Mariachi El Bronx

About this event

After a 10 year hiatus, the beloved Los Angeles trailblazers Mariachi El Bronx are dusting off their charro suits again. The alter ego of punk rock heroes The Bronx, this band’s unexpected headlining career began back in 2008 after the hardcore group sought ways to grow creatively while celebrating the Hispanic music and culture they were surrounded by growing up in Los Angeles. Although seemingly different, the band doesn’t see the genres of punk and mariachi as mutually exclusive - to them, punk and mariachi are spiritually entwined forces rooted in resilient storytelling. “Punk rock and mariachi music are very similar in soul,” says songwriter and lead vocalist Matt Caughthran. “It's working class music. It’s real music.” With three acclaimed albums to their name, the eight-piece has shared stages with the Foo Fighters and the Killers, performed everywhere from Letterman to NPR’s Tiny Desk, and lit up festivals from Coachella to Glastonbury. They even lent their sound to TV, recording theme songs for Weeds (“Little Boxes”) and Aqua Teen Hunger Force (“Aqua Something You Know Whatever”). Returning after a decade away felt “joyous and familiar from the jump,” says guitarist Joby J. Ford. But recording their fourth album, Mariachi El Bronx IV, proved more complex than expected. Within the year that he began writing lyrics, Caughthran contended with the deaths of several loved ones. Additionally, as they tracked at producer John Avila's San Gabriel Valley studio - Avila has helmed all four of their mariachi records - the Eaton Canyon fires blazed across East LA. “We came out of the studio one night, the entire side of the hill was just on fire,” Ford recalls. While dealing with grief in his personal life and within his longtime home of Southern California, Caughthran was also experiencing an enormity of love as he got married that same year. These clashing emotions of profound loss and overwhelming love shaped the album's themes. The songwriting "started as a…