Davila 666

In The Red Records band Davila 666 come from San Juan, Puerto Rico, where they listen to dirty rap and dirty rock ‘n’ roll and have super-super-SUPER fans who come to every show ever. Tonight will be the last of a string of L.A. shows. This interview by Drew Denny.What’s the story behind Davila 666?Carlitos (vocals): We started recording songs in August 2005… I used to do other music with AJ—he plays bass and writes most of the music. We used to make rap music together, like dirty rap. He did beats for a group I used to have, but I stopped because I got tired of it. I wanted to do other stuff, like rock ‘n’ roll, and he was down. A.J. and Johnny had been in bands before in Puerto Rico—local rock bands, different kinds of shit. We’ve all played in different bands in underground scene in Puerto Rico.What’s the scene like in Puerto Rico? I don’t know if I even wanna call it a scene, really. It’s just a bunch of kids who wanna go out and see good shows. They don’t really get to see many good shows so when they do it’s a party. There really isn’t a punk scene or a rock scene—but kids like to go out and get drunk and have fun.What American music did you listen to growing up?Tons. I liked American music way before I got into Puerto Rican music or Latin music. All kinds—rock ‘n’ roll, punk, garage, hip-hop, rocksteady, soul… everything! We all grew up hearing Latin music—old salsa, like the records my dad would put on. But I was into rock and hip-hop before I really got into that. We didn’t get it when we were kids, but now we appreciate it in a different way.How’s the tour going? Any knife fights?Nothin that crazy, but the shows have been really crazy. A couple shows ended in piles of people. Last night we played in Nashville with a bunch of really cool bands, and the crowd was going wild. Everybody’s all sweaty and naked. Getting in the streets and fightin’! We did a West Coast tour in 2007. We played two show in L.A.—at the Smell and at the Scene. That was the party where Larry Hardy from In the Red Records was there. He was friends with Haunted George—this one-man band from California. We had written Haunted George and said we liked his music. So when we got a gig in L.A., he got onto it. Larry went to see him. We gave Larry some CDs—four months later, his girlfriend put it on, and then wrote us and said he wanted to do a record with us. The record we did with Larry was the record we released in September. We just released two 7” records—one on a label from Chicago and one on a label from Atlanta. On the Douchemaster 7”, the A side is ‘Pingorocha y la Diva Rockera.’ It’s a song about these two chicks who go to all of our shows in Puerto Rico—every single fuckin’ show. They’re always in the front row, and they know all the wordsSo they’re like super fans?Like super super super fans! The song’s about them getting ready to go to a rock show and then really venting and having a good time. It just seems like a really cool thing to do—we like it, so we wrote a cool song about them. We’re sweet boys. It’s a really poppy—you gotta hear it. It’s like a bubblegum song! The other record was released by Hozac Records. It’s a darker one… It’s got ‘Primero Muerta’ and ‘Sabes que Quiero.’I love ‘Sabes que Quiero!’Cool! At all three shows in New York we had horns playing with us on that song! Some friends from New York. It was awesome.That’s so cool—That song is fuckin catchy… So what is it? What you want?A.J. wrote that song – it’s about some kid from the street in Puerto Rico getting up and buying weed and getting in fights and getting pulled over by the cops. He’s just talking about how his day went but the hook is like ‘What I really want is to see you now and just fuck around’, you know?Awww….It’s about fuckin’ shit up on the street and comin home and having your girl.I like it.Good!I just drove across the country—L.A. to Vermont. It’s might pretty country, but it gets real weird in the middle… What do you think about rural America? It’s getting really weird. It’s always interesting, though. For us it’s a cultural thing cause we’re from Puerto Rico. Like you going to Puerto Rico and being on the island for more than three weeks—it’s gonna get weird. People have been nice. Every once and awhile you get dirty looks but nothin’ you can’t ignore. Nobody’s fucked with us.What are you traveling in? A minivan. Seven of us in a minivan.Everyone have a seatbelt?Um, yeah?Are all seven in the band?The band and one other guy who does all our videos and all the visuals at our shows. He’s doing a project called Puro Vicio. He’s been documenting everything we’ve done for three years. He’s been mostly driving the van on this trip.When are you going back home?We go home October first.You miss it?Yeah—certain things. But I’m having a great fuckin time. I’m happy to still be on tour and looking forward to the next eight or nine weeks. We’ll go back to Puerto Rico for two weeks then come right back for a West Coast tour. I wanna go to Latin America—Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile. I think we’re gonna go to Europe next year, too.Have you met any cool bands on the tour? We played with Mannequin Men from Chicago. They’re more like post punk type stuff, and it’s really good. We like them. Last night we played with a bunch of fucking cool bands from Nashville— bands that have been playing for only a couple years but they’re really good. We played with Nashville Child—they’re a three-piece, so fuckin’ good and funny. They play songs about shootin’ cops and smoking crack. But in a funny way. You have to hear it. It’s not like N.W.A. It’s like talking shit about having sex with girls you don’t wanna have sex with.I heard you like to eat babies?It depends upon the baby. We smell them first. If they smell good, we might eat them. But some of them are really annoying so you have to eat them.