Pecola...

A record I have wanted to post about for awhile now is The Mexican from the Toronto based math-rock group Pecola. However, I have been somewhat reluctant due to the record being a bit tough to find anywhere online. It’s sadly out of print these days, but I figured tonight I would go ahead and put it here on the blog for people to hear.

Formed around 1994, Pecola made a number of compilation appearances, put out a couple singles or so, and released an excellent 12 inch EP entitled Dat Hoang through Slipped Disc & Skull Geek. All of that was leading up to their one and sadly final album The Mexican, which was released in 1999 through Kosher Rock.

Pecola played a slightly noisier and aggressive style of math-rock that took many twist and turns within their generally short length songs. I am not really a fan of the phrase “controlled chaos”, although I’ve probably used it before and yeah I am going to use it again here, but that’s kind of what Pecola were notorious for. Their sound was based around a sense of recklessness which made it greatly appealing to listen to in my opinion. Just as soon as you thought things were speeding out of control, they could switch gears and gather themselves up then head in a completely different direction only to do it all over again. For those that haven’t got a chance to ever hear this highly overlooked band, then definitely take a listen to the samples below. Well worth the time.

Pecola – Worker and Parasite [MP3]
Pecola – Sugarcane is Aspartame [MP3]
Pecola – Song #3 [MP3]

Like I said, I unfortunately have no idea where to obtain their album these days. If anyone out there does run across, I definitely recommend picking it up. It’s excellent. The good news though is that Dat Hoang is available digitally through Emusic, Amazon, or basically any other major digital retailer. Members from Pecola went on to be in No No Zero, Minaret, and various others.