Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to [email protected].
Heavy metal is good. Spanish is good. Heavy metal sung in Spanish is bad, but heavy metal music under the umbrella of a Spanish band name is good. It's a tricky situation, and those who pull it off successfully deserve any and all praise they receive. Which is precisely why we tapped heavy metal quintet* PincheGringos for this installment of Artist of the Week.
*New Rule: "Quintet" is far too nancy a word to describe a metal band. Within the confines of Artist of the Week, henceforth all metal bands made up of five guys will be listed as being a "fucktet." Metal bands of four dudes will be listed as a "shitet," three dudes an "asstet." And metal bands with two dudes will be the new "quintet." Seriously, if your band has two guys in it, give it up, bros.
After the jump, you can read all about what this fucktet had to say about racism, A Time To Kill and their new album. You'll also be able to hear some of their music. Score.
Rocks Off: As much as we hate asking this question, it seems merited here: Can you explain how you all came up with the name? Just going off the pictures on your Myspace page, it seems like there's a slight chance it might actually be rooted in racism. We mean, we're almost certain Grady was one of the bad guys in A Time To Kill.
El Jefe: Many, many years ago we were called "LaMotta" for Jake LaMotta the Raging Bull boxer. Anyway, we were invited to play this benefit by our friends Vatos Locos. They had heard about this kid, 18 years old, right, he's got a migraine for three straight days. Mom takes him to the hospital and he's got brain cancer. Fuckin' brain cancer at 18 years old? The doctor gave him six months to live.
I know, I know, terrible way to start a story. But the heart of VL, to put on a benefit show for this kid and his family, just amazed me. So there are Mexican punk bands, Mexican rock bands and us; four white guys in wifebeaters [laughs]. Man, it was hot that day.
PincheGringos, "It's Just for You"
PincheGringos, "It's Just for You"
The show was at Mary Jane's. Man, I miss that place. I must've had six or seven tequila shots before we went on. What I was going to say [when I got onstage] was, "We are LaMotta, a.k.a. Pinche Gueros," but apparently the tequila took over and I said "Pinche Gringos."
Well, the crowd went nuts, laughing and carrying on. So I leaned back to my boys and said, "We're keeping that." PincheGringos was birthed.
RO: You know what song is fly?
"Butterfly."
"Butterfly."
What's it actually about? We never can tell because it gets us so pumped we want to punch a hole in the wall every time we hear it. By the way, that's the same as me saying, "It makes us wish walls were made of something softer than 'wall.'" We're a girl.
EJ: Thanks. First of all, that song is so metal I had to call it something light and nice and pretty. From a music standpoint, Troy says it's the drive within oneself when dredging through swampy, sloshy, muddy waters with murder dogs on your tail. I say it's about seeing the dichotomy in life and the things around you. How a butterfly (metaphorically) can be one thing - cute, pretty and delicate - but has the power to rip and tear your heart out piece by piece while making you watch the whole thing. What? Me, jaded? Never [laughs].
RO: Do you all have any live shows coming up that we can plug? Or maybe even some new music or something else that you think people should know about? Now'd be the time to talk about it.
EJ: Right now we are writing new tunes and recording an album as we speak. There will be some oldies on it and definitely some new ones. It'll probably be ready for release by summer. The tentative title is F.T.W. We'll be at SugarHill for some of it. For other parts we'll be in my bathroom in my apartment [laughs]. We want to make this the most epic, hard and heavy thing Texas has seen in quite some time. I think this album is going to be something all of us in this scene will be able to relate to.
Keep tabs on PincheGringos online here.
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