Los Illegals
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[edit] History
Cranking out politically charged "Pachuco-Punk", sung in Spanglish wedded with the then unheard of combination of third world rhythms and industrialized flamenco, East LA’s Los Illegals played an essential part in shaping the music scenes that exist in the barrios of the world today. The name of the band took a pejorative term "illegals" for Mexican immigrants and, using the punk sensibility, made it a source of ethnic pride.
As an all Chicano group with a Spanglish name finding the doors to even the alternative venues "politely" closed to them, they struck a deal with the local order of radical Catholic nuns to open & run the legendary Club Vex at the Catholic Youth building (now Self Help Graphics) where they booked & introduced Eastside to Westside groups (i.e. The Brat & X, Bad Religion & Thee Undertakers), to open up new horizons and enable themselves & others to play and tour with other major 80’s groups including The Clash, Bahaus, The Motels and Berlin. A visit to the club by Los Lobos (then an acoustic traditionalist Mexican folk group) convinced the band to rethink itself, return electric and follow the path set by Club Vex. They were contemporaries of The Plugz.
[edit] Personnel
Spawned by artist/muralist Willy Herron (keys, vocals), civil rights activist, Jesus “Xiuy” Velo (Bass), Drummer Bill Reyes, and guitarist brothers Manuel and Tony Valdez (who also perform with their Mariachi parents & relatives).
[edit] Discography
The group was the first of the Club Vex groups to sign with a major label releasing “Internal Exile” produced by Bowie’s Mick Ronson on A&M records. The song “El Lay” off the album then became a Raza Anthem as Herron sang about his stepfather’s arrest for washing dishes in L.A. bringing the group’s rising notoriety to Europe and Japan. But the relationship soon soured after the label rejected their next LP (Burning Youth) and partnership with UK’s Stiff Record’s producer Wally Brill (999, Elvis Costello) for its experimentation with Mexican instrumentation coupled with the band’s unwillingness to use silly stereotypical icons (velvet Elvis paintings etc.) for publicity. Tied to a label unwilling to release it, and in debt for the LP’s recording costs, they then "illegally" distributed it on cassette only in Mexico--for free.
They are one of the framers/promoters of U.S. Roc en Espanol in the early 80’s and one of the first Chicano bands touring into Mexico playing alongside and meeting pioneer rockeros like El Tri and Tijuana No, Jaguares and Maldita Vecindad gaining respect on both sides of the border despite the original hostility displayed against them actually being pelted on stage in both the U.S. (being called wetbacks) and Mexico (this time being called “Pochos”- Americanized traitors), still they shared experience and knowledge with the fledgling scene winning the 1st "Outstanding Roc En Espanol Artist" California Music Award (BAMMY) from the Critics and Readers polls of the BAM/Rocket & Tower Pulse magazines.
Outspoken diplomatically and politically, the band has finally been receiving its long overdue accolades and is featured in various prominent music/history and university textbooks most notably: “Barrio Rhythm”, and “Land of 1,000 dances: The History of Chicanos in Rock & Roll”. In Film, its Agnes Varda’s French Masterpiece “Mur Murs”, the Soundtrack for “Stand and Deliver”, and with Chuck D. of Public Enemy, Laurie Anderson and Cassandra Wilson in the D.A. Penebaker documentary and soundtrack: “Searching for Jimi Hendrix” (Capital). Also appearing along side Santana, War, & Los Lobos on the historical compilation “Ay Califas! History of Raza Rock of the 70’s & 80’s (Warner/Rhino/).
In the face of anti-immigrant legislation they are on the move again this time as “cultural collaborators”: beginning with the highly praised CD, “Concrete Blonde Y Los Illegals” on Miles Copeland’s ARK-21/Virgin label, then with Tijuana punk legends “Mercado Negro” for the Rockefeller US/Mexico Culture Fund sponsored compilation CD: “MexAmerica” produced by Ruben Guevara for Angelino Records, later with Emmy winning journalist Ruben Martinez and Rock en Espanol stars “Maldita Vecindad” for the theatre piece “Border Ballad” (the companion to his Book “Crossing Over: Tales From the New Frontier”), also writing, and performing with new talent (ie. the EMI soundtrack of the Showtime series “Resurrection Boulevard” as their alter egos “The Chizmosos”), And lately co-producing a series of racially diverse SRO “no coffee or bongos” electronica/noise poetry theatre performances (“The Spine of Califas”) with of San Diego’s legendary Taco Shop Poets and a slew of performers/artists to which a college tour, book, CD and short film are in the offering and planning stages. Currently the group is the subjects of two ongoing documentaries of their history as Pachuco punks one entitled “Destined to fuck up” and the other a National PBS documentary special on Chicano Rock & Roll for airing in 2006.
It has been printed about the group that in this era of disposable pop culture where "commitment and consciousness" are words passed around and marketed all too casually, "Los Illegals have a history of actively and physically proving the power of music to unite people."
