?Donde Esta El Punk Rock?

The Zeros "Beat Your Heart Out"
The Zeros "Handgrenade Heart"
The Zeros "Don't Push Me Around"
The Zeros "Cosmetic Couple"


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In 1976, four mexican kids from Chula Vista (a city sandwiched betwwen Sand Diego and Mexcio) formed a band based on their heros: The New York Dolls, the Stooges, Bowie, KISS & The Velvet Underground. Obviously they didn't have the same musical taste as most kids their ethnicity and age group, but they were ahead of their time. And although they've been long since forgotten except by the survivors of the late 70s SoCal punk scene, the Zeros have influenced more than a few bands that would come after them.

Known as the "mexican Ramones" to some, the Zeros were just amalgamating their favorite musicians into their own new brand of power pop. The band recorded singles for Bomp records in 1977, and wouldn't record again until 1980, right before they broke up. So although the Zeros were short lived, songs like "Don't Push Me Around", "Handgrenade Heart" (curiously, Green Day had a release called "Heart Like A Hand Grenade", and I think those guys based quite a bit of their sound on the Zeros, as well as many other bands of that era. Green Day, blech!) and "Beat Your Heart Out" have a timeless quality. That of a band playing with a lot of energy and a lot of love for rock n roll, before that "punk" term even started boucing around.