Mariachi El Bronx
Mariachi El Bronx IV
ATO
Despite their name, The Bronx is a hardcore punk band from Los Angeles. Mariachi El Bronx, a traditional mariachi outfit featuring members of The Bronx, was started in 2008 as an experiment, but it might actually be more widely-known these days. It’s been over a decade since Mariachi El Bronx’s last album, and there’s been a couple of albums from The Bronx in the meantime, but the fourth self-titled album (a la Led Zeppelin) picks up right where things left off, with breathtaking sincerity and love for the tradition of mariachi music.
There are some components to mariachi which are instantly recognizable — the lush horn and string arrangements, the glorious vocal harmonies, the prevalent waltz time — but the most important aspect of the genre is not necessarily musical. It’s the drama. While there’s plenty of room for subtlety in the sound, at its heart it’s one of the most hyperbolic expressions of music I know, and this is where Mariachi El Bronx truly shines. When they express joy, it’s ecstatic. If it’s heartbreak on the dial, you will be brought to the edge of weeping.
The opening track and lead single “Forgive and Forget” is brassy and forthright, bringing up the common theme of lost love amidst a towering arrangement of horns and strings. “El Dorado” is a fun two step about forbidden cross-border love, one in which el gringo didn’t get the girl. And “El Borracho” is the type of slow waltz you’ll howl along with, partly because it’s so catchy but mostly because you know this borracho.
Mariachi El Bronx are not a punk band that is aping the genre here; there is nothing but respect and the sincerity I mentioned earlier, with no hint of irony. There is a deep well of music that is being tapped, and the band is not just drawing from the surface. More importantly, the band sounds comfortable and creative within the genre, expanding its boundaries from within, and not just mixing it up with some outside energy. Let’s hope it’s not another dozen years before their Houses of the Holy.
