OK, LET ME TRY to do this without laughing Pollo Elastico (Poy-oh Ee-las-tee-co) hatched in the fall of 87, under a scorching moon in Tucson Arizona, at a deserted downtown parking garage that was a favorite local skate spot. Loaded (and in a loaded-down pickup), proto Pollo guitarist PETE HOLMES (Double Cheese), bassist ERIK MERRILL (Monkeyjam) and drummer MARVIN GERMAIN (Doctor Marv) plugged it in on the third story of the garage, cranked it up, and played au fresco, ad nauseum, and on the publics dime. Everything went great until the local boys in blue showed up and chased the motley trio and a few stoned gawkers away. Stupefied by the rockdom and more than a few Mickeys Big Mouths that fateful Sonoran night, the boys that once were previously known on Tucsons thriving alternative music scene as the Deadbolts were now POLLO ELASTICO, the Southwestern rubber chicken. Rubber chickens? Other than the fact that the name rhymed and sounded kind of cool, why the hell not: humor (and words that rhymed) always seemed like a big part of the stuff that the guys loved, everything from Monty Python to the Replacements, Cheech and Chong to Black Sabbath. FROM THE PARKING GARAGES OF TUCSON, it was on to the college house party circuit, the boys playing gigs throughout the adobe intellectual slums that regularly rocked on Friday and Saturday nights in the shadow of the University of Arizona campus. From there, it was on to biker pubs and cowboy bars and regular threats of ass wuppins from audiences. A cassette of first recordings was released, Voodoo Chili, to no critical acclaim nor concern. What the hey: its just college, right? Enter Pollo frontman and Tucson goldenvoice BRAD BROOKS, looking for something new after his LP and touring project with The Distant. With exceptional chops and a free place to rehearse at Brooks studio, The Rubber Chicken were now a four piece, with over the top songs like Lava Lamp, Big Black Van and No Party starting to grow the crowds. Into the studio the band went again, this time at the 24-track Sound Factory in Tucson to record the bands cassette tape calling card, Jurupa Mae. Blending funk with classic heavy metal and garage, Pollo regularly played the Tucson Garden, the Club Congress and the UofAs Cellar and Spring Fling Fair, opening for acts like Firehose, Fishbone, the Screaming Trees, and John Doe. Pete illegally commandeered a Der Weinerschnitzel Weiner Dog body costume at one gig, foreshadowing the beginning of the end for the band (or was it the beginning of the beginning?) Management was solicited and found in the form of DOUG WOODS (aka. Sterling Woodstein), an indispensable purveyor of smart-ass rapport and the occasional reasonable suggestion. The guy had a way with aggressive audiences and cute waitresses, so he was in. Following Woods appointment came one CHRIS CARLONE (Lonies), fresh from Southern California, hell bent on joining in on the mayhem with his own vocal and acrobatic skill set. The former lead shouter for Jesse Bueno in Tucson, Carlone was immediately welcomed into the band, and teamed-up with Brooks for a double vocal approach that has yet to be rivaled in rock. Creative, charismatic, and unable to keep his personal effects or lower body wear in a safe place for more than a few hours, Carlone typified the meteoric and spontaneous spirit that is largely missing in rock today. A TOUR WAS BOOKED and the band slugged its way from Vegas to Seattle and back, drinking deep of the road life and still more Mickeys Big Mouths. In Los Angeles, the band arrived to the buzz of industry shysters and passed the Schlitz Malt Liquor Bull on I-5. The shit was on, and Pollo Elastico found itself in the midst of major label attention. Back home in Tucson, the audiences continued to grow, and in late 1989 Pollo boasted one of the largest club draws in Tucson and Phoenix. And in came the big guns: DAVE PANKENIER (Panky, Pankenstone), formerly of Tucsons Lonely Trojans and Bullhorn, assumed the drumming duties for the departing Marvin Germain, solar physicist. Pankenier was reared in the meat-and-potatoes school of rock rhythm: think Bonham meets the Blizzard of Oz with a side order of garlic fries, and you begin to get the picture. And the man could party with the best of them. THE BANDS SECOND TOUR found Pollo Elastico opening for bigger acts like Faith No More in Salt Lake City and Primus in Los Angeles, 24-7 Spyz in Tucson, and the Royal Crescent Mob. Funk rock was busting out everywhere, as the Red Hot Chili Peppers became an international musical force. San Francisco and Portland Oregon became second homes to the group, Pollo rocking the Sushi Sundays at the Nightbreak on Haight Street in SF and carousing with various luminaries like Paul Westerberg, Tommy Stinson, and The Young Fresh Fellows in Seattle. The band had grown big of britches, and the wear finally started to show. Offers for demo deals began to come in from the Majors as the band departed for South by Southwest music festival in Austin. The bands Dodge van racked up the miles with gig after gig, showcase after showcase, but the band wasnt offered what they thought they were worth, and nobody in the group was signing anything less than a multiple record deal. Such were those times in rock and roll, a decade before the Internet and MySpace. These were the times when the bands Marshall, Hartke, and Ampeg stacks were powered by thousands of muscular hamsters, whirling in little wheels backstage. ALL GOOD THINGS COME TO AN END, and Pollo Elastico met their demise as Brooks and Merrill, confounded by the bands inability to break, departed for other things. In the grey, foggy dawn that inevitably seems to follow every truly great party, it became time to pick up all of the pieces: polyester jumpsuits, ski goggles, hair coats and plastic baby doll head necklaces. Small clumps of love and feathers. Empty beer cans. In all of the fuzzy chaos of those times, Pollo Elastico wrote their own chapter in what a great band could be when close, tight friends populated it. The groups infectious and irreverent chemistry was matched only by the raw power and groove that Pollo Elastico always blasted night after night. Along the way, the guys made some great friends and acquaintances, people like the guys from Dumpster, The Cosmic Boogie Tribe, Gila Bend, The Sidewinders, the River Roses, Rainer and Das Combo, Al Perry and the Cattle, Fonda, Naked Prey, Burning Bush, Sweaty Nipples, Cherry Poppin Daddies, Deadhot Workshop, Radical 2, Head Cheese, Kevin Byrd, Sitting Duck Studios, 7 and 7 Warehouse, Dan Vinik and Club Congress, Mark and Mudbuggs, Scott Harrington, Anna Statman, Faith No More, Joey at Wrex Records, Susie Dunn, Randy McReynolds and Craig Schumacher, Chris Wagganer, Dover Trench, Rainbow Guitars, David Lee, Scouts Honor, Space Seed, Mischa, and so many, many more fantastic, brave and creative people. BANTAMS is for them and for you. Pop the disc in the player and do something weird and wild. www.myspace.com/elpolloelastico
Pollo Elastico releases masterpiece with "Jurupa Mae"
Todd Mentch
Arizona Daily Wildcat - March 7, 1990
Finally, Tucson's finest funk rock group and masters of the incredible bouncing crowd, Pollo Elastico has released its first full album.
"Jurupa Mae", Pollo's tightly-wound masterpiece, pounds out itsmusical essence with irrepressible excellence. You can enjoy these goony Pollo tunes tonight when vocalist Brad Brooks, guitarist Pete Holmes, bass player Erik Merrill, drummer Dave Pankenier, percussionist Chris Carlone and Sterling Woodstein take the stage at Mudbuggs.
"Bayou Born" fires up the album by fronting the talents of former drummer Marvin Germain, whose eager tempo and wild cymbal crashes hurl the song along. Also, the guitar fills show Holmes' ability to stretch his soloing fingers in the studio, a luxury he doesn't have on stage.
On the next track, Brooks sings, "My heros are Cheech and Chong / Shut up baby that era's not gone". This line opens a song named after one of the deserving symbols of the '70's, "Big Black Van".
This song and the following piece, "Lava Lamp," feature quick funk beats studded with psychedelic guitar.
"Van Gogh's Ear" starts as an obvious hard core metal guitar arrangement, and breaks into a cover of the "Mission Impossible" theme. That's the song, all 30 seconds of it.
"Behemoth", a song celebrating the sensuality of large women, rounds out the first side. Give 70's rock a funk rhythm and flare, along with tongue-in-cheek lyrics, and you've created "Behemouth," a song that will most surely be widely requested at shows.
The bookend songs for the second side are the usual rowdy Pollo favorites. First there's "Hula Hoop," with an innovative vocal style that invokes ancient cannibals at feast. Finally there's "No Party" with a trademark Pollo sing-along chorus.
The second side is just as satisfying as the first. "Mood Ring," addresses one of the more troubling questions posed during the '80's, "What color is your mood ring?" More importantly, though, as Brooks sings, "If I dies before I wake, what groovy colors will my mood ring make?"
Right in the middle of it all comes the title track, "Jurupa Mae." In a telephone interview yesterday, Brooks pointed out that this song pertains to a little town in California near Riverside that the group uses as a metaphor for being stuck in the middle of "a lot of industrial waste bullshit."
"Sterling Woodstein" starts with the harmonic beginnings of an old Yes song, jells into a cruising rock facsimile of the Beatles "Daytripper" riff, and finally breaks with a slightly altered version of the guitar intro to Jimi Hendrix's "purple Haze." Pollo holds this medley together with some excellent power chording. Who was it who siad that "amatuers imitate while professionals steal"?
During interviews with singer Brooks and Pollo's mamanger Dug Woods, both were reluctant to mention names for a major label release, but the interest is there and deservedly so. It would come as no surprise if "Jurupa Mae" were Pollo's last underground release.
But hometown fans shouldn't worry. During the interview Brooks promised that, "The main thing is just trying to have fun. That's what Pollo is all about."
Every connoisseur of good Tucson music should acquire this album...
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