A wide-angle, low-shot photograph of five band members standing close together in an outdoor parking lot under a bright sky. The central figure smiles slightly at the camera, wearing a black graphic t-shirt, while the other members look on.Mexican Slum Rats Credit: Courtesy

It took four tries, but Mexican Slum Rats says that its brand new release is the band’s first real studio album.

“Both the easiest and hardest record to make, and in a lot of ways, the most important to us and myself, Kevin,” the California rock outfit wrote about the 14-track effort released early this month. The LP is rock, undoubtedly, but Jonny Bell of Jazzcats Studio masterfully put to tape an unwieldy and careening collection of songs that includes horn, warbly-heartbreaking melodies, and even a 20-minute ambient epilogue.

It’ll be a journey to see I Can’t Tell You But I Know That It’s Mine come to life onstage, and there’s no better place to hear that happen than at St. Petersburg’s best rock venue.

Tickets to see Mexican Slum Rats play Bayboro Brewing in St. Petersburg on Tuesday, Oct. 21 are still available and start at $15.

I Can’t Tell You But I Know That It’s Mine by Mexican Slum Rats

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This article appears in Oct. 16 – 22, 2025.

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Read his 2016 intro letter and disclosures from 2022 and 2021. Ray Roa started freelancing for Creative Loafing Tampa in January 2011 and was hired as music editor in August 2016. He became Editor-In-Chief…
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