Union 13 Thrives on Its Punk Diet

Less than two summers ago, Union 13, a bilingual hardcore punk outfit out of East Los Angeles, played only at backyard parties.

That changed when Epitaph Records owner Brett Gurewitz heard the Chicano band and put them in a recording studio for a tryout. Two songs later, they joined the roster of bands that had influenced the young punks’ development: Bad Religion, NOFX and Rancid.

“It was the first time we were ever worked in a studio,” said Jose Mercado, 19, Union 13’s guitarist. “Actually, before Epitaph, we never played on a stage.”

For the past few months, the young quintet--no one is over 21--has been playing gigs throughout Southern California. On Saturday, it hits the Tiki Bar in Costa Mesa.

The band--Mercado, Louie Villareal, Ben Sandoval, Jerry Navarro and Edward Escoto--delivers melodic guitar-thrashing and catchy one-liners in songs that last about 90 seconds.

Union 13’s 18-track debut CD, “East Los Presents,” produced by Rancid’s Tim Armstrong and Lars Frederiksen, is a tightly packed, in-your-face assault--just under 32 minutes.

Singer-lyricist Sandoval sings in English and Spanish, though on some of the accelerated songs the language becomes superfluous as he runs through the lyrics in a couple of breaths.

That doesn’t mean the words don’t count. The group’s sociopolitical content--from the lineage of Bad Religion and Subhumans--comes straight from East Los Angeles. The lyrics contain jabs at an oppressive society and its government--take “Govierno Podrido” (Rotten Government), for instance.

Sandoval, a Honduras native, also narrates his experiences as an immigrant while integrating punk anthem-like rhetoric into songs such as “(We Are All) Bonded as One.”

* Union 13 performs Saturday with Union Bomb and Think Tank at the Tiki Bar, 1700 Placentia Ave., Costa Mesa. 9 p.m. $5. (714) 548-3533.