Eskorbuto
Encyclopedia
Eskorbuto was a punk
band from Santurtzi
(Greater Bilbao, Basque Country
, Spain
) which formed in 1980. They have been one of the most influential bands for Spanish and Latin American punk rock. They are known for their strong attitude and crude lyrics. They were one of the first bands to perform punk with lyrics in Spanish
. Eskorbuto is a modified word taken from escorbuto (scurvy
in Spanish).
Along with the band La Polla Records
, Eskorbuto has been very influential in the Spanish rock and punk scene.
In August 1982, the band went to Madrid to record their first demo. They did the trip in an old Fiat 124 that left Paco pulled up to Burgos, they thought of burning it but ultimately sold it for 3000 pesetas. The trip paid off as they got signed by the independent label Spansuls Records where they recorded their first single. At that time the nascent punk movement in Spain based its subjects in the humor and messing around, but they decided to play about issues that were taboo and swept with their single which was sold out in three months and contained the songs Mucha Policía, Poca Diversión, Mi Degeneración y Enterrado Vivo.
In the summer of 1983, they returned to Madrid to make a new demo, with the songs: ETA, Escupe A La Bandera, Maldito País, Iros A La Mierda. Suddenly, something happened that will forever change Eskorbutos life: they got arrested, then the police heard the demo accused the band of insulting the state and security forces. The antaerrorista law was applied and they remained arrested for 36 hours. The attorney the band chose was Cristina Almeida, they received many calls of support but none from the Basque Country.
While they were detained in Bilbao they collected signatures of support from all sides. Eskorbuto felt forgotten by the pro-amnesty when their managers were arrested in Madrid for songs such as ETA y Maldito País. This rage that embodied in his subject to the Basque Country. The shit he says in his letter "...the pro-amnesty managing sleep while we could of disgust..."
They wrote 3 more songs: Ratas En Biskaia, Soldados, Dios, Patria Y Rey, they recorded their album Zona Norte Especial in Mini-LP format, shared with the band RIP
and edited by Spansuls Records in 1984. Due to poor distribution the EP is discontinued quickly. Needless to say, this EP caused them many problems. Due to the song A La Mierda El País Vasco. They were accused of being traitors and were given the worst reputations.
In 1985, they released their first LP called Eskizofrenia, a debut of new punk energy, released by the Madrid label Twins. The disc contains 18 tracks composed between 1980 and 1984. Unfortunately the Twins label did little to for it to succeed and soon disappeared until 1987 when it was reissued by Discos Suicida with a different cover. In the same year they had the concert that they remember as the best, was in Hernani, where there was more people than La Polla Records and Cicatriz who played in Marlxa ETA Borroka.
At that time Jose Mari Blasco invents the Rock Radical Vasco and creates the Soñua label, which begin recording La Polla Records, Hedzainak y Barricada...Offered them to form a part of Basque radical rock, something that would have opened all the doors and forgotten old moves but they refused and said: The rock has no country, not even the Basque, they then became cursed, they were censured in some stations and newspapers, and people became increasingly more reluctant to hire them to play in Euskadi, his exact words: We play more in the rest of Spain than in Euskadi, but they were never anti-Basques, they preferred to play on their land instead of having to travel to far away concerts, as Iosu said: we never play A La Mierda El País Vasco in Spain, there we prefers to play Maldito País España.
Once they rejected the offer from Soñua Records, they continued with their natural independence and promised to release three discs 1986, something that seemed impossible. They joined with Discos Suicidas Records and recorded their second LP in 25 hours titled Anti-Todo and say that they were anti-everything, everyone is anti-everything, but they were not against everything. The title is most eloquently summed up in two words and attitude. This album was their masterpiece, it was not just another Punk-rock record, the term punk is too small for them musically.Anti-Todo is an incredible rock album in which we find some of their best street poetry lyrics and sewer. Punk and Rock & Roll straight to your brain.
Soon they release a cassette enclosing a Fanzine. This cassette consisted of six tracks with the significant title Ya No Quedan Más Cojones, Eskorbuto A Las Elecciones. It must be said that the CSS tried to censor and refused to make the tape for the song Escupe A La Bandera, the cassette was an incredible success and sold out quickly.
Had not yet completed the year 1986 and still prepare another surprise, which nobody had done so far in this country: A live album. We do a lot of records because we plays a little bit, our albums are Live, they say. For direct recording of thought on a tour called Bloody Christmas, something that did not work, who knows whether out of laziness or lack of infrastructure. At the end of the assembly hall of a school in Santurce is the chosen location. For the release of this disc decided to sell the rights to the highest bidder contract with Discos Suicidas Records and this album would definitely strengthen the seal on the other hand aims intídducirse DRO Records in the Basque rock and after some give and take strips, Servando Carvallo of DRO Records offers a juicy offer: 200,000 pesetas to renounce the contract with Discos Suicidas and 100,000 pesetas to the group by the master. At the concert, full of people unconditionally, Eskorbuto plays for an hour and 15 minutes to be exhausted, unable to go out and do an encore,they give a birth to Impuesto Revolucionario double LP that is plasticized as is without changing anything, with a cover very expressive, a caricature of the three members of Eskorbuto by Niko MCD. Thus ends a year of the most successful with three works on the street.
Tireless work preparing and another more ambitious and novel, no one can explain the ability to create songs which had these people. Already in 87, they surprised with another double album released by Discos Suicidas Records called Los Demenciales Chicos Acelerados. 20 tracks that are part of the same story, a punk-rock opera or Zarzuela Rock as they say. With a slower pace, less quick but more chaotic and full of rage. On this album first entered the keyboards, very good tunes of war, death, self-destruction of power and money.
In 1988, out of the record companies and they decide to produce, edit and distribute the new album under the name Butoeskor Records. The result gives birth to his album called Las Más Macabras De Las Vidas, a declaration of principles. From the cover to the letters of the subject of death is very present, is an album full of anger, hopelessness, disappointment and very bad temper. His philosophy of Anti-everything grows so bloody.
From this moment begins the dark and sad stage of the band, heroin is becoming strong in Iosu and Jualma, increasingly tested least whenever they are called less to play, the reluctance and fatigue is done with them. In 1991, they go to Mexico to give two concerts from crowds, more than 8,000 people over the two days. Just before leaving, Iosu is hospitalized and is replaced by Iñaki Speed, that was updated with the songs between the plane and hotel. Earlier this year when nobody gave them a hard, the people of Castellón Matraka Diskak Records offered they to record a new album and silencing voices and rumors of its dissolution and death to emerge with the album Demasiados Enemigos. They note tired and exhausted but still thrilling with songs like Siempre Estoy En La Luna and angry songs like old times "No Quiero Cambiar. To finish the album with the song that they say goodbye called La Mejor Banda Del Mundo is all a testament, premonition of his death.
A few months after going out this record (May '92) dies Iosu, guitarist and soul of Eskorbuto. Paco and Jualma decide to go and work on a new album, but fate does not want two people so united by love and hatred continue to separate and five months later (October '92) dies Juanma. They were always together and always will be, and perhaps beyond the cemetery are looking for a drummer to form a band.
Paco with the work that had prepared with Juanma, he decides to translate it into a disk with the inevitable title Akí No Keda Ni Dios, full of memories and nostalgia for lost friends. Then, Paco has continued with two more albums that go under the title Kalaña and Dekadencia, but that is another story.
Their relationship with other groups was not good, even with La Polla Records (for instance, they stole a guitar from them). This caused a boycott on one or another of them, and the band halls had to choose to have Eskorbuto or La Polla Records, but not both together.
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
band from Santurtzi
Santurtzi
Santurtzi is a port town in the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of Basque Country, Spain. It is located in the Bilbao Abra bay, near the mouth of the Nervión river, on its left bank, 14km downriver from Bilbao and forms part of the Greater Bilbao agglomeration...
(Greater Bilbao, Basque Country
Basque Country (autonomous community)
The Basque Country is an autonomous community of northern Spain. It includes the Basque provinces of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa, also called Historical Territories....
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
) which formed in 1980. They have been one of the most influential bands for Spanish and Latin American punk rock. They are known for their strong attitude and crude lyrics. They were one of the first bands to perform punk with lyrics in Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
. Eskorbuto is a modified word taken from escorbuto (scurvy
Scurvy
Scurvy is a disease resulting from a deficiency of vitamin C, which is required for the synthesis of collagen in humans. The chemical name for vitamin C, ascorbic acid, is derived from the Latin name of scurvy, scorbutus, which also provides the adjective scorbutic...
in Spanish).
Along with the band La Polla Records
La Polla Records
La Polla Records is a Spanish punk rock band. They were formed in 1979 in Salvatierra/Agurain, a small town in the Basque Country . Its founders were Evaristo Páramos, Maleguin, Txarly and Sume...
, Eskorbuto has been very influential in the Spanish rock and punk scene.
Biography
Born in the left margin of Nervión, in Santurtzi. They grew up, lived and died in the streets. Influence by the punk explosion of 1977 they started playing around 1980, it seems that they started out as a joke according to their earliest songs. The line up consisted of Iosu on guitar and vocals (declared fan of the Who and the Sex Pistols) and Juanma on bass and vocals (who didnt really listen to music) later to be joined by Paco on drums. They gave their first concert in a school close to their rehearsal space with the audience being a bunch of 10-year-olds.In August 1982, the band went to Madrid to record their first demo. They did the trip in an old Fiat 124 that left Paco pulled up to Burgos, they thought of burning it but ultimately sold it for 3000 pesetas. The trip paid off as they got signed by the independent label Spansuls Records where they recorded their first single. At that time the nascent punk movement in Spain based its subjects in the humor and messing around, but they decided to play about issues that were taboo and swept with their single which was sold out in three months and contained the songs Mucha Policía, Poca Diversión, Mi Degeneración y Enterrado Vivo.
In the summer of 1983, they returned to Madrid to make a new demo, with the songs: ETA, Escupe A La Bandera, Maldito País, Iros A La Mierda. Suddenly, something happened that will forever change Eskorbutos life: they got arrested, then the police heard the demo accused the band of insulting the state and security forces. The antaerrorista law was applied and they remained arrested for 36 hours. The attorney the band chose was Cristina Almeida, they received many calls of support but none from the Basque Country.
While they were detained in Bilbao they collected signatures of support from all sides. Eskorbuto felt forgotten by the pro-amnesty when their managers were arrested in Madrid for songs such as ETA y Maldito País. This rage that embodied in his subject to the Basque Country. The shit he says in his letter "...the pro-amnesty managing sleep while we could of disgust..."
They wrote 3 more songs: Ratas En Biskaia, Soldados, Dios, Patria Y Rey, they recorded their album Zona Norte Especial in Mini-LP format, shared with the band RIP
RIP (band)
RIP was a punk rock group from Mondragón, Basque Country , and were part of the Basque Radical Rock musical movement in the early 1980s.- Personal :* Karlos "Mahoma" : vocals* Yul: guitar* Portu : bass guitar* Txerra: drums...
and edited by Spansuls Records in 1984. Due to poor distribution the EP is discontinued quickly. Needless to say, this EP caused them many problems. Due to the song A La Mierda El País Vasco. They were accused of being traitors and were given the worst reputations.
In 1985, they released their first LP called Eskizofrenia, a debut of new punk energy, released by the Madrid label Twins. The disc contains 18 tracks composed between 1980 and 1984. Unfortunately the Twins label did little to for it to succeed and soon disappeared until 1987 when it was reissued by Discos Suicida with a different cover. In the same year they had the concert that they remember as the best, was in Hernani, where there was more people than La Polla Records and Cicatriz who played in Marlxa ETA Borroka.
At that time Jose Mari Blasco invents the Rock Radical Vasco and creates the Soñua label, which begin recording La Polla Records, Hedzainak y Barricada...Offered them to form a part of Basque radical rock, something that would have opened all the doors and forgotten old moves but they refused and said: The rock has no country, not even the Basque, they then became cursed, they were censured in some stations and newspapers, and people became increasingly more reluctant to hire them to play in Euskadi, his exact words: We play more in the rest of Spain than in Euskadi, but they were never anti-Basques, they preferred to play on their land instead of having to travel to far away concerts, as Iosu said: we never play A La Mierda El País Vasco in Spain, there we prefers to play Maldito País España.
Once they rejected the offer from Soñua Records, they continued with their natural independence and promised to release three discs 1986, something that seemed impossible. They joined with Discos Suicidas Records and recorded their second LP in 25 hours titled Anti-Todo and say that they were anti-everything, everyone is anti-everything, but they were not against everything. The title is most eloquently summed up in two words and attitude. This album was their masterpiece, it was not just another Punk-rock record, the term punk is too small for them musically.Anti-Todo is an incredible rock album in which we find some of their best street poetry lyrics and sewer. Punk and Rock & Roll straight to your brain.
Soon they release a cassette enclosing a Fanzine. This cassette consisted of six tracks with the significant title Ya No Quedan Más Cojones, Eskorbuto A Las Elecciones. It must be said that the CSS tried to censor and refused to make the tape for the song Escupe A La Bandera, the cassette was an incredible success and sold out quickly.
Had not yet completed the year 1986 and still prepare another surprise, which nobody had done so far in this country: A live album. We do a lot of records because we plays a little bit, our albums are Live, they say. For direct recording of thought on a tour called Bloody Christmas, something that did not work, who knows whether out of laziness or lack of infrastructure. At the end of the assembly hall of a school in Santurce is the chosen location. For the release of this disc decided to sell the rights to the highest bidder contract with Discos Suicidas Records and this album would definitely strengthen the seal on the other hand aims intídducirse DRO Records in the Basque rock and after some give and take strips, Servando Carvallo of DRO Records offers a juicy offer: 200,000 pesetas to renounce the contract with Discos Suicidas and 100,000 pesetas to the group by the master. At the concert, full of people unconditionally, Eskorbuto plays for an hour and 15 minutes to be exhausted, unable to go out and do an encore,they give a birth to Impuesto Revolucionario double LP that is plasticized as is without changing anything, with a cover very expressive, a caricature of the three members of Eskorbuto by Niko MCD. Thus ends a year of the most successful with three works on the street.
Tireless work preparing and another more ambitious and novel, no one can explain the ability to create songs which had these people. Already in 87, they surprised with another double album released by Discos Suicidas Records called Los Demenciales Chicos Acelerados. 20 tracks that are part of the same story, a punk-rock opera or Zarzuela Rock as they say. With a slower pace, less quick but more chaotic and full of rage. On this album first entered the keyboards, very good tunes of war, death, self-destruction of power and money.
In 1988, out of the record companies and they decide to produce, edit and distribute the new album under the name Butoeskor Records. The result gives birth to his album called Las Más Macabras De Las Vidas, a declaration of principles. From the cover to the letters of the subject of death is very present, is an album full of anger, hopelessness, disappointment and very bad temper. His philosophy of Anti-everything grows so bloody.
From this moment begins the dark and sad stage of the band, heroin is becoming strong in Iosu and Jualma, increasingly tested least whenever they are called less to play, the reluctance and fatigue is done with them. In 1991, they go to Mexico to give two concerts from crowds, more than 8,000 people over the two days. Just before leaving, Iosu is hospitalized and is replaced by Iñaki Speed, that was updated with the songs between the plane and hotel. Earlier this year when nobody gave them a hard, the people of Castellón Matraka Diskak Records offered they to record a new album and silencing voices and rumors of its dissolution and death to emerge with the album Demasiados Enemigos. They note tired and exhausted but still thrilling with songs like Siempre Estoy En La Luna and angry songs like old times "No Quiero Cambiar. To finish the album with the song that they say goodbye called La Mejor Banda Del Mundo is all a testament, premonition of his death.
A few months after going out this record (May '92) dies Iosu, guitarist and soul of Eskorbuto. Paco and Jualma decide to go and work on a new album, but fate does not want two people so united by love and hatred continue to separate and five months later (October '92) dies Juanma. They were always together and always will be, and perhaps beyond the cemetery are looking for a drummer to form a band.
Paco with the work that had prepared with Juanma, he decides to translate it into a disk with the inevitable title Akí No Keda Ni Dios, full of memories and nostalgia for lost friends. Then, Paco has continued with two more albums that go under the title Kalaña and Dekadencia, but that is another story.
Eskorbuto without Iosu and Juanma
Aki no keda ni dios was published in 1994, with songs that had been composed by Pako and Juanma before their deaths. Pako decided to keep on using the name of the group, in spite of the death of both charter members. Many fans of Eskorbuto deride this decision. Kalaña (1996) and Dekadencia (1998) are their works with the new line up.Influence
Eskorbuto never emphasized their abilities as musicians. Nevertheless, they composed songs that quickly became hymns of the time, like Mucha policía, poca diversión. Their lyrics were loaded with rage and social content. They were a very controversial group, loved by many and hated by others. They were never aligned politically with any ideology saying, "Rock does not have a mother country, not even the Basque".Their relationship with other groups was not good, even with La Polla Records (for instance, they stole a guitar from them). This caused a boycott on one or another of them, and the band halls had to choose to have Eskorbuto or La Polla Records, but not both together.
Members
- Iosu; Josu (Jesús María) Expósito López - guitar and vocals (deceased 31-May-1992)
- Jualma; Juanma (Juan Manuel) Suárez Fernández - bass and vocals (deceased 9-Oct-1992)
- Pako; Paco (Francisco) Galán Portillo - drums
Discography
- "Aki no keda ni dios" - (1994)
- "Anti-todo" - (1986)
- "Dekadencia" - (1998)
- "Demasiados enemigos" - (1991)
- "El infierno es demasiado dulce "
- "Eskizofrenia"
- "Impuesto revolucionario" - (1986)
- "Kalaña" - (1996)
- "Kanziones malditas"
- "Las mas macabras de las vidas" - (1988)
- "Los demenciales chicos accelerados" - (1987)
- "Primera maketa 1983: jodiendolo todo" - (1983)
- "Primeros ensayos 1982" - (1992)
- "Segunda maketa 1984: que corra la sangre" - (1984)
- "Ya no quedan mas cojones..."
- "zona especial norte" - (1985)