The Zeros
The Zeros were often affectionately known as the ‘Mexican Ramones’ but they had an energy and so many great songs to choose from. Sadly only 2 singles recorded Don’t Push Me Around / Wimp (Bomp 1977) and Beat Your Heart Out / Wild Weekend (Bomp 1978) and my vote goes to first single. Well really it goes to the unreleased Handgrenade Heart which features the most unpc lyric but spat out so naively beautiful and romantically “She wore a swastika but she looked so cool!” Sheer youthful punk perfection!
The Zeros perform “Don’t Push Me Around” and “Wimp” on “Sun Up San Diego” with host Clark Anthony in 1977
Arguably one of the first punk groups in the United States, their brief career included shows with The Clash and Devo. In fact they were playing punk shows in both Los Angeles and in San Diego as early as 1977 while they were still at school, so contemporaneous with that other infamous school boy band Eater.
The Zeros were influenced by garage punk like the Seeds and Standells and later bands like the Velvet Underground, Kiss, New York Dolls and Iggy. You won’t find a more musical family than Javier Escovedo’s; His older brother played with Santana, his niece was Sheila E who played with Prince and his other brother Alejandro formed The Nuns!
In early 1977 the band played their first major gig at the Orpheum in Los Angeles with the Germs and Weirdos and Greg Shaw from Bomp magazine was also in attendance and invited them to record for his label and so the two singles. They would go on to play venues such as The Masque, Whisky Au Go-Go, and the Starwood in L.A.; San Francisco’s Mabuhay Gardens, Deaf Club, and Temple Beautiful; and Max’s Kansas City and CBGB’s in New York.
According to Wikipedia “The band is infamous for playing an entire set consisting of eight replays of Beat Your Heart Out in San Francisco.”
The Zeros continued till around 1980 before just fizzling out. Robert Lopez would go on to find fame as the ‘Mexican’ Elvis singing songs such as ‘You Ain’t nothing but a Chihuahua.’ The mind boggles!
Check out The Zeros Facebook page & check out Ray Brandes book Getting Nowhere Fast on the San Diego music scene
TalkPunk
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