Mariachi El Bronx

Punk and mariachi. So where’s the connection you may ask. When Los Angeles hardcore punk band The Bronx started their band-within-a-band Mariachi El Bronx the idea felt natural enough to them. As guitarist Joby J. Ford explains: “Here in LA there are more Latin radio stations than English-language stations playing music in any genre.” Some are local and many are beamed in across the border from Mexico. With a huge local live scene, mariachi is as much a soundtrack to southern California as punk.

But it’s one thing to be immersed in your city’s culture, and another to actually step out and start performing a totally new sound. I asked Joby how the band learnt to play mariachi. “Well I guess we attempt to play it,” he replies modestly. “We all studied the culture. Actually we wrote most of the album while we were on tour as The Bronx. I picked up a lot through mariachi guitar lessons on You-Tube, I think we were in New Zealand when I started doing that!” Unorthodox, and totally in keeping with the fearless attitude and sense of freedom which define this band. “At the root of music, there are no rules. You can do anything. I actually feel sorry for musicians who don’t take full advantage of that. I mean what’s really great and unique about playing music is you can be yourself.”

And I guess inside everyone there is a sensitive soul and a raging lunatic, then? “The Bronx is like the trash-can of our emotions, that’s where all the anger and frustration come out. Mariachi is our happy side. It’s the envelope with the greeting card, that you want to keep. And making two bands out of one band - nobody had ever done that, so that’s exciting to us. That’s the juice, the pure centre of what music is, and the epicentre of what punk is. Punk is not about what you’re wearing or even what you’re playing – it’s about total freedom of expression.”

Mariachi El Bronx – Cell Mates

Mariachi El Bronx is their fourth album, following three Bronx albums that built them a huge reputation as a fiercely uncompromising punk rock act. What’s extraordinary about their mariachi trip is their whole-hearted leap into it. They’re not trying to mash hardcore into Mexican folklore, instead they took the creative forces that drives all their music and did something totally new. With David Hidalgo (Los Lobos) on accordion, bursts of horns and sweeping strings, El Bronx nail the lilting sway of old-school serenades and Matt Caughthran’s soulful lyrics revel in story-telling.

At the Barbican on 26 April they’ll be sticking to the Mariachi repertoire, and sharing the bill with the amazing sounding Mariachi Femenil Nuevo Tecalitlan. On the rest of the tour they will as usual split their gigs into two sets, playing punk and mariachi. “Our Bronx audience crosses over 100% into the Mariachi set,” says Joby. “It’s fantastic to see a guy with more tattoos than you know what do with screaming along to mariachi music. We get an incredible menagerie of people at our shows since we started doing this. And it’s definitely opened up these people who have blinkers on to what’s out there.” Amen to that. With their awesome punk credentials cranking open doors, Mariachi El Bronx may be the first mariachi album to get reviewed in NME, hopefully it won’t be the last.

Mariachi El Bronx – Mariachi El Bronx
is out now on Wichita

The Bronx/Mariachi El Bronx UK tour 2010

April

26 London, The Barbican (Mariachi El Bronx show) part of La Linea Festival
27 Nottingham, Rock City (Bronx + Mariachi El Bronx show)
28 Liverpool, Masque Theatre (Bronx + Mariachi El Bronx show)
29 Newcastle, Academy (Bronx + Mariachi El Bronx show)

May

1 Leeds, Live At Leeds Festival (Bronx + Mariachi El Bronx show)
2 Cardiff, Solus (Bronx + Mariachi El Bronx show)
3 Bristol, Thekla (Bronx + Mariachi El Bronx show)
4 Brighton, Concorde (Bronx + Mariachi El Bronx show)
5 Oxford, Academy (Bronx + Mariachi El Bronx show)
7 London, Hammersmith Apollo (The Bronx punk show w/Gogol Bordello)
8 Manchester, Academy (Mariachi El Bronx w/Gogol Bordello)
9 Glasgow, Academy (Mariachi El Bronx w/Gogol Bordello)
10 Norwich, UEA (Mariachi El Bronx w/Gogol Bordello)
11 Birmingham, Academy (Mariachi El Bronx w/Gogol Bordello)
12 Cambridge, Junction (Bronx + Mariachi El Bronx show)

www.thebronxxx.com

Jody Gillett

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