CALEXICO
''EDGE OF THE SUN (BONUS CD)''
APRIL 14 2015
57:16
DISC ONE (40:07)
1 Falling From the Sky 03:20
2 Bullets & Rocks 03:27
3 When the Angels Played 02:23
4 Tapping on the Line 03:27
5 Cumbia de Donde 03:07
6 Miles from the Sea 03:38
7 Coyoacan 03:00
8 Beneath the City of Dreams 02:32
9 Woodshed Waltz 03:26
10 Moon Never Rises 03:25
11 World Undone 04:25
12 Follow the River 03:50
DISC TWO (BONUS) (17:09)
1 Calavera 03:15
2 Roll Tango 03:15
3 Rosco y Pancetta 01:39
4 Volviendo 02:32
5 Esperanza 03:18
6 Let It Slip Away 03:07
Tracks By Calexico
Joey Burns - Vocals, Guitars, Banjo, Piano, Organ, Harmonica, Cello, Congas, Accordion, Shaker, Ukelele, Bass Guitar
John Convertino - Drums, Percussion
Jacob Valenzuela - Trumpet
Sergio Mendoza - Mellotron Strings, Percussion, Piano, Organ, Backing Vocals, Vibes, Guitar, Vihuela, Accordion, Ukelele
Ryan Alfred - Upright & Electric Bass, Synthesizer, Ambient Guitar, Vocals
Jairo Zavala - Guitar, Bass Guitar
Martin Wenk - Trumpet, Synthesizer, Vibes
Paul Niehaus - Pedal Steel
REVIEW
By PITCHFORK
A vintage synth belches out an insistent theme to open the noisy "Cumbia de Donde", a standout on Calexico’s new album. It’s one of the most striking moments on Edge of the Sun, a rusty tangle of staccato notes and syncopation atop a sinewy percussion groove. Not only does it chafe against the band’s default folk rock, but that central riff acts as a sort of code, as though the Tucson collective is offering coordinates for a northerly route connecting South and North, Sonora with San Francisco.
It’s a song about origins ("¿De dónde eres?") and destinations ("¿Adónde vas?"), punctuated by the dots and dashes of a conspiratorial horn section. "I’m not from here, I’m not from there," Joey Burns sings, imbuing this itinerancy with power and possibility. Taking over vocals at the bridge, the Spanish vocalist Amparo Sánchez reveals the song’s true destination. ¿Adónde vas? "A bailer cumbia." In this as in so many of Calexico’s songs, the characters can go anywhere and do anything. Perhaps it’s a quaint notion, but there is a certain freedom in rootlessness and restlessness.
This idea has been Calexico’s guiding principle since Burns and drummer Jon Convertino split from Giant Sand in the early 1990s and lit out for parts unknown. They have never stood still for long, working as a backing band for Neko Case and Amos Lee while expanding their drums-and-guitar soundtrack rock into something larger, more song-driven, and more cinematic. If the band have skirted accusations of cultural appropriation, that’s mainly due to the important fact that they do not deploy world music as a means to exoticize American folk rock. Rather, these various strains form the framework of their band’s songs, all the way down to the lyrics themselves. It wasn’t until 2012’s Algiers that they began to sound creatively staid, as though they had reached the ends of their inspiration in Latin American music, but Edge of the Sun sounds newly invigorated and inspired as Calexico reconsider their own past and find new music to explore.
Burns and Convertino have always surrounded themselves with an eclectic set of collaborators, and Edge of the Sun is filled with cameos, most of them lending their songs a distinctive sound. Case sounds like a mirage on "Tapping on the Line", and Ben Bridwell, on loan from Band of Horses, adds some 2000s indie-rock drama to opener "Falling from the Sky", making that central question resonate powerfully throughout the rest of the album: "Where do you go when you have nowhere to go?" With Sam Beam singing and playing guitar, "Bullets & Rocks" inevitably recalls their joint EP from 2005, In the Reins, only bolder and more resourceful as they set a Tinariwen guitar lick rolling through the Mojave.
As usual, however, the most compelling contributions come from artists less familiar to American ears. For this reason, Calexico place them prominently in the music, often building whole songs around their voices or instruments. Sánchez is as much a presence on "Cumbia de Donde" as frontman Burns is, and members of the Greek band Tikam lend "World Undone" its suspense, creating the impression of an unraveling groove. Mexican singer Carla Morrison dominates the dark reggae bump of "Moon Never Rises", ghosting Burns’ vocals before distorting her own delivery to make that central theme sound unsettling, uprooted, unplaceable. (Curious listeners should check out her excellent 2012 album, Déjenme Llorar.)
It’s tempting to praise Calexico simply for its globetrotting spirit, but corralling so many styles and sounds onto one album should not be an end in itself. Fortunately, the album’s musical diversity is a reflection of its lyrical themes. Named for a city that straddles Mexico and America, Calexico make music that is almost inevitably about borders both musical and national: finding them, crossing them, blurring them. Burns’ songwriting keeps that idea anchored in very personal and specific perspectives, which lends human proportions to the ambitiously cinematic arrangements. His characters are transient by circumstance, always striving for something better: a sense of security, a feeling of freedom, a place to dance without danger, sometimes just a dip in the ocean.
That’s the one wish of the main character in "Miles from the Sea", a landlocked laborer beaten down by "years of searing heat." He "dreams about swimming, miles away from the sea," Burns sings, his voice reaching deep to hit the low notes. The horns billow gently, the violin eddies wistfully, and Guatemalan singer Gaby Moreno draws those syllables out on the chorus to reinforce the sense of longing. The song fades in a roll of thunder, hinting that this dream of escape will go unrealized, but the music takes him and us right out among the waves.
BIOGRAPHY/AMG
by Mark Deming
WEBSITE
TO THE TOP
''EDGE OF THE SUN (BONUS CD)''
APRIL 14 2015
57:16
DISC ONE (40:07)
1 Falling From the Sky 03:20
2 Bullets & Rocks 03:27
3 When the Angels Played 02:23
4 Tapping on the Line 03:27
5 Cumbia de Donde 03:07
6 Miles from the Sea 03:38
7 Coyoacan 03:00
8 Beneath the City of Dreams 02:32
9 Woodshed Waltz 03:26
10 Moon Never Rises 03:25
11 World Undone 04:25
12 Follow the River 03:50
DISC TWO (BONUS) (17:09)
1 Calavera 03:15
2 Roll Tango 03:15
3 Rosco y Pancetta 01:39
4 Volviendo 02:32
5 Esperanza 03:18
6 Let It Slip Away 03:07
Tracks By Calexico
Joey Burns - Vocals, Guitars, Banjo, Piano, Organ, Harmonica, Cello, Congas, Accordion, Shaker, Ukelele, Bass Guitar
John Convertino - Drums, Percussion
Jacob Valenzuela - Trumpet
Sergio Mendoza - Mellotron Strings, Percussion, Piano, Organ, Backing Vocals, Vibes, Guitar, Vihuela, Accordion, Ukelele
Ryan Alfred - Upright & Electric Bass, Synthesizer, Ambient Guitar, Vocals
Jairo Zavala - Guitar, Bass Guitar
Martin Wenk - Trumpet, Synthesizer, Vibes
Paul Niehaus - Pedal Steel
REVIEW
By PITCHFORK
A vintage synth belches out an insistent theme to open the noisy "Cumbia de Donde", a standout on Calexico’s new album. It’s one of the most striking moments on Edge of the Sun, a rusty tangle of staccato notes and syncopation atop a sinewy percussion groove. Not only does it chafe against the band’s default folk rock, but that central riff acts as a sort of code, as though the Tucson collective is offering coordinates for a northerly route connecting South and North, Sonora with San Francisco.
It’s a song about origins ("¿De dónde eres?") and destinations ("¿Adónde vas?"), punctuated by the dots and dashes of a conspiratorial horn section. "I’m not from here, I’m not from there," Joey Burns sings, imbuing this itinerancy with power and possibility. Taking over vocals at the bridge, the Spanish vocalist Amparo Sánchez reveals the song’s true destination. ¿Adónde vas? "A bailer cumbia." In this as in so many of Calexico’s songs, the characters can go anywhere and do anything. Perhaps it’s a quaint notion, but there is a certain freedom in rootlessness and restlessness.
This idea has been Calexico’s guiding principle since Burns and drummer Jon Convertino split from Giant Sand in the early 1990s and lit out for parts unknown. They have never stood still for long, working as a backing band for Neko Case and Amos Lee while expanding their drums-and-guitar soundtrack rock into something larger, more song-driven, and more cinematic. If the band have skirted accusations of cultural appropriation, that’s mainly due to the important fact that they do not deploy world music as a means to exoticize American folk rock. Rather, these various strains form the framework of their band’s songs, all the way down to the lyrics themselves. It wasn’t until 2012’s Algiers that they began to sound creatively staid, as though they had reached the ends of their inspiration in Latin American music, but Edge of the Sun sounds newly invigorated and inspired as Calexico reconsider their own past and find new music to explore.
Burns and Convertino have always surrounded themselves with an eclectic set of collaborators, and Edge of the Sun is filled with cameos, most of them lending their songs a distinctive sound. Case sounds like a mirage on "Tapping on the Line", and Ben Bridwell, on loan from Band of Horses, adds some 2000s indie-rock drama to opener "Falling from the Sky", making that central question resonate powerfully throughout the rest of the album: "Where do you go when you have nowhere to go?" With Sam Beam singing and playing guitar, "Bullets & Rocks" inevitably recalls their joint EP from 2005, In the Reins, only bolder and more resourceful as they set a Tinariwen guitar lick rolling through the Mojave.
As usual, however, the most compelling contributions come from artists less familiar to American ears. For this reason, Calexico place them prominently in the music, often building whole songs around their voices or instruments. Sánchez is as much a presence on "Cumbia de Donde" as frontman Burns is, and members of the Greek band Tikam lend "World Undone" its suspense, creating the impression of an unraveling groove. Mexican singer Carla Morrison dominates the dark reggae bump of "Moon Never Rises", ghosting Burns’ vocals before distorting her own delivery to make that central theme sound unsettling, uprooted, unplaceable. (Curious listeners should check out her excellent 2012 album, Déjenme Llorar.)
It’s tempting to praise Calexico simply for its globetrotting spirit, but corralling so many styles and sounds onto one album should not be an end in itself. Fortunately, the album’s musical diversity is a reflection of its lyrical themes. Named for a city that straddles Mexico and America, Calexico make music that is almost inevitably about borders both musical and national: finding them, crossing them, blurring them. Burns’ songwriting keeps that idea anchored in very personal and specific perspectives, which lends human proportions to the ambitiously cinematic arrangements. His characters are transient by circumstance, always striving for something better: a sense of security, a feeling of freedom, a place to dance without danger, sometimes just a dip in the ocean.
That’s the one wish of the main character in "Miles from the Sea", a landlocked laborer beaten down by "years of searing heat." He "dreams about swimming, miles away from the sea," Burns sings, his voice reaching deep to hit the low notes. The horns billow gently, the violin eddies wistfully, and Guatemalan singer Gaby Moreno draws those syllables out on the chorus to reinforce the sense of longing. The song fades in a roll of thunder, hinting that this dream of escape will go unrealized, but the music takes him and us right out among the waves.
BIOGRAPHY/AMG
by Mark Deming
Calexico take their name from a town on the border of California and Mexico, and the title certainly fits the band, who've been mixing musical approaches and cultural perspectives with elan ever since group leaders Joey Burns and John Convertino began working together. Fusing the dusty sounds of the American Southwest with spaghetti western soundtracks, Mexican mariachi themes, vintage surf music, cool jazz, and a broad spectrum of Latin influences, Calexico are an eclectic ensemble whose work is as distinctive as it is unpredictable.
Calexico's story begins in 1990, when bassist Joey Burns, a music student at the University of California Irvine, met percussionist John Convertino, who was playing drums with Howe Gelb's long-running band Giant Sand. Burns soon signed on to play bass with Giant Sand on a tour of Europe, and then relocated to Giant Sand's home base of Tucson, Arizona. During downtime from Giant Sand's projects in 1993, Burns and Convertino teamed with guitarists Billy Elm and Woody Jackson to form The Friends of Dean Martinez, a group that fused lounge-influenced pop melodies with the musical flavors of the Southwest. The Friends of Dean Martinez soon developed a loyal following on the alternative rock scene, and Burns and Convertino began collaborating with an impressive number of well-respected musicians, including Richard Buckner, Neko Case, Bill Janovitz, Lisa Germano, Victoria Williams, and Barbara Manning.
In 1997, Burns and Convertino recorded an album together that was released in Europe under the title Spoke. However, when it was later issued in the United States by Quarterstick (a branch of the outstanding indie label Touch & Go), the duo opted to use the group name Calexico, and a year later they issued a second Calexico LP, The Black Light, which expanded on the cinematic feel and dry, evocative sound of the debut. Calexico's reputation as a live act grew after opening for the likes of Lambchop, Pavement, and the Dirty Three, and the group's sound and membership grew with their third studio album, Hot Rail, as violins and horns were added to the arrangements; Calexico's membership would remain fluid over the years, with various musicians assisting Burns and Convertino as the group pursued different projects.
In 2000, Calexico released Travelall, the first in what would become a long series of live albums the group made available to fans through their web store or at the merchandise table at their shows. Burns and Convertino began collaborating with the group Mariachi Luz de Luna, and they joined Calexico in the studio for the 2001 EP Even My Sure Things Fall Through, a collection of new tracks and alternate versions of previously released tunes.
With 2003's Feast of Wire, Calexico began edging into something closer to mainstream popularity -- it was their first album to chart in Billboard, grazing the Independent Album and Heatseekers surveys. One year later, Burns and Convertino recorded a tune with Nancy Sinatra for her self-titled comeback album. And after years of Calexico's music being described as cinematic, filmmaker Michael Mann confirmed it by featuring their song "Guero Canelo" in the movie Collateral. In 2005, Sam Beam of Iron and Wine teamed up with Calexico to create a collaborative recording, and the EP In the Reins was the result; the two groups launched a joint tour to support the release.
Calexico returned to working on their own for 2006's Garden Ruin, which became their first album to crack the Billboard Top 200 albums chart; Garden Ruin peaked at number 156, a solid showing for an independent release. By this time, Calexico also had a growing following abroad, especially as a live act, and they toured Europe, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands more frequently than the United States. For 2008's Carried to Dust, Calexico invited several special guests to join the recording sessions, including Pieta Brown, Iron and Wine, and Doug McCombs of Tortoise. It was Calexico's last album for Quarterstick Records; in 2009, the label scaled back their operations and ceased releasing new material.
For 2012's Algiers, Calexico partnered with Anti, an artist-friendly division of Epitaph Records. The band returned in 2015 with an especially ambitious new album, Edge of the Sun, written and recorded during a sojourn in Mexico City and featuring appearances by Neko Case, Gaby Moreno, Sam Beam, Band of Horses' Ben Bridwell, Devotchka's Nick Urata, and members of the Greek ensemble Takim.
Calexico's story begins in 1990, when bassist Joey Burns, a music student at the University of California Irvine, met percussionist John Convertino, who was playing drums with Howe Gelb's long-running band Giant Sand. Burns soon signed on to play bass with Giant Sand on a tour of Europe, and then relocated to Giant Sand's home base of Tucson, Arizona. During downtime from Giant Sand's projects in 1993, Burns and Convertino teamed with guitarists Billy Elm and Woody Jackson to form The Friends of Dean Martinez, a group that fused lounge-influenced pop melodies with the musical flavors of the Southwest. The Friends of Dean Martinez soon developed a loyal following on the alternative rock scene, and Burns and Convertino began collaborating with an impressive number of well-respected musicians, including Richard Buckner, Neko Case, Bill Janovitz, Lisa Germano, Victoria Williams, and Barbara Manning.
WEBSITE
TO THE TOP