Manic Hispanic is ‘Back in Brown’ after mourning the death of its legendary founders
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Call Manic Hispanic one of the most subversive bands ever to emerge from Orange County, and its members just might laugh off the suggestion.
The group’s origin story started with a half-serious conversation in 1992, after all, between founding members Steve Soto and Mike “Gabby” Gaborno when both worked at the Doctor Dream Records warehouse in Orange. The pair mused about what forming a Freddy Fender cover band would sound like in shared reverence of the beloved Tex-Mex balladeer.
By that time, Soto established himself on O.C.’s punk scene as a member of Agent Orange and the Adolescents; Gaborno chiseled his onstage charisma as lead singer of the Cadillac Tramps. Like star players on a super team, they culled musicians from other bands to form Manic Hispanic, a project that didn’t spoof Chicano crooners but punk rock classics, instead.
Manic Hispanic turned assimilation on its head with refried songs like the Ramones-inspired “The I.N.S. Took My Novia Away,” that were as funny as they were furious. And the band did it all while dressed as cholos onstage. The band released four albums and turned annual Cinco de Mayo shows into rituals where the county’s Mexican misfits slam danced into whites in sweaty solidarity.
No matter how grand Manic Hispanic’s powder keg of an impact has been for nearly 30 years, the formula stayed simple: a band of brothers having a good time playing music together.
That’s why Gaborno and Soto’s tragic passing in successive years shocked the band’s steady sense of self.
“After Gabby died, we weren’t sure of what we were going to do,” said Maurice Torres, a longtime guitarist for Manic Hispanic, “but then we decided that we would continue. From that point on, we just wanted to do it the right way.”
Manic Hispanic scrapped performing as “Mexican Society,” a one-off spoof of itself after Gaborno’s death in 2017, and retooled the roster with the youthful additions of Gilbert Pichardo and Louie Perez III.
“Steve wanted the idea and legacy of Manic Hispanic to go on,” said Perez. “As he said in his famous analogy, if the grandma dies before Christmas, the tía has to step up and make the tamales.”
Digging their hands back into the musical masa, Manic Hispanic polished new punk parodies that would eventually comprise its forthcoming “Back in Brown” album before Soto passed away in 2018, a year after Gaborno’s death.
“For a long time, thinking about the band made me sad,” said Efrem Martinez Schulz, a vocalist for Manic Hispanic. “I couldn’t even hear the songs. It’d make me so bummed.”
After three decades of refrying punk standards into laugh-out-loud Chicano cult classics, Manic Hispanic sat on an album’s worth of material in a malaise, including Soto’s last recordings on guitar throughout the songs.
Even if the band couldn’t find the will to play, not releasing “Back in Brown” would’ve felt like a betrayal. After mourning the loss of Soto, the remaining members renewed their resolve to return to the stage with the new album in tow. Adding guitarist Elvis Cortez to the fray, Manic Hispanic readied “Back in Brown” for its long-awaited release last year on Cinco de Mayo only to see such plans dashed by the coronavirus pandemic.
More than a year later, live music is finally returning as is Manic Hispanic without further delay.
The band celebrated this Cinco de Mayo with the debut of a music video for “Holding Cell,” a cover of Fugazi’s “Waiting Room” that serves as a cautionary tale of barrio uprisings against police profiling, all with a horns-blaring banda gag of an interlude. Other videos followed for songs that tap into the same time-honored tradition of Chicano musical parodies from Lalo Guerrero to El Vez.
With Mexican Independence Day coming up, Manic Hispanic is set to play a “Back in Brown” album release concert at Alex’s Bar on Sept. 16. “It’s always been about the live show and connecting with an audience with this band,” said Torres. “Plus, I got a new Pendleton right before COVID, and I need to wear it!”
Nobody is being asked to fill Gaborno’s Nike Cortez shoes onstage that night or to replace Soto’s own imprint on the band.
Both legacies will be honored as a new one begins; “Back in Brown” is Manic Hispanic’s first album since 2005’s “Grupo Sexo,” and the creatively renewed musicians don’t plan on another lengthy hiatus from the recording studio.
Drummer Ruben Rivera and bassist Warren Renfrow, who also played with Gaborno in the Cadillac Tramps, join Torres as the band’s remaining original members. Manic Hispanic takes comfort in knowing that the newer additions are musicians that the two late legends wanted along for the cruise.
“When we started this band, Gabby was the focal point,” said Torres. “The difference now is that it’s a little bit more of a team. All three — Gilbert, Efrem and Louie — interacting together has been amazing. I laugh so hard when we’re playing now.”
Soto already had some quips for the vocal trio calling them “Juan Direction,” among other nicknames not fit for print. After all the heartbreak of the past few years, a little vato loco levity set to punk may be cathartic for the band and audience alike.
“The beauty of comedy and tragedy is a very Latino thing,” said Perez. “You can’t call anything more Chicano than that. You laugh and you cry. The audience has gone through all of this, too, for the last year and a half just being miserable or losing their camaradas. Now, we have to bring them some happiness.”
Or as Schulz summed up with some age-old barrio wisdom: “All the songs make me smile now. They don’t make me cry anymore.”
Infobox:
What: Manic Hispanic
Where: Alex’s Bar, 2913 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach
When: Thursday, Sept. 16, 8 p.m. $15, 21-plus
More info: (562) 434-8292; alexsbar.com
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