San Diego Reader

Eric Nielsen: Guitar (acoustic), Guitar (electric), Keyboards

Genre: Noise | Xprmntl, Rock

RIYL: Buzz or Howl

Upcoming Local Shows

Related Links:

• Blurt: "Beyond the Observable Universe"

Synoposis

Inception: San Diego, 1995

Influences: Earthless, HighMountain Tempel, Riververb, Mainliner, AMT, Buzz or Howl

Background:

Mystic-pop trio Maquiladora was founded in 1995, with Eric Nielsen (High Mountain Tempel) and his Buzz or Howl bandmate Bruce McKenzie, along with Phil Beaumont (later to become principal of the Children’s Museum school in Banker’s Hill). The band recorded and performed for around eleven years before taking an extended break.

“Our last Maquiladora show was at the Penguin House in Tokyo in the summer of 2006,” says cofounder Nielsen. “After Japan, we decided to take a break and see where we were.”

Phil Beaumont started a band with his wife Yuko, Dmitri Dziensuwski, and Matt Resovich called Little White Teeth, recording their debut album with Pall Jenkins. Bruce McKenzie played Broadway in The Farnsworth Invention, while Nielsen began teaching at Lincoln High School’s Center for Social Justice.

Maquiladora regrouped in 2010 to record a new album, Wirikuta. “It’s 70+ minutes of blissed-out California experimental meditations on an existence beyond the observable universe and the simple rituals of love,” says Nielsen. The album includes performances by Charles Curtis (La Monte Young), Glenn Donaldson (Skygreen Leopards), Steven R. Smith (Thujua and Ulaan Khol), and Krista Nielsen (Chinchilla), among others.

The band also toured in 2010, sans Beaumont.