Eric Valdez

First of all, thanks to Steven Amado (AKA “Chatismo”) for asking me to participate in another fun Al Borde Dia de los Muertos event. The highlight of the event was an amazing performance by El Conjunto Nueva Ola, who tore it up that night. My contribution to the show was a tribute to one of the most important bands ever, The Ramones.

This Saturday my Ramones piece will be topping off an altar at, one of my favorite spots in Highland Park, Mi Vida‘s “Altarwalk” during NELA’s Art Walk. Come by and join me for probably the last Dia de los Muertos event of the season.

I currently have some pieces up at Casita del Pueblo in Uptown Whittier as part of their annual Dia de los Muertos group show, which will be up for a couple more weeks.

DIRECTIONS

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On November 2nd I’ll, once again, be participating in art show portion of Al Borde’s annual Dia de los Muertos event. Their events are always lot of fun and I’m really excited about being a part of it again. It’s a free all-ages event and you can attend by RSVPing here.

DIRECTIONS

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On November 6th I’ll have an altar up at Alhambra Latino Association’s Day of the Dead festival at San Gabriel High School. I’m from Alhambra and SGHS is my alma mater so the invitation to participate was a huge honor.

DIRECTIONS

My new limited edition Dia de los Muertos album cover redesign prints are now available at Casita del Pueblo in Uptown Whittier and Mi Vida Boutique in Highland Park. Mi Vida will also be among the many vendors at the Dia de los Muertos festival at Hollywood Forever Cemetery on October 22nd and the Self Help Graphics Dia de los Muertos Celebration on November 2nd and will have the prints available at those events as well.

Misfits – Walk Among Us

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Duran Duran – Rio

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Maybe this will turn into a screen printed thing for Dia de los Muertos…I dunno.

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In late June Dimitri Coats of OFF! posted a picture of Keith Morris, Ian McKaye and Henry Rollins that was taken outside of the legendary 9:30 Club in D.C.. I’m a huge fan of each of their work and these guys have continued to influence me so, the moment I saw the picture, I knew I had to turn it into a painting.

Photo by Dimitri Coats

Last year my friend Doreen of Little Sweeties Cupcakes (I can’t recommend her cupcakes enough! Follow and Like) purchased the Joe Strummer vinyl portrait that I had made. It was a gift for her husband who, like myself, is a HUGE fan of The Clash. He dug the piece so much that Doreen commission me to produce portraits of the rest of the band for an anniversary gift.

I got done with them last week and can confidently say that all parties involved are very happy with the results.

A buddy of mine once mentioned that I should consider posting images of how I go about creating these vinyl portraits, but that’s actually pretty long and boring. Instead, here are the sketches that I started with, including the Joe Strummer sketch from last year.

As you can see, I’m not usually that concerned about getting a close likeness down right away unless I’m really far off. If needed, as in the case of the Mick and Paul sketches, I’ll do some refining along the way and hopefully by the end, the portraits look as spot-on as possible.

A Go-Go – Acrylic on Toyota fender (model and year unknown)

My buddy Gabriel works at a body shop and he gave myself and a bunch of other artists some damaged car parts to paint on. This is what I came up with. Next step: shooting an auto body clear coat to make the colors pop even more.

Dear Interwebs,

For the past three years my good friend Raquel has hosted an annual Christmas Eve Eve pajama party and this year I decided to make mix CDs of my favorite songs from 2010 for my friends. Since I have the ability to do so, I thought it would be nice to share all of this music with others. At the party my peeps only got two mix CDs, but my girlfriend got an extra special third CD. I’ve decided to include the third disc here and I hope she won’t be too mad at me for doing so.

I hope you all enjoy the almost four hours of music and have a great 2011.

Your pal,

Eric

P.S. I think I’m legally supposed to say that this music is intended for sampling purposes only and you should support these artist by purchasing their albums or going to their shows. Blah, blah, blah, if you are an artist, label or production company and don’t want the free publicity, please email me at ericvaldezart@gmail.com and I will promptly remove the post and songs requested.

2010 Disc 1 DOWNLOAD HERE
01. Sleigh Bells – Infinity Guitars (from Treats)
02. Threshold – Sex Bob-Omb (from Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World Soundtrack)
03. Minus The Bear – Hold Me Down (from Myspace Transmissions, original version on OMNI)
04. Surfer Blood – Swim (from Astro Coast)
05. Beach House – Norway (from iTunes Session EP, original version on Beach House)
06. Band of Horses – Loredo (from Infinite Arms)
07. The Black Keys – Howlin’ For You (from Brothers)
08. Ra Ra Riot – Boy (from Daytrotter Session 9/20/2010, original version on The Orchard)
09. Grinderman – Heathen Child (from Grinderman 2)
10. Arcade Fire – We Used To Wait (from The Suburbs)
11. The National – Bloodbuzz Ohio (from High Violet)
12. Metric – Help I’m Alive (acoustic) (from Daytrotter Session 7/12/2010, original version on Fantasies…not a 2010 album, but this very different version of the song came out in 2010, which is why it has been included.)
13. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Round and Round (from Before Today)
14. No Age – Fever Dreaming (from Everything In Between)
15. OFF! – Upside down (from The First Four EPs)
16. Best Coast – Summer Mood (from Crazy For You)
17. Titus Andronicus – A More Perfect Union (from The Monitor)
18. These New Puritans – We Want War (from Hidden)
19. Dum Dum Girls – Jail La La (from I Will Be)
20. Wavves – Post Acid (from King of the Beach)
21. Male Bonding – Year’s Not Long (from Nothing Hurts)

2010 Disc 2 DOWNLOAD HERE

01. Cee Lo Green – F*** You (from The Lady Killer)
02. of Montreal – Sex Karma (from False Priest)
03. LCD Soundsystem – I Can Change (from This Is Happening)
04. Duck Sauce – Barbara Streisand
05. Yeasayer – O.N.E. (from Odd Blood)
06. Crystal Castles – Not In Love (Feat. Robert Smith)
07. Janelle Monáe – Cold War (from The ArchAndroid)
08. Cut Copy – Take Me Over (from the forthcoming Take Me Over)
09. Fitz and the Tantrums – MoneyGrabber (from Pickin’ Up The Pieces)
10. Gorillaz – On Melancholy Hill (from Plastic Beach)
11. Sade – Soldier of Love (from Soldier of Love)
12. Hot Chip – One Life Stand (from One Life Stand)
13. Kanye West – Monster (feat. Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj & Bon Iver) (from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy)
14. Delorean – Real Love (from Subiza)
15. Chromeo – Hot Mess (Feat. Elly Jackson)
16. Mark Ronson & The Business Intl. – Bang Bang Bang (feat. Q-Tip and MNDR) (from Record Collectio)
17. Big Boi – Shutterbugg (feat. Cutty) (from Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty)
18. Antoine Dodson – Bed Intruder Song

2010 Disc 3 DOWNLOAD HERE

01. Interpol – Barricade (from Interpol)
02. Broken Bells – The Ghost Inside (from Broken Bells)
03. Record Club – Never Tear Us Apart (from Kick)
04. How To Destroy Angels – Fur Lined (from How To Destroy Angels EP)
05. Tokyo Police Club – Breakneck Speed (from Champ)
06. Daft Punk – Derezzed (from Tron: Legacy Soundtrack)
07. Kele – Tenderoni (from The Boxer)
08. M.I.A. – Born Free (From /\/\/\Y/\)
09. !!! – Jamie, My Intentions Are Bass (from Strange Weather, Isn’t It?)
10. The Golden Filter – Solid Gold (from Voluspa)
11. Two Door Cinema Club – Something Good Can Work (from Tourist History)
12. Danger Mouse and Sparklehourse – Little Girl (feat. Julian Casablancas) (from Danger Mouse and Sparklehourse Present: Dark Night of the Soul, which came out in 2009 too)
13. Klaxons – Flashover (from Surfing the Void)
14. MGMT – Congratulations (from Congratulations)
15. Lykki Li – Get Some
16. Ratatat – Neckbrace (from LP4)
17. The Morning Benders – Excuses (from Big Echo)
18. Warpaint – Undertow (from The Fool)
19. Flying Lotus – Do The Astral Plane (from Cosmogramma)

Yesterday sculptor Paul Shampine featured me in a series of small interviews with artists about their work on his blog. It’s an honor to be included in such accomplished and talented company. I really should have had someone proofread my answers. Oh well. Click here to read my ramblings.

UPDATE: Paul kindly allowed me to edit my interview. What a swell guy!

Has it really been 5 months since my last blog post? Wow. My productivity slowed down a lot after I fractured my ankle but I’m almost back in full effect now so things are going to start picking up again. I’m gonna try to make more of an effort to update this thing more often just in case someone actually does visit.

Years ago I was in a punk band called L.D.S. The name was an acronym for many things, but toward the end it stood for Life’s Daily Struggle. We were active off-and-on a few times from ’96 to ’05, but we reunited for a show in ’07 for our bassist’s 30th birthday. Now we’re playing again on June 26th to pay homage to Kelly’s Pub in Arcadia, which will be closing.

Joining us that night will be fellow San Gabriel Valley punk veterans; Krud, Tangwich and S.S.D.D. and Never Dead. The show is free and starts at 9:00. Kelly’s Pub is located at 80 West Live Oak Avenue, Arcadia, CA 91007

Here’s the flyer:

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MAP

I’ll have a merch booth set up at the show with limited edition 11″x14″ posters of the flyer available at the show and I might have some prints of other stuff there too.

Life's Daily Struggle circa 204

Last week I decided to check out L.A. Weekly’s Bars/Club directory to see if I could find a laid back place to go and lounge at since I can’t be on my feet and I noticed that the awesome Five Stars Bar is currently a featured bar. Check out what else I noticed.

Yup, my London Calling piece is in the image used for Five Star’s listing.