Argentine punk

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Argentine punk is a musical genre. The term applies loosely to any variety of punk from Argentina.

[edit] 1976 - 1983: The Military Dictatorship Years

1976 is the year in which punk music started to sound in the UK with bands like the Sex Pistols and The Clash, while in Argentina the military dictatorship known as Proceso de Reorganización Nacional began. The represive policy of the military government to the dissidents often led to kidnapping (desaparecidos), torture them death in illegal concentration camps.

Considering the political background, the first years of the Argentinian punk music are poorly documented, mainly because it took place in an extremely underground scene. Because of this adverse context, the birth of punk rock in Argentina has an heroic and almost mythical status.

The first Argentinian punk bands were:

• Los Laxantes (1979-1983): the band featured Félix Sagnia (bass) and Gamexane (guitar) among their members; both of them would later become the founding members of Todos Tus Muertos in 1985. The band only recorded a demo.

• Los Baraja (1981-1984): the sound of the band was close to the Sex Pistols. The members of the band were Basura (drums), Alejandro (bass), Marcelo "Vil Baraja" Montolivo (Guitar), Marcelo Poca Vida (voice). Poca Vida would later become a member of the punk band Cadáveres de Niños.

• Los Testículos (1979-1981): it is said that this band offered the first Punk gig in Argentina in the year 1979. The band featured among its members Hari B., Stuka and Sergio Gramática. The three of them were the founding members of Los Violadores.

• Los Violadores (1981-present): the band was the result of the meeting between Pil Trafa (voice) with the members of Los Testículos. The band would become the most important and influential of the early punk bands in Argentina, probably because it recorded several albums and managed to stay together unlike several other bands. Their aesthetics were based on the movie A Clockwork Orange, and their early lyrics would often critizise the military dictatorship even during the time of repression.

The songs "1, 2, Ultraviolento" (also inspired on the movie A Clockwork Orange) and "Represión" became very much like official anthems of the Argentinian punk scene.

• Sumo (1981-1987): Sumo has never been a "punk" band, nor they wanted to be considered as such, yet it had among its enthusiasts most of the early Argentinian punks. The singer of the band, Luca Prodan, had lived in the United Kingdom until 1981 and had experienced the birth of punk movement there. Their style was a strange mix of the punk sound of The Clash, The reggae music of Bob Marley, the post-punk of Joy Division (Prodan used to be a close friend of Ian Curtis), and the experimental rock of The Velvet Underground. Their importance in the History of Argentinian Punk is that they brought new styles of music to the ears of the local punks, that would later influence many bands that came after them.

[edit] 1983-1990

When the military government finished in 1983 and Raúl Alfonsín's Democratic Government (1983-1989) started, a new generation of punk bands was born. An important album for these years was a compillation called "Invasión 88" (published by Radio Tripoli Records) which was released in 1988, a year in which several punk groups started to become more popular and yet most of them were still unable to release an album due to economical circumstances. Invasión 88 featured songs by early punk bands which had already split up like Los Laxantes and Los Baraja; and newer groups like Attaque 77, Exeroica, Rigidez Kadaverica, Flema, División Autista and Conmoción Cerebral. Nevetheless, the album suffered the fair criticism of other bands who refused to participate in the album (Cadaveres de Niños and Todos tus Muertos among them) because the compillation featured two songs by Comando Suicida, which was a skinhead band.

• Todos Tus Muertos (1985-1998): most of the early bands were close to the sound of The Sex Pistols and The Clash, but Todos Tus Muertos wanted to go further and incorporate new styles into the typical punk style. Their sound, in their beginnings, was quite close to Hardcore bands like The Dead Kennedys, but also to Death Rock bands like Christian Death, Goth bands like Virgin Prunes and the Reggae music of Bob Marley. It's likely that such a strange mix of styles would have never been acceptable if it wasn't that a band like Sumo had existed before them. Quite soon they became the rulers of the new generation of Punk bands in Argentina.

• Cadaveres de Niños (the band later changed their name to Cadaveres): its members were Lula (drums), Jorge Gipsy (guitar), Marcelo Poca Vida (voice-former member of Los Baraja), Pablo Strangler (guitar) and Patricia Pietrafesa (bass). Pietrafesa became in the 90's the lead singer of She Devils, the first homocore band of Argentina; she was also the publisher of the fanzine Resistencia, the very first punk publication that existed in the country.

• Attaque 77 (1987-present): their style was quite close to the style of Ramones.

• Flema (1987-2002): when several bands were becoming too political, Flema decided to celebrate the most self-destructive side of Punk. Alcohol, drugs and sex were the topics of their songs. Ricky Espinosa during their gigs was often so drunk that he could barely stand up. The band ceased to exist in 2002 when Ricky Espinosa committed suicide.

[edit] 1990-present

In the late 80's a new musical scene started to emerge: the Buenos Aires Hardcore. New bands like Existencia de Odio (E.D.O.), No Demuestra Interés (N.D.I.), Diferentes Actitudes Juveniles (D.A.J.), Minoría Activa and Fun People started to bring new styles to the local scene of Argentina. By 1995, the new movement was almost dead, but some bands like Minoría Activa and Fun People survived.

• Fun People (1989-2000): The band started to play within the context of the Buenos Aires Hardcore. Their lyrics and style were introducing new subjects that the previous punk bands had often ignored: criticism of the traditional gender roles, vegetarianism, the right of legal abortion and gay rights. However the band would often mix their political ideas with nostalgic love songs that made them get closer to The Smiths than to any punk band. In 2000, Fun People ceased to play and its lead singer started a solo project as Boom Boom Kid, however the other members of the band have joined him in a few gigs as guests, and Fun People has played that way a few times after the year 2000.

• 2 Minutos (1989-present): The band released their debut album "Valentin Alsina" in 1994. Their sound was close to Oi! punk. Quite soon they became extremely popular due to some radio hits like the anti-police song "Ya no sos igual", though they became targets of the criticism of older members of the Punk scene like Pil Trafa (singer of Los Violadores) because their lyrics were often about beer, football (soccer) and getting drunk, something that older punks considered to be the values of the bored middle-class and the bourgeoisie.

• Minoría Activa (1991-present): the band started to play in the Buenos Aires Hardcore scene. Their style is a mix of metal, punk, hardcore and hip-hop with strong influences from bands like Sick of it all and Agnostic Front. One of the particular things about this band is that it has two lead singers.

• She Devils (1995-present): it was the first homocore band in Argentina, She-Devils, started to play in the mid 90's. Their lead singer Patricia already had a long tradition as a Punk musician (she had been the bass player of Cadaveres de Niños and the publisher of the punk fanzine Resistencia).

• Vedette SS (2002-2006): tired of the argentinian obsession with The Ramones and the lack of music diversity in the punk scene, Vedette SS filled the hole left by Los Violadores for so many years playing the other, usually forgotten, original rock n roll punk like the Sex Pistols, the Damned and Generation X, often mixing it with proto-punk influences like the New York Dolls and T. Rex. The band started playing live when the drummer Spike Dude joined in 2003 and broke up soon after he left in 2006.

Punk rock around the world
Argentine punk- Australian punk - Belgian Punk - Brazilian punk - British punk - Celtic punk - German punk - Greek punk - Japanese punk - Malay punk - Scandinavian hardcore