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Calexico (band)

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For the city, see Calexico, California.

Calexico is an indie rock band 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 also have been described as alternative country. Calexico is named after the border city in Southern California, even though they're based in Tucson, Arizona.

Early history

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.

Recorded history 1996-

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 album 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 Belhorn 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.

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 describing it as "best CD of the year". (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.

Calexico has announced plans in the future to work with Ric Ocasek, formerly of The Cars.

Members

The current members of Calexico as of October 2005 are:

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

Discography

Albums

DVD

  • 2004 World Drifts In: Live at the Barbican

Chart positions

  • Feast of Wire 2003 #23 Independent Album Charts #45 Heatseekers
  • In the Reins 2005 #135 Billboard 200, #12 Independent Albums

References

Footnotes

(1) MSNBC article Op. Cit.

External links

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