ELPASO. A punk story.

by Benjamín Villegas

Esta es la historia de una de las muchas bandas que nunca aparecerán en la cronología del rock, pero que son la base de todas las escenas musicales. Grupos que se ganan el respeto del público en pequeños locales, girando con sus propios medios y disfrutando de la música desde su esencia.

En 1991 el rock explota con la aparición del Nevermind de Nirvana. Lo que la industria intenta vender como el inicio de una nueva era es, en realidad, el final de una década de autogestión y bandas independientes que, abrazando la ética punk, conquistaron Norteamérica en los 80 y a toda una generación.

En 2015, Benjamín Villegas (Ripollet, 1982) −músico, ilustrador, productor audiovisual y diseñador gráfico− viaja a El Paso, Texas, en busca de la historia de ELPASO. Sigue el rastro de una maleta repleta de viejos flyers, fanzines, collages y un par de grabaciones de una banda de punk chicano que cantaba en español y que podría haber cambiado la historia del rock.

Genres: Fiction, Music

336 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2018

Reviews

[Ren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book about a fictional band that could really have existed during those times. Benja Villegas really did his research! It always bugged me to see all these documentaries about Texas music ignore south Texas, and now I finally have a piece of media that not only just mentions the borderland scene but makes it another character.

[Edward Sanchez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Toward the middle I found myself not liking the book but I soldiered on and realized that I had become emotionally invested in the characters. It was super funny about the person in the audience at the Axiom and their comment at the back of the book.

[Adrián Ciutat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maravilloso ❤️

[Ian Harrold · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, and the songs are not bad either, on Spotify

[Kristen Holland Shear · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was never a big punk rock fan, but this is a fascinating read. Great look at the underground music scene.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you grew up in "the scene" of any city in the US, this book is about a band from your scene. I still don't know if this band really existed or is an amalgamation of bands from El Paso, but it's a good story that represents thousands of bands that get close but don't make it.

[Linda Stack-Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author and translator both nail the friendly infodump tone of music bios and the multimedia aspects of this pair with the emotional arc to absolutely amazing results.