Delinquent Habits

Sometimes border culture is closer than it seems.
Sometimes it's even in your own living room.

In the true spirit of journalism, I was killing time in my dorm room avoiding homework by numbing my brain with a few pointless hours of television. It was my junior year, so frequent burn outs such as these were pretty standard. Sadly, my solution to motivating myself to finish out the work week was watching TV and making note of the movie trailers. I found that if I told myself "3 more hours of work and you can go to the movies," I was more likely to finish quickly. Sad thought. I know, but we're not here to judge me.

As I aimlessly flicked through the channels, my eyes locked onto a picture of Christian Bale and froze my fingers from clicking further. This should be good, I thought. It was an ad for "Harsh Times," a 2006 release about two friends in South Central Los Angeles who are torn apart by a series of unfortunate and violent events.

(Movie Trailer for "Harsh Times" featuring Delinquent Habits "The Return of Tres" in the background)


Interestingly enough, the thing that brought me to watch the trailer was not what held my attention to the end. Bale might be a pretty sight, but the music playing in the background had my foot tapping and my head swaying to the beat. Once a radio DJ always a DJ I suppose. Music gets my goosebumps going more than a pretty face. I had to know who sang that song.

Where would the world be without Google? I punched in what few lines I could remember from the song into the search engine and Delinquent Habits instantly became a new staple of my musical vocabulary.

(Delinquent Habits music video of "The Return of Tres.")


The song I heard was "The Return of Tres," an intoxicating blend of mariachi horns, hip-hop rhythm, and rap stylings in both Spanish and English. It was raw and yet refined with the smooth sound of classic Mexican horns contrasting the hard spit rhymes of the streets. It was different. It was innovative. I liked it.

I never did end up seeing that movie, but that song on repeat got me through a five page essay and some flash cards. To date, Delinquent Habits musical stylings have been featured in movie releases like "The Rundown" with The Rock, "Blue Crush," "Double Take," and many more. Ok. So their choice in movies isn't as great as their sound, but the Web site is still worth a gander.

Remember: always judge a band by sound and not their ability to make a sound choices.