Artist description Energetic trio that plays aggressive rockabilly!

Music Style Rockabilly

Musical Influences Stray Cats, Elvis Presley, Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly, Three Bad Jacks

Similar Artists Stray Cats, Three Bad Jacks, Hot Rod lincoln, Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran

Artist History The Bandits" are Michael & DanielArchuleta & Damien Garcia. Check us out!

Group Members Michael & Daniel Archuleta, & Damien Garcia.

Instruments Guitar, Upright Bass, & Drums

Albums The Bandits- 2002 Demo

Press Reviews Blurt "Some people start off popular in elementary school, and it follows them through high school. Some people don't." Michael Archuleta, 17, is singer/guitarist of San Diego's youngest rockabilly band, the Bandits. A recent grad of Clairemont High, he's developed his own theory on high school popularity. "If your mom gives you the wrong thing for lunch, it can follow you through school. Like if she gives you a pickle in your lunch, that's your new nickname. Everyone says, 'Hey, Pickle.' " But if the band you're in becomes cool, "pickle" can undergo a social "turnaround." "We were not social outcasts. We didn't sit in the corner and do magic tricks during lunch. We were just pretty neutral. But after we played [on campus], people knew who we were. People would start to call you and want to hang out with you. But you're used to the good old days when people just left you alone." Archuleta and his brother Daniel (16, stand-up bass) and cousin Gary (16, drums) don't sound like most of the spiky-haired pop-punk bands at their respective high schools. Daniel goes to Clairemont High. Gary goes to Poway. "They'd call us 'Happy Days' or 'Fonzie' or 'Grease,' " said Michael. "We've heard it all." "They ask us if we came from the '50s," said Daniel, who was actually born in 1986. "Because we are related, they think that our dad manages us like the Hansons. They think we are the rockabilly Hansons. Our dad has never managed us. I manage us." Archuleta thanks his guitar teacher for his early Elvis-era inspiration. "I was 14. I started learning 'Summertime Blues' [from sheet music]. He suggested I pick up a Stray Cats CD. Brian Setzer is the main reason I got into it." All three credit retro movies like La Bamba, The Outsiders, and Elvis films like King Creole and Jailhouse Rock for their rockabilly roadmap. "It's hard to get people to go to our shows because we're not punk. There's just not many rockabilly bands like us that play at all-age [venues]." To make their shows more memorable, they borrowed a page out of the Jerry Lee Lewis playbook. "We light a fire on the bass drum," said Michael. "We've done it over 60 times.... The top is all charred off, but it still works. It brings people out. At our first Club Xanth show they didn't want us to do it, but now they look forward to it." Daniel says his stand-up bass is as popular among teens as the oboe. And it's expensive. "I recommend that you go to Tijuana [to buy] a stand-up bass. It's $250 for a good one. Here it's $1000 for a good one or $700 for a not-so-good one.... Even my strings are $200." He doesn't buy the cheaper metal strings. "They call them catgut, but they are really lamb [gut]. Last week I paid $80 for one string." And then there is the unwanted attraction from the law. He recalled one night when the Bandits played at a Poway High battle of the bands. "I was in my car putting grease in my hair, and I put the tin down in my car. This cop rolled up and she said, 'What did you just put down in your car?' I said, 'A tin of grease.' She's, like, 'Uh-huh.' She got out of her car and started looking around. All she found was grease. She assumed that I was doing something bad because that's how they are in Poway. If anything is out of place, something must be wrong." "If she would have looked in my trunk, she would have found lighter fluid and matches," said Michael. The Bandits appear at Club Xanth August 30 with the Somatix, the Legionnaires, and Deep Eynde. Admission is $7. n Ken Leighton Photograph By Ryan Loyko

Location San Diego, California - USA

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