Mendoza - 13 Green Potatoes

MENDOZA is the latest musical evolution of comedian and multi-instrumentalist Tony Mendoza. A Chicago native known previously for the quirky rock outfit Los Shut Up and its more polished, edgey indie pop-forward successor The French Goodbye, Mendoza’s newest project embraces a warped, electro-leaning palette that’s equal parts absurdist comedy and outsider synth-pop. Every sound on the debut album 13 Green Potatoes was recorded by Mendoza himself using consumer-grade tech, then mixed and mastered by Matt Engstrom at Reelsounds in Chicago. The result is a tightly wound, 13-track sprint clocking in under 25 minutes—an intentionally chaotic, anti-party party record for those allergic to small talk and fluorescent lighting.

MENDOZA’s debut single “DLR PL8S” sets the tone: a reckless, synth-driven joyride through lust, mischief, and certain peril, scored like Bonnie & Clyde in a busted drum machine. Its companion video—filmed in the Salton Sea and an Altadena trailer yard—channels the band’s irreverent spirit and stars Mendoza alongside Linda Orr (Dumb John Improv), directed by Logan Hall (KONGOS, A Complete Waste of Your Time & Money). Lyrically and sonically, 13 Green Potatoes riffs on everything from online grifters and apocalyptic pizza deliveries to Floridian chaos and defiant inflatable companions, like a lo-fi Broadway score beamed in from a haunted Showbiz Pizza. MENDOZA is the rare act that blurs parody and pathos, landing somewhere between Devo and a broken karaoke machine—just the way Tony Mendoza likes it.