Las Malas Amistades

Las Malas Amistades (which translates as "the Bad Friends) are an indie band from Colombia whose music incorporates folk instrumentation, indie electronic beats, no-budget keyboards, a lo-fi production sensibility and influences ranging from Colombian folk music to Tropicalia to post punk to pop. Founded in 1994 by a group of university students in Bogota, Colombia, the band made its full-length album with La Música de las Malas Amistades (1999), an independent release that is a compilation of home recordings from 1994-1999. Several years later, after the bandmembers had dispersed, they reunited in Bogota to record their second album, Jardín Interior (2005). The album was released by the New York-based indie label Psych-o-Path Records, which also re-released the band's debut; meanwhile, it was released a year later in Europe by the London-based label Honest Jon's Records. Las Malas Amistades subsequently released Patio Bonito in (2007), via Honest Jon's Records in Europe and on their own independent label, Las Malas Grabaciones, in Colombia. It took the band another four years to record Maleza, and another six months to mix it. The album was finally released in the summer of 2012. ~ Jason Birchmeier, Rovi