The other day the Killers wished Guadalupe a Happy Birthday as a Christmas single to benefit (RED) and the Global Fund. To complicate matters further, because complication is what that lead sentence needs, the charity track also featured work from Mariachi El Bronx, the alias for the newly mariachi-made-over hardcore punkers the Bronx. A few of you lamented the lack of El Bronx coverage this year, and I’ll be honest — when a friend first played the record for me this summer I didn’t know how to react, aside from thinking that it was actually a pretty good look, if not a mind-scrambling aural curveball that made me question how well I knew my mariachi music (not well at all) if the Bronx were making some of the best I’d heard in awhile (this is a low-threshhold compliment, but one nonetheless). Anyway, infinitely more aggravating than folks glomming on to new sounds for purposes of “cred” or whatever is the self-appointed Authenticity Police that live to tell people what they can and cannot sound like/listen to because of their previous practices. So, yes, the few of you that complained in that Killers post were right, Mariachi El Bronx deserved a post or two around here, and I like it despite not being fully versed on the history of mariachi music. And it just so happens the band released a video for “Holy” today. How do you like that. It pairs well with visually with that Killers clip the other day because, sand. Say Mariachi El Bronx of the clip: “It’s like ‘Come With Me’ by Puffy when he used Kashmir as a loop. Idiot? Perhaps… Good video idea? You fuckin knows it.”
Mariachi El Bronx is out via the band’s White Drugs label.
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i personally was referring to the bronx as in the bronx the punk band and not their mariachi side project which unfortunately seems to be eclipsing the bronx
nevertheless, you guys are in my good graces – thank you
Calexico anyone?
We can’t let mariachi music go mainstream! It’s so terrible…I don’t care what B. Flowers says.
I forgot about this band ages ago. Kong has a record out on their White Drugs label and it’s fucking stellar.
This is lovely and an interesting turn for one of the only punk bands in the US worth following. I love the Bronx and their modern Black Flag/I hate everything approach, but this John Cash/ New American Western mood is equally as dark and helpful to those of us that actually see the world from places that aren’t office parks/cubicles/behind a computer screen. Thanks for this coverage.