Many bands have reinvented their sound at some point but few have attempted a change as drastic as the Bronx. Departing from their usual brand of heavy punk, the Los Angeles five-piece learned the traditional style of mariachi music and became Mariachi El Bronx. They then donned the recognizable outfits, released a self-titled album and a cologne, Barrio Sweat, to accompany the disc.

The origins of the project stem from a television appearance and one of guitarist and main songwriter Joby Ford's pet peeves. "We were doing a Fuel TV taping and they asked us to do an acoustic version of one of our songs, which is pound-for-pound one of my least favorite things in music, probably because of the whole MTV Unplugged series," Ford tells Spinner. "In the '90s, you couldn't watch television without seeing Eric Clapton play 'Layla' acoustic and I thought it sucked. In lieu of that, we decided to do a mariachi version of that song, 'Dirty Leaves,' because that's way more interesting than two guys with acoustic guitars. We liked it so much we decided to do a whole album's worth of material."

Sure, Ford makes the transition sound easy, but he and the band expanded their roster, adding professional guitarron -- the large guitar that's standard in mariachi -- and strings, and properly learned the music. "I had absolutely no experience with it, other than it's kind of everywhere you turn in L.A., at least on the side of town we live on," Ford says of their East side roots. "Honestly, I learned how to play it from YouTube. The majority of the music circulates around different strumming patterns and being on the road so much, I just took lessons from YouTube. It's the fastest record I ever wrote." Since the album was written, Ford and company played one-off gigs in their Mariachi incarnation, spliced the new songs into their traditional set and occasionally opened for themselves.

But for some fans, the real treat of 'Mariachi El Bronx' might not be the music but rather the accompanying cologne, Barrio Sweat. "You gotta taste the legend," Ford says, repeating the cologne's slogan. "We just wanted to do something special, like for 'The Bronx II' when we made Ouija boards. There's nothing worse than cologne. Think about the dudes who do wear cologne -- we're accepting them with open arms. We're trying to expand our fan base. All cologne-wearers accepted."

'Mariachi El Bronx' is available now, and for $30, you can get both the CD and Barrio Sweat. Go ahead and taste the legend, if you can handle it.