Abe Vigoda

Not to be confused with the actor of the same name (most notably from The Godfather and Late Night with Conan O'Brien), Los Angeles' Abe Vigoda represent an exciting crop of young and arty punk bands emerging from local all-ages venue the Smell that also includes bands like Mika Miko, Silver Daggers, the Mae Shi, and No Age. The band — consisting of Juan Velazquez (guitar/vocals), Michael Vidal (guitar/vocals), David Reichardt (bass), and Reggie Guerrero (drums) — formed in Chino in 2003 after Velazquez and Vidal caught a Mika Miko set at the aforementioned Smell while they were still in high school, and channeled the energy that they took from that performance into starting a band of their own. Amid a long line of solo and split limited-edition 7" releases of distorted noise punk, they released their first full-length album, Sky Route/Star Roof, on Not Not Fun Records in 2005, and followed that with Kid City on olFactory in 2007. As Abe Vigoda amassed a fervent local following by playing regularly at the Smell and opening for touring acts such as XBXRX, Chromatics, and Old Time Relijun, they also began experimenting with their sound, steadily incorporating tropical and Caribbean rhythms into their music. By early 2008, the band had finished recording its follow-up full-length, Skeleton, and released it in July of that year on Dean Spunt's (No Age) label, Post Present Medium (PPM). They followed it up in February of 2009 with a five-track EP titled Reviver, before releasing their next full-length, Crush, in 2010.