We have had a very good winter so far with awesome shows in New York City and Philadelphia. Sadly our performance at AS220 in Providence was cancelled due to a winter storm, but we hope to reschedule real soon. But we have a number of upcoming winter performances that we are excited about! We will be performing in Taina Asili’s hometown, Binghamton, NY on Feb. 10th at the Cyber Cafe West. On Feb. 19th in Saratoga Springs, NY we will be performing at the 25th Anniversary of the Furry Festival, a phenomenal winter weekend for dancers & music lovers of all ages. And on March 2nd we will be performing at The Gallery in Stamford, NY. Check out all of our upcoming shows and details here.

We had a POWERFUL 2011, touring from Seattle to Philadelphia and many places in between, meeting incredible people and experiencing profound work along the way. Now it’s time to gear up for 2012! We look forward to returning to places we’ve been and traveling to new ones. An important way we book shows is through word of mouth from our friends and fans. Please let us know if you can help bring us to your venue, college, festival, conference, or social justice event. For booking email info@tainaasili.com

Taina Asili y la Banda Rebelde, come together on the Sanctuary stage once again with a festive night in honor of our Ancestors. In light of the recent execution of Troy Davis, we must keep even closer to our heart those we have lost in the struggle for Peace and Justice. Let us celebrate their lives, their Spirit, and let the Love be the fuel that moves us forward!

This festive night is inspired by the Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) holiday and will feature Taina Asili y la Banda Rebelde. Powerful vocals by Puerto Rican vocalist Taina Asili laid over an energetic fusion of Afro-Caribbean, reggae, rock, and hip hop sounds, la Banda Rebelde’s music fill listeners with the fervor of freedom and inspire audiences to dance to the movement of rebellion. The night will also include a virtual altar, as well as special guests including: silk trapeze performance by Leah Penniman; flamenco dance by Brattleboro, VT based dancer Nina Kunimoto; puppetry/dance by Rijah Newell from Norway, ME; and tabla performance by Indian classical musician Devesh Chandra.
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We had an incredible time at our mini tour in the Pacific Northwest this May. We performed in Portland, OR at the beautiful Alberta Rose Theatre, with Pacha Pamwe. Next we went to Seattle, WA where we performed at The Scarlet Tree, along with Seattle’s Afro-fusion group Highlife. And then we went out to OUT/LOUD Queer Music Festival at WOW Hall in Eugene where we performed alongside some incredible artists such as Nicole Sangsuree, Melissa Li and the Barely Theirs, God-Des and She, and Tender Forever. We finished our tour with a return to Portland for a workshop on political prisoners Mumia Abu-Jamal and Leonard Peltier at The Variant. We also had some incredible adventures outside of our performances, including beautiful visits to the San Juan Islands in Washington and the Willamette National Forest in Oregon. Thank you to everyone who set up a show for us, helped promote, and attended our concert. Check out pictures of our adventure on Facebook.

We are happy to release our first ever music video! The video was a true community project, filmed in Albany, NY and Philadelphia, PA. It was filmed by Director of Photography Victoria Kereszi as well as Kelsey Lane, Jay Wilcox, Chelsea Kereszi (volunteers from the Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy, NY) and Youth FX (a youth film program in Albany, NY). Post production was by Mark Carranceja of Noisemaker Media based in New York City. Hope you enjoy!

One year after the release of our debut album War Cry, Taina Asili y la Banda Rebelde will be celebrating the premier of our NEW MUSIC VIDEO for the song “It’s In Our Hands”.  The special community made music video was filmed by volunteers from The Sanctuary for Independent Media, including Director of Photography Victoria Kereszi, as well as volunteers from YouthFX. It was then edited by Noisemaker Media in NYC, who are well-known for their work with independent artists such as The Readnex Poetry Squad. We will be premiering our music video release on Sat. April 9th at The Red Square, 388 Broadway, Albany, 9pm. Joining us will be Ithaca’s Afro-hiphop-funk-soul band Thousands of One (and other special guests). AND we will be singing in solidarity with all those demonstrating across the country on April 9 earlier that day against “the wars at home and abroad”. Please join us for this very special occasion! After April 9th you can check out our new music video on our website…

Check out this GREAT profile article from the Preview section of the Press & Sun Bulletin in Binghamton, NY written by Chris Kocher: http://bit.ly/g2OQ6v

“When it comes to embracing influences from all over the map, Taina Asili y La Banda Rebelde are practically a United Nations of music.”

We had an wild summer this 2010, filled with amazing shows and festivals! We traveled up and down the east coast this summer taking the stage alongside some incredible artists and in front of many energy-filled audiences. We opened our summer performances with our second feature at Capital Pride in our hometown of Albany, NY. There was a magical mist that surrounded the hundreds of audiences members who danced to our music. Our next stop was across the Hudson river in Troy, NY at the River Street Festival where we performed alongside Grammy Award winner Paula Cole. Days later we traveled to Detroit, MI to join thousands of others in attending the US Social Forum, where sang and danced for social justice. In July we attended the Grassroots Festival in Ithaca, NY where Taina Asili joined the stage with Dine rock band Blackfire in an awesome rendition of their song “Common Ground”. We also took two awesome trips out to Maine to perform at several events including the Norway Arts Festival and the Be Here Now Festival. What an incredible trip it was to perform on such gorgeous land for such warm people (and we are coming back this Oct. for the Harvest Festival)! We also hit another stop in New England at Boston GreenFest with an incredible line-up of international artist including  Mamadou, guitarist from Mali. Towards the end of the summer we headed right back to where we began with a 3 hour performance at Albany’s First Friday. But our final show of the summer made it complete with our long awaited return to NYC with a powerful packed house show at Camaradas del Barrio in Harlem, featuring a guest performance by Naima Penniman on our song “She Lives”. It was definitely a summer not to forget, and we look forward to another wild and beautiful summer of festivals and awesome shows in 2011!

This July, 2010 we began the long awaited process of shooting our debut music video. The video was shot in two locations, Albany, NY and Philadelphia, PA, which are both very meaningful “homes” for Taina Asili. Both film shoots were led by our incredible Director of Photography Victoria Kereszi, along with other filmmakers affiliated with the Sanctuary for Independent Media. For the first shoot in Albany, NY we had volunteer local young people from the YouthFX program assist with the b-role footage for the shoot. They did an excellent job! We also had an excellent turn out of community members from around Albany to participate in the footage. For the second half of our film shoot we traveled to Taina Asili’s old stomping grounds in Philly where we shot on Baltimore Ave. in West Philly, 5th St. in North Philly and in front of City Hall in Center City. Check out our Vlog from our Philadelphia shoot:

Look out for our upcoming video release this fall!

Check out this EXCELLENT profile article  about us by Josh Potter in the Metroland, the Capital Region’s Alternative News Weekly.

Urban Guerrillas http://metroland.net/back_issues/vol33_no29/listen_here.html

“In an era when irony is often synonymous with artistry and success is determined by how long bands remain favorable in the blogosphere, it can be a risky move for a musician to espouse the belief that “music can change the world.” But for Taína Asili, leader of la Banda Rebelde (or, the Rebel Band), she doesn’t hesitate.”