Calexico

A band fronted by John Covertino and Joey Burns, who performed on several Giant Sand albums. Their sound is similar to Giant Sand and to me sounds like the soundtrack as you drive through the desert at night.

Calexico is also a small town in California on the Mexican border. Before the advent of drug dogs and shotgun toting killers for border patrol, the town was split between Mexico and the United States. You could walk down the street and be in Mexico without a passport or a strip search. Calexico's music is perfectly described as as this stroll from America to Mexico. Mariachi under the direction of indie rock ideology.

City Slang's website best describes it to be "some kind of mariachi tinged sound track that Ennio Morricone would have scored on peyote in the early 60's to a young Cormac McCarthy screenplay."

All albums are released under Quarterstick Records in the United States. There are assorted singles and 12"s released on a variety of labels.

Full Lengths include:

Spoke
The Black Light
Hot Rail

After being informed in 1995 that they were no longer part of the Friends of Dean Martinez, Joey Burns and John Convertino (who held day jobs as the rhythm section of Giant Sand) decided to put their newfound songwriting talents to use elsewhere. They took the songs they'd already written, added Convertino's wife Tasha Bundy on percussion and recorded the cassette Superstition Highway at home; they dubbed off copies on a cheap boombox in the car on their way to gigs.

After a couple of years, they were signed to Quarterstick Records and released Spoke (with more polished versions of early songs) and The Black Light (the start of the more clearly defined "Calexico sound") in quick succession. Tasha dropped out of the band full-time but continued to put in guest appearances, along with daughter Mia. Calexico as a touring entity grew more versatile with the addition of "the Kassel Krew" - Volker Zander (upright bass) and Martin Wenk (trumpet, guitar, melodica, vibraphone) - in 1998 during the Black Light tour. For Hot Rail, the band toured with a full mariachi band in tow; in 2000, they permanently added mariachi trumpeter Jacob Valenzuela. Their most recent addition to the band is Lambchop's Paul Niehaus, who works magic on the pedal steel.

Full-length albums:

Spoke (1998)

The Black Light (1998)

Hot Rail (2000)

Feast of Wire (2003)

Tour-only catchalls:

Road Map (1999)

Travelall (2000)

Aerocalexico (2001)

Scraping (2002)

Singles and EPs:

Lacquer/Drape 7" (1996)

Spark 7" (1996)

Stray (1999)

The Ride (Pt. 2) (1999)

Descamino (2000)

The Ballad of Cable Hogue (2000)

Service and Repair (2000)

Crystal Frontier (2001)

Even My Sure Things Fall Through (2001)

See also http://casadecalexico.com