TAKE5 with The Lovely Shaggs

The Lovely Shaggs lineup:

Joe Collazo, 31, vocals, piano, guitar, mouth organ

Boris Vega, 23, lead guitar

Randy Cornejo, 24, bass

Michael Gonzalez, 26,drums

What's the story behind the name of the band?

Joe: Actually Mike came up with the name. We are big fans of the movie "Spinal Tap" and some of the characters in the movie were in a band called The Lovely Lads. We couldn't really use that since it was in the movie so - shag is British for sex so we thought of using The Lovely Shaggs. It's really not to fascinating of a story.

How did you get into music?

Joe: I started when I was 12 or 13 singing in a choir. I was a pretty dedicated art singer. I was even in the opera company here at UTB. So that's kind of how I started. Then I just wanted to break away from the art music stuff because it kind of took all the fun out of it. It's more fun to be able to have my own interpretation.

Boris: Probably when I was a little kid. My dad would always play records. I was always into sports growing up until junior high when I started playing guitar. It wasn't until high school until I joined a band and I've been playing for the last six or seven years. It's always been something me and my dad can relate to. Me and him get along real well with that.

Randy: I didn't start getting really, really into music until after I graduated high school. I joined my first band. It happened to be affiliated with church, so I was into that whole scene of being good for a while. Then you know you start going out, meeting people.

Michael: My dad bought me my first drum set whe I was like 8 or 9 years old, some little piece of crap toy. I just beat the crap out of it. Then I go to middle school and I became a band geek, through middle school and high school. I joined the symphony orchestra, I was a timpanist and then I did drum corps in San Antonio.

How did the band get started?

Randy: I met Joe about seven or eight years ago. We would talk, do our thing and get to know each other a little bit better. Back in the day, we discovered that we would play music together. One night we just started to get on stage, just started doing it. Through mutual friends we met Boris and we met Michael and ever since that we just decided to do it from there. And here we are today.

Joe: Randy and I used to play in a couple of bands together. I've known Randy the longest. When Vinyl Dharma first started in Brownsville I was the lead singer for Vinyl Dharma. Then we went our separate ways. Randy and I were in several bands together and it never seemed to work out. Mike was my roommate and one day he was like ‘Hey, did you know I play drums?' And I was like ‘Wow, I didn't know that man.' We were a three-piece for a while and then Boris and Mike and I played softball together. We asked him if he would be interested in playing and nine months later he said yeah. (laughing) It took some wining and dining. We started just jamming out in the garage and now here we are, trying to make it.

How would you describe your sound?

Boris: We all are into different types of music. It's kind of weird how when we first started jamming out we had something in common. But I know when we each are alone or cruising, we each listen to something different. Pretty much our sound is whatever comes out when we are jamming or practicing. We have some originals and covers, so it comes from pretty much everywhere - from rock to indie, alternative, hip-hop, punk.

Joe: We're like a buffet rock band.

What are some bands that have influenced you?

Joe: Can we just spit them out?

All: Black Sabbath. Radiohead. Minus the Bear. Incubus. The Beatles. The Doors. Jesus Christ Superstar. Queen. Prince. Circa Survive. Spiritualized. City and Colour. Metallica. Ozzy. Blink 182. I'm gonna say The Beatles again. Pink Floyd. Sublime. NOFX.

Randy: It gets as old as King Crimson. If anyone knows who King Crimson is these days.

All: Mozart. Ray Charles. Snoop Dogg, for sure. A Tribe Called Quest. Digital Underground.

Why play covers as well as originals?

Michael: Because this is Brownsville and everybody in Brownsville loves covers. But we don't mind that because when we play songs that the crowd enjoys they give us energy. Then we feed off of that and give them energy - it's just a big old fest of energy. We've got to play our originals because we don't want people to think that we are one-dimensional when it comes to playing music. We are all creative in our own different types of ways.

Joe: It satisfies our artistic integrity.

What are the plans for the band?

Joe: Unfortunately enough, I'm moving to Austin in August. From now ‘til then we're going to try to get into a recording session and make a little EP of our original stuff. I'll still be in the band. The band won't break up or anything. I'll still come down and play shows and, of course, if I can book shows up there I'll bring them up there. Basically our plan right now is just to record and make our live sound a lot more solid.

Randy: It's all just keep going forward and rock ‘n' roll.

Click here to hear Toast to the End of the World by The Lovely Shaggs

Check out the band's site at www.myspace.com/thelovelyshaggs69

Catch The Lovely Shaggs live Rack Daddy's every Wednesday.

 If you are in or know a band you think should be featured in TAKE5, call (956) 982-6622 or e-mail us at thescoop@brownsvilleherald.com.