Pop rock and new wave group
Palmera, formerly El Eructo del Bisonte, was a Tenerife band central to understanding the shift from late-1970s Canarian rock to early-1980s new wave pop.
The Canary Islands Government documents Palmera as formed in Santa Cruz de Tenerife in 1976 as El Eructo del Bisonte, recording its first album two years later. The original core was linked to Dany Pacheco, Tomás Pacheco and Óscar Santana. From 1980 it adopted the name Palmera, recorded new albums in 1981 and 1982 and disbanded soon afterwards, leaving Las llaves de la moto as its best-remembered song.
Palmera matters because it links an island rock scene with the national record industry around Movieplay and with the pop aesthetics of the early 1980s. The group’s later memory has been sustained through tributes, documentaries and critical accounts of twentieth-century Canarian discography.
Their repertory moved from the rock of El Eructo del Bisonte to direct, upbeat new wave pop. The songs combined guitars, keyboards, bass, drums and immediate melodies; Luci and Las llaves de la moto show the will to bring rock craft into an accessible pop form.
Palmera’s transmission has come through reissues, oral memory, cultural writing and tributes such as Memorias, homenaje a Palmera at Teatro Guiniguada. Its case helps explain how some 1980s Canarian bands fell outside industrial continuity despite producing widely remembered songs.
The band forms in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
It records the only album from the El Eructo del Bisonte period.
It releases two LPs and reaches its best-remembered song with Las llaves de la moto.
Teatro Guiniguada hosts Memorias, homenaje a Palmera.
Tenerife
Since the twentieth century
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Gran Canaria
First performance in 1969; first album in 1970
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Gran Canaria
Active between 1965 and 1972; Ciclos was released in 1974
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