Though they started out as a modest indie rockers, Calexico’s career has assumed major proportions. The group is helmed by Joey Burns and John Convertino, two musical thrill seekers bound by a shared zeal for roots-rock exploration. Surfacing out of Tucson with their 1996 lo-fi debut album Spoke, Calexico proceeded to defy all attempts by fans or critics to be pigeonholed. Just when everyone had them pegged as multi-culti retro rockers, Burns and Convertino pitched a curveball with their ghostlike sophomore album, The Black Light. In 2000, the duo greeted the new millennium with an acclaimed collection of Mexicali-flavored tracks entitled Hot Rail. Subsequent albums including Feast of Wire and Garden Ruin run the stylistic gamut from haunting electronic pop to elegant piano jazz and prickly rock and roll. In 2005, they furthered their relationship with Iron & Wine (Sam Beam) with the collaborative EP In the Reins.
The group’s sixth studio CD Carried to Dust finds Calexico living up to their California bordertown moniker. Featuring cameo performances by Beam and Douglas McCombs (Tortoise and Pieta Brown), Carried to Dust refines the alt-mariachi sound Calexico triumphantly introduced on Hot Rail. The Calexico touring band —featuring multi-instrumentalists Jacob Valenzuela and Martin Wenk, bassist Volker Zander and steel guitarist Paul Niehaus — played a pronounced role in the creation of the new album.
Calexico’s music has surfaced in some curious places. The track "Güero Canelo" from Feast of Wire was featured in the 2004 Michael Mann film Collateral, starring Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx. Several of Calexico's instrumental pieces have been used as background music on NPR's “This American Life.” Burns and Convertino have contributed songs and collaborated with the eclectic likes of Nancy Sinatra, Laura Cantrell, Neko Case, Gotan Project and Marianne Dissard.
Provenance: Tucson, Arizona
Latest Release: Carried to Dust (2008)
© 2008 Nigel Music Media LLC. Used by permission.
Calexico
