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.
Calexico first recorded Spoke in 1995 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 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, the Dirty Three and Lambchop. Calexico has regularly played festivals such as the Bonnaroo Music Festival, the Hurricane Festival and All Tomorrow's Parties. The Road Map album was a limited recording released in 1999 for sale only at Calexico's live shows.
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, Burns and Convertino joined with two French friends Naïm Amor and Thomas Belhôm to record "Tête A Tête" (Wabana Records, 2001) released under moniker ABBC (Amor/Belhom/Burns/Convertino). Calexico 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 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's Film, Collateral, starring Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx, in which the band appears.
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 band Iron & Wine. Howard Greynolds of Overcoat Records was responsible for bringing the two bands together having previously been responsible for 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 No. 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 and was produced by JD Foster. 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 B-side for Arcade Fire's "Intervention" single, originally released on vinyl on May 21, 2007. Also in 2007, Calexico recorded a revamped version of the Bob Dylan song "Goin' to Acapulco" for the Dylan biopic "I'm Not There". The song featured Jim James of My Morning Jacket on vocals and was featured on the soundtrack of the film.
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 is called 'Carried to Dust', featuring Sam Beam of Iron & Wine, Douglas McCombs of 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 2009, the song Banderilla was featured in an episode of AMC's Breaking Bad.
In 2010, a new album of Calexico was released: the soundtrack of the documentary "Circo". The band also spent part of 2010 touring with Arcade Fire along the west US coast.
In May 2011, their song "Slowness" was dedicated by Gabrielle Giffords to her husband astronaut Mark Kelly as the wake up song aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on its final flight.
Algiers was released 11 September 2012 on ANTI Records and CITY SLANG (Europe).
In April 2014, the band began referring to a new album on Twitter in posts from Mexico City, Coyoacan, Mexico, and Athens, Greece. Edge of the Sun was announced on 27 January 2015, and released on April 14, 2015. The album features guest appearances by various artists such as Sam Beam (Iron & Wine), Ben Bridwell (Band of Horses), Gaby Moreno, Carla Morrison and members of the Greek instrumental group Takim.
The current members of Calexico are:
Joey Burns – vocals, guitars, bass, cello, piano, keyboards, accordion, percussion, vibraphone
John Convertino – drums, percussion, piano, keyboards, vibraphone, marimba, accordion
Paul Niehaus – steel guitar, guitars
Jacob Valenzuela – trumpet, keyboards, vibraphone, vocals
Martin Wenk – trumpet, guitar, keyboards, accordion, glockenspiel, vibraphone, theremin (occasionally harmonica & French horn)
Volker Zander – standup bass, electric bass
Live tour 2013:
Joey Burns - vocals, guitars
John Convertino - drums, percussion
Sergio Mendoza - Keyboards
Jairo Zavala - bazouki, baritone guitar, vocals
Jacob Valenzuela – trumpet, keyboards, vibraphone, vocals
Martin Wenk – trumpet, guitar, keyboards, accordion, glockenspiel, vibraphone (occasionally harmonica & French horn)
Ryan Alfred - bass, vocals
Miles from the Sea
Calexico Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
While the sun strikes him down to his knees
Where his great grandfather's sweat
Swallowed up left for dust
Just to escape push the pain to right
Sketches a wave in the soil
One drop on his dry, dry lips
Dreams about swimming
Miles away from the sea
Dreams about swimming
And the moon brings him back
Dreams about swimming
Miles away from the sea
While the moon stems the tide in his heart
Cast iron and recall
The ore pouring deep in the vein
As the years of searing heat, 'till all is just salt
That is left in the bed where he sleeps
Dreams about swimming
Miles away from the sea
Dreams about swimming
Though he's miles from the sea
Dreams about falling
From the sky through the sea
Dreams about drowning
While the moon looks away
History unheard
Silent like the waves
A graveyard for the giants
That was his eye, dry is his heart
Dreams about swimming
Miles away from the sea
Dreams about swimming
Though he's miles from the sea
Dreams about falling
From the sky through the sea
While the moon lays out a bed
Of bones to call home
The lyrics of Calexico's song "Miles from the Sea" paint a vivid picture of a man so desperate to escape his life on dry land that he dreams about swimming miles away from the sea. The first verse describes him finding fossils on a hillside, and being struck down by the sun until he is on his knees. The second line suggests a connection to his great grandfather, who worked hard and left nothing behind but dust. The man feels abandoned in his own life, and uses his imagination as a means of escape. He sketches a wave in the soil and dreams about swimming despite being miles away from the ocean. The heat and desolation of his surroundings drive him to madness, and he dreams of being able to cool off in the water.
The second verse speaks of the man's history and his connection to the land he finds himself on. The ore that used to pour deep in the veins is now just salt, highlighting the fact that his surroundings are barren and lifeless. The weight of his past and the reality of his present lead him to dream about falling from the sky, or simply drowning somewhere far away from his current reality. The final lines suggest that something monumental has been lost or forgotten, indicating that the man's despair is much bigger than just his own personal issues.
Line by Line Meaning
Finding fossils on the hillside
Discovering the imprints of ancient life on the slopes
While the sun strikes him down to his knees
Being overcome by the intense heat of the blazing sun
Where his great grandfather's sweat
At the place where his ancestor endured hard labor
Swallowed up left for dust
Completely forgotten and abandoned
Just to escape push the pain to right
In order to cope with the anguish, he attempts to divert his focus
Sketches a wave in the soil
Imagining the ocean by drawing a wave in the ground
One drop on his dry, dry lips
Taking a single sip of water when his mouth is unbearably parched
Before he goes inflamed and insane
Before succumbing to an agitated and deranged mental state
Dreams about swimming
Fantasizing about being in the water
Miles away from the sea
Far from any ocean or body of water
And the moon brings him back
The memory of the moonlit nights by the shore haunt him
While the moon stems the tide in his heart
While the moon pacifies the waves of emotions in his heart
Cast iron and recall
The memory and characteristics of iron being solidified and remembered
The ore pouring deep in the vein
The mineral-rich soil entering his innermost being
As the years of searing heat, 'till all is just salt
As the scorching temperatures accumulate, nothing is left but dry crystals
That is left in the bed where he sleeps
That remains in the place where he rests
Dreams about falling
Imagining falling through the air
From the sky through the sea
Falling from the heavens and plunging into the water
Dreams about drowning
Fantasizing about sinking and losing consciousness under the water
While the moon looks away
As the moon turns its gaze from him
History unheard
The stories and events of the past that are not acknowledged
Silent like the waves
As quiet as the gently lapping water
A graveyard for the giants
A burial ground for the powerful and majestic creatures
That was his eye, dry is his heart
What used to bring him wonder has now turned to a lifeless and barren state
Though he's miles from the sea
Despite the distance from any coastline
While the moon lays out a bed
As the moon spreads out a resting place
Of bones to call home
Of remains to take as his own
Contributed by Jayce G. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Jacek Cieśliński
Love it!
Mattia
Incredible song wow!
Bluehopi Bridge
Fabulous melodies ! Thank you Mr Burns - U are tha man for these unbeleivable pearls .
malleebull75
I always return to this song.
James M
Almost 70k views and only one comment? Shame, you can hear the soul bleeding through the speakers
emy hid
Sometimes you have nothing to say, because you just listen