Go: Rock: Fenix Turn on Tex-Mex Heat
By: ALAN POOLE - Coventry Evening Telegraph
December 17th 2001 6:17am
THANKS to Harry Potter, owls have suddenly become the ultimate
warm-blooded fashion accessories. So Houston quartet Fenix*tx might just have got ahead of the game
when they decided to name their new album Lechuza which, according to
this crib sheet, is Spanish for said feathered friend. Actually (and staying in Potteresque territory) it's a tad more
complicated than that - Lechuza is a legendary half-owl half-witch,
one of the stars of Tex-Mex folklore and a suitably spooky subject
for a band who like to dip into the darker side oflife. They took off on home territory in 1998 when MCA snapped up their
indie debut Riverfenix (they're not big on English gramma, these
boys) and helped to generate hit singles like Speechless and All My
Fault. A heavy touring schedule, including a guest slot with blink-182
gave their profile a further boost in America and Europe. But they
wisely decided against rushing into their follow-up album, Damon
Delapaz explaining: "Every band is doing almost the sameexact thing
as every other band these days. "I think our whole goal is every time we put something out it's
going to be different from what we did before. It's just more
interesting that way." Delapaz has taken that policy an intriguing step further by
switching from guitar to drums (he's no novice there, having filled
in for Travis Barker when the blink-182 tub-thumper suffered a mid-
tour injury). James Love, a man capable of building guitars as well as playing
them, steps into the front-line vacancy alongside the two other
founder members, Willie Salazar on guitar and vocals and Adam Lewis
on bass. Lechuza has a harder edge than their first pop/punk effort with
tracks like Threesome and Abbazabba already established as live
favourites on home territory. British fans can check them out on
their current tour with stablemates New Found Glory, whichcalls in at
Birmingham Academy on Sunday night.
 (C) 2001 Coventry Evening Telegraph. via ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved
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