Stream the Debut EP From Mexico City Punks Narcoestado

Narcoestado is the Spanish term for ‘narco-state’, a reference to a narcotic drug trade that controls and influences a substantial part of a country’s economy, political institutions and law enforcement.

It’s also the name of a Mexico City band that plays a dark punk with traces of oi. The trio have been directly and indirectly affected by the Mexican narco-state.

Roger, Eumir and David have played in established bands Tercer Mundo, Muerte, Mujercitos, and Ratas del Vaticano, and have a proven record of producing intense and powerful music driven by anger, love, injustice and freedom.

In the same week that Mexican authorities recaptured drug lord Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán, we had a chat to the band about their demo that's soon to be released on vinyl through California label Going Underground.

Noisey: The beauty of Mexico is often overshadowed by the media’s portrayal of brutal violence by the cartels and police.
Roger: Mexico is beautiful in terms of territory and culture but besides that it sucks and is doomed. Poverty, corruption and greed at all levels, an extreme lack of empathy for other’s pain, very ignorant double standards, a rampant unconsciousness and lack of respect grown from ignorance and a shitty "me first" capitalist mentality, and above all, an unreal impunity that makes it impossible for this nation to crawl out of the pool of shit where we have been swimming for the last decades. This is Mexico today and any news report that you can read falls short in comparison to what is really happening here.

What is life like in Mexico City for punks?
Roger: It’s just as assimilated by society as any other weird haircut anywhere thanks to Vice and other shit. Just a fucking trend, punks don’t pose a threat to anybody but themselves with their drugs, fake commitment and a very comfortable nihilism. It's just more important to have cool friends on Facebook, and have a sick profile, the proper clothes and the proper records, it's all a fiction, punks are not outsiders anymore but we love to think the contrary, but that’s everywhere now. This interview is the perfect example of that, Noisey and VICE are a pretty tool of counter-counter culture helping society digest the underground.

Eumir: Mexico City is actually quite peaceful. Of course shit happens, but at least in my case, it hasn't happened to me. On the other hand, the media is full of violence. Newsstands are full of newspapers with bloody gory images. So there is an illusion of extreme violence. And of course, we're always scared of the police, because they can do almost whatever they want without facing consequences.

David: My hometown is Monterrey but for two years I lived in darkness, fear and chaos due to the narcoviolence and all the repercussions of the so-called war on drugs. Actually this band is a consequence of narcoviolence, maybe I wouldn’t have moved from Monterrey to Mexico City if the situation had not been so extreme. Have you been directly affected by the narco-war?
Roger: Directly when you live in fucking fear, or when your family receives a phone call to extort and they know everything about you and your loved ones and throw a Molotov at your house at 3 am. Or when your neighbor and four others including an activist and a journalist reporting on the narcostate are murdered. Or when your roommate’s brother disappears in a city run by Los Zetas and el PRI. Or when your friends and coworkers have to run to empty their house because a fucking cartel put a threat on the family. Or indirectly when you see all your stupid punk friends buying cocaine or speed from the fuckers that are doing this shit….

David: In Monterrey for sure, from knowing people who were kidnapped, raped and executed to not so extreme experiences in the scene with the army violating your rights during a show just because drug cartel members broke into the show with guns to extort and steal. The horror is still going on in Monterrey but not on such extreme levels. Now you can go out on the street and not being too concerned about being caught in the middle of a shooting, but the violence is still happening on several levels and the city is recovering slowly and painfully. The punk scene there is now almost dead.

There is a noticeable oi influence on the songs. Is the oi influence and sound growing in Mexico?
Eumir: I don't think it is growing. There has always been some sort of oi scene in Mexico (from which we're not a part of, by the way).

David: The oi punk music has been trendy lately and you see a lot of hype around bands that supposedly play that style. I have never considered us an oi band, but people like to do that and it's fine with me. I just like Ramonero Punk Rock.

The Narcoestado EP will be available soon on Going Underground.