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FFF6 Artists Exposed: Puerto Rico's hook-heavy Davila 666
The comparison of Puerto Rico's Davila 666 to The Ramones has been over-used to such an extent that I really didn't want to mention it, but there I just went. Yes, they're a group of young, fearless partiers who all (save for one) have adopted the Davila surname in a unified front of music and mayhem.
Their latest album title, Tan Bajo, translates literally to So Low, and more accurately, Lowlife. But don't take that the wrong way; it's upbeat, catchy music. As Carlito Davila once clarified, "It’s music to make sad lowlifes happy."
Pretty Puerto-Rican surfer girls are featured in more than one video, and most prominently in “Tu.” At first you'll roll your eyes, wondering how the guys could have agreed with a director’s vision to play out a sweet picnic in the park, but you’ll eat your words a minute into the video when the music marinated in summer sensuality turns towards a shadow-drenched girl-on-girl love scene. Suddenly, you’ve watched the whole thing. Twice.
To better prove they’ve still got the rock ‘n roll edge they emerged with in 2008 are the ever popular "Basura" and the newly-released "Mala." The former relies heavily on throaty screams, while the latter comes and goes with whiplash speed and force, clocking in at one-minute forty-four seconds.
If forced to give Davila 666 any sort of criticism, it would be that the music can blur together after several songs—not dissimilar to a night of alcohol-fueled partying, a comparison that likely gets the band off the hook of homogeny where record reviews are concerned.
As for who to expect to see in the crowd for Davila's set, envision a gathering of former Black Lips fans who've grown bored with the party boys of yesteryear. Or, maybe, former Black Lips fans' little brothers.
Regardless, American support for Davila 666 has spread like a relentless punk-rock rash, and there'll be a large crowd before FFF6's Black Stage early Sunday afternoon. As AJ Davila told the L.A. Times in September, “It’s crazy because we have a lot more love in the United States than we do in Puerto Rico, even in any town in South America. It has become our land, our place.”