Calexico

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Calexico
Joey Burns (Photo by S. Malmrose)
Joey Burns (Photo by S. Malmrose)
Background information
Origin Tucson, Arizona, USA
Genre(s) Rock
Indie Rock
Alt-Country
Years active 1996–present
Label(s) Quarterstick
Our Soil, Our Strength
EMI
Website Official website
Members
Joey Burns
John Convertino
Paul Niehaus
Jacob Valenzuela
Martin Wenk
Volker Zander
For the city, see Calexico, California.

Calexico is an alt country band based in Tucson, Arizona, known for playing an eclectic variety of music. Its two main members are Joey Burns and John Convertino, who first played together in Los Angeles as part of the group Giant Sand. They have recorded a number of albums on Quarterstick Records, while their 2005 album In the Reins recorded with Iron & Wine has reached the Billboard 200 album charts. Their musical style is highly influenced by traditional sounds of the Southwestern United States and of Mexico, and they have been described by some as indie rock. Calexico is named after the border city in Southern California.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Formation

Calexico had its origins in 1990 when Burns, who was studying music at the University of California, Irvine, met up with Convertino, who was playing drums with Howe Gelb in Giant Sand. Burns joined them, after first playing upright bass on a European tour.

Giant Sand moved to Tucson, Arizona in 1994. John and Joey formed the Friends of Dean Martin (later the Friends of Dean Martinez) which scored a record deal with Sub Pop. However, the pair split up with Bill Elm, the co-founder of The Friends of Dean Martinez in 1996. The band subsequently became a kind of indie rhythm section for hire, working with the likes of Victoria Williams, Barbara Manning and Richard Buckner before forming Calexico.

[edit] Recording history: 1996–present

Calexico first recorded Spoke in 1996 for German independent label Hausmusik with a limited edition of 2,000 copies. At that point the band was still called Spoke and the album was technically self-titled. After the band signed with Quarterstick Records (a subsidiary of Touch and Go Records) and changed their name to Calexico, Spoke was reissued by that label in 1997.

Their second album The Black Light was released in 1998. This was a concept album about the desert of Arizona and northern Mexico and received excellent reviews, with the critic from the Wall Street Journal rating it as one of the best records of the year.

The band built their profile by touring as support acts for bands such as Pavement, the Dirty Three and Lambchop. Calexico has regularly played festivals such as the Bonnaroo Music Festival, the Hurricane Festival and All Tomorrow's Parties. The Road Map album was a limited recording released in 1999 for sale only at Calexico's live shows.

Calexico released its third album Hot Rail in May 2000 featuring the addition of horns and violin to their sound. The duo was busy in 2000 as they also appeared on a Giant Sand record called Chore of Enchantment as well as a tour only record Travelall.

At the end of 2000, Calexico joined with two French friends Naïm Amor and Thomas Belhôm to record Tete a Tete for release at the beginning of 2001. The band released two collections of rarities during 2001. Even My Sure Things Fall Through collected outtakes from previous albums, B-sides, remixes and material previously unreleased in the US. The album also featured Mariachi Luz de Luna who frequently played live with the duo. The Aerocalexico album was sold exclusively at their gigs in 2001.

The Scraping live album was released in 2001. Their next studio recording Feast of Wire was released in 2003 and made the charts for the first time appearing on Billboard's Heatseekers and Independent album chart. They made their first video for "Quattro (World Drifts In)" which was a single from Feast of Wire. They released a live DVD in 2004 called World Drifts In: Live at the Barbican. The song Güero Canelo, from Feast of Wire, was featured in Michael Mann's Film, Collateral, starring Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx.

Calexico contributed the song "Burnin' Down the Spark" to Nancy Sinatra's self-titled album in late 2004. The album featured artists who cited Sinatra as a musical influence. The song was released in the UK as the second single from the album in early 2005.

In 2005, Calexico joined up with Miami folk band Iron & Wine. Howard Greynolds of Overcoat Records was responsible for bringing the two bands together having previously been responsible for Tortoise and Will Oldham recording together. The In the Reins EP was released in September 2005 and received a positive reception with an MSNBC review giving it honorable mention. [1] It also made an appearance in the Billboard 200 album charts becoming its first album to make the album charts and #12 on the independent charts. In October 2005, they commenced a US tour with Iron & Wine to promote the record.

Released in 2006, Garden Ruin was Calexico's fifth studio album. The sound strays slightly from earlier works, focusing less on the horn section, and placing more emphasis on guitar and vocal tracks, giving the whole album a more mainstream sound. By far calexico's most political release to date, Garden Ruin actively comments on the tragedy of war and the cost of blind patriotism.

[edit] Members

The current members of Calexico as of May 2006 are:

  • Joey Burns (guitars and vocals)
  • John Convertino (drums and percussion)
  • Paul Niehaus (steel guitar)
  • Jacob Valenzuela (keyboards, trumpet and vibraphone)
  • Martin Wenk (accordion, guitar, synthesizers, trumpet, vibraphone)
  • Volker Zander (standup bass)

Burns is one of only a few musicians who uses an Airline guitar, a white plastic guitar of unusual design made in the 1960s.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

[edit] Tour Only/Misc. Albums

[edit] EPs

[edit] DVD

  • 2004 World Drifts In: Live at the Barbican

[edit] Remixes

[edit] Chart positions

  • Feast of Wire 2003 #23 Independent Albums, #45 Heatseekers
  • In the Reins 2005 #135 Billboard 200, #12 Independent Albums
  • Garden Ruin 2006 #156 Billboard 200, #14 Independent Albums, #3 Heatseekers

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10479879/

[edit] External links

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