[dropcap size=big]C[/dropcap]hicano Batman's É Arenas Thursday released a cumbia 45 celebrating an L.A. institution: Original Tommy's, known by its street name Tommy's Burgers. The 7" record is called La Fila de Tommy's (or the line at Tommy's) and features two tracks dedicated to the 73-year-old chili burger specialist. It's also available for digital download here.
"I'm really happy with it," Arenas said in an interview with L.A. Taco. "It's a really fun project and I'm really excited to keep evolving in this direction." Arenas is having a record release party on 4/20 at the Moroccan Lounge in Little Tokyo.
Side A of the record features what Arenas calls a "cumbia-quebradita" also titled "La Fila de Tommy's." The song sounds like something you'd catch at La Boom in Huntington Park in the early aughts. The lyrics pay homage to many L.A. neighborhood Tommy's – sort of like "California Love" but with quebraditas and a shoutout to Huntington Park. "If Rick James were playing cumbia-quebraditas in early 90s Los Angeles backyard parties, this is what they'd sound like," Arenas explains.
The horn section is incredible and manic, and the tempo is frenetic. And it's sung in the style of a Banda El Recodo jam sped way up, with lines like, "Aquí en mi pueblo, hay un lugar, que cuando ganan Los Doyers, vamos a celebrar." That translates loosely to, "Here in my hood, there's a place where we go celebrate when the Dodgers win."