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History and Discography compiled by Federico
In the Spanish-speaking world, La Polla Records are in the same league with bands such as Exploited, Dead Kennedys or Crass. I think it would be impossible to find a punk kid in, say, Madrid, Asuncion, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Valparaiso or Mexico City, who never heard the band. The fact that they remained obscure to the rest of the world didn't stopped them from making a fair living off the band for over two decades.
Hailing from the small Basque town of Agurain (or Salvatierra in Spanish), La Polla Records started playing together in the evenings of late 1979, after their daily jobs were done, as a means to overcome the general boredom in their rural area. The lineup, which survived almost intact for the most part of their career, was: Evaristo (vocals), Txarly and Sume (guitars), Fernando (drums) and Ariel (bass).
Even though later on they renounced the "punk" label, the band shared the same musical philosophy with it, not caring too much about virtuosity or technical perfection, mostly wanting to have a laugh and have a say. But their perspective always remained that of a Basque/Spanish band, without the need to emulate their British counterparts too much, who initially influenced them.
Their first shows were supposedly a chaotic mess, but they still managed to generate enough interest in their local area. They recorded their first demo in 1981 but it wasn't picked up by any label. Maybe the quantitative and qualitative growing of punk in the Iberian peninsula around 1982-3 led the Basque label Soñua into finally putting out a 7" by the promising band. The ¿Y Ahora Qué? EP was released in 1983 but unfortunately suffers from a weak production. The music sounds like 70's punk meets 70's rock, and besides the great title track, the rest is a little bit weak if you compare it to their later, 80's stuff.
In February 1984, they appeared in Madrid for the first time, as part of a "Basque Radical Rock" bill (along with Barricada and Hertzainak), a movement that became one of the most important cultural forces in 1980's Spain. That show encouraged young producers Marino and Patxi Goñi to help produce their debut LP Salve. With 19 simple and rocking punk songs, it helped them, and the Radical Basque Rock movement, gain national notoriety and turn tens of thousands of Spaniards into rabid disciples. Their songs were fierce rants dealing with authoritarianism and repression, religion, consumerism and alienation. La Polla Records' trademark, already manifested here, could be reduced to a mixture of Sham 69-like anthems with Dead Kennedys style sarcasm, but their original song arrangements and unique vocal style gave them a sound of their own.
Their second LP, ¿Revolución?, released in 1985, was a great follow up, sounding harder and angrier, an overall improvement from their good debut album, so the continuous growth of fans and general interest in the band shouldn't surprise anybody. The mainstream media always had a hard time with the band's name, since "Polla" means "cock" in Spanish slang, but in post Franquist Spain, it couldn't be a barrier or an excuse for an organized banning. Still, they were the ones the Spanish national press chose to blame for the violence that occurred during one of their shows in Madrid, even though the victims were actually their fans, who got beaten up by bouncers and security guards, the final result being La Polla's "vulgar" name adorning many a newspaper page.
Soon after that, in 1987, they released the No Somos Nada LP. In my opinion, which differs from that of many of their fans, it's their masterpiece. The opening lines "We are the grandsons of the workers that you couldn't kill, and that's why we never vote in the elections to the PSOE (socialist party) and their traitors, or to any of the others - we are the grandsons of those who lost the Civil War" are enough to understand where the band is coming from and if you have a knowledge of anarchist history and sympathy to the cause, it's hard not to fall under their spell. All the tracks are superb, my favorites being the aforementioned title track, "Odio A Los Partidos", "Socios Por La Fuerza" and "Quiero Ver". The original pressing, on their ill-fated Txata Records, has supposedly a really weak mix/sound, but I couldn't really find any faults with the repress.
In 1988 they released a strange LP, Donde Se Habla, in which all the song titles bear names of animals. It was also the first release on the Oihuka label (also home to the other Basque punk legends, Kortatu), as they bought Soñua. The lyrics and artwork, like most of their releases, are really cool, but musically is far from being as classic as their previous effort the way I see it is that they expanded their sounds towards territories I'd rather not visit. The band also split up for some time, due to the inability to cope with the pressure following their success. But they soon reformed, releasing their En Directo live LP that same year.
In 1990 they released another great record, Ellos Dicen Mierda, Nosotros Amen ("They Say Shit, We Say Amen"). The slowish, singalong title track may be considered the band's anthem: "My pals are left thrown along the way, how many will be left, for how long we'll have to live in this never ending defeat/ ...inside our void only our pride is left intact, and that's why we're still on our feet/ tons of people living in sorrow and they are going to die democratically, and I don't wanna shut up/ morality forbid us to protest/ they say shit and we say amen". It's simply excellent punk, perfectly executed.
During the 90's the band continued to release records, most of them containing at least some gems, playing in every city, rock festival and large venue in Spain. They also toured Latin America, generating enormous response. But La Polla Records, like most great bands who find a good formula and keep going for many years (think The Ramones, DOA or Bad Religion), definitely lost something. Also their behavior, which some regarded as rockstarish, took away the aura of passion and conviction they at least seemed to have. After a legal suit of an exfounding member, they had to shorten their name to La Polla, but it's hard to imagine it diminished their popularity. Recently (September 2002), and just after a whole book about the band was published in Spain, their drummer Fernando died from a cardiac arrest, thus making the end of the band a serious probability.
Releases
¿Y AHORA QUE? EP (Soñua, 1983)
VENGANZA EP (Soñua, 1984)
SALVE LP (Soñua, 1984)
¿REVOLUCION? LP (Soñua, 1985)
NO SOMOS NADA LP (Txata Records, 1987)
DONDE SE HABLA LP (Oihuka, 1988)
EN DIRECTO LP (Oihuka, 1988)
ELLOS DICEN MIERDA NOSOTROS AMEN LP (Oihuka, 1990)
LOS JUBILADOS LP (Oihuka, 1990)
BARMAN EP (Oihuka, 1991)
LA POLLA RECORDS LP a.k.a. EL NEGRO (Oihuka, 1992)
HOY ES EL FUTURO LP (Oihuka, 1993)
BAJO PRESION LP (Oihuka, 1994)
CARNE PA' LA PICADORA LP (GOR, 1996)
EN TU RECTO LP (GOR, 1998)
TODA LA PUTA VIDA IGUAL LP (Maldito Records, 1999)
BOCAS LP (Maldito Records, 2001)
Compilations
BAT, BI, HIRU... HAMAR! 2LP (Oihuka, 1987) "Txuss", "El Alcalde"
INFO
www.LaPollaRecords.com
The official website, seems like a tribute to their late drummer.
La Polla Records Fan Website
A nice-looking site with a Spanish language band history, discography, photos, and other up to date information.
La Polla Records Webpage on Pobladores Site
I'm not exactly sure what kind of site hosts this page, but you can find photos and other information about the band here.