Dance, romance, everyone's so happy

March 3, 2014 11:49 AM

The shoe company Vans has just released several episodes of a documentary series called Living Off The Wall that follows teens (including Nekro, the singer from skacore band Proyekto Makabro) who are active in the energetic (and storied) East LA backyard punk scene.

More East LA Punk Past And Present:
The Bags
Los Illegals (Live)
Stains
The Brat
The Plugz

posted by Potomac Avenue (7 comments total)

From the Present link, in reference to The Convicts: "They are old school; I remember them playing shows when I first started going to gigs around 2003." -- so is backyard punk a new thing, or is Javier Cabral that young, or both? The American Sabor page on the East L.A. Punk style gives the scene decades of history.
posted by filthy light thief at 12:00 PM on March 3, 2014

FLT, I think the definitive take on the scene from 1980-2001 is in the Razorcake article linked in the word "storied".
posted by Potomac Avenue at 12:05 PM on March 3, 2014 [1 favorite]

It's funny, I live in East LA, and I've seen these kids, and I've heard their parties, but I had no real way to find out about the scene until this documentary. So yay!
posted by Sara C. at 12:38 PM on March 3, 2014

Is backyard punk a new thing, or is Javier Cabral that young, or both?

Javier Cabral is in his 20s and is an up-and-coming journalist in the LA food and culture scene. He has older siblings and is generally a scholar of history so I think he's referring to that particular group being old-school in the new school backyard punk movement.
posted by cell divide at 12:42 PM on March 3, 2014 [1 favorite]

Ah, I love my city.
posted by mykescipark at 12:48 PM on March 3, 2014 [1 favorite]

I'm always happy to find new (to me) bands, music and/or scene history, so this post looks to be a gold mine (for me, and a deathly dirge to this afternoon's productivity). Thanks for posting this PA.
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 2:26 PM on March 3, 2014

It’s like a strange flashback. This could be AZ 30 years ago and you might not be able to tell the difference. I think it must have been different out west, when I think back on punk shows I think of this, not an actual venue.
posted by bongo_x at 12:31 PM on March 4, 2014