Greetings from Arizona…

…where the weather is a mild 110 degrees in the afternoon and you drink fluids constantly regardless of thirst. It’s gorgeous and bright. I have lizards and cacti in my backyard. There’s also a fire pit where we have occasional cookouts, but we have to be careful about where we get the branches. We have oleander bushes growing in our backyard and that shit is toxic. Just like the band of the same name.

For the curious ones among you the trip west was a blast. It took about five days with stops in DC, Nashville, New Orleans, and Houston. It’s a big country! I’d love to do it again sometime.

Anyway, I’ll start off the Tucson chapters of this blog with an entry about the favorite sons of the area, Calexico.

I’ll admit I didn’t think to check these guys out until I started preparing for the move. For a long time, they’ve been on my mind as a vaguely alt-country-ish act that tended to get favorable reviews. I didn’t know too many folks that were into them so I didn’t have too many points of reference. More than once I confused them with Califone, who are pretty good themselves although quite different. Anyway, I decided a few weeks ago to head down to the local record store where I arbitrarily picked out their third album, 2000’s Hot Rail

Maybe it was the wishful thinking over the move, but this one registered with me from the first listen. The guys shift flawlessly over many different moods which is always a huge plus for me. They cover a lot of ground from airy barely-there meditations to epic tone poems to mariachi to tango ballads, along with a couple of straight-ahead songs that complement their context and stand up on their own rather well. The mix of influences is balanced and seldom kitschy. Even when it does veer to the too-quirky-for-it’s-own-good side I give it points for tackling some relatively obscure genres, such as Ballad of Cable Hogue - a traditional country story-song with lyrics in two languages.

The guys really shine with lush yet understated arrangements that unfold over repeated listens as the subtleties of the relationships between clashing instruments and musical motives become more familiar and obvious. My personal fave, Sonic Wind, centers around an acoustic hook built on a couple of off-beat 8th notes that is introduced, then buried in the arrangement, then thrust to the forefront as the other instruments suddenly match it. The effect comes on the chorus and makes for a pretty thrilling and deceptively epic song. Similarly, Fade, presents itself as an ominous lounge jazz number before expertly setting up a cacophanous twist. It gives me chills, it does. Not many things give me chills with the desert life and all.

More than anything, I think I’m in love with the sound and arrangements. I’m not very knowledgable about Southwestern music, but the clear influence I hear is Ennio Morricone and spaghetti western soundtracks. I shudder a bit at saying so because the music is clearly sophisticated and comes from composers with rich tastes in styles I’m only vaguely aware of. This still sounds pretty otherworldly to me and I look forward to exploring their catalogue.