Los Illegals
| Los Illegals | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Los Angeles, California |
| Genres | Chicano punk "Chunk Rock" |
| Years active | 1979 - present |
| Labels | A&M records "Internal Exile" produced by Mick Ronson and Los Illegals, Executive producer David Anderle |
| Members | Willie Herron Bill Reyes Manuel Valdez Tony Valdez Jesus 'Xiuy' Velo |
Los Illegals is an American Chicano punk band from Los Angeles, California.
Spawned by artist/muralist Willie Herron (keyboards, vocals), civil rights activist Jesus “Xiuy” Velo (bass), drummer Bill Reyes, and guitarist brothers Manuel and Antonio "Tony" Valdez (who also perform with their Mariachi parents & relatives).
The band struck a deal with a local order of radical Catholic nuns to open and run the legendary Club Vex at Self Help Graphics, Catholic Youth Organization building in East Los Angeles. There, they booked and introduced Eastside to Westside groups (such as The Brat, X, Bad Religion, and Thee Undertakers) to open up new horizons and enable themselves and others to play and tour with other major 1980s groups including The Clash, Bauhaus, The Motels, and Berlin. A visit to the club by Los Lobos (then an acoustic traditionalist Mexican folk group) convinced the band to rethink itself, return electric, and follow the path set by Club Vex. They were contemporaries of The Plugz from Texas and The Zeros of San Diego. The venue's street credibility kickstarted a music and art renaissance crossing cultural and geographical boundaries.
Released in 1981, the song “El Lay” featured Herron singing about his stepfather’s arrest for washing dishes in L.A. The song became a Raza Anthem and brought the group’s rising notoriety to Europe and Japan. Its cover art was meant to evoke the danger of the punk rock movement and the cultural roots of the group. The group was the first of the Club Vex groups to sign with a major label releasing Internal Exile produced by David Bowie’s Mick Ronson on A&M records in 1983. The song “El Lay” was included in the album.But the relationship soon soured after the label rejected their next LP (Burning Youth) and partnership with UK’s Stiff Record’s producer Wally Brill (999, Elvis Costello) for its experimentation with Mexican instrumentation coupled with the band’s unwillingness to use stereotypical icons (velvet Elvis paintings etc.) for publicity. Tied to a label unwilling to release it, and in debt for the LP’s recording costs, they then illegally distributed it on cassette only in Mexico—for free.
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