The Band fronted by the legendary force behind Spy-Fi Records Ed Artigas.

Link to band website or contact - http://spy-firecords.com

Biography

Citylink Music Issue 2002 12/11/2002
BY JAKE CLINE

When Ed Artigas launched Spy-fi Records in 1998, he was following through on a promise he’d been making to himself and others practically since he’d discovered the music of bands such as New Order and the Pixies as a teenager.

Born in Bolivia to Cuban parents, Artigas grew up in South Florida, but after graduating from a St. Louis boarding school, he found himself in Sacramento, Calif., “going to school, playing in three bands, working three jobs.” Although he ended up in the company of people with a similar taste for non-mainstream rock ’n’ roll, Artigas soon learned that California’s liberal reputation doesn’t necessarily extend to its musicians. “In Sacramento, there’s no place to play. You’d have a tough time convincing a bar owner to let you do an indie night there,” he says.

So Artigas returned to South Florida, took a look around and realized the time for inaction had passed. “I’d been threatening to start a label for a long time,” the now-33-year-old musician recalls. “When I came back from California, Space Cadette [Records] was doing their thing; they were more specialized in art rock. For straight-up indie rock, there wasn’t anything going on.”

Soon after getting old Sacramento pal Andrew Lillie to release a split 7-inch single by Artigas’ band Spark Chamber and local indie-scene favorite Machete on his Big Dis Records, Artigas began promoting a single titled “Traffican’t” by the Miami noise-rock outfit Monotract. The band had already released the single itself, but with permission of the members of Monotract, Artigas affixed a Spy-fi label to the record and sent about 100 copies of it to college radio stations across the country. Monotract got negligible attention for the effort, but Artigas was hooked. “I just gave the label a name and away it went,” he says.

To date, Spy-fi’s output has been modest but impressive, including the debut EP from Broward County shoegazers Whirlaway; an EP from now-defunct rockers Argentina; two releases from Artigas’ experimental alter ego, Zira; the much-sought-after and out-of-print swan song from Machete; an album by Baby Grand, a sweet-sounding, Sacramento-based pop trio; and the debut CD from Artigas’ scrappy punk quartet Bling Bling, for which he plays drums.

The label consumes whatever free time Artigas has when he’s not: A) working his day job at a company that clears items through the U.S. Customs Agency; B) booking the monthly Spy-fi Saturdays at the Billabong Pub in Pembroke Park; C) organizing multiband tribute concerts to acts such as the Pixies, The Smiths and Dinosaur Jr.; D) rehearsing or performing with Bling Bling; or E) compiling ideas for a forthcoming Web zine titled The Spy-fi Guide to Getting a Clue (www.spy-fi.net).

“Ideally I’d like to break even,” Artigas says of his admittedly small record company. “People are like, ‘Record labels, they make all this money.’ But they forget about the advertising and the packaging. Spy-fi has been a partnership with the bands; it’s about helping people who more than likely would have their music still sitting in their houses.”

Along with Miami’s Evol Egg Nart (The Curious Hair, Alex Diaz), West Palm Beach’s TheHoneycomb.com (Remember the Ocean, Pank Shovel), Hollywood’s Purple Skunk (Irish Car Bomb, Anchorman) and Deerfield Beach’s Ant Lunch Musick (Baby Robots, Boxcar Timmy), Artigas’ label gives lie to the notion that South Florida’s indie-rock scene is as much a figment of the public’s imagination as the Skunk Ape, fair elections and environmentally sensitive developers.

Yet Artigas is no mindless cheerleader. He’s pragmatic-enough to realize that the evolution and survival of the local music scene depends more on the musicians themselves than the labels, press or fans who support them. “I think there’s a lot of opportunity here that you can’t get anywhere else. People are willing to give you a break here,” he notes. “[Yet] I wouldn’t say the scene is full-fledged. We don’t have enough bands to call it healthy. I don’t really see enough bands popping up.”

As for those bands that do arise, there’s one sure way to catch Artigas’ attention and perhaps end up recording for Spy-fi: You need to have “a certain amount of pop. It’s about the songs,” he admits. “I’m really a song-oriented person.”

Bling Bling members: Ivan F.M. (vocals, guitar), Jaffee (guitar, keyboards), Kiki La Rocca (bass), Ed Artigas (drums, vocals)

Comments: Don’t be misled by the slangy, hip-hop-derived name: Bling Bling’s music is about as jiggy as the Pixies’ Surfer Rosa, which, by the way, is a touchstone for this punchy, sarcastic, indie-punk quartet from Miami. On songs such as “Ubsessiv Kompulsiv” and “K.O.D.E. R.E.D.D.,” singer-guitarist Ivan’s stuffed-up vocals suggest a cross between Thurston Moore and Jonathan Richman. Last year, the group released a fun, frantic six-song EP titled Always Give Candy to Strangers on drummer Artigas’ increasingly interesting label Spy-fi Records.

Branching Out
Posted on Fri, Sep. 19, 2003
BY RENE ALVAREZ

Local indie god Ed Artigas, head of Spy-Fi Records and drummer for Bling Bling, is always up to something. Currently working on the finishing touches for the new Bling Bling album, Artigas takes a little break to perform his own stuff with his sort-of-solo project, Zira. It's clunky, huggable indie fare; Zira's melodic servings stay with you a long time. You can download the EP Lowtech at www.Spy-FiRecords.com. Then go see Zira live Saturday, September 20, at PopLife at I/O.

Nothing is more heartwarming to me than a band doing it on their own. Local Latin rock band Sóniko released their first CD Kombustion -- a crispy Brit rock influenced collection of songs -- on August 28. With the Beatles pouring out from its pores, Kombustion is a happy foray into alterna-pop, but it's not without its experimentations: sitar, groove oriented rhythms, and melodic modulations reminiscent of the first British invasion.

Sóniko is also the focus of an on-going feature at LaMusica.com , a Latin music magazine on the Web. It's called Rock Band en la Mira (roughly translated: Rock Band Under Surveillance) and it'll be chronicling the work, heartbreaks, and triumphant joy of the band as it weaves its way through the music industry. And weaving its way is the band's single ''Los Muebles del Planeta de Los Simios'' (The Furniture on the Planet of the Apes), which has gotten play on MTV Latino. This week, you can catch Sóniko live, opening for Amigos Invisibles on Friday, September 19, at La Covacha (10730 NW 25th St., Miami; 305-594-3717). The show starts at 8 p.m., cover is $25, and it's an 18-and-over show. For more info, go to www.Soniko.net.
Best Indie-Rock Band: Bling Bling

Rekindling indie-pop fun is what Bling Bling is all about. The four members of this group, formed in the summer of 2001, threaten to have fun and take the whole world with them. Ivan Choo Baby is electricity on the mike, Kiki La Rocca slaps the bass silly, Jonathan Sensitivity trumps zigzagging melodies, and Black Angus handles drum beats and background vocals. They sound along the lines of indie acts like the Pixies, Pavement, and Archers of Loaf. The past few years have been spent dominating clubs and one-nighters like Poplife and Revolver. Recording and releasing their six-song debut EP, Always Give Candy to Strangers, was a shot in the arm for the local indie-rock scene, but don't worry, the syringe was clean. — MIAMI NEW TIMES BEST OF ISSUE 2003

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