COURTESY OF 60 CYCLE MEDIA The street-savvy band from Los Angeles is a favorite in Hawaii.

Ozo fans think
on their feet

A band formed with no expectations beyond the desire to play music. Named for a mythological Mexican monkey. Grammy Award-winners.

That's Ozomatli, perennially popular in Hawaii, and back to headline tomorrow night's "Halloween High Steppin' " at Kapono's. Previous shows here have been sellouts, first at Kapono's on New Year's Eve 2001, and Pipeline Cafe two years later. Add the fact that Ozo (for short) has a new album, and pity those who try to buy tickets at the door.

Ozomatli Where: Kapono's, Aloha Tower Marketplace When: 9 p.m. tomorrow Tickets: $17.50 advance, $25 at the door ($30 if you're not wearing a costume), available at the club, Cheapo Music, Hungry Ear Records, Paradise Found Cafe and Jelly's Info: 271-9140

Bad idea.

If the buzz about prior shows here isn't enough to sell out the show, Ozomatli also is riding the surge generated by "Street Signs," its first studio album in three years, with another fresh cross-cultural blending of rock, hip-hop, rap, salsa, Latin jazz, deejay beats, Mexican and Arabic music.

Ozo spokesman Asdru Sierra says that the group's increasing interest in Mideastern music is in response to America's invasion of Iraq. He hopes that fans won't buy into the dehumanization of Iraqis and other Arab peoples.

"Throughout any time of conflict or war, whatever advertising team is out there trying to advertise the war -- because that's what it is, advertising the war -- they try to paint a really bad face on the culture (and) the actual people (on the enemy side). They try to ... dehumanize them to the point where if we hit a preschool, it's easier for us to swallow -- 'They were all Arabic anyway!' -- because their lives are worthless."

Sierra describes music as "the key to understanding. When people learn about people's art, they come to some sort of mutual respect and understanding. All we're trying to do is make people aware of what's out there in the world -- not in a dogmatic way, but in a very human way.

"I'm just a regular guy. I'm a father, a husband. I have two kids. When I hear somebody else's kids are being killed, I'm going to be concerned. That's a simple as it is."

COURTESY OF 60 CYCLE MEDIA Ozomatli: From left, Wil-Dog Abers, Jiro Yamaguchi, Raul Pacheco, Ulises Bella, Sheffer Bruton and Jabu Smith-Freeman.

IT HELPS that the band's new record label Concord gave it total creative control.

Among the songs getting fan support -- and some radio play -- is "(Who Discovered) America?" Sierra describes it as reflecting the immigrant experience here and elsewhere.

"It's about your heart breaking because of what's going on in this world and how ugly things can be, (when) being from an immigrant family, coming into this country, expecting things to be a pot of gold, but you find out it's different. ... It doesn't mean it's the end of the world. It just means that there's a lot of work to do.

"I had friends who listened to 'Strange Fruit' and thought it was a nice little love song until they really paid attention to the lyrics and realized it was about all the lynchings that were happening in Billie Holliday's time. That's what I wanted to do with '(Who Discovered) America?' ... in some way we're trying to tell people that the world needs help right now."

Besides playing voter registration concerts, Ozomatli has been doing its part to end a series of rape-murders of women in the Juarez-El Paso area between Mexico and Texas. More than 300 have been killed and there's no end in sight to what is evidently the organized serial killing of females between the ages of 14 and 30, Sierra said.

"Over 300 women kidnapped, raped (and) mutilated ... and it's not big news. You could sit here and say it's because they're all Latin immigrants from Mexico, but we're just waiting for someone on one side of the border or the other to make up their minds (to do something about this)."

The band helped out earlier this year by playing a benefit for a community center in the El Paso area that serves immigrants, legal or otherwise. Sierra says the services provided include "arranging for the burials of these women, so they don't just go in one big ditch."

RAISING MONEY for social services wasn't part of the plan when Ozomatli came together in the mid-1990s. Winning a Grammy in 2002 for Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album is probably Ozo's biggest commercial success to date, but Sierra says recording was not even considered at the start.

"We were just a bunch of musicians and friends that would get together who were in other bands. We were the band that would play for free for this community center back in downtown Los Angeles called the Peace and Justice Center. We'd charge five bucks at the door that would pay all the maintenance costs for the building. That's how we started. We weren't trying to get a record deal, and just all of a sudden, we got popular. We loved playing together and I think it caught on. The next thing you know, we're playing clubs, filling it up every night, and the record companies came to us."

And did Ozomatli hit with a new idea or a new style of music? Sierra says no.

"What we're doing isn't anything new, compared to Santana or Malo. ... There's always been this movement, it's just that this kind of music is more of a changing thing. It metamorphosizes with every song. What inspires us is all kinds of dance music, so I like to say what we do is a fusion of dance music."