Between the punks, hippies, rastas, metal heads and emos amongst us, it’s sometimes hard to keep track of the diverse melting pot of subcultures that make up this great nation. East Coasters in particular may be surprised to learn that our left coast compatriots still count “greasers” among their ranks of nostalgic music enthusiasts, replete with pompadours, leather jackets, stand up basses, and all. Yes, greasers. Remember the old 80s movie The Outsiders starring Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Ralph Macchio, and Emilio Estevez? Dallas, Pony boy, “Nothing gold can stay,” and all that? Admittedly, they dressed pretty damn cool, and the music wasn’t half bad either. Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bill Haley: all wild men who changed the face of American music forever.
But today’s greasers differ in one significant way from their musical forefathers: they are predominantly Mexican-American. Elise Salomon’s latest documentary Los Wild Ones takes a deep look into this close-knit scene through the music of Wild Records, the brainchild of Irish ex-pat Reb Kennedy, and the roster of Rockabilly bands that together make up a ragtag family of passionate rockeros.
Interspersing high energy concert footage with moments of small-scale human drama, Los Wild Ones promises to be an entertaining document of a uniquely American phenomenon reinterpreted by new generations that continue to redefine what it means to be American.