Since forming in 2017, the North Carolina-based band has gained over 2 million listeners on Spotify through catchy norte\u00f1o-sax songs like \u201cNo Es Mentira (Version Norte\u00f1a),\u201d \u201cPoema\u201d and \u201cMami\u201d \u2014 drawn together by a polka-like beat that has made them a staple of Mexican dance venues<\/a>. <\/p>\n In 2024 alone, the subgenre grew by 39% in both the U.S. and Mexico, per Spotify<\/a>.<\/p>\n Los Primos del Este formed in 2017 out of North Carolina. <\/p>\n (Arwen Clemans \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n The band took a few years to find its groove. Its 2020 debut album, \u201cPDE,\u201d experimented more with the prickly, sad sierre\u00f1o sound popularized by acts like Eslabon Armado<\/a> and DannyLux<\/a> \u2014 as well as trap-infused corridos tumbados with a thumping tololoche. Still, this was music one could bop their head to, even if dance parties were limited during the global pandemic. With norte\u00f1o-sax, the group could incorporate contemporary dating themes into songs that bring people physically closer to one another on the dance floor.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s been a sense of maturity that\u2019s happened within the group. In the past, we would just make music to make music and release it,\u201d said Flores. \u201c\u200aWe thought about every single detail now, even down to the album cover.\u201d<\/p>\n Before getting into the thick of their recent music catalog, Los Primos del Este quickly unfurled details of the album cover, which shows the group sprawled across the flatbed of a white truck. The image was inspired by Alejandro Cartagena, a Dominican Republic-born Mexican creative who photographed carpooling laborers<\/a> on the flatbeds along a highway in Monterrey, Mexico, in 2012. The project was a visual representation of how everyday people \u2014 often marginalized individuals \u2014 navigate transit in a sprawling suburban area.<\/p>\n Such an open stance on community issues appears to be a norte\u00f1o-sax speciality. In 2000, their forefathers Conjunto Primavera previously told The Times that they make music for working-class audiences: \u201cWealthy people don\u2019t like what we do<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPersonally, I found myself in the bed of a truck at one point, low-income, trying to make something out of nothing,\u201d said Lopez. \u201cThat\u2019s the world I grew up in, and that\u2019s the world I wanna show everybody. It\u2019s not all sweet, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n The band also nods to injustices faced by immigrant communities \u2014 including the recent fatal shootings of 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo<\/a> and 26-year-old Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero<\/a> by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Texas and Maine, respectively.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re willing to take the heat,\u201d said Lopez, referring to the band\u2019s pro-immigrant stance. \u201cThe community looks at us as a negative presence, but in reality, we\u2019re hard-working, dedicated family people.\u201d<\/p>\n It is both that honesty and vulnerability that are etched into the 14-track LP \u201cDulce Amargo,\u201d which translates to \u201cbittersweet\u201d in English. The band shared that each member contributed details of his own personal experience to the brainstorming sessions \u2014 a process they likened to therapy.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were comfortable enough with each other to let [our] stories be heard,\u201d said Lopez. \u201cIn the Latino community, there is kinda like that stereotype [that] you have to be strong. \u200aI think this message goes out to everybody \u2014 if you\u2019re feeling something, specifically the men, it\u2019s OK to just let it out.\u201d<\/p>\n (Arwen Clemans\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n The hazy love melody \u201cTremenda,\u201d for example, underscores an intense yearning for connection. Written after Lopez was starstruck by a woman, its first lyrics begin in wondrous marvel: \u201cTal vez fue tu mirada,\u201d or, \u201cPerhaps it was your gaze.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s the first thing you do when you look at somebody? I look at the eyes,\u201d said Lopez. \u201cThey say the eyes are the doors to the soul.\u201d<\/p>\n Alejandro Tellez\u2019s contribution came with the punchy \u201cLinda Sonrisa,\u201d that pleads for someone to realize the realities of the mistreatment they\u2019re facing with another lover.<\/p>\n \u201cHow many times are you gonna let him do you wrong until you realize that you have the right guy in front of you?\u201d said Alejandro Tellez in a sing-song twang. \u201cThat\u2019s a story that I went through in high school.\u201d<\/p>\n For Flores, the EDM-fused, echoing melody \u201cMejor Sin Ti,\u201d struck a personal chord; could a relationship be the only thing standing in your way to personal success? \u201cSome people do hold you back, some people tie you down \u2014 that\u2019s what I felt,\u201d said Flores.<\/p>\n Hernandez gets a bit teary-eyed when talking about his favorite song, \u201cSentimientos,\u201d a whirling polka-driven ballad about an avoidant situationship, he said. \u201cTo me, it\u2019s like we both kinda love each other already, but we\u2019re kind of afraid to say it,\u201d he explained. \u201cA lot of people are afraid of falling in love again, so that song hits close to home.\u201d<\/p>\n The concept behind \u201cMereces Mejor,\u201d a trance-inducing ode with floating melodies that implores a loved one to recognize their self-worth, was inspired by David Tellez\u2019s own experience with unrequited love: \u201cShe\u2019s trying to go to the bad guy, and I\u2019m over here giving everything I got.\u201d<\/p>\n As the five artists prepare to take their new album on the road \u2014 including an upcoming performance at the Lone Star State\u2019s Truck Show Texas Fest<\/a> on July 25 \u2014 they want to make clear that norte\u00f1o-sax is not a stagnant subgenre. Like most of m\u00fasica mexicana, it, too, is evolving, both in sound and lyricism, encapsulating today\u2019s complex dating culture. Their emotional vulnerability is welcome in a field flooded with artists that may otherwise shrink away from such honesty \u2014 perhaps due to the stigma of mental health issues<\/a> in the Latino community, especially among men. <\/p>\n \u201cWe understand that changing the sound may not be for everybody, but we\u2019re making music for the next generation,\u201d said Lopez. \u201cWho knows? Maybe their parents might end up liking this too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When you walk into a room with Los Primos del Este, the happy-go-lucky guys immediately make you feel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[161612,161611,61876,7244,48,52,51,50933,47,50,49,88610,161609,161610,592,161615,161613,10390,24925,46109,161614],"class_list":["post-402781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-drummer-alejandro-tellez","tag-dulce-amargo","tag-flores","tag-group","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-lopez","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-new-album","tag-norteno-music","tag-norteno-sax-band","tag-people","tag-saxophonist-david-tellez","tag-single-detail","tag-song","tag-sound","tag-spotify","tag-subgenre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Los](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784327235_744_.jpeg\")
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