Why Calexico Are Fucking Brilliant
Don’t worry, I know that for the most part this is going to be a futile post – lost on almost all of you. Given that my taste is fairly mainstream – indie mainstream, but mainstream nonetheless – I am genuinely surprised at the lack of love for this band shown by you, my snide sarcastic smart-arsed disrespectful adoring readers.
So, given I know music taste is music taste, and that no amount of rationalisation can really change a gut reaction, I am not writing this post in the hope of changing a lot of minds. What I want to do is make sure that if you are all going about saying that you dislike Calexico it is because you have heard a good spread of their stuff and decided that it is not for you. At the moment there seems to be little awareness of the history of the band from a musical perspective, although I guess everyone knows that they met playing as the rhythm section for Giant Sand in the early 90s.
They have a lot of stuff out there, and I agree with DC that it seems to be gettingly progressively smoother and consequently less interesting in recent years. There are also accusations of over-production which I wouldn’t necessarily dispute with respect to their recent stuff, although I would ask what is expected of a band? That they stand still?
Basically, Joey Burns and John Convertino started out playing in a similar style to Howe Gelb, albeit playing a slightly different kind of music. It was spare Americana with a lot of South-Western and often very Mexican influences – pretty much the sound we know them for now. But it wasn’t just cod-Mariachi, it was dusty Southern desert music with plenty of traditional influences. There were all sorts of playful, experimental meanderings off into little intrumentals, songs moving from epic to distracted, and albums which were cobbled together from some very different constituent parts indeed.
Their first album, Spoke, shows this the most clearly. It’s bitty and inconsistent, but there are some great, great bits on it. Diversions and distractions, and the odd epic, it sounds like the soundtrack to a Western – more in common with early Eagles than pan-pipe wielding sombrero-botherers.
From Spoke:
Calexico – Removed
Calexico – Mazurka
I don’t know how confident I’d say they were as an indie rock band at this stage though, because I saw them in London around this time, and they were somewhat overshadowed by the brilliant mariachi band they brought as a support act, who also played on the last few songs to rapturous applause.
Next came The Black Light, apparently a concept album, which is similar to Spoke in its slight inconsistency, but similar also in that it benefits from being treated like an album rather than a collection of songs. The concept itself revolved around the deserts of Southern California and Arizona and Northern Mexico. Again, the influences are often local and traditional, but they also cross heavily into some of the more cinematic traditions off Western movies as well as what can broadly be called Americana or alt-country. Basically it’s full of distressed fiddle and gently lilting accordion, and it’s also very instrumental, with few tracks that you would really call pop songs.
From The Black Light:
Calexico – Where Water Flows
Calexico – Old Man Waltz
Next come their two most obviously accessible gems. The first two albums were eccentric and a little strange, but brilliant for us fans. For those of you unconvinced by the band however, Hot Rail and Feast of Wire are the two that bring all the exploration of their early career together into a couple of brilliant, joyous masterpieces. The mariachi influence is a little stronger and there are plenty of superbly catchy three minute pop songs, but the albums are still gloriously glued together with instrumental interludes and minute long meanders, which imbue them with amazing character.
Their most iconic songs are from this time as well – legendary live tracks like Crystal Frontier, Ballad of Cable Hogue, Sirena, All Across the Wire, Corona, it’s just a catalogue of genius that still begs to be played almost as much as anything whenever Mrs. Toad and I get plastered and turn the stereo up too loud. Quite frankly, these two albums are brilliant, and everyone should own a copy of both of them. Everyone.
From Hot Rail:
Calexico – The Ballad of Cable Hogue
Calexico – Service & Repair
From Feast of Wire:
Calexico – Sunken Waltz
Calexico – Woven Birds
In between all these brilliant albums, Convertino and Burns have shown themselves to be unfailingly curious and energetic, collaborating on all sorts of things from the soundtrack to Dylan biopic I’m Not There to playing on albums with local Tucson artists like Marianne Dissard and Naim Amor, and releasing collaborative albums with the likes of Sam Beam’s Iron & Wine. There are about half a dozen EPs as well, where they experiment with their existing songs, re-record very different interpretations of them and assemble them into little discreet pieces of work. Very few artists than I can think of so consistently push themselves into new projects or show the same sort of insatiable enthusiasm for music that these two have embodied over the last twenty years or so.
Calexico & Charlotte Gainsbourg – Just Like a Woman
Calexico with Iron & Wine – Prison on Route 41
Marianne Dissard – Sans-Façon She wrote the lyrics to this, and Joey Burns composed the songs. Both Convertino and Burns play on the album.
So finally we come to their latest couple of albums. Well, I’ve already confessed to being in two minds about the last one, as I said in my review. It is, as people said in the comments, a little too shiny. The production is excessively slick, the playful little explorations of their early years seem to have vanished, and the arrangements are a bit heavy-handed and too glutinous to allow the heart of the songs to breathe. Fair enough. But there are nevertheless some excellent songs there, as I also mentioned.
Previous record Garden Ruin was also patchy, but it was far from dull. After years of steadily exploring their dusty desert niche, they suddenly wrote an indie rock album that was brilliant at times. Okay, I will be the first to accept that not all of it worked, but some of it was brilliantly good. Cruel, Roka, Yours and Mine and the phenomenal All Systems Red were terrific. Others were a bit stodgy, if I’m honest, but it was still better than most bands manage even at the pinnacle of their powers, and I can’t fucking believe the lack of enthusiasm shown for these guys, I really can’t.
So there you go. Stick that in your fucking pipes and smoke it!
From Garden Ruin:
Calexico – Roka
Calexico – Yours & Mine
Well, we really must say something here, we’ve angered the Matthew and look what’s he’s gone and done now! An entire history of the band foisted on us. I guess I’ll stick my toe in and declare that yes, I do indeed like the earlier stuff more as well… there, that wasn’t so hard! “Where Water Flows” is very cool, reminds me of some Haushka I’ve been listening to; once I got to “The Ballad of Cable Hogue” and especially “Service and Repair” (which brought to mind my small knowledge of Wilco) it dawned on me why you adore this band. It’s all the best of American twang and slide guitar with enough indie flair in it to really grab one by the dangly bits, isn’t it? Good call, thanks!
I think it was the Mariachi bit that threw me, you really have to not have suffered too many nights in hot Mexican or Tucsonian restaurants with not enough to drink and those loud and often untalented guitarists/singers, in order to be able to listen to the genre without cringing. Good Mariachi music is a joy, but so often we’re subjected to the really amateur stuff, toxic renditions of endless Santana songs and Los Lobos hits, ugh.
Loving “Woven Birds”, dangitall, another album to buy! And by the way, Samantha Crain says you’re awesome, and “really great” to be interviewed by. Were your ears burning on Sunday morning? xoxox
I have now heard tunes by calexico which I like and I will investigate further for sure.
i love how you did that. i would probably have done the same if it was my blog and people slagged off wilco.
Wow…amazing post matthew, maybe I should do the same for The Cure…haven’t bough new calexico album, but it is on my list to buy…
Tart
I love the image of Calexico is some ropey Mexican restaurant looking at the guy called Pete in a Mariachi outfit and saying “Well, we could hold auditions. Nah fuck it, he’ll do.”
Calexico’s Mariachi’s were so good there was an almost palpable sense of disappointment when Calexico returned to the stage after the Mariachi had gone solo.
Samantha said that? Cripes, I was a few beers down and it honestly wasn’t my best interview. But I’m still learning and it’s nice that she was, erm, tactful enough to be nice. Actually I thought her wee movie came out nicely.
Ben, I thought that as well about the mariachi band the first time, but when I saw them in Glasgow a couple of years ago they were phenomenal. I thought Burns had gone from being slightly unsure of himself to being a confident, engaging front man. I know about six or seven years had passed, but the transformation was nice to see.
Sorry about the rant, people, but I honestly think these guys are far better than they were being given credit for.
I will also join the Calexico-are-brilliant vote! I’ve seen them twice now (once alongside Iron and Wine) and they’ve always managed to put on a fantastic live show (and incredibly mellow live show, but still fantastic). I’ve never felt disappointed after seeing them.
Go Sean! We’ll get there in the end!
I’m adding my love to the Calexico pile. The first time I saw them live was the show that they did at the Barbican that ended up on DVD, but the best had to be at the Paleo festival in Switzerland.
If I were making a ‘dream band’ Convertino would be the drummer. I could watch him play on his own for hours.
You might be interested to see what I have on the wall in my flat:
The problem I have with this, is that the same folk who slag off the Dust Bowl/Mexican influence of these records saying they aren’t authentic, probably play air accordion along to the Beirut records wondering how no-one shows this much invention in modern music anymore. Music surely shouldn’t be mapped by what is authentic, but how it makes you feel. I personally love the mexican influences, as it stretches the imagination a little. It gives the lyrics a different kind of setting and feel. Wrong place to post, but I really liked the two new songs you put up.
Probably missed the whole point of the argument, but oh well.
Over and out.
Have no fear, I love Calexico too. So there.
I’m enjoying these tracks, had them on the iPod on the bus this morning and I really liked them.
I like the mariachi flourishes on some of these tracks. They add texture and flavour.
I still think the track called Insparacion from the Carried To Dust review sounds like a TV advert for Old El Paso mexican dinner kits.
It’s too much of a good thing.
It’s like Eddie Izzard’s line about the ‘circle of cool’ and what a delicate balance it is.. If you have one toothpick hanging lazily from the corner of your mouth you look cool.
However if you have two toothpicks, one on either side…
Good, I’m glad we seem to be getting somewhere.
Tim – nice one indeed. Their album artwork is an acquired taste, but I like the way it hangs together across their career. Individually they can look a bit crap, but piling them all up together – singles, EPs and everything – is pretty cool.
Jimbo – ooh, contentious point. Authenticity is a dubious thing where the absorption of traditional influences is concerned because their self-appointed guardians can be very territorial about pop pillage. Certainly if it’s a good tune then it’s a good tune, irrespective of the motives of its creators, but there are times when shallow plundering of old folk traditions can seem incredibly shallow and disrespectful. I’m not sure if we really have a right to get shirty about it, but I certainly can find myself doing just that.
Yeah. It’s interesting that they’ve come back to Victor Gastelum again for the new album. I wonder if they got complaints! The original is much nicer than the way that it’s printed on the album too.
Well it’s hard to reproduce much magic with a shiny square print behind a sheet of acrylic.
Could I join the Calexico are meh faction? It’s not that I mind what they do. And their Arcade Fire cover version is very pleasant. But they are a ‘nice’ band. I just can’t get terribly excited or bothered enough to give them much by way of space on the iPod.
Coming from a fan of rave, I think that has to be taken as a compliment.
That they are named after a state/country border town is enough for me. Go team!
Doesn’t the Garden Ruin artwork look really out of place compared to the rest of their stuff now (not counting the Iron & Wine one because it’s a side project)?
Border names are cool – I like how just over the border the town of Calexico becomes Mexicali (but should have been Mexifornia surely???) Texarkana is also cool but REM got there first.
Just thinking if I had to pick a US/Mexico border town name for a band, the one I lived just down the road from in Texas was called Edinburg. Spooky…..
I love Calexico! Yay! But you can’t take the credit for converting me Señor Toad as I liked them already I’m afraid. Just thought I’d declare myself for your side, nothing eloquent to add at this juncture. Ho hum.
I think that’s fair, given that the weight of opinion on this site seems to be against I am very pleased that you said hello and voiced an opinion in my favour. Cheers, Katie!
[...] is a master of getting feedback from a notoriously reticent audience. See this post about Neds and this one on Calexico as an example of Toad at his [...]
I was trying to find sheet music and lyrics to the songs in the sound track of BALLAD OF CABLE HOGUE, when I came across your site and comments on Calexico about the Ballad of Cable Hogue. I will try to find and purchase the Calexico music.
Easy tiger. Drink your Gin. It’ll all be fine.
Also Calexico are a bit fantastic, and your readers are wrong. But Christ. Don’t be upset. People are wrong all the time.