Calexico

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Biography

Calexico is a Tucson, Arizona -based Americana (music)|Americana / Alternative country band. The band's two main members, Joey Burns and John Convertino, 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 EP In the Reins recorded with Iron & Wine has reached the Billboard 200 album charts. Their musical style is influenced by traditional Latin American music|Latin sounds of mariachi / conjunto / cumbia / Tejano music and also the Southwestern United States country music as well as '50s-'60s jazz and '90s-'00s post-rock , and they have been described by some as "desert noir" or indie rock . The band is named for the border town of Calexico, California .

History

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.

Recording history: 1996–1999

Calexico first recorded Spoke (album)|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. Burns and Convertino also collaborated with Gelb and Lisa Germano on the album Slush (album)|Slush released under the name OP8 that same year.

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 (band)|Pavement , the Dirty Three and Lambchop (band)|Lambchop . Calexico has regularly played festivals such as the Bonnaroo Music Festival , the Hurricane Festival and All Tomorrow's Parties (music festival)|All Tomorrow's Parties . The Road Map album was a limited recording released in 1999 for sale only at Calexico's live shows.

Recording history: 2000–2010

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 (album)|Scraping live album was released in 2002. 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 (director)|Michael Mann 's Film, Collateral (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 based folk band Iron & Wine . Howard Greynolds of Overcoat Records was responsible for bringing the two bands together having previously been responsible for Tortoise (band)|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. It also made an appearance in the Billboard 200 album charts, becoming their first recording 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 is 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.

In 2007, Calexico was invited by Arcade Fire to record a cover of their "Ocean of Noise." This recording was used as the A-side and B-side|B-side for Arcade Fire's " Intervention (song)|Intervention " single, originally released on vinyl on May 21, 2007.

Several of Calexico's songs, usually their shorter instrumental pieces, have been used as interstitial and background music on Public Radio International 's This American Life . Their songs "Ballad Of Cable Hogue" and "Service And Repair" were featured in the 2001 German comedy movie Lammbock .

Their sixth studio LP called ' Carried to Dust ', featured Sam Beam of Iron & Wine , Douglas McCombs of Tortoise (band)|Tortoise and Pieta Brown. It was released in the USA via Touch & Go Records on September 9, 2008. The album enjoyed solid reviews, with hometown paper the Arizona Daily Star praising the band's "ability to sweep you into its world, taking listeners to the American Southwest. This is one of the reasons Europeans love Calexico and others in this country are beginning to come around."

On October 16, 2008, a three-song live acoustic video performance premiered on LiveDaily Sessions, featuring Joey Burns performing the songs "Two Silver Trees," "Writer's Minor Holiday" and "Man Made Lake".

In 2010, a new album of Calexico was released: the soundtrack of the documentary "Circo".

Until recently, Calexico has been on tour with Arcade Fire along the west coast in 2010.

In May 2011, their song "Slowness" was dedicated by Gabrielle Giffords to her husband astronaut Mark Kelly (astronaut)|Mark Kelly as the wake up song aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour|Space Shuttle Endeavour on its final flight.

Members

The current members of Calexico are:

Joey Burns – vocals, guitars, bass, cello, keyboards, accordion, percussion, vibraphone

John Convertino – drums, percussion, piano

Paul Niehaus – steel guitar, guitars

Jacob Valenzuela – trumpet, keyboards, vibraphone, vocals

Martin Wenk – trumpet, guitar, keyboards, accordion, glockenspiel, vibraphone (occasionally harmonica & French horn)

Volker Zander – standup bass, electric bass

Discography

Albums

Spoke (album)|Spoke (1997)

The Black Light (1998)

Hot Rail (2000)

Feast of Wire (2003)

Garden Ruin (2006)

Carried to Dust (2008)

Circo (Soundtrack) (2010)

Tour only and miscellaneous albums

98–99 Road Map (1999), tour CD

Travelall (Calexico)|Travelall (2000), tour CD

Tête à Tête (ABBC album)|Tête à Tête (2001), side project as ABBC with Amor Belhom Duo

Aerocalexico (2001), tour CD

Scraping (album)|Scraping (2002), live

The Book and The Canal (2005), tour CD

Tool Box (album)|Tool Box (2007), tour CD

Ancienne Belgique – Live in Brussels 2008 (2009), tour CD

EPs

Descamino (2000)

Ballad Of Cable Hogue (2000)

Even My Sure Things Fall Through (2001)

Convict Pool (2004)

Black Heart (2004)

In the Reins (2005), with Iron & Wine

The Guns of Brixton / Interior of a Dutch House (2006), 7? split single with Beirut (band)|Beirut

DVDs

World Drifts In: Live at the Barbican (2004)

Live From Austin TX (Austin City Limits) (2009)

Compilations

Selections From Road Atlas: 1988-2011 (2011)

Compilation contributions

Committed (2000 film)|Committed Soundtrack (2000)

''It's a Cool, Cool Christmas – "Gift Xchange" (2000), a charity compilation by Xfm

'' Dead Man's Shoes (2004 film)|Dead Man's Shoes :" Hot Rail|Untitled II " " Hot Rail|Untitled III " " Hot Rail|Ritual Road Map ""Crooked Road and the Briar" - Soundtrack (2004)

Sweetheart 2005: Love Songs – " Love Will Tear Us Apart " (2005), Hear Music

Acoustic 07 – "Cruel" (2007), V2 Records

'' I'm Not There (soundtrack)|I'm Not There: Original Soundtrack '' – "Goin' to Acapulco" (2007) The band also provide backing for other artists on several tracks.

Lammbock : Original Soundtrack

Remixes

Goldfrapp – " Human (Goldfrapp song)|Human " Calexico Vocal Version (2001)

Collaborations

On Neko Case 's album Blacklisted (album)|Blacklisted (2002)

On Nancy Sinatra 's album Nancy Sinatra (album)|Nancy Sinatra (a.k.a. To Nancy With Love) (2004)

On Los Super Seven 's album Heard It on the X (2005)

Esa Banda En Dub (2005) – with Nortec Collective 's Panoptica included in Tijuana Sessions Vol. 3

''You Can't Always Listen to Hausmusik, But... (2006) – "Careless" (with The Notwist ) and "Freunde" (with A Million Mercies)

On Neko Case 's album Fox Confessor Brings the Flood (2006)

"Amor Porteño" on Gotan Project 's album Lunático (2006)

On Marianne Dissard 's album "Dedicated To Your Walls. May They Keep Blooming" (2006), performed and composed by Joey Burns .

On Naïm Amor 's album Sanguine (2007)

On Marianne Dissard 's album " L'Entredeux " (2008), performed, produced and composed by Joey Burns . Also, with John Convertino on drums.

On Lizz Wright 's album The Orchard (Lizz Wright album)|The Orchard (2008)

On Naïm Amor 's EP Introducing... (Naïm Amor album)|Introducing... (2008)

On Neko Case 's album Middle Cyclone (2009)

On Naïm Amor 's EP Precious Second (2009)

On Susie Hug 's album Tucson Moonshine (2010)

On Amparo Sánchez 's album Tucson-Habana (2010)

On Maggie Björklund 's album Coming Home (Maggie Björklund album)|Coming Home (2011)

Chart positions

Hot Rail – 2000 – UK Albums Chart|UK #57

Feast of Wire – 2003 – #23 Independent Albums, #45 Heatseekers, UK Albums Chart|UK #71

In the Reins – 2005 – #135 Billboard 200, #12 Independent Albums, UK Albums Chart|UK #161

Garden Ruin – 2006 – #156 Billboard 200, #14 Independent Albums, #3 Heatseekers, UK Albums Chart|UK #76

Carried To Dust – 2008 – #98 Billboard 200, #9 Independent Albums, #28 European Albums, UK Albums Chart|UK #55

Notes

Copyright Citations

This article is licensed under the GNU License
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1. Austin City Limits Festival 2. Blanche 3. Giant Sand 4. Los Super Seven 5. Michael Hurley 6. Pieta Brown 7. Tom Russell 8. Bill Janovitz

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