| Calexico — Hot Rail (2000) |
Calexico — Hot Rail
♣ John Convertino and Joey Burns must be two of Arizona's hardest working musicians. Doubling in the already hard working Giant Sand this project has earned them a lot of praise. Calexico is a blend of Giant Sand style Americana and the southern Tejano tex-mex style. The two pull it off very well with all their guest artists being featured on the album. On Hot Rail the band delves into a more detailed trip into this uncharted territory. John and Joey realized that they have a very unique style with not much in the way of peers in their alt-tejano field so they took it upon themselves to increase the depth of the music. Loads of instrumentals as well as well thought out lyrics make up the album. If you are tired of the regular alt-rock scene give Calexico a shot (of tequila) and you will discover one of Quartersticks little gems.
Reviewed by: dscanland on 2003-03-31
Fortaken: http://www.musicemissions.com/
Active: from 1990
Location: Tucson, Arizona
Album release: MAY 9, 2000/2003
Recorded: WaveLab Studio, Tucson, AZ
Genre: Americana, indie rock, Tex-Mex, post-rock
Record Label: Quarterstick Records/Touch and Go/City Slang (Germany, US)/Saidera Records (Japan)/Virgin Records America Inc. (US)/Virgin (Germany)/Labels (France)
Duration: 53:22
Tracks:
01. El Picador (3:14)
02. Ballad Of Cable Hogue (3:29)
03. Ritual Road Map (1:15)
04. Fade (7:44)
05. Untitled III (4:07)
06. Sonic Wind (4:14)
07. Muleta (3:33)
08. Midtown (3:33)
09. Service And Repair (4:03)
10. Untitled II (2:37)
11. Drenched (4:51)
12. 16 Track Scratch (1:29)
13. Tres Avisos (5:12)
14. Hot Rail (4:01)
CREDITS:
♣ Joey Burns Accordion, Bass, Cello, Composer, Guitar, Loops, Organ, Producer, Vocals
♣ John Convertino Accordion, Composer, Drums, Marimba, Organ, Percussion, Producer, Vibraphone
♣ Marianne Dissard Vocals
♣ Victor Gastelum Artwork
♣ John Golden Mastering
♣ Nick Luca Engineer, Guitar
♣ Rob Mazurek Cornet
♣ Ruben Moreno Trumpet
♣ Craig Schumacher Engineer, Harmonica
♣ Martin Wenk Trumpet
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/casadecalexico
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/casadecalexico
Label: http://www.touchandgorecords.com/bands/band.php?id=5
Description:
♣ "Hailing, as you hoped they would, from Tucson Arizona, Calexico offer here what eventually amounts to a musical journey across the vast and varied American interior. "El Picador" begins across the Mexican border, party time in the desert, all piqatas and tequila-frenzied hombres shooting into the air, with the band parping nervously on the brass hoping they're not going to get caught by a stray bullet. "Ballad Of Cable Hogue" is where Serge Gainsbourg meets Leone, a duet between Joey Burns and Marianne Dissard, a mini-Western set "where the snakes and scorpions run". Hot Rails then moves unpredictably from such trad pastiche into more remote, jazz-ambient desert terrain with "Fade" and "Untitled III", reminiscent of Talk Talk in its evocation of vast, desolate space, before reaching the city again on the more urban strains of "Mid-Town" and "Service And Repair". Hot Rails is a fine musical slice of Americana."
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Details:
01. "El Picador" (Burns, Convertino) – 3:14
02. "Ballad of Cable Hogue" (Burns) – 3:29
03. "Ritual Road Map" (Burns, Convertino) – 1:15
04. "Fade" (Burns, Convertino) – 7:44
05. "Untitled III" (Convertino) – 4:07
06. "Sonic Wind" (Burns, Convertino) – 4:13
07. "Muleta" (Burns) – 3:33
08. "Mid-Town" (Burns) – 3:33
09. "Service and Repair" (Burns) – 4:03
10. "Untitled II" (Convertino) – 2:37
11. "Drenched" (Burns) – 4:50
12. "16 Track Scratch" (Burns, Convertino) – 1:29
13. "Tres Avisos" (Burns) – 5:11
14. "Hot Rail" (Burns, Convertino) – 3:58
♣ The EU version of the album contains the additional track "Crystal Frontier" (Burns) between "Fade" and "Untitled III".
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Tracklist:
01 El Picador 3:14
02 Ballad Of Cable Hogue
Vocals [Additional] – Marianne Dissard 3:28
03 Ritual Road Map 1:14
04 Fade
Cornet – Rob Mazurek 7:45
05 Untitled III 4:07
06 Sonic Wind 4:13
07 Muleta 3:33
08 Mid-Town 3:33
09 Service And Repair
Guitar [Pedal Steel] – Tim Gallagher 4:02
10 Untitled II 2:36
11 Drenched
Harmonica – Craig Schumacher 4:50
12 16 Track Scratch
Scratches [Mci 16 Track] – Craig Schumacher 1:28
13 Tres Avisos 5:11
14 Hot Rail
Recorded By [Field Recording] – Craig Schumacher 3:58
Credits:
♣ Artwork – Victor Gastelum
♣ Guitar – Nick Luca (tracks: 1, 7, 11, 13)
♣ Mastered By – John Golden
♣ Producer, Accordion, Bass, Guitar, Cello, Vocals, Loops, Organ – Joey Burns
♣ Producer, Accordion, Drums, Organ, Percussion, Marimba, Vibraphone – John Convertino
♣ Recorded By – Craig Schumacher, Nick Luca
♣ Trumpet – Martin Wenk (tracks: 1, 2, 7, 13), Ruben Moreno (2) (tracks: 1, 2, 7, 13)
♣ Violin – Madeleine Sosin (tracks: 1, 2, 7, 9, 11, 13)
♣ Written-By – Joey Burns (tracks: 1 to 4, 6 to 7, 9, 11 to 14), John Convertino (tracks: 1, 3 to 6, 10, 12, 14)
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Review by Hal Horowitz (Editor rating: ***)
♣ Continuing the Tijuana Brass meets Giant Sand and Ennio Morricone in a dark neuvo-waveo spaghetti Western approach they've gradually refined over the past two albums, multi-instrumentalists John Convertino and Joey Burns keep exploring terrain they've uniquely staked out. While not as cinematic, sprawling, and impressive as 1998's The Black Light, the duo create vivid soundscapes as dry, hot, and shimmering as the weather of their Tucson, Arizona home. Although they subtly expand their palette in all sorts of interesting ways, the spooky, late-'70s Miles Davis feel they inject into the nearly eight-minute "Fade" through jazzy drums, spacy vibes, and ominous cello works best. The songs, especially the appropriately named atmospheric instrumentals "Untitled II" and "Untitled III" tend to meander, but the duo keeps peeling back more layers and different instruments to pull the listener's interest. "Sonic Wind" and "Ballad of Cable Hogue" are as succinct, melodic, and tight as they've ever been, and Joey Burns' yearning, whisper of a voice suits this evocative music perfectly. This could easily turn into schtick, though, and it's to the duo's credit that they not only take themselves seriously, but don't pummel their weirdness into the ground. Instead, they push and knead the already elastic boundaries of a genre they've practically created, in jazzy, bluesy, and experimental directions that indicate they have a rich future ahead of them. Hot Rail isn't a great album; it's far too spotty and inconsistent musically. But it's an important one because it proves Calexico isn't content to remain stuck in an intriguing but limiting rut and is willing to explore new sonic directions while maintaining a distinctive identity and vision.
Biography by Robert Hicks
♣ Calexico, a Tucson collective of musicians focused around Joey Burns and John Convertino, forged an eclectic identity through their exploration of Southwestern culture. Composer Ennio Morricone's spaghetti Westerns as well as Portuguese fado, Afro-Peruvian music, and '50s and '60s jazz, country, and surf music all factored into Calexico's music. Burns studied classical music at the University of California, Irvine, before starting his rock career, and Calexico formed after Burns met John Convertino in Los Angeles in 1990. At the time, Convertino had been playing with Howe Gelb's experimental rock group Giant Sand after serving as their upright bassist for a European tour. Burns and Convertino found their voice as a duo during a Giant Sand break, moved to Tucson in 1994, and began collecting instruments from the Chicago Music Store.
♣ First, they worked with Tucson's neo-lounge combo Friends of Dean Martinez, playing marimba, cello, accordion, and vibraphone in addition to their usual work on bass, guitar, and drums. After a split with Friends of Dean Martinez founder Bill Elm in 1996, the duo began to get session work with Barbara Manning, Richard Buckner, Victoria Williams, Michael Hurley, Bill Janovitz, Vic Chesnutt, and Lisa Germano (as the trio OP8). Burns and Convertino also experimented on their own with their new instruments in a home recording studio in 1996, releasing their debut CD, Spoke, on Germany's Haus Musik Records. After signing with Quarterstick/Touch & Go Records in Chicago, they released The Black Light in 1998 and The Hot Rail in 2000.
♣ For their 2001 EP Even My Sure Things Fall Through, Calexico enlisted the support of soon-to-be members Martin Wenk, Volker Zander, and Jacob Valenzuela, as well as members of Mariachi Luz de Luna. In 2003, the band issued its most cohesive material to date with Feast of Wire. An EP of covers, Convict Pool, followed a year later. The concert DVD World Drifts In: Live at the Barbican London was also released in 2004, and the group spent the rest of that year and 2005 collaborating with artists such as Nancy Sinatra, Neko Case, Laura Cantrell, and Iron & Wine's Sam Beam, with whom they recorded In the Reins. Along with touring with Iron & Wine in support of that album and appearing in a cameo in Michael Mann's film Collateral, Calexico found time to record with producer J.D. Foster. The results were the band's 2006 album, Garden Ruin, Calexico's most song-oriented release to date.
♣ Early in 2007, Calexico appeared at Lincoln Center as a part of the venue's American Songbook Series, and performed at New York's Beacon Theatre that fall as part of a Bob Dylan tribute. During that time, Burns and Convertino also worked on new material, working with some of the same musicians they collaborated with on Feast of Wire as well as Iron & Wine's Sam Beam. In summer 2008, one of Calexico's new songs, "Crystal Frontier," was beamed into space as wake-up music for the astronauts on the Space Shuttle Discovery. That fall, Carried to Dust arrived. Two years later, the band toured with Arcade Fire and released the soundtrack to the documentary Circo. In 2011, their song "Slowness" was played as the wake-up song on the space shuttle Endeavour's final flight, and was dedicated to astronaut Mark Kelly by his wife, congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Their 2012 album Algiers was recorded in and inspired by New Orleans.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Also:
By Chip Chanko; May 9, 2000 (Score: 7.9)
♣ http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/1229-hot-rail/
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
| Calexico — Hot Rail (2000) |
Calexico — Hot Rail
♣ John Convertino and Joey Burns must be two of Arizona's hardest working musicians. Doubling in the already hard working Giant Sand this project has earned them a lot of praise. Calexico is a blend of Giant Sand style Americana and the southern Tejano tex-mex style. The two pull it off very well with all their guest artists being featured on the album. On Hot Rail the band delves into a more detailed trip into this uncharted territory. John and Joey realized that they have a very unique style with not much in the way of peers in their alt-tejano field so they took it upon themselves to increase the depth of the music. Loads of instrumentals as well as well thought out lyrics make up the album. If you are tired of the regular alt-rock scene give Calexico a shot (of tequila) and you will discover one of Quartersticks little gems.
Reviewed by: dscanland on 2003-03-31
Fortaken: http://www.musicemissions.com/
Active: from 1990
Location: Tucson, Arizona
Album release: MAY 9, 2000/2003
Recorded: WaveLab Studio, Tucson, AZ
Genre: Americana, indie rock, Tex-Mex, post-rock
Record Label: Quarterstick Records/Touch and Go/City Slang (Germany, US)/Saidera Records (Japan)/Virgin Records America Inc. (US)/Virgin (Germany)/Labels (France)
Duration: 53:22
Tracks:
01. El Picador (3:14)
02. Ballad Of Cable Hogue (3:29)
03. Ritual Road Map (1:15)
04. Fade (7:44)
05. Untitled III (4:07)
06. Sonic Wind (4:14)
07. Muleta (3:33)
08. Midtown (3:33)
09. Service And Repair (4:03)
10. Untitled II (2:37)
11. Drenched (4:51)
12. 16 Track Scratch (1:29)
13. Tres Avisos (5:12)
14. Hot Rail (4:01)
CREDITS:
♣ Joey Burns Accordion, Bass, Cello, Composer, Guitar, Loops, Organ, Producer, Vocals
♣ John Convertino Accordion, Composer, Drums, Marimba, Organ, Percussion, Producer, Vibraphone
♣ Marianne Dissard Vocals
♣ Victor Gastelum Artwork
♣ John Golden Mastering
♣ Nick Luca Engineer, Guitar
♣ Rob Mazurek Cornet
♣ Ruben Moreno Trumpet
♣ Craig Schumacher Engineer, Harmonica
♣ Martin Wenk Trumpet
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/casadecalexico
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/casadecalexico
Label: http://www.touchandgorecords.com/bands/band.php?id=5
Description:
♣ "Hailing, as you hoped they would, from Tucson Arizona, Calexico offer here what eventually amounts to a musical journey across the vast and varied American interior. "El Picador" begins across the Mexican border, party time in the desert, all piqatas and tequila-frenzied hombres shooting into the air, with the band parping nervously on the brass hoping they're not going to get caught by a stray bullet. "Ballad Of Cable Hogue" is where Serge Gainsbourg meets Leone, a duet between Joey Burns and Marianne Dissard, a mini-Western set "where the snakes and scorpions run". Hot Rails then moves unpredictably from such trad pastiche into more remote, jazz-ambient desert terrain with "Fade" and "Untitled III", reminiscent of Talk Talk in its evocation of vast, desolate space, before reaching the city again on the more urban strains of "Mid-Town" and "Service And Repair". Hot Rails is a fine musical slice of Americana."
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Details:
01. "El Picador" (Burns, Convertino) – 3:14
02. "Ballad of Cable Hogue" (Burns) – 3:29
03. "Ritual Road Map" (Burns, Convertino) – 1:15
04. "Fade" (Burns, Convertino) – 7:44
05. "Untitled III" (Convertino) – 4:07
06. "Sonic Wind" (Burns, Convertino) – 4:13
07. "Muleta" (Burns) – 3:33
08. "Mid-Town" (Burns) – 3:33
09. "Service and Repair" (Burns) – 4:03
10. "Untitled II" (Convertino) – 2:37
11. "Drenched" (Burns) – 4:50
12. "16 Track Scratch" (Burns, Convertino) – 1:29
13. "Tres Avisos" (Burns) – 5:11
14. "Hot Rail" (Burns, Convertino) – 3:58
♣ The EU version of the album contains the additional track "Crystal Frontier" (Burns) between "Fade" and "Untitled III".
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Tracklist:
01 El Picador 3:14
02 Ballad Of Cable Hogue
Vocals [Additional] – Marianne Dissard 3:28
03 Ritual Road Map 1:14
04 Fade
Cornet – Rob Mazurek 7:45
05 Untitled III 4:07
06 Sonic Wind 4:13
07 Muleta 3:33
08 Mid-Town 3:33
09 Service And Repair
Guitar [Pedal Steel] – Tim Gallagher 4:02
10 Untitled II 2:36
11 Drenched
Harmonica – Craig Schumacher 4:50
12 16 Track Scratch
Scratches [Mci 16 Track] – Craig Schumacher 1:28
13 Tres Avisos 5:11
14 Hot Rail
Recorded By [Field Recording] – Craig Schumacher 3:58
Credits:
♣ Artwork – Victor Gastelum
♣ Guitar – Nick Luca (tracks: 1, 7, 11, 13)
♣ Mastered By – John Golden
♣ Producer, Accordion, Bass, Guitar, Cello, Vocals, Loops, Organ – Joey Burns
♣ Producer, Accordion, Drums, Organ, Percussion, Marimba, Vibraphone – John Convertino
♣ Recorded By – Craig Schumacher, Nick Luca
♣ Trumpet – Martin Wenk (tracks: 1, 2, 7, 13), Ruben Moreno (2) (tracks: 1, 2, 7, 13)
♣ Violin – Madeleine Sosin (tracks: 1, 2, 7, 9, 11, 13)
♣ Written-By – Joey Burns (tracks: 1 to 4, 6 to 7, 9, 11 to 14), John Convertino (tracks: 1, 3 to 6, 10, 12, 14)
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Review by Hal Horowitz (Editor rating: ***)
♣ Continuing the Tijuana Brass meets Giant Sand and Ennio Morricone in a dark neuvo-waveo spaghetti Western approach they've gradually refined over the past two albums, multi-instrumentalists John Convertino and Joey Burns keep exploring terrain they've uniquely staked out. While not as cinematic, sprawling, and impressive as 1998's The Black Light, the duo create vivid soundscapes as dry, hot, and shimmering as the weather of their Tucson, Arizona home. Although they subtly expand their palette in all sorts of interesting ways, the spooky, late-'70s Miles Davis feel they inject into the nearly eight-minute "Fade" through jazzy drums, spacy vibes, and ominous cello works best. The songs, especially the appropriately named atmospheric instrumentals "Untitled II" and "Untitled III" tend to meander, but the duo keeps peeling back more layers and different instruments to pull the listener's interest. "Sonic Wind" and "Ballad of Cable Hogue" are as succinct, melodic, and tight as they've ever been, and Joey Burns' yearning, whisper of a voice suits this evocative music perfectly. This could easily turn into schtick, though, and it's to the duo's credit that they not only take themselves seriously, but don't pummel their weirdness into the ground. Instead, they push and knead the already elastic boundaries of a genre they've practically created, in jazzy, bluesy, and experimental directions that indicate they have a rich future ahead of them. Hot Rail isn't a great album; it's far too spotty and inconsistent musically. But it's an important one because it proves Calexico isn't content to remain stuck in an intriguing but limiting rut and is willing to explore new sonic directions while maintaining a distinctive identity and vision.
Biography by Robert Hicks
♣ Calexico, a Tucson collective of musicians focused around Joey Burns and John Convertino, forged an eclectic identity through their exploration of Southwestern culture. Composer Ennio Morricone's spaghetti Westerns as well as Portuguese fado, Afro-Peruvian music, and '50s and '60s jazz, country, and surf music all factored into Calexico's music. Burns studied classical music at the University of California, Irvine, before starting his rock career, and Calexico formed after Burns met John Convertino in Los Angeles in 1990. At the time, Convertino had been playing with Howe Gelb's experimental rock group Giant Sand after serving as their upright bassist for a European tour. Burns and Convertino found their voice as a duo during a Giant Sand break, moved to Tucson in 1994, and began collecting instruments from the Chicago Music Store.
♣ First, they worked with Tucson's neo-lounge combo Friends of Dean Martinez, playing marimba, cello, accordion, and vibraphone in addition to their usual work on bass, guitar, and drums. After a split with Friends of Dean Martinez founder Bill Elm in 1996, the duo began to get session work with Barbara Manning, Richard Buckner, Victoria Williams, Michael Hurley, Bill Janovitz, Vic Chesnutt, and Lisa Germano (as the trio OP8). Burns and Convertino also experimented on their own with their new instruments in a home recording studio in 1996, releasing their debut CD, Spoke, on Germany's Haus Musik Records. After signing with Quarterstick/Touch & Go Records in Chicago, they released The Black Light in 1998 and The Hot Rail in 2000.
♣ For their 2001 EP Even My Sure Things Fall Through, Calexico enlisted the support of soon-to-be members Martin Wenk, Volker Zander, and Jacob Valenzuela, as well as members of Mariachi Luz de Luna. In 2003, the band issued its most cohesive material to date with Feast of Wire. An EP of covers, Convict Pool, followed a year later. The concert DVD World Drifts In: Live at the Barbican London was also released in 2004, and the group spent the rest of that year and 2005 collaborating with artists such as Nancy Sinatra, Neko Case, Laura Cantrell, and Iron & Wine's Sam Beam, with whom they recorded In the Reins. Along with touring with Iron & Wine in support of that album and appearing in a cameo in Michael Mann's film Collateral, Calexico found time to record with producer J.D. Foster. The results were the band's 2006 album, Garden Ruin, Calexico's most song-oriented release to date.
♣ Early in 2007, Calexico appeared at Lincoln Center as a part of the venue's American Songbook Series, and performed at New York's Beacon Theatre that fall as part of a Bob Dylan tribute. During that time, Burns and Convertino also worked on new material, working with some of the same musicians they collaborated with on Feast of Wire as well as Iron & Wine's Sam Beam. In summer 2008, one of Calexico's new songs, "Crystal Frontier," was beamed into space as wake-up music for the astronauts on the Space Shuttle Discovery. That fall, Carried to Dust arrived. Two years later, the band toured with Arcade Fire and released the soundtrack to the documentary Circo. In 2011, their song "Slowness" was played as the wake-up song on the space shuttle Endeavour's final flight, and was dedicated to astronaut Mark Kelly by his wife, congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Their 2012 album Algiers was recorded in and inspired by New Orleans.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Also:
By Chip Chanko; May 9, 2000 (Score: 7.9)
♣ http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/1229-hot-rail/
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