LOS ILLEGALS - INTERNAL EXILE - US 1983 - A&M SP-4925 - PRODUCED BY MICK RONSON

$

41

Purchased Brand New at Oranges, still in Original Shrink Wrap with one end open to access album, this is UNPLAYED. The cover has no visible flaws, with nice corners, edges, faces and spine with lettering close to almost centered. This is a fine specimen.
Original paper sleeve is two-sided with song list, lyrics and credits. It has a small split on the bottom edge (see picture) and one bottom corner is very slightly bent and a tiny vertical crease at the top(see pictures). No rips, tears or wrinkling.

Vinyl has NEVER BEEN PLAYED and just has some very minor "surface scuffing" on Side 2 vsible in critical sunlight.. Labels are PRISTEEN. Artisan "snare drum' logo etched on runouts.
Side One: El Lay - Secret Society - We Don't Need a Tan - Guinea Pigs - The Maze - Rampage Side Two: Maybe - The Mall - Wake Up John - Search and Seizure - Not Another Homicide - A-95
Highlighted in Bold hold true for this pressing.
Inner sleeve:
Produced by [..] - Engineered by [..] - Mixed by [..] at A&M Recording Studios, Studio D

Some copies have a gold promotional stamp on the back of the jacket.

• Barcode: 0 7502-14925-1
• Pressing Plant ID (On labels): B
• Pressing Plant ID (Runout): ƐMW
• Matrix / Runout (Runout side A): SP0-4925-A-ES1 [Artisan logo] EMW
• Matrix / Runout (Runout side B): SP0-4925-B-ES1 [Artisan logo] EMW
• 
  

Formed in 1979 artist/muralist Willie Herrón (keyboards, vocals), civil rights activist Jesus "Xiuy" Velo (bass), drummer Bill Reyes, and guitarist brothers Manuel and Antonio "Tony" Valdez (who also perform with their Mariachi parents & relatives). They were one of the early framers of U.S. Roc en Espanol in the early 1980s.

The Smithstonian Institution exhibition, American Sabor, called Los Illegals "one of the most important East L.A. bands of the 1980s".

Released in 1981, the song "El Lay" featured Herron singing about his stepfather's arrest for washing dishes in L.A. The song became a Raza Anthem and brought the group's rising notoriety to Europe and Japan. Its cover art was meant to evoke the danger of the punk rock movement and the cultural roots of the group.The group was the first of the Club Vex groups to sign with a major label releasing Internal Exile produced by David Bowie's Mick Ronson on A&M Records in 1983. The song "El Lay" was included in the album. But the relationship soon soured after the label rejected their next LP (Burning Youth) and partnership with UK's Stiff Record's producer Wally Brill (999, Elvis Costello) for its experimentation with Mexican instrumentation coupled with the band's unwillingness to use stereotypical icons (velvet Elvis paintings etc.) for publicity. Tied to a label unwilling to release it, and in debt for the LP's recording costs, they then illegally distributed it on cassette only in Mexico—for free.

The band struck a deal with the Franciscan nuns to open and run the legendary Club Vex at Self Help Graphics, Catholic Youth Organization building in East Los Angeles. There, they booked and introduced Eastside to Westside groups (such as The Brat, X, Bad Religion, and Thee Undertakers) to open up new horizons and enable themselves and others to play and tour with other major 1980s groups including Yhe Clash, Bauhaus, The Motels, and Berlin. A visit to the club by Los Lobos (then an acoustic traditionalist Mexican folk group) convinced the band to rethink itself, return electric, and follow the path set by Club Vex. They were contemporaries of The Plugz from Texas and The Zeros of San Diego. The venue's street credibility kickstarted a music and art renaissance crossing cultural and geographical boundaries. For this, the LA Weekly named them among the ten best bands from East L.A.

Part of my personal punk collection.