The Blasters

Lore & Background

The Alvin brothers grew up in a musical household, befriending Bazz and Bateman and learning firsthand from blues legends like Joe Turner and T-Bone Walker. Phil Alvin took harmonica lessons from Sonny Terry after an introduction by Big Joe Williams. The band's name came from Phil's misidentification of Joe Turner's backup band as the 'Blues Blasters'; Turner later gave permission to use the name. Gene Taylor joined after the release of American Music (1980), and Steve Berlin later joined on baritone sax, playing alongside Lee Allen.

The Blasters toured almost continuously, sharing bills with the Go-Go's, the Cramps, and Asleep at the Wheel. Creative differences led to Dave Alvin's departure in 1985; he left to join X, and the band continued without him.

Reader's Guide

The Blasters are significant for their synthesis of diverse American roots music—rockabilly, early rock and roll, punk, mountain music, R&B, and country—into a cohesive sound they called 'American Music.' Despite limited mainstream success, they earned a devoted fan base and critical acclaim for their tight ensemble work, swingin' original tunes, and Phil Alvin's confident vocals. Their influence extended through mentorship of Los Lobos and Dwight Yoakam, and their songs have been covered by Shakin' Stevens, Buckwheat Zydeco, Dwight Yoakam, and Operation Ivy. The band appeared in the film Streets of Fire (1984) and their song 'Dark Night' was used in Miami Vice and From Dusk till Dawn. Henry Rollins praised them as 'a great band that not enough people found out about.' Their legacy endures through live recordings, compilations, and intermittent tours.

Did You Know?

• The band's name was derived from Phil Alvin's misidentification of Joe Turner's backup band as the 'Blues Blasters'; Joe Turner later gave permission to use the name.
• The Blasters helped Los Lobos get their first record deal and invited them to open shows.
• Phil Alvin flatlined twice from an abscessed tooth infection in 2012 but recovered with his voice intact.
• The Blasters performed as themselves in the 1984 Walter Hill film Streets of Fire.

Roots in East Los Angeles

David Hidalgo and Louie Pérez met as students at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles, bonding over a shared love of Fairport Convention, Randy Newman, and Ry Cooder. Pérez recalls thinking he was the only person who cared about such music until he noticed Hidalgo shared the same tastes. For roughly a year, Pérez drove to Hidalgo's house, and the two spent evenings listening to albums, playing guitars, and sketching songs. They borrowed reel-to-reel machines from a friend to capture multitrack demos ranging from parody tunes to free-form jazz. In 1973, classmates Frank González, Cesar Rosas, and Conrad Lozano joined to complete the five-piece. Their debut album, Los Lobos del Este de Los Angeles, took about four months to track in 1977 across two Hollywood studios. Because every member held a day job, producer Luis Torres coordinated with engineer Mark Fleisher to locate studio time matching everyone's shift schedules. Sessions split between a Melrose Avenue room near the old Paramount lot and a budget-friendly space on Sunset Boulevard. The group originally named themselves Los Lobos del Este, a playful echo of the norteño band Los Tigres del Norte, though a separate conjunto act already called itself Los Lobos Del Norte, prompting the shorter moniker.

The Long Road to a Number One

Their first major public showing came in 1980 at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles, where they opened for Public Image Ltd. On September 28, 1983, they released the extended play …And a Time to Dance, which critics praised but which sold only around fifty thousand copies. Their label, Slash Records under the Warner Bros. umbrella, lacked confidence to issue a full ten-track LP and instead put out a seven-song debut. Seven months later, the group won a Grammy for Best Mexican American Song. The modest sales funded a Dodge van, enabling the band to tour the United States for the first time. In summer 1984 they recorded How Will the Wolf Survive?, a title inspired by a National Geographic article asking where wolves could still thrive—a metaphor for their own struggle to succeed in America while honoring Mexican roots. Opening slots for The Clash and the Los Angeles band the Blasters exposed them to rock audiences. Philadelphia-born Steve Berlin, formerly the Blasters' saxophonist, joined the group, noting his record collection overlapped with his new bandmates'—both sides loved George Jones and Hank Williams. In 1987, their cover of Ritchie Valens' "La Bamba" for the film soundtrack hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped charts in the United Kingdom and several other countries.

A Sound Without Boundaries

From the start, the group refused to confine itself to a single genre. Their palette drew from rock and roll, Tex-Mex, country, zydeco, folk, R&B, blues, brown-eyed soul, and traditional Mexican forms like cumbia, boleros, and norteño music. Early on, the members grew restless with playing only American Top 40 material and began weaving in the traditional Mexican songs they had absorbed as children. Audiences responded enthusiastically, and between 1974 and 1980 the band played hundreds of weddings and dances throughout East Los Angeles. Hidalgo recalled the pay: a four-hundred-dollar fee, a case of beer, and unlimited mole. Watching the popular acts dominating the Hollywood scene, they layered rock sensibilities into their sound. Their range attracted covers by Elvis Costello, Waylon Jennings, Frankie Yankovic, and Robert Plant. In 1986 they appeared in the punk musical Population: 1 alongside Tomata du Plenty, and in 1988 they contributed a rendition of "I Wan'na Be Like You (The Monkey Song)" to a Disney tribute compilation. The 1992 album Kiko, produced by Mitchell Froom, pushed further into experimental territory, selling over four hundred thousand copies and earning Album of the Year honors from both the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Sun-Times.

Accolades and Enduring Presence

The 1987 breakthrough with "La Bamba" launched the group onto a global stage, and through the late 1980s and early 1990s they toured extensively, opening for Bob Dylan, U2, and the Grateful Dead. Their 1988 album La pistola y el corazón, a collection of original and traditional Mexican songs, peaked at number 189 on the pop charts but earned a second Grammy for Best Mexican American Album in 1990. By 2015, the band had been nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and in 2018 they received induction into the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame. As of 2024, their Grammy tally stands at twelve nominations with four wins. Beyond the studio, the group has maintained a presence in popular culture, performing the theme song for the animated series Handy Manny. Their 1990 album The Neighborhood and the more adventurous Kiko both found strong critical footing, with Kiko outselling their two predecessors. The fact that artists as diverse as Elvis Costello, Waylon Jennings, Frankie Yankovic, and Robert Plant have recorded their songs testifies to a body of work that crosses genre and generational lines. From a high school in East Los Angeles to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, their trajectory remains one of the most distinctive in American rock.