S.P.I.C.
S.P.I.C. - Spanish People in Control
Genres: punk
About S.P.I.C.
Marfa, Texas, is a pretty weird place. The modest-sized city—its population of 2,400 equals roughly half its altitude—was named for a character in a Russian novel, served as the set of James Dean’s last movie, and has since the late 1800s been known for the mysterious Marfa ghost lights, the unexplained glowing spheres that appear randomly in the night air east of the town. But Marfa is also home to another astonishing and out-of-the-ordinary phenomenon. One that’s simmering. Rumbling. Steadily building in intensity—and about to explode onto on unsuspecting music world like a blinding, white-hot, bird-flipping supernova. Its name? Satanic Punk International Conspiracy—or S.P.I.C. for short. S.P.I.C. is an ultra-manic, high-energy punk band comprised of lead singer and guitarist David Garcia, his brother, bassist-vocalist JD Garcia, and drummer Ryan “Pinksy” Penland. After forming in 2005 the threesome wasted no time in becoming the enfants terrible of the Marfa scene, stirring up controversy with their group’s taboo-shattering, acronymic name and finding themselves barred from local hangouts for their out-of-control behavior. And now, with Day Drunk, the trio’s explosive debut on the Pop. 2121 label, S.P.I.C. has its sights set on realms far beyond its dusty desert home. The prefect sampling of S.P.I.C.’s singular brand of sardonic, pinched-nose irreverence and caustic-but-catchy melodies, Day Drunk’s nine raging blasts blaze by in barely 24 minutes, leaving a trail of broken glass and snot-covered wordage behind. There’s the impossibly titled “Fate Notices Those Who Buy Chainsaws,” a three-minute punch-out inspired, David explains, by a story he read about an accidental chainsaw suicide; and “Didn’t Know That One Could Feel So Divine,” a menacing thrash-narrative about a night of over-the-edge partying. And of course there’s also the requisite odes to the frustration felt by kids playing fast music in a slow town; “Hitsville TX” and “The Tedium” both recount episodes of uncorked mayhem and debauchery over pounding rhythms and grinding guitars. David and JD, who are 27 and 25, respectively (Pinsky is also 25) were bitten by the punk-rock bug in their teens. “After we heard [Green Day’s smash 1994 album] Dookie, JD and I became obsessed with punk,” David recalls. “We found out about the Sex Pistols, Fugazi, stuff we hadn’t heard before.” And so, after some early misfires with “bullshit local bands,” S.P.I.C. was born. “The band name was kind of a ‘drinking decision,’ an inside joke,” says David. “This is a really Catholic town, and the nuns who saw our fliers gave us a hard time.” But for all its conservatism Marfa is also a mecca for internationally revered visual artists, several of whom—Mark Flood, Rita Ackerman, Christopher Wool, Nate Lowman, Justin Lowe, David Hollander, and Jeff Elrod—contributed images to Day Drunk’s booklet. One esteemed artist-patron, painter Wilhem Sasnal, even flew the group to his native Poland to perform at a Warsaw art opening. “[The band] really inspired me,” says Elrod. “They have this great, raw energy, but they’re also sharp, well-read kids, into Poe, Sallinger, Patti Smith. Their music’s actually very sophisticated.” And as S.P.I.C. gets ready to hit the road hard and continues to work up even more tunes that are sure to get those habits at the local nunnery in a bunch, Day Drunk is already winning kudos in the underground press, drawing praise from the notoriously cynical Vice magazine for being “just the right amount of shouty and snotty and funny.” So watch out, music nuts: One of those mysterious, glowing lights you see on the Texas horizon is a punk-rock fireball called S.P.I.C. And it’s heading straight at you.
Taken from Last.fm
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