For Tasche de la Rocha, whose personal brand of swinging soul and psychedelic doo wop has been a staple in New Orleans for 15 years, it was the city itself that triggered her artistic coming of age. Born to a family of circus performers in Oregon, more vaudeville than P.T. Barnum, de la Rocha’s first experience with New Orleans was as a volunteer in the aftermath of Katrina. Walking the streets of the French Quarter, it wasn’t music that transfixed her but the city, beckoning that she might one day return. At the time, music was not a source of expression for De la Rocha; in fact, nothing was. As the only member of her eclectic and talented family without an act, De la Rocha’s attempts at several circus adjacent skills, including ladder dancing and trapeze, were short-lived, leaving her to consider that perhaps the art in her heart might never be fully expressed.
“It was a bummer,” said De la Rocha. “I kept thinking, I don’t know what the heck I’m doing here. Then music fell on me unexpectedly. There was this family friend who was also a member of the circus I grew up in, who wrote an album just before she passed away. There was a song called ‘Moon Lullaby’ that I kept singing over and over. Finally recorded myself on a crusty tape recorder, just to kill time. Then I listened back and actually liked how I sounded.”
Bolstered by the iridescent assurance of a new artist finding her footing, De la Rocha returned to the French Quarter and dedicated herself to the chaotic life of a street busker. Her tutelage in how to be a performer was swift and merciless as she honed her trade for an endless stream of strangers and tourists. Through this laborious process, she was able to not only discover her own style but tap into the rhythm inherent to New Orleans, a foundational stepping stone toward becoming the performer she aspired to.
“I started by offering Jello shots and playing music, thinking that maybe if the audience didn’t want one, they’d want the other,” De la Rocha said. “Back then, I was singing ‘sad girl blues’ and didn’t believe in my music very much. It was the other buskers who helped me understand what people wanted: a beat and an excuse to celebrate sadness. They’d stomp their feet in the street, showing me the rhythm, and that’s how I first learned to find the groove.”
De la Rocha’s inherent “Portland” sound transfigured itself on those French Quarter streets into something as soulful as it is mournful and as ecstatic as it is explosive, a big band battle cry. Her debut album from 2022, “Tasche and the Psychedelic Roses,” gives life to the inherent madness of a post-pandemic world, a collective insanity we have yet to awake from. As a screed against a modern world mid-collapse with a throwback flair, De la Rocha, alongside her bandmates and background singers known affectionately as “The Angels” cackle, swoon, and ride the waves of dynamic surf rock, wailing with an echoey transcendence that feels somehow both transgressive and comforting.
Today, De la Rocha is as sure of her artistry as ever and means to translate that purpose toward more eclectic and dynamic projects in the very near future. While she can be found performing around New Orleans and is priming a new album for a 2027 release, De la Rocha is also composing the soundtrack for a theoretical film about Harpo Marx. That the opening track for this album, telling the story of space-bound Harpo in the throes of mad love, came to her in the twilight zone between sleep and waking is only appropriate. That cross-section of tranquil dreams and waking nightmares, both real and imagined, is where Tasche de la Rocha feels most at home, spinning a primal phantasmagoria that beats with the sound of sadness, rage, and grace; a siren song of New Orleans beckoning us all back home where we belong.
Must-see performances this month
July 5 | Kevin Gates, 8 p.m. at The Fillmore, thefillmorenola.com
July 9 | Hatebreed + Devourment + Snuffed on Sight + Balmora + Face Yourself, 6 p.m. at Tipitina’s, tipitinas.com
July 23 | Tomahawk, 7 p.m. at the House of Blues, neworleans.houseofblues.com
July 25 | Lord Huron, 8 p.m. at the Saenger Theatre, saengernola.com
