MtyMx's Autocinema Las Torres, at night. All photos by Rebecca Smeyne.

​NYC promoter Todd Patrick's MtyMx festival wrapped late yesterday morning in Monterrey, Mexico's Yo Garage, the erstwhile after-party spot for three days of Brooklyn madness in another country entirely. Our report can be found here. Photographer Rebecca Smeyne was also there, arriving Sunday night from Austin after a 24-hour battle with various shuttle buses and border guards. The full slideshow from her trip can be found here; in the meantime, below are a few particularly poignant ones from an adventure few attendees are likely to forget anytime soon.

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​We've heard plenty about Todd P's MtyMx fiesta from the American perspective, but given the crowd's sizable Mexican component, what's their take? Thank god for social media, and four years of high school Spanish!

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So, uh. To recap: Todd's MytMx fest in Monterrey, Mexico, rages on today, despite some transportation issues and several prominent band cancellations. Great to see things are rolling along, though here he is onstage with the always-jovial Dan Deacon ("Who wants to live forever?"), discussing those cancellations, the texts he received from concerned mothers, etc. Someone in the crowd shouts "Pussies!" and Todd does not disagree: "Yes, they all thought they were gonna die." Given the apparent logistical hurdles involved in getting there, though -- especially from Austin, via buses that frequently never materialized -- that may be oversimplifying slightly. In any event, this would explain the #pussybands hashtag.

The mythical tents arrive. Pic by Zach Baron.

​The good news: Todd P is now personally presiding over his wildly ambitious, somewhat flawed three-day DIY-rock fete out in Monterrey, Mexico, which ends late tonight, perhaps mercifully. Took him awhile to get there, though: Evidently he spent hours and hours at the border, as customs folks looked askance at his attempt to pass through with 300 military-issue tents at a time when the warring, increasingly murderous drug cartels who've made the area remarkably unsafe lately sometimes impersonate military personnel.

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​XYX, the junkyard noise-punk, drum-n-bass duo from Monterrey, Mexico, can be heard live this weekend at Todd P's MtyMx Festival, which is being held in XYX's hometown. The duo consists of Mou, 27, on drums, and Anhelo, 29 on bass and vocals; they formed back in 2007, when the two ran their own separate record labels, Nene Records and Penetración Cósmica Tapes. One way to differentiate XYX from the loads of bands playing MtyMx, they tell us, is to listen for Anhelo singing "weird stuff about sex and obscure things." Another way? Just follow the "psychedelic frenzy." We called XYX up to ask what else the rest of us can expect when we finally make it down to Monterrey.

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Take a guided tour of Carlos's Mexico City house here.

The genius of Todd P's MtyMx Festival this weekend is that he's introducing all of us to a gang of Mexican bands we probably wouldn't otherwise hear. Like Quiero Club, who we interviewed last week, or Los Fancy Free, a psych-garage foursome that the Fader singled out two years ago as a centerpiece of whatever was then the "Mexico City rock scene." Or more specifically, Los Fancy Free's drummer Carlos Icaza, who also happens to be one of the most prolific young drummers in Mexico City, splitting his time with psych-surf Las Comadrejas, '60s-throwbacks El Pan Blanco, and synth goofs Evil Hippie. Just in the last year, Icaza's been in Los Angeles recording with the likes of Jimmy Tamborello, jamming in Chicago with members of Bury My Teeth, and DJing "wild and crazy mexican RnR-soul-punk-psych-funk-tropical-grooves" under the nickname Tropicaza.

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The MtyMx site in Monterrey.

​We've taken a certain amount of joy in mocking the terrified teenagers and timid, jingoistic bloggers who greeted the announcement of Todd P's MtyMx Festival in Monterrey, Mexico, with the type of hysteria normally reserved for frothing nutjobs like Arizona-based "America's Toughest Sheriff" Joe Arpaio. That said, the timing here is not exactly working out--the State Department issued a warning this morning to Americans traveling to Mexico after several U.S. citizens were murdered in Ciudad Juarez and police officers were gunned down in Acapulco. "The State Department warns of cartel and drug trafficking-related firefights and shootings in Tijuana, Chihuahua City, Nogales, Matamoros, Reynosa and Monterrey," reports the Phoenix Business Journal. In one gruesome incident cited by the Telegraph, "a victim had his face skinned and stitched on to a football" back in January, though not in Monterrey. However.

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​Chances are if you're not going to local promoter Todd P's MtyMx Festival--the DIY indie-rock gathering happening in Monterrey, Mexico next week--you'll never get to see Quiero Club live. Along with their counterparts Kinky and Plastilina Mosh, the electro-pop quintet have become local heroes in Monterrey, playing various festivals throughout Mexico, and releasing two records since their inception in 2002. Nueva America, their latest, was released in 2008 and got them a spot as openers for Depeche Mode last fall at the massive Foro Sol arena in Mexico City, where they performed in front of 60,000 people. But unlike Kinky or Plastilina Mosh, Quiero Club doesn't have the financial backing to tour outside of Mexico. As frontman Gustavo Mauricio, 32, tells us, the MtyMx Festival is like a blessing because as of now, the only way to see Quiero Club is to come to them. So we did.

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Mexico's Drug Wars, huh

​Now now, Todd, we kid, we kid. The emergent storyline of terrified teenagers and jingoistic blog commenters terrified of going south of South 2nd Street versus Todd P and the assembled forces of grown-ups like the Overseas Security Advisory Council has been sort of fascinating to watch unfold, though it confirms every lousy stereotype on the planet regarding entitled indie rock fans. My guess is any number of places in this country are far, far more dangerous for rich and oblivious white kids than Monterrey, Mexico. Like the man says: "These are high level goons killing one another in their own hideaways. As a dirtbag indie rocker kid crossing the border, you're not going to stand out from all of the like, frat boys crossing to buy pills and get drunk underage." In fact, if you're one of these clowns who's all, "hope everyone gets there and back without getting murdered, hahaha!", you probably are one of those frat boys. Man up, internet people! If Neon Indian can survive down there than so can you.

​Think MtyMx, the polyglot, three-day, late March music festival Todd Patrick has planned for Monterrey, Mexico, is for you, Brooklyn Hipster? Think again. "We're not banking on a huge amount of, let's say, gringos, crossing the border," Patrick told WNYU on Monday. "It's a festival in Mexico, and it's for Mexicans." And though he's been coy about it, MtyMx is indeed SXSW counter-programming--the festivals, which will take place on opposite sides of the border, share the weekend of March 20-21. "I kind of got wind that South by Southwest was planning devious things to stymie us this year. And so I decided why give them the pleasure of that, and instead started thinking about something better," he told the radio station. "The South By people routinely, let's just say, inform the authorities in Austin about things that they think are of dubious legality."

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