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
Red Blooms
Calexico Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Blackened frostbitten nights, vodka running dry
The statues cloaked in white and migrants from museums
Losing all the feeling now that sunrise is outlawed
Strangers plant themselves down in the cold hard ground
Later when the harvest thaws snow drops will be in bloom
Shadows drinking antifreeze 'neath the underpass
Ordered once a Gulag's march, now cities send the call
Falling from the rooftops fast and frozen against the wall
Where strangers plant themselves, dead souls of the underground
When February thaws snow drops will be in bloom again
Bloom again, bloom again, bloom again, bloom again
Red blooms, red blooms
The song "Red Blooms" by Calexico is a haunting and enigmatic tale of winter in Russia, where the cold and darkness are ever present and the population is forced to endure the brutality of the season. The lyrics paint a picture of a landscape decimated by snow and ice, and the emotional impact of such conditions on its inhabitants. The first verse describes a scene of desolation and despair, as the winter winds punish the earth and the vodka runs out. The statues and migrants referenced are representatives of a culture that is slowly being consumed by the harshness of winter, and the loss of feeling signifies an emotional numbness that results from prolonged exposure to such conditions.
In the second verse, the lyrics touch on the history of the region, specifically the gulags and other dissident prisons that were once used to control the population. The "shadows drinking antifreeze" are symbolic of the suffering and degradation that was a part of life for many people during this period, and the "falling from rooftops" represents the inevitable downward spiral that ensues when hope is lost. The final lines of the song, "Red blooms, red blooms," are a reference to the resiliency of the human spirit, as seen in the annual appearance of the snowdrops, a sure sign that spring is on the horizon.
Line by Line Meaning
When the fists of winter fly, driving bones into the snow
The harsh winter weather is setting in, causing a bone-chilling effect on everything around.
Blackened frostbitten nights, vodka running dry
The nights are so cold that everything around seems to be getting frosty black. The vodka they have in storage is running out, and they don't have much left.
The statues cloaked in white and migrants from museums
The statues, once bright and colorful, are now covered in white snow, camouflaging them entirely. The people who visit the museum in the hope of finding warmth temporarily migrate there.
Losing all the feeling now that sunrise is outlawed
Everything is so dark that the lack of sunrise has led to a gradually increasing numbness that now nothing seems to evoke any feeling.
Strangers plant themselves down in the cold hard ground
During the harsh winter, people are forcefully immobilized in the cold and have no choice but to lie down on the cold, hard ground.
Later when the harvest thaws snow drops will be in bloom
After the winter's harvest, when the melt begins, the snowdrops get back to blooming in full force.
Crossed out on city maps, Prospekt Mira reveals
The city is excluding people from certain areas by crossing them out on their maps. In contrast, 'Prospekt Mira' is an exception as its street signs reveal its residents are surviving.
Shadows drinking antifreeze 'neath the underpass
The darker parts of the city have taken a form of their own: shadows lurking around and drinking ant-freeze under the underpass; implying a sense of loss of identity.
Ordered once a Gulag's march, now cities send the call
Once a prisoner's march from Gulags was ordered due to the impossible Siberian winter. Now, during such winters, the cities are evacuated as an emergency measure.
Falling from the rooftops fast and frozen against the wall
Icicles falling from the frozen rooftops fall at a supersonic speed and freeze on striking the walls.
Where strangers plant themselves, dead souls of the underground
People who are homeless during the winter, unable to find any shelter, are forced to plant themselves in the ground like trees. They are also known as the dead souls of the underground.
When February thaws snow drops will be in bloom again
February is when the winter comes to an end, and as the temperature warms up, the snowdrops revive, bringing a beautiful sight of bloom.
Bloom again, bloom again, bloom again, bloom again
The winter breaks, and spring begins afresh, with beautiful promises of bloom.
Red blooms, red blooms
With the onset of spring and anticipations of beautiful colors all around, the vivid flowers that lead the way are the red blooms.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: JOEY BURNS, JOHN BURNS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Dirk Dierking
Why the hell it has taken me so damn long to find this band I will never know. They are marvelous..
DocSandwiches
one of my fave calexico songs
shattered79
this song is just awesome, love it!!
8thsinn
Just discovered this band, and I'm impressed. Plus they're from Tuscon so they are homeboys.
rustyrollers
This is a lovely mix of ideas .And the lead singer is actually singing not whispering .
Radant
beautiful