Superlatives: Cutest couple, "the exchange students"

Last seen: When not studying, José Márquez can be found playing bass in punk bands or on the debate team discussing politics. Ana Machado can be found in the dance studio practicing traditional dance and B-girl moves.

In Spanish, a pepito is that pesky kid who, perhaps naively, verbalizes what everyone else is quietly thinking. For local music fans, Pepito – the musical marriage of José Márquez's and Ana Machado's softly hewn vocals and abstract techno underpinnings – is a welcome ambassador intent on mixing musical legacies and harmonizing political ones. And the husband-and-wife duo have plenty of experience doing both.

After immigrating to the United States from Havana, Márquez forged a unique political-musical perspective as a high schooler in New York, melding his rich Cuban music background with a healthy appetite for Sonic Youth, Minor Threat, and Echo and the Bunnymen. Machado, who spent many years traveling back and forth between Tijuana and her adopted hometown of San Diego, found common ground in music from her native Mexico, new wave, and old-school hip-hop. While she cites rock en español artists like Mecano, Soda Stereo, and El Último de la Fil as strong influences in her musical upbringing, her first concert, she recently gushed on KPFA, 94.1 FM, was a triple bill with Kurtis Blow, Run DMC, and the Fat Boys, and it urged her to augment her traditional dance practice with a bit of poppin' and breakin'.

Márquez and Machado met – and married – in San Francisco in the late '90s and started Pepito to cement a number of artistic and political ideas they'd been tossing about for some time. They recently followed up their 2002 debut, Migrante (This Record Label), by signing onto Tijuana's Static Discos label – also home to Nortec Collective members Fax and Murcof – and recording Everything Changes. On top of dirty dishes and electrical bills, they also split Pepito's studio duties equitably, with both members learning their way around Pro Tools and adding bits of keyboard and vocals as the spirit moves them. "I play guitar, bass, and do much of the programming," Márquez notes. "However, nothing gets past Ana, who is the ultimate arbiter of what we do and don't. The buck stops with her."

While it may not seem obvious beneath the dreamy audioscapes they've concocted on Everything Changes, Pepito still maintain the political edge of Migrante. The Spanish-language vocals point to their desire to both preserve their roots and extend their music to more Latino listener as their exposure widens. That's not to say they're going to betray the typical indietronic hipsters who have already embraced them; they just think of their usual crowd as having a different take on Pepito. As Márquez said a Pepito collaborator once told him, "'For a lot of your audience who don't speak Spanish, you're making instrumental music.' " (Ken Taylor)

Pepito play with Fax Sept. 22, the Lab, 2948 16th St., S.F. Call for time and price. (415) 864-8855.

For more information on Pepito, go to www.pepito.net.