The Hong Kong Blood Opera

Artist Information

Biography

QUOTES

NEW BAND OF THE DAY - Apr 27/09 :
"Imagine Phil Anselmo of Pantera jamming with LCD Soundsystem, or Steve Albini and Paul Epworth arguing about who's going to produce the next Hives album."
Guardian.co.uk

"Insane, outrageous, excellent music, full of energy."
SPIN, June 09

"the best rock'n'roll band on the planet right now"
Andrew Chester, Recreation Records @ guardian.co.uk

Noisy electro-rock! HKBO are my new favourite Mexican band”
Keytars & Violins

"Hong Kong Blood Opera played out Debaser in Malmö (Sweden) like no one's ever done before.....They mixed together the best in punk, hardcore and rocknroll, and did it with an energy and refinement that you don't find that often these days......Their liveshow was intense, sweaty, and in-your-face...... a new favorite band."
Denimzine oct08 (Punk Rock Garage Magazine)

"The Hong Kong Blood Opera are the new ÜBER-band from Mexico."
Reeperbahn Festival 08 (Hamburg Germany)

The Hong Kong Blood Opera played at the Nottinghill Artsclub and attacked it with viscious abandon throwing themselves at the music and the crowd like the young punks they are?..this would not be enough if the music wasn't so bloody good?..but it was!
NHAC London oct08

"The Hong Kong Blood Opera is a mind-blowing, ear-melting, blast-furnace, band from Hermosillo, Mexico."

"HYPE: It's what's next: HONG KONG BLOOD OPERA.
THERE WILL BE BLOOD
Synth-punks fight their way out of the Mexican
underground."
Meanstreet Magazine (CA) Aug,08

Hong Kong Blood Opera: Favorite SXSW'08 band by KVRX Student Radio

“Mexican bands raised on American and British indie-rock of the `90s
—with such names as Hong Kong Blood Opera […]are making music that doesn’t wear much Hispanic heritage on its hipster sleeve..”
Star-Telegram

“If you like metal and electro, these guys are really interesting. I don’t even have a genre category for this. Go ahead. Make one up. For all you hard rock Moggers out there.”
Lady Miss Ian

BIO

The Hong Kong Blood Opera was formed in 2006 in the city of Hermosillo, Sonora (a close-to-the-border town known for it's lack of musical movement other than traditional "banda" and "norteño" music).
They released their debut "The Critical Paparazzi EP" (Noiselab Records) in mid 2007, having done some national tours, and regulary playing different mexican cities since then.


Throughout 2007 HBKO also performed as part of important musical festivals in Mexico like MX Beat where they shared stage with Dj Mehdi, Panico and The Whitest Boy Alive, and Motorokr Fest performing next to bands such as The Killers and Incubus.

The Punchy-punk quintet was invited to South By South West Music conference in Austin, Texas on March 2008, after having moved to live to Mexico City, and perfomed at a couple of International line-up gigs; the audience and international press response towards the band was effusively positive.

In June 08 VICE took them to play to NYC at one of their famous LIVE parties, choosing them to act too at their "VICE Mexico" launch together with Black Lips on july 08.

Between September and October 2008, the band successfully performed 4 european gigs: Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg, Germany with bands like Crystal Castles, Nada Surf and Sahara Hotnights; Sweden southern city of Malmö as part of Debasser Festival, and a couple of London dates at Camden’s Purple Turtle and Alan McGee’s Death Disco weekly party on Nothing Hill Arts Club.
Were also invited to the important CMJ Music Marathon in NY to play on oct 25th/08, having to unfortunately cancel due to external causes.

The HKBO played with The Hives at Mexico City’s Palacio de los Deportes on November 22nd '08, and Transmission Conference in Vancouver, Canada beginning of December.

Early 2009, they went to the studio to record their first LP, Not For The Faint Of Heart, which will be released by september 09.




“We wouldn’t really know what sets us apart from other bands. Some mexican media say that we just ‘do lots of screaming’ and that we ‘sing in English' but again, that doesn’t make us the only ones, there are many bands like us in other countries.
Maybe the one thing we actually think differentiate us from many others is that we don't take ourselves too seriously.”



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influences... our band is influenced by many art forms other than music, like Film most importantely, as well as literature and everyday life things like what we see in people around us and our country, our struggles and joys, etc... as far as musical influences i think several music styles that we listen to have an influence in our music like punk, post-punk, hardcore, old school hip-hop, dance, electronic music, salsa, and many other.. if we had to name artists that we all take as an influence they would be: Refused, Illya Kuryaki and the Valderramas, Dead Kennedys, Blood Brothers, The Hives, Daft Punk, Fugazi, The Locust, Joy Division, At the Drive-in, Tokyo Sex Destruction, among many others.
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A story that we can share would be one time when we were arrested by the U.S. border patrol, because we wer'e going to the states to watch a movie (Grindhouse) since our town is like a 3 hour drive from arizona...anyway I think they didn't believe we would be going to USA only to catch a movie.. then when they started to look in our bags and stuff, they found our vocalist Sebastian's prescription medicine that he takes for this condition he has.. but he didn't have the prescription so they arrested us and took his meds into the lab, somehow they decided that those pills were a new form of crack cocaine and forced him to throw them down the toilet so we could get in which doesn't make any sense...the movie was great and Sebastian was just shaking for a couple of days until we got back and bought the pills again... we named a song after that incident called "Crazy Mexican Scientists".

Instrumentation

Sebastián Samaniego - Vox, Synth and Percusion
Luis E. Andonaegui - Guitar and Percusion
Luis F. Alvarez - SynthBass, Vox and Percusion
Miguel Valdez - Drums
Memo Ibarra - Synth, Vocoder, Guitar, Sampler and Percusion

Discography

The Critical Paparazzi EP (2007)
Not For The Faint Of Heart (Coming very soon)

Audio

• Killing Joke
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• Disco Sucks
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• Hear You Scream
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• Blackout
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• Crazy Mexican Scientists
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• Fuck All DJ's (DEMO)
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• Fill Me Full Of Hate (DEMO)
  Listen   Download

Video

Photo Gallery

Press

• “ Noisy electro-rock! HKBO are my new favourite Mexican band”
  

• The Hong Kong Blood Opera is a mind-blowing, ear-melting, blast-furnace, band [+ Show ]
  

  The Hong Kong Blood Opera is a mind-blowing, ear-melting, blast-furnace, band from Hermosillo, Mexic...The Hong Kong Blood Opera is a mind-blowing, ear-melting, blast-furnace, band from Hermosillo, Mexico.
  This is a band that makes the crowds go beserk. Don’t take my word for it, You got to see them to believe it.
  Whoever goes to any of their gigs is in for an unexpected treat.
  I’ve seen them in person and they’re right up there with the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin as crowd ravers.
  Enjoy!

• These Guys Are Really Interesting [+ Show ]
  

  “If you like metal and electro, these guys are really interesting. I don’t even have a genre categor...“If you like metal and electro, these guys are really interesting. I don’t even have a genre category for this. Go ahead. Make one up. For all you hard rock Moggers out there.”
  

• NEW BAND OF THE DAY - Apr 27/09 [+ Show ]
  

  Imagine Phil Anselmo of Pantera jamming with LCD Soundsystem, or Steve Albini and Paul Epworth argui...Imagine Phil Anselmo of Pantera jamming with LCD Soundsystem, or Steve Albini and Paul Epworth arguing about who's going to produce the next Hives album.
  

• The Hong Kong Blood Opera are the new ÜBER-band from Mexico [+ Show ]
  

  Bang Bang You're Dead! Cold and precise. Like an old stylish Asian killer movie. But the Hong Kong B...Bang Bang You're Dead! Cold and precise. Like an old stylish Asian killer movie. But the Hong Kong Blood Opera are nothing like that. They are sweaty, full of emotions and very ecstatic. They're still stylish, though! But it's not the kind of cool menacing triad gang style. More like a red dressed chaotic latino all-over-the-place rock band style. Don't be fooled, The Hong Kong Blood Opera are the new ÜBER-band from Mexico. These guys are crazy and weird like Molotov but always true to their punk rock sound – think The (International) Noise Conspiracy meet The Hives on a Screamo band battle.
  The drums punch through the songs like a hungry swarm of rattle snakes on speed while singer Sebastián's angry voice fights a fierce battle with the wild synthies and psycho guitars (check out their songs “Killing Joke” and “Disco Sucks”and you'll know what we mean). Your ear will be pierced by so many punk rock bullets it'll make John Woo's “The Killer” look like the Teletubbies. The Hong Kong Blood Opera will play their first ever concert in Germany – so come and give them an unforgettable welcome!

• HYPE: It's what's next: HONG KONG BLOOD OPERA [+ Show ]
  

  THERE WILL BE BLOOD Synth-punks fight their way out of the Mexican underground. The Hong Kong B...THERE WILL BE BLOOD
  Synth-punks fight their way out of the Mexican
  underground.
  The Hong Kong Blood Opera were just a young rock act from the Mexican city of Hermosillo when it beat out 7,000 other contestants in a national Battle of the Bands two years ago. Apparently no one was more surprised by the win than the band itself.
  
  “We were a really weird band to win that kind of high profile Battle of the Bands,” says HKBO vocalist Sebastián Samaniego. “There were a lot of good, mellow pop-rock acts with really catchy radio songs. Most of them sounded like they’d do a lot better than us [commercially]. The judges could have chosen a band the sounded like the Killers, but instead they picked a noisy, messed-up band that sounds more like the Refused and the Blood Brothers.”
  
  Noiselab, a Mexican indie label, recently released the group’s debut, The Critical Paparazzi, and hopes to release a follow-up by year’s end. To be closer to the label, HKBO recently relocated to Mexico City where the synth-punk band also found bigger promotional opportunities opening for American acts like The Killers, Incubus and AFI. These pairings make sense, though, as all these bands are known for using such an ample palette of ideas and influences. HKBO even takes many of its cues from film and literature, including the origin of its name.
  
  “I like a lot of the John Woo movies like Hard-Boiled and The Killer, and the film genre is called ‘Hong Kong Blood Opera,’” explains Samaniego. “I’ve never heard it used for a band, and I think it goes really well with the music and aesthetic of the band. It’s like our little homage to those violent action movies from the ‘80s.”
  
  Elaborating on these influences, he adds, “We are really into film, and I’m personally really into horror films. We’ve tried to pay homage to these films in little ways. For example, we got the song title ‘Switchblade Romance’ from the French horror film High Tension.”
  
  The band, whose song highlights include “Hear You Scream” and “Killing Joke,” certainly isn’t the average Latin rock band. Besides their wide swath of non-musical influences, the group seems more akin to European punk and metal than anything on this side of the Atlantic. With a combination of metal-meets-LCD Soundsystem or the Refused on a Tijuana acid trip, it’s enough to make Samaniego look like the Mexican Chow Yun-Fat.
  
  

• A New Favorite band [+ Show ]
  

  "Hong Kong Blood Opera played out Debaser in Malmö (Sweden) like no one's ever done before.....They ..."Hong Kong Blood Opera played out Debaser in Malmö (Sweden) like no one's ever done before.....They mixed together the best in punk, hardcore and rocknroll, and did it with an energy and refinement that you don't find that often these days......Their liveshow was intense, sweaty, and in-your-face...... a new favorite band."
  

• "the best rock'n'roll band on the planet right now" [+ Show ]
  

  On Recreation Records :" which Andrew Chester is hailing "the first one EVER where the artist gets 1...On Recreation Records :" which Andrew Chester is hailing "the first one EVER where the artist gets 100% royalties" – for them and a few other bands. But if the rest – including the Hong Kong Blood Opera, who Chester describes as "the best rock'n'roll band on the planet right now" – are as good as Black Jackson, it might even start giving proper indie labels a good reputation."
  
  April 14, 2009.
  
  

• Bloody Good Music [+ Show ]
  

  "The Hong Kong Blood Opera played at the Nottinghill Artsclub and attacked it with viscious abandon ..."The Hong Kong Blood Opera played at the Nottinghill Artsclub and attacked it with viscious abandon throwing themselves at the music and the crowd like the young punks they are?..this would not be enough if the music wasn't so bloody good?..but it was!"

• "Insane, outrageous, excellent music, full of energy."
  

  ...

Setlist

our current set-list is:
1. Heat Rises
2. Cansei de ser Ganzta’
3. Bullet Ballet
4. Fuck all DJs
5. Disco Sucks
6. I Grind my Teeth
7. Fill me full of Hate
8. Switchblade Romance
9. Level 5 Song
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Hear you Scream


Our sets are usually 30 to 35 minutes , lasts no longer than 40 minutes, we believe a band shouldn't play more than one hour because it doesn't built the same kind of momentum and as great as a band can be it can get boring..also we believe that in live acts we must give 100% percent so we're always pretty exhausted after a half an hour of playing..we look up to bands that play this way, short and powerfull sets.. at least when we see a show like this makes us leave the show with a smile on our face.

Basic Requirements

Calendar