Plastic Pinks on growth of garage rock scene in Miami

June Summer (left), and Luigi Toni La Roca (center), and Augie Pink (right) spoke about the garage rock scene in Miami. Photo by Natalie Bojorquez/FIUSM 

Junette Reyes/Editor-in-Chief

Diego Saldaña-Rojas/Opinion Director 

In collaboration with WRGP Radiate FM’s program titled Local Radiation, FIUSM has had the chance to interview several up-and-coming as well as established acts in the Miami scene.

Some of these artists include Panic Bomber, Smurphio from the local electronic funk band known as Afrobeta, Jean Jacket, The Cornerstoners, Flight Williams from the collective rap group known as Outta This World, Juan Turros and Michelle Forman of ¡Suénalo!, DJ and producer Jesse Perez, The Halfways, Millionyoung, Eagle Chief, Hunters of the Alps, vocalist Juan Rozas from Tremends, frontman Anthony Fernandez of The Vilifiers, Sunghosts, Deaf Poets, Astronauts, Wilkes Oswald, Blue Jay, Beyond the Boundary, Kazoots, Lavola, and Cog Nomen.

This time around, FIUSM got to sit down and interview lead vocalist June Summer, rhythm guitarist Augie Pink and lead guitarist Luigi Toni La Roca of Plastic Pinks. Plastic Pinks is additionally made up of bassist Charlie De Jesus and drummer Nicholas Ochoa.

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Diego Saldaña-Rojas/FIUSM

Tell us a bit about yourselves.

June: In the case of Augie and myself, we’re actually brothers. We’re actually from Puerto Rico. We moved here about three years ago.

Luigi: I’m Italian.

June: But the band actually started here in Miami. We’ve been together for a year, something like that.

What kind of music do you play?

June: We play, if you want to call it that, garage rock. Rock and roll mostly.

Luigi: Or as we like to call it, rad city sticky pop.

Augie: It’s actually because of the sticky melodies we play.

Diego Saldaña-Rojas/FIUSM

What are some of your musical influences?

June: To be really honest, some of it came from Davila 666. That is Puerto Rican garage rock band that is really successful.

Augie: Ty Segall.

June: Black Lips.

Luigi: I grew up listening to At the Drive In. So I really love post-punk music. I like death rock music as well. So I guess we just try to incorporate all of that into garage rock music.

In terms of garage rock music, do you feel there has been a revival?

June: It has been happening, yeah. It’s been really good. One of the main things that has been happening lately is actually that, especially here in Miami. It has been growing pretty big. In Atlanta, it’s getting pretty huge as well.

Augie: Yeah, Atlanta is huge. They have The Coathangers and The Black Lips.

Where does the name come from?

Augie: The first thing everyone says is pink flamingos, everyone says that.

Luigi: The truth is, it’s really open for interpretation.

June: It actually just happened because we tried a bunch of names, I’m not gonna lie to you. We tried probably more than 200 names because every time we checked, the name was taken. So we just decided to go with whatever came up.

Augie: It was really random. June and I were sort of out. We were actually at Gramps in Wynwood  and were just drinking and talking and whatever. One thing led to another and the name just jumped at us. It’s fairly simple but it works.

Where have you performed around the city?

June: We’ve actually played Blackbird.

Luigi: Churchills, Propaganda at Lake Worth. PRL in Hollywood.

Augie: Kill Your Idol.

June: Kill Your Idol actually helped us a lot. That was our first show.

Augie: We all had a fever that day.

Luigi: Yeah, I almost passed out.

Augie: And when we finished, back then we had our other guitarist and he ended up puking in the back and everything when we finished. We were all like dying.

June: We were all really sick.

Luigi: We play house parties too. Last month, we played about nine times. I can’t remember any of them for the life of me because it’s just one after the other and it’s just exhausting after a while.

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Diego Saldaña-Rojas/FIUSM

Would you say there are enough venues that cater to your sound in the city?

Luigi: I say not enough in my opinion from what I see. I mean, I grew up with Churchills.

Augie: There could be a little more.

June: To be honest, though, I like to be that band that even if you don’t expect us to play there, we play there and you’re gonna have fun. So even if we don’t have the perfect venue for our type of music, we still make that show happen and be good.

Augie: Also, you never know who is going to be there.

Luigi: We’ve been fitted into some pretty funny spots and people end up going “Whoa, I did not expect seeing that coming from you guys. That’s awesome. Where are you guys from?” and all that.

Do you have a story or an example of that, playing in a venue where your sound does not necessarily appeal to the audience?

Augie: Actually at Vagabond, it was hip-hop night.

Luigi: We almost broke the stage because people got so crazy. I had to pull a girl out of the fire pit because she almost got caught on fire. It was just so rowdy, a little bit more than my comfortability. But everyone was like “Yeah man, that’s what it’s about, that’s awesome. ” and I was like “Oh man someone just almost got hurt.” I was a little traumatized.

June: The show was actually pretty good. It just takes you by surprise and it just depends on the mood as well. People are really into just letting loose.

Augie: We’re very energetic out there. We feed off of that.

Luigi: We don’t wait for anybody to move, we initiate moving.

June: If no one is moving, I’m jumping in and making them move.

Luigi: We move more than anyone.

What do you have to say about the music scene in Miami?

Augie: There is a lot of really good talent out there that I feel people need to expose themselves more to. I say people like The Gunghoes, Casual Creatures, The Costs.

Luigi: It has yet to be mined. With all genres, even Holly Hunt is amazing, we love them.

Augie: Whorish Boorish, obviously.

June: Your usual suspects like Jacuzzi Boys. It’s a thing where if you don’t search for it, you might not notice it as quickly as some other people. But seriously, it’s out there. Seriously, it’s growing, venues are getting a little bit more open minded about the whole rock and roll scene.

Luigi: It’s like a fungus.

June: it’s spreading around, it’s actually getting big. We have moments where people actually recognize us on the street and they want to know more.

Luigi: We even have people that listen to dance music that have come to our shows and like our music.

Augie: Definitely, people need to go out there and see that it is really happening. Music is happening.

junette.reyes@fiusm.com 

diego.saldana@fiusm.com 

 

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