Calexico recently conquered Europe with a small but magnificent tour. This is the London Forum setlist in full along with my essay on why you need to become a dedicated listener of desert noir.
At the height of the ‘second latin music explosion’ in the late 90s, along came Calexico. In 1998 the band’s second album The Black Light, a concept album of sorts inspired by the desert of Arizona and northern Mexico, received excellent reviews and put the band firmly on the map. But which map exactly? With their eclectic mix of Tex Mex, mariachi and indie-americana, Calexico brought something differente y neuvo. Perhaps too different to ride that 2nd latin wave.
With 62 million Latino residents in the USA as at the last census, over 70% of them Mexican, I’m nonplussed how a band such as Tucson Arizona’s Calexico has amassed under half a million Spotify monthly listeners. Even though I know that comparisons in pop music are meaningless, J Balvin for example, has over 10 times that (indeed, the Columbian Reggaeton singer has a consistent top 20 place in the world on Spotify).
My conclusion is that the ‘latin explosions’ didn’t include Latin flavoured rock. Calexico, Los Lobos, Mariachi El Bronx, Making Movies etc. remain niche, especially when considering the authenticity yet accessibility they demonstrate in their respective repertoires.
None of this, I’m pleased to discover, disturbs Calexico front person Joey Burns one bit. When I asked if Calexico has seen a halo effect of Latin music’s streaming explosion, his response is suitably nonchalant. You can listen to that conversation on The Art of Longevity. However, Joey does lament the band’s restricted capacity to tour in their native USA.
“I’d like to be able to tour more extensively in North America. I feel like European audiences have more openness for something that is unique and they are not so dominated by corporate marketing. There is a disconnect between us and our audiences in The States because of that”.
I can usually pinpoint exactly how I discovered a new band of longevity and for Calexico it was a recommendation from the late, erudite Robert Sandall, BBC Radio 3 presenter of Late Junction and one time Head of PR for Virgin Records. He told me I must listen to Feast of Wire three times. He was very specific about it. I remain entirely grateful to Robert. There is nothing quite like a recommendation that sticks. Not only did that one tether me to Calexico for life, but the ‘listen three times’ rule is something I have adopted as a tactic in my own recommendations. I implore you, thrice discerning listeners. It is well-known that beautiful things often come in threes.
Speaking of which, along with The Black Light and Feast of Wire, Calexico’s third eclectic masterpiece of desert noir would be 2008’s Carried to Dust. It’s a remarkable tribute to the band’s depth in adopting and transforming mariachi and cumbia sounds and entwining them with indie-americana. However, since that album, Calexico has made a conscious move to make albums of a more coherent nature - with each one sounding distinctly different. I find 2015’s Edge of the Sun to be a brooding, melancholy affair (in a good way), whereas new album El Mirador is a more joyous, celebratory affair that leans more heavily into the cumbia tradition - so much so you can bop along to most of it.
It would be impossible to do a good job of curating Calexico’s catalogue into a playlist that represents that catalogue, if that makes sense. For one thing, the band is very much an album band, with each album unfolding and revealing itself in a way similar to an epic independent movie (and no, not just spaghetti westerns). For another thing, I don’t have a bunch of ‘favourite’ songs as such. I often find I’m in the mood for ‘this Calexico’ or ‘that Calexico’, with the band taking on so many subtle flavours over the years.
A simple way around it is to share the band’s recent setlist from their show in Kentish Town’s The Forum. It was a breathtaking performance. My test for any gig is whether it transcends – takes you to another place. From about a third of the way into the set, I realised it was happening - you could see the audience sensed they were witnessing something special. The show included no less than seven new songs from El Mirador but the rest of the set was drawn from across the catalogue and included two wonderful, brilliant cover versions. One of these, the cover of Love’s classic ‘Alone Again Or’ remains Calexico’s ‘biggest song’ (at 7+ million streams on Spotify). Go figure.
If you do not know the band well, this setlist is the best possible introduction other than seeing them play live - and that discerning listeners - is something to add to your music bucket list post haste. Pronto, pronto if you will.