Robert Becerra, guitarist for the pioneering LA punk band the Stains, has died. A submit on the band’s Fb account reads, “It’s with nice and heartbreaking unhappiness to announce that we misplaced our beloved Robert Becerra yesterday to liver most cancers. He was a real fighter and fought til the very finish. We’ll all the time have him in our hearts and his music and legacy will reside on. He’s going to be rocking in in heaven. Sending peace and like to his buddies and followers.” Becerra was 64.
Becerra co-founded the Stains in 1976 in Boyle Heights, an East Los Angeles neighborhood recognized for its Chicano inhabitants. The group (to not be confused with the Stains from Texas who morphed into MDC) performed technical but chaotic music at unhinged speeds, nudging hardcore punk in steel’s course years earlier than crossover thrash grew to become a classy sound. Becerra’s enjoying was an affect on Black Flag’s Greg Ginn, who put out the Stains’ sole, self-titled album on SST in 1983; it was produced by SST’s in-house engineer Spot. All Music Information’s evaluate sums up the enchantment of Becerra’s enjoying properly: “Becerra slides into wild flurries of soloing each time the temper hits him, reaching for licks effectively past his technical expertise and ending up in way more attention-grabbing territory consequently.”