Los Abandoned were an American

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

band from the Los Angeles, California area. The band's lyrics were in Spanish and English, or a combination of the two known as

Spanglish Spanglish (a portmanteau of the words "Spanish" and "English") is any language variety (such as a contact dialect, hybrid language, pidgin, or creole language) that results from conversationally combining Spanish and English. The term is mos ...

. Their biggest hits were "Panic-oh!," "Van Nuys (es Very Nice)," and "Stalk U." They released two EPs and one LP, and in 2005, were signed with

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay ...

's Vapor Records. The band performed with artists such as Zoé,

Café Tacuba Café Tacvba (Pronounced ''kaˈfe taˈkuβa'') is a band from Ciudad Satélite, Mexico. The group gained popularity in the early 1990s. They were founded in 1989, before they had the current lineup of Rubén Isaac Albarrán Ortega (lead vocals, ...

The Breeders The Breeders are an American alternative rock band based in Dayton, Ohio, consisting of members Kim Deal (rhythm guitar, lead vocals), her twin sister Kelley Deal (lead guitar, vocals), Josephine Wiggs (bass guitar, vocals) and Jim Macpherson ...

Calexico Calexico () is a city in southern Imperial County, California. Situated on the Mexican border, it is linked economically with the much larger city of Mexicali, the capital of the Mexican state of Baja California. It is about east of San Diego ...

Julieta Venegas Julieta Venegas Percevault (; born November 24, 1970) is an American-born Mexican singer, songwriter, instrumentalist and producer who sings pop-rock-indie in Spanish. She went on to join several bands including Mexican ska band Tijuana No!. Ven ...

, Molotov, and Aterciopelados, and participated in the

South by Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...

festival in

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

, Texas. In 2005 they participated in the Latin Alternative Music Conference on the Santa Monica Pier, along with Ely Guerra and

Andrea Echeverri Andrea Echeverri Arias (born September 13, 1965) is a Colombian rock/ pop singer and guitarist. She holds a degree in Fine Arts from University of Los Andes and was a ceramist before becoming a musician. She is the lead singer in Aterciopelados ...

. They also opened the Bridge School Benefit for

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

, and the

Red Hot Chili Peppers Red Hot Chili Peppers are an American rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1983, comprising vocalist Anthony Kiedis, bassist Flea (musician), Flea, drummer Chad Smith, and guitarist John Frusciante. Their music incorporates element ...

. On October 5, 2007, the band released a statement on their Myspace page, saying that they had decided to go their separate ways. Their final show was a free performance on October 7, 2007, at TarFest, a film, music, and art festival held at the

La Brea Tar Pits La Brea Tar Pits is an active paleontological research site in urban Los Angeles. Hancock Park was formed around a group of tar pits where natural asphalt (also called asphaltum, bitumen, or pitch; ''brea'' in Spanish) has seeped up from the gro ...

. Not long after the breakup,

Gustavo Arellano Gustavo Arellano is an American writer and journalist. He is a featured contributor for the ''Los Angeles Times'' and the former publisher and editor of Orange County's alternative weekly ''OC Weekly''. He is most notable as the author of the c ...

wrote that Los Abandoned "reflected the postmodern Latino experience better than any band ever."

Members

Chilean American Chilean Americans ( es, chileno-americanos, ''chileno-estadounidenses'', or ) are Americans who have full or partial origin from Chile. The Chilean population from the U.S. census was 126,810. In the United States, Chileans are the fourth sma ...

Lady P (Pilar Díaz a.k.a. María del Pilar) was the lead singer of Los Abandoned, and played the

ukulele The ukulele ( ; from haw, ukulele , approximately ), also called Uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii. It generally employs four nylon strings. The tone and volume of the instrumen ...

, keyboards and rhythm guitar. She was the creative force behind the songwriting, in conjunction with lead guitarist Don Verde. Vira Lata played the bass guitar, and Dulce, the last addition to the band, played the drums.

Discography

* ''Demotape'' (2002) EP * ''Los Abandoned'' (2004) EP * ''Office Xmas Party'' (2005) 7 in. Vinyl * ''Mix Tape'' (2006)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abandoned, Los American pop music groups Rock music groups from California Alternative rock groups from California Musical groups established in 2001 Musical groups disestablished in 2007 2001 establishments in California Female-fronted musical groups