Photo By Henry Holczer
Last Sunday night Kuromi, Birote The Musical, Matter Room, and Dummy Casual played a benefit show at the DIY aesthetic music venue, The Smell to raise funds for Jesús Aviles. Better known as the vocalist for punk rock band Plumber, Aviles was extremely passionate about four things: skateboarding, music, his friends, and his family. Unfortunately, his love for skateboarding took a turn for the worse. Around four months ago, Aviles was involved in a serious skating accident.
Aviles was left in a medically induced coma for weeks before being transferred to a nursing home. The medical staff attending to Aviles predict that it will take two years for him to regain his speech and control of his body. It’s obvious that the road ahead for him will be difficult, but as Connor Johnson, bandmate and close friend of Aviles said, if anyone could get through this it’s Aviles. That being said, a tragedy of this magnitude cannot be faced alone. His friends, fans, and family have come together to support him in various ways: Johnson organized a GoFundMe, friends of Aviles planned a string of benefit concerts like the one mentioned above, and fellow Los Angeles punks Whaja Dew are donating their merchandise proceeds to Aviles. The GoFundMe is currently at $8,560 and the goal is $15,000. We should strive to go far beyond that number because his medical bills are going to be higher than that… a lot higher than that. I encourage everyone who is reading this to donate to Aviles’ fund.
I only knew Aviles through Plumber shows. Our interactions were short but impactful, at least on my end. Aviles always seemed so genuinely happy to see me, which always made me stoked. Although Aviles may seem intimidating in Plumber’s writing, penning songs like “Fuck You I’m Plumber” and “Crack Baby”, it just takes one conversation with him to realize he’s actually a loving guy who likes to “take fat dabs”.
A person deeply affected by Aviles’ injury is his best friend Erik Fishcake. I chatted with him outside of The Smell to get a full picture of his dear friend. Aviles, Fishcake, and Aiden Gilbert met while attending the same continuation school in Los Angeles. One day their music teacher had their class perform songs at a retirement home for community service. After this event, the three boys went to a nearby park to smoke marijuana. Equipped with a guitar and a makeshift drum (Gilbert’s skateboard) the boys had their first jam session. They almost instantly settled on the name Plumber for their newfound project, because there was a sign for “Clayton Plumbers” across the street.
Photo by Kimberly Ah
From that day forward Plumber was set on making punk tunes about whatever they wanted. Song topics ranged from Aviles’ “sus shoes” to the Californian wildfires. After releasing their first album Ditch Digger in 2017, Plumber started playing bigger shows, finding themselves on the same bills as Destroy Boys and Sadgirl. As the shows increased in size so did their lineup. In 2018 Plumber added Johnson (mentioned above) to the band on bass guitar. Fishcake attests that none of this would be possible without Aviles. His energy and raw lyrics are staples in every single Plumber song. Along with being bandmates, Fishcake and Aviles were also roommates, making their bond that much tighter. When I searching for people to interview about Aviles, Fishcake was the obvious choice, since they are practically brothers. But as I looked through the crowd at Aviles’ benefit show and scrolled through the countless Instagram posts directing people to the GoFundMe, I realized that there were literally hundreds of people that I could’ve talked to. Aviles’ impact on the scene, as well as his family and friends, is something truly wonderful.
Please donate to Aviles’ GoFundMe.
I would like to thank Connor Johnson and Erik Fishcake for taking the time to do an interview.
