UNDER CONTROL

When Mexican hip-hop trio Control Machete was in town to test the waters last summer in small Hollywood venues, veteran rock en espanol band Maldita Vecindad was playing the region’s higher-profile concert halls. Before a concert, Maldita Vecindad’s colorful lead singer, Roco, spent time with the young rappers, talking about the future of music.

“You guys are about to launch the next generation of music in Mexico,” Roco told the threesome outside the House of Blues.

Control Machete and Mexico City’s Molotov are the only bands from Mexico’s hip-hop underground to establish a presence in the U.S. and elsewhere.

The group--from one of Mexico’s largest industrial cities, Monterrey, a city of 6 million whose best-known musical contribution is vaquero favorite nortena music--is one of a handful of hip-hop groups not only representing a burgeoning scene in Mexico’s urban centers, but also similar movements in other Spanish-speaking countries.

The band formed less than three years ago and last year released “Mucho barato” (Very Cheap) on Polygram, selling more than 200,000 copies domestically and 100,000 in the rest of the world.

The trio arrives Sunday at J.C. Fandango in Anaheim and Tuesday at the Houes of Blues in Los Angeles having recently played alongside South American heavy hitters Actitud Maria Marta and Illya Kuryaki in Argentina. The group also played a major festival in Madrid last year with Spain’s Latino Diablo and Def Con Dos, the latter coming to Irvine on July 2 on the Warped Tour, which also will feature L.A.-based hip-hop/Latin fusion band Ozomatli.

A control machete is a tool used in manual labor and in macho-driven one-on-one bloody combat. The group addresses social and political issues with a self-styled Monterrey-specific hip-hop that borrows sounds from the L.A. barrios while integrating samples from its backyard--accordion from nortena music, rapid-fire radio commentators, ranchera horns and yodels.

“We are a rap group mixed with otros corrientes [other currents],” said Fermin Caballero, 23, the group’s tall, goateed, rapper. “It’s why we like to write our music in Monterrey. Our surroundings give us enough to talk about.”

Pato Chapa, 22, contrasts Caballero’s guttural voice with a crisp rap. Together they employ bilingual rhymes as well as local colloquial terms. Antonio “Toy” Hernandez, 23, rounds out the group, scratching vinyl on the tornamesa [turntable].

While living on borderlands with the United States, the three often drove to Laredo, Texas, to buy records. From stores’ hip-hop sections they picked up Cypress Hill, Beastie Boys, Ice Cube, Ice T, Kid Frost, Young MC. From the hard-rock bins they stocked up on music by Korn, Rage Against the Machine and Helmut.

“But we’re from Monterrey, so we grew up with regional grupera music,” Caballero said in a recent interview. “We listened to Los Tigres del Norte, Los Intocables, Bronco and Limite. Monterrey is a big nortena and cumbia town. These bands were also a big influence on us.”

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The latter two bands are sampled on “Mucho barato,” co-produced by Cypress Hill’s sound engineer, Jason Roberts. The opening cut, “Control Machete” begins with a sample of the lead singer from Bronco calling out to a screaming audience: “Does anyone want to hear a ranchero yell?” Sliced up beats and scratches bleed into Caballero and Chapa’s tumbling rhymes, then build to their incessant chanting of “Con-trol! Ma-che-te!” The chant has been picked up by fans around the world.

The trio’s deep ties with Chicano hip-hop become evident right away with “Comprendes Mendes?” a slow-sinking walk through deep bass thump and Latin rhyme that’s reminiscent of Soul Assassins. This track appears on the recently released “Star Maps” movie soundtrack, which includes a cross sampling of Chicano rock and rock en espanol.

Although not as vicious in anti-American ranting as border punk en espanol band Tijuana No!, Control Machete’s members condemn the anti-immigrant hysteria whipped up in California politics in recent years.

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Such songs as “Humanos Mexicanos” was inspired by the beating of a group of Mexican workers in California. “Te aprovechas del limite?” (You Take Advantage of the Limit/Border?), although a layered, accordion-driven, dreamy musical, speaks for itself with its title.

“La Lupita” deals with homosexuality; “Cheve” (slang for beer) takes things on the lighter side.

“We express what’s on the minds of people our age. We are out to define our environment putting all through the filter of how we feel about the world around us,” said Chapa, whose vato-wear demonstrates the cross-pollinizing of U.S. and Mexican cultures. “If there is any politics in our lyrics, it’s about finding ways to make friendships and to unify the people.”

* Control Machete and Las 15 Letras play Sunday at J.C. Fandango, 1086 N. State College Blvd., Anaheim. 8 p.m. $15. (714) 758-1057.