The Mountaineer

Issue date: 4/30/07 Section: A & E

Media Credit: photo courtesy of Incesticide Members of Incesticide comprised of Pomona and Chino residents, blend Nirvana and Static-X in their forthcoming E.P.

Profiling a band in its infancy is like describing a mural not yet painted. And profiling a young band of contradictory influences exposes more than just a SoCal music scene, but the fluidity of identity.

Insesticide, represented by Pomona and Chino residents Wes Ovalla, 21(lead guitar), Julio Romero, 25 (vocals), Jaime Arelleno, 24 (bass), and recent band mate Edson Diaz, 21 (drums), is the metal offspring between the marriage of Nirvana and Static-X.

It's a bold move to cite these two bands as major influences when one band criticizes corporate control on youth culture while another band is featured in the videogame Duke Nukem.

This isn't suggesting that emulating bands on opposite ends of the political spectrum is flawed. Instead, Insesticide represents the constant changing and reexamining of a Chicano/Latino cultural identity.

Cultural scholars examine Los Angeles as a "cultural borderland," and Gloria Anzaldúa writes in Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza that L.A. developed "a tolerance of contradictions, a tolerance of ambiguity."

"To be Chicano, in effect, is to be betwixt and between," George Sanchez writes in Becoming Mexican American. Not occupying one singular cultural position like "Mexican," "Latino," "American," or "Chicano."

The members of Insesticide share and live these contradictions, and simultaneously developing their music accordingly, refusing categorizations.

"We want to try [new] sounds as the year goes by, experiment. If you stick with the same sound it gets boring," Diaz said.

Identity and music is mobile, and remaining static is disastrous. "You don't want to be predictable," Romero said.

Arelleno, who speaks little English and just finished his fourth bottle of beer, nodded approvingly.

Ovalla, born in Guatemala and raised in Paramount, Calif., until 13, has on his wall three framed embossed images of Jesus and the Virgin de Guadalupe overlooking his wooden table covered in empty bottles of Coronas and New Castles.

"My parents are very conservative," he said, about juggling agnosticism in a Catholic family. His parents later conceded, "We can't change him, might as well support him," Ovalla said about his parents.

Diaz agreed, saying that his religious extended family antagonizes him about going to church. Instead of prayers Diaz said, "My dad would put me to sleep listening to Dark Side of the Moon."

Ovalla and Romero, friends since high school, began Insesticide after their punk band Dirt Bombs broke up. Arelleno is Ovalla's cousin, and Diaz joined the band less than two weeks ago.

With only five solid songs made, sans the drummer, their themes so far touch upon religion, the war in Iraq, and broken relationships, and hopefully a metal song in Spanish will be put together soon.

"We started this band to get back some edge," Ovalla said.

For a band who hasn't had a gig or a band name designed, their balance act of conflicting musical influences and politics is hard to imagine, but at least in an L.A. of ambiguity and contradictions it's fully acceptable.

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