Hailing from New Orleans, where Latin and Caribbean music have a long and glorious history of interaction with R&B, blues and jazz, the Iguanas was formed in 1989 by guitarist/accordionist Rod Hodges and Joe Cabral, who alternates between saxophone and a traditional Mexican stringed instrument known as the bajo sexto. The two also share lead vocal duties. Within a few years, the current longtime lineup that includes bassist Rene Coman and drummer Doug Garrison was assembled. The Iguanas emerged as one of the most popular bands in one of the world’s most musical cities. Their sound has been described as combining Chicano rock

Chicano rock

Chicano rock is rock music performed by Mexican American groups or music with themes derived from Chicano culture. Chicano Rock, to a great extent, does not refer to any single style or approach. Some of these groups do not sing in Spanish at all, or use many specifically Latin instruments or sounds...

, R&B

Rhythm and blues

Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...

, Conjunto

Norteño (music)

Norteño , also norteña or conjunto, is a genre of Mexican music. The accordion and the bajo sexto are norteño's most characteristic instruments. The norteño genre is popular in both Mexico and the United States, especially among the Mexican community...

 and various Latin

Latin American music

Latin American music, found within Central and South America, is a series of musical styles and genres that mixes influences from Spanish, African and indigenous sources, that has recently become very famous in the US.-Argentina:...

 styles into a deep groove.

The song "Boom, Boom, Boom", from their now out of print

Out of print

Out of print refers to an item, typically a book , but can include any print or visual media or sound recording, that is in the state of no longer being published....

 1994 album Nuevo Boogaloo, was featured in the Homicide: Life on the Street

Homicide: Life on the Street

Homicide: Life on the Street is an American police procedural television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Homicide Unit. It ran for seven seasons on NBC from 1993 to 1999, and was succeeded by a TV movie, which also acted as the de-facto series finale...

 episode "The Documentary". Nuevo Boogaloo hit #34 on the US Billboard Heatseekers chart in 1994. The group also appeared in Robert Mugge

Robert Mugge

Robert Mugge is an American documentary film maker. He specializes in films about music and musicians.Mugge was born in Chicago and grew up primarily in the Washington, D.C. area. He received a B.A...

's documentary, "New Orleans: Music in Exile", in which they talked about how Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...

 affected them.

Discography

• The Iguanas (MCA Records
  MCA Records
  MCA Records was an American-based record company owned by MCA Inc., which later gave way to the larger MCA Music Entertainment Group , of which MCA Records was still part. MCA Records was absorbed by Geffen Records in 2003...
  
  , 1993)
• Nuevo Boogaloo (Margaritaville Records, 1994)
• Super Ball (Margaritaville Records, 1996)
• Sugartown (Koch Records
  Koch Records
  E1 Music , the primary subsidiary of E1 Entertainment LP, is the largest independent record label in the United States. It is also distributed by the Universal Music Group in Europe under the name E1 Universal...
  
  , 1999)
• Live Iguanas (Blowout Records, 2002)
• Plastic Silver 9-Volt Heart (Yep Roc, 2003)
• If You Should Ever Fall on Hard Times (Yep Roc, 2008)