On Saturday, November 2, Eos (500 Anacapa St.) will celebrate Día de los Muertos with headliners Chicano Batman in a special, day-long event, beginning at 1 p.m. Featuring sets from Los Retros, Kadillac, the Elwoods, and music from Last Resort Forever, it will be an especially enlivening way to honor the memory of departed souls and their remaining presence in our lives. What’s more, it will also be a chance to view and enjoy area art installations, immersive performances, and a tequila tasting.
As lineups go, it’s one to die for, as they say. Chicano Batman make excellently funky and soulful music evocative of East L.A. The band’s newest release, Black Lipstick, sizzles with psychedelic organ. Los Retros, a k a Mauri Tapia, is a 19-year-old multi-instrumentalist from Oxnard who has been crafting some of the best indie music of the area code for several years. Drawing influence from soft rock groups of Latin America, it’s beautiful stuff. Kadillac is a new project featuring members of Glitter Fish; the Elwoods deliver surfy blues rock from Goleta; and Last Resort Forever will be spinning vinyl to get things started on a high note.
CHEERS TO VETIVER: Vetiver will kick off an album-release tour at Third Window Brewing (406 E. Haley St., Ste. 3) on Tuesday, November 5. This being the first show on the Up on High album-release tour, it’s set to be a special one. Recorded in a cabin in Joshua Tree, the new songs are sun-soaked with relaxed, back-to-basics strumming, such as on the breezy and lovely “Swaying.” While the previous Vetiver album, Complete Strangers, played with colorful synths, these new songs hint at a return to Vetiver’s folk and folk-rock sound, evoking the aridness of dry California heat.