disturbed you as a kid?
SA:Well, yeah. Because you know when you go to bed and the sheets will settle and sometimes it will settle on a place, right, and I would be kicking my legs for five minutes. And to this day cockroaches really piss me off and freak me out, I hate them. So I would have to say that’s my childhood nemesis.
Senor Amor’s store and gallery, Retropia, will host its first show on March 17th with Jason Mecier (www.jasonmecier.com). You can check out the store’s web site at www.Retropia.net. And you can check out Senor Amor’s radio show at www.TheMolotovCocktailHour.com and his own web site at www.SenorAmor.com.
