Out West, Chicano participation in garage rock in the '60s was so commonplace that it might almost make sense to think of the style as a kind of ethnic music, at least partially. The brothers Billy and Danny Garcia were part of the lineup of the Lyrics, a California-based band of the '60s whose most-remembered record pretty much sums up the group's place in rock history: "So What!" Sometimes listed in discographies with a pair of exclamation points, the song's punctuation whether plural or singular can help differentiate this ditty from the Miles Davis tune of the same name, not that there is much similarity at all between that artist's style of modal cool jazz and the snarling hard rock of the Garcia siblings and their friends. Vocalist and harmonica player Christopher Gaylord was this band's frontman at this point in time, fancying himself a Mick Jagger type. But as one of the original founders of the group, Billy Garcia had already seen a few changes, the Gaylord era of the band being considered the third of five different phases by official Lyrics experts. The group had started as a conventional rhythm & blues outfit in the late '50s, but such general information regarding any '60s rock group it is a bit like saying a butterfly started out as a caterpillar. In this case, the cocoon was formed just north of San Diego, in the area around Oceanside and Encinitas. From 1959 through 1964, Garcia's group was like any number of rhythm & blues cover bands, little brother Danny Garcia finally coming in on bass when it seemed like he was old enough to go into bars without getting beaten up or corrupted, or at least to the point where he couldn't play. The changing styles of 1964 had an altering influence on the Lyrics, along with many such groups of the time, meaning long hair was in along with British Invasion, Rolling Stones-influenced rock that would have been called punk, had it been 15 years later. Gaylord was part of this change, along with guitarist Michael Allen. Nonetheless, although fans of punk are fond of "So What!" along with the entire idea of obscure regional bands, the group itself went in an opposite musical direction, the Garcia brothers pushing for more vocal harmonies and a melodic concept more in tune with ranchera than the Clash. Some of the players cried "wimp!," and in 1966 both Allen and Gaylord ditched Garcia to join the Magic Mushroom Band. Garcia continued in different lineups with the band in the studios at least once a year from the mid-'60s onward, creating singles for labels such as GNP/Crescendo. The sides included songs such as the alarming "Wake Up to My Voice," the fuzzy "Mr. Man," and the patient "Wait." The material has appeared on various collections of '60s garage rock, including Lenny Kaye's splendid Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968. Neither Billy Garcia nor his brother continued in music following the dissolution of the band at the end of the '60s. There is someone of the same name in the Mexican punk rock band Malas Lenguas as well as a jazz saxophonist and clarinetist in the New England area. Neither has any relation to the Lyrics' Billy Garcia. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide