The Zeros – Don’t Push Me Around (Rare & Unreleased Classics From ’77) (1991) – PEQUENOS CLÁSSICOS PERDIDOS

The other day I was re-reading some ‘old’ texts here at PCP (yes, I do this often) when I came across one of them written by partner Jean Carlo Martins about Alejandro Escovedo. Towards the end of the article he cites an excerpt from a song in which Escovedo talks about his punk roots paying homage to a band called The Zeros (called Ramones Mexicans), and then a little light went on in my old, beat-up brain.

Somewhere in the past I read something about 0’s and in a corner of my mental hard drive the connection between them and Alejandro’s surname was recorded; I then activated the modern oracle and in a quick and precise search, bingo! Javier, guitarist, vocalist and main composer of Zeros, is Alejandro Escovedo’s younger brother. Points to my old, beat-up brain.

The band was formed in 1976 by Javier, Robert Lopez, Hector Penalosa and Baba Chenelle in Chula Vista, southern California, and the following year they were playing alongside other American punk rock pioneers such as Germs and Weirdos, releasing their first single, Wimp/Don’t Push Me Around and, despite the pejorative meaning, consolidating itself as the Mexican version of the Ramones.

Between several line-up changes, single recordings and chaotic shows (the police even stopped one of them, in ’79), the Zeros split up in 1980, leaving a great legacy in the music underworld and a legion of fans that includes, among others , bands like Muffs and Mudhoney. Since 1995, surrounded by arguments involving money (Penalosa accused Escovedo of not paying the rest of the group, pocketing the fees) and other extra-musical matters, they have been active again; your latest and great single, In the spotlightcame into the world in 2019, but today we release the compilation Don’t push me around which came out in 91 by the same Bomp! which released the first two 7-inches by the Zeros, brings together in addition to these the last single from the guys’ first phase and, as the thin line on the album cover explains, other rare and unreleased tracks (such as a short live recording, recorded in San Francisco in 1978).

Finally, I can only thank Jean for always being a source of inspiration and good music, the Zeros for being so awesome and my old, beat-up brain for the synapses made hahaha.

Discover or rediscover. But listen closely!

Or in spotifalho