Band Review: The Zeros
The first thing I should tell you is that there are three bands that go by "The Zeros" and they are all punk. This is not the British one or the glam one. They are the Latino one, but that doesn't seem to get mentioned much in information about them.
It is easy to miss. They don't sing in Spanish or have obvious references. Being labeled as ethnic would probably have hurt sales, but that is also a shame. There can be room for anyone in any genre, and it might help if it were more obvious that inroads have already been made. I found them in a list of bands with Latinx roots in Celia C. Pérez's The First Rule of Punk.
It may make sense to go over history more because the band no longer plays; not shocking when you consider that they started in 1976. There have been occasional reunions, and singer Javier Escovedo maintains a Facebook page, but it is not really a current band.
For West Coast punk history, they are still important. According to NME, the police breaking up a Zeros show in 1979 heralded the arrival of punk riots to the US (something already familiar in Britain by then). It was The Zeros who played "Beat Your Heart Out" eight times in a row, and no other songs. That seems like the more obnoxious part of punk, but that is also a pretty good song. It could still have been a really good show.
Know your punk history.
We are in times that need people who can feel low, laugh about it, and come up swinging.
That crowd has always been more diverse than the cursory glance shows.
https://www.facebook.com/thezeros77/
It is easy to miss. They don't sing in Spanish or have obvious references. Being labeled as ethnic would probably have hurt sales, but that is also a shame. There can be room for anyone in any genre, and it might help if it were more obvious that inroads have already been made. I found them in a list of bands with Latinx roots in Celia C. Pérez's The First Rule of Punk.
It may make sense to go over history more because the band no longer plays; not shocking when you consider that they started in 1976. There have been occasional reunions, and singer Javier Escovedo maintains a Facebook page, but it is not really a current band.
For West Coast punk history, they are still important. According to NME, the police breaking up a Zeros show in 1979 heralded the arrival of punk riots to the US (something already familiar in Britain by then). It was The Zeros who played "Beat Your Heart Out" eight times in a row, and no other songs. That seems like the more obnoxious part of punk, but that is also a pretty good song. It could still have been a really good show.
Know your punk history.
We are in times that need people who can feel low, laugh about it, and come up swinging.
That crowd has always been more diverse than the cursory glance shows.
https://www.facebook.com/thezeros77/
Published on September 27, 2019 15:12
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