Chicano Batman is your sonic outlet from the monotonous back into the soul. Ethnomusicologists in their own right, they are students of rhythm, globe trotting on a quest to reclaim and represent the musical roots of their past generations. Drawing from a broad range of 60s and early 70s Brazilian bossa nova and samba, spacey psychedelia, slow-jam soul with a pinch of surf-rock cumbia, the quartet uniforms their act in retro ruffled-tuxedo shirts from a thrift store near you. Chicano Batman is more than a musical force but an adventurous and opinionated superhero who feeds off of community, afro-centricity and bolillos, on a mission to bring the overlooked to the forefront.

The Boogaloo Assassins’ name might hint at homicide, but their efforts are strictly life-saving. Dedicated to re-creating and re-interpreting the boogaloo craze that swept East Harlem, the Latin Caribbean and South America from 1965 to 1969, the Los Angeles nine-piece band attempts to do to R&B, doo-wop, Afro-Caribbean jazz and salsa fusion what the Dap Kings do to classic Stax soul.