Y La Bamba

Y La Bamba began in early 2008 as Luz Elena Mendoza began playing shows, and wanted a name other than her own to play under. She began writing and making home recordings of her songs one by one. During this process she began hosting an open mic regularly at a sake bar in Northeast Portland. This is where Y La Bamba began. She met Ben Meyercord, who Luz Elena describes as, “one of the many beautiful people I met who opened me up and saved my soul.” Meyercord and Mendoza began playing together and brought in Luz Elena’s long time friend and collaborator, Mike Kitson on drums, with the addition of Sean Flinn on lead guitar and Eric Shrapel on accordion. Y La Bamba was complete.

Luz Elena went through a major transformation upon moving to Portland in 2008, citing the local music scene of Portland as a kind of savior. Combined with the heritage of traditional Mexican music lent to her from her parents she describes her influences as “Loch Lomond and Devendra Banhardt, a lot of old school Mexican 30’s music, basically it comes from my parents.... seriously, all of their music” it becomes evident upon listening to the music of Y La Bamba that Luz Elena draws from a deep well of varying influences.

What began as a journey of self-actualization and musical redefining for Luz Elena has developed and evolved into what many now know as Y La Bamba. The band has attracted a lot of attention in their hometown of Portland, Oregon. PDX Pop Now!, a free festival put on every year, featured Y La Bamba’s “Fasting In San Francisco” on it’s 2008 compilation.

“Alida St.”, a collection of the home recordings by Luz Elena was released in December of 2008 by start-up label “Gypsy Pop Records” to much excitement. Look forward to a whole new collection of songs, the bands first full length, "Lupon" to be released in August 2010!