The Ranger Online

Issue date: 4/18/08 Section: Premiere

Media Credit: Courtesy Photo

"Puro Pedo Punk Rock!" is the motto from the MySpace page of local San Antonio punk band, Piñata Protest. For the past two years Piñata Protest has been together creating music for San Antonio. Their combination of the normal guitars, bass and drums are combined with the uniquness of an accordion.

The frontman and accordion player, sociology sophomore Alvaro Salas, learned to play the accordion while attending Palo Alto College and has been playing for the past three years. He wanted to start a punk band with an accordion and could not find anyone to do it.

"I couldn't find an accordion player under 40 years old that could sing and be willing to play different genres of music. So I learned to do it myself," Salas said.

A self-taught guitar player and psychology sophomore at St. Mary's University, Manuel Garcia, was the next member to join the band and has been playing guitar for the past eight years.

"I had been asked to play and left for Japan for a few months. I regretted not staying and playing with him, but I came back and they still had no one so I joined the band," Garcia said.

The music of Piñata Protest is a mixture of punk rock with conjunto norteño, Garcia said.

"If Ramon Vayala and Sid Vicious had a baby, that's what we would be," Garcia said.

The boys of Protest grew up hating the Tejano music forced upon them and decided it was time to change the sound of San Antonio into something harder and faster.

"What we wanted with this band was to mesh together music we hate with music we love," Salas said.

The boys wanted to show that they were from San Antonio and that this is the music of Texas, Garcia said.

The name Piñata Protest, came about from a list of names that sounded good to the band and reflected the sound of their music.

"When the name was chosen, some seemed to think it had political connotations, which it doesn't at all," Salas said.

One of Garcia's professors asked what they were protesting.

"Its kind of our own protest. We would take songs from Tejano and make it our own," Garcia said "We protest tradition, Tejano has to be this way because it came from here ... we grew up hating that music. Old people listen to that kind of music."

Punk is the other music force that drives this band to make the music they do.

"Punk has everything to do with going against the norm," Salas said.

"It should be about being true to yourself. Just because you have a mohawk doesn't make you a punk," Dominguez said.

When the band started, they did not â„¢have a bass player and for a few months they played shows without one.

"We were at a show one night and just told the crowd we needed a bass player and Elliot showed up," Salas said.

Elliott Ramirez, bass player for the band, will be leaving the band soon and Piñata Protest will be without a bass player once again, and are currently looking for a new bass player to join the band. If a anyone wishes to audition, contact the band through their MySpace.

A radiology sophomore at St. Philip's College, J.J. Martinez, drummer for the band, came along after a short period with another drummer.

The band would like to do a summer tour but funds are currently low, considering Salas' accordion was stolen and the band needs to buy a new one for their next performance. Donations are gladly accepted.

The next Piñata Protest show will be at 11:30 a.m. at PACFest at Palo Alto College. Their myspace is http://www.myspace.com/pinataprotest.

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