Finding Los Abandoned

“Pilar Diaz is on stage at the Troubadour in relatively tony West Hollywood, singing about a lower middle-class suburb over the hill. “Van Nuys es very nice/but it’s not paradise,” she chants as a group of five Latinas at the center of the floor pump their fists in unison.

Diaz knows it well. Nearly two decades ago, she relocated to Van Nuys from her native Chile. In 2004, “Van Nuys es Very Nice” became a surprise hit for her band, Los Abandoned, in Mexico City. Less than a year later, Los Abandoned found itself playing alongside heroes Café Tacuba in front of a crowd of 60,000 at the Vive Latino festival in Mexico. Nowadays, the three-minute blast of punky energy is occasionally waking up listeners of KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic.”

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