The Bronx - The New Face of Rock (by Jay Hale)

A little over 16 years ago, a gang of rag-tag miscreants emerged from obscurity and set the music world on fire. They weren’t a cute and cuddly pop sensation looking to grace the cover of Tiger Beat and they sure as hell weren’t another spandex-clad, hair-teased-to-the-sky novelty act. They were ugly, covered head to toe in tattoos and wove tales of spite, misfortune and drug abuse. Why? Because they could take inspiration from their surroundings and regurgitate it into street-level poetry that was honest to Christ rock and roll. After schlepping their gear from club to club throughout the underbelly of Los Angeles’ rock scene landed them a record deal, they grabbed the music industry by the balls, squeezing so hard that all hopes of procreation were lost. Just like Tony Montana, the world was theirs and I’m sure they had a mound of coke or two which rivaled the one on old Scarface’s desk.

That band was Guns N Roses.

If you look closely on those very same grime-stained streets, you might just see another act following in their footsteps.

To herald The Bronx as the second coming of Guns N Roses not only is extremely presumptuous and, as the band would most certainly tell you, completely laughable. Will they have a single as popular as “Sweet Child O’ Mine?” Absolutely not. In fact, you may never even hear The Bronx on commercial radio at all. Should we expect them to be selling out Giants Stadium within three years? Again, that’s a pipe dream. Headlining a large capacity club tour would be deemed a success for The Bronx. So what evidence can be used to draw this comparison? Like Axl Rose and company in the mid-80s, this band has the tools to change the musical landscape around them for the better. The Bronx aren’t quite punk, not quite metal. Their sound is familiar but drastically comes out of left field in a music industry where cloning someone else’s sound results in almost RIAA certified gold.

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