Although the Zeros were sometimes called "the Mexican Ramones," when the players first gathered in Escovedo's bedroom in 1976 to plug in their guitars, they had never heard of the seminal New York outfit. But they were reacting to the same electric charge of early garage rock, Iggy and the Stooges and the fading glitter rock movement.
In 1977, the Zeros appeared on San Diego's "Sun-Up" morning TV show, where Lopez's father worked behind the cameras.
In grainy black-and-white footage available on YouTube, the band looks and sounds like a contemporary act, both timeless and raw.
"The glitter era really got all the freaks and the weirdos, and punk rock started to happen," Lopez remembers. "The reject kids could be that, and if you didn't fit in with the social kids and the popular kids, music could be your salvation."
During their four years together, the Zeros opened for the Clash, toured with John Cale, played with Devo and survived the notorious Elks Lodge skirmish of 1979, when 60 Los Angeles riot police arrived at a concert by X, the Go-Gos, Los Plugz and the Zeros.
"The cops showed up and they just busted everybody. They busted heads," bassist Penalosa says. "It was like a war zone. They were marching in file with the batons, with helicopters and the whole thing, and a lot of our friends got hurt."
Lopez was the first to move on, relocating to Los Angeles and joining the local punk act Catholic Discipline. At that point down to a trio (including drummer Chenelle), the Zeros set up in the Bay Area before officially disbanding in August 1980, after a few final shows in San Francisco and road trips to Austin, Texas, and New York -- where they played legendary clubs CBGB and Max's Kansas City and had two guitars stolen.
"After that," says Escovedo, "we were going, 'Man, this is getting tough.' "
The Zeros reconvened before: in 1992 at a benefit for ailing LA Weekly music critic Craig Lee and later that decade, the band reunited long enough to complete an album, "Knockin' Me Dead," recording songs left over from the old days.
On tour in Europe to promote that release, they found fans with their original 45s and vintage magazine clippings, and a club in Spain named Rico Amour, after one of their songs.
Back in San Diego, the musicians discovered an all-female Zeros tribute band called Wild Weekend, the title of another Zeros song. Now, most of the Zeros are living again in San Diego, though Lopez is based in Seattle.
