Calexico

Calexico, a Tucson collective of musicians focused around Joey Burns and John Convertino, has 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 factor into Calexico's melting-pot music.

Given the band's eclectic, adventurous sound, it's no surprise that Joey Burns' picks for 10 "mixtape" songs run the gamut from avant-garde jazz to minimal electronica to blues slide guitar. Learn more about Joey's picks and listen to the ones for which we were actually able to track down clips:

1. Vinicio Caposella - "Non Trattare" from the album Ovunque Proteggi
"Italy's very own master of the strange and mysterioso. Vocals that creak, caw and moan under a rusted moon, all accompanied by eastern stringed instruments, primitive sounds and surreal musical diversions, the whole scope of this album moves like a freshly peeled scar. Heard about this album from producer JD Foster while working in Tucson. Picked it up in Milano while doing press interviews. It proved an excellent soundtrack for the long winding train rides and only wished I'd given it to Marilyn Manson when I saw him boarding the same plane going back home. Think he would've gotten into it. Good music for doing watercolors."

2. El Perro Del Mar - "I Can't Talk About It" from the self-titled album on Memphis Industries
"Makes me think of David Lynch, Julie Cruise, Phil Spector, Brian Wilson, I can't really pin it down. It is weird. Minimal. Saturated with a head tilt beauty that is hard to...talk about. It's Swedish, what more can I say. Excellent photo on the back cover of chanteuse Sarah and her chihuahua."

3. Eric Dolphy - "Gazzeloni" from the Blue Note album Out to Lunch
"Eric is my hero. His arc is bird like. He swoops. Soars and is not afraid to skronk. The ensemble backing him know exactly how to balance the chaos and dissonance with sweet bepop lines most harmonious and soulful. I take this wherever I go."

4. Wechsel Garland - "Verbluten" on the album Liberation von History
"This album came out a while ago. One of my favourite ambient, instrument and electronic albums along similar thought-lines and aesthetics as Oval. There is a texture and tone that I love. There are some beautiful surprises here and a playfulness from a simple melodica that interplays with glockenspiel and Rhodes keyboard while in the background there are some very laid back ambient percussive beats and bonks. Daydream Highway."

5. Madalena DeMelo - "Fado Estoril" from the Archives of Portuguese Fadistas (1928-1931)
"I once walked into a junk store on Congress Ave in downtown Tucson and heard the sound of a woman's voice heavy with emotion and steeped in minor blues, accompaniment was minimal just a nylon string guitar and another draped with flourishes from a harpsichord-like double chorused guitar, known as the Portuguese guitar. These old recordings from 78's seem more and more to make sense as technology takes off omitting the most important ingredient, soul."

6. Euros Childs - "Circus Time" from the album Chops
"Solo album from the lead singer of the band Gorky's Zygotic Mynci. This album of simple home recorded pop songs sung in both Welsh and English makes the inner clocks turn both ways and evokes feelings both joyful and sad. Simple melodies placed with electronic synth sounds and acoustic arrangements keep toes tapping, hums a humming and the mind drifting. This here track is keeper. Enjoy."

7. Lhasa - "Con Toda Palabra" from the album The Living Road
"One of the best singer/songwriters I have heard in a long, long time. Her music is timeless. The ambience on her album seems to unveil a world full of raw emotion, mystery and capturing the essence of saudade. Her voice draws the audience closer and closer upon each listen with her descriptive tales sung in English, Spanish and French. Looking forward to the next album, or if you are interested buy her first, La Llorona."

8. Rainer - "River of Real Time" from the album Worried Spirits
"Tucson's own otherworldly blues maestro of the slide guitar (National and Dobro). His ability to draw upon tradition and yet take the spirit of the music further out, remains a landmark for those that have been fortunate to hear his music or see him play live. Unfortunately Rainer Ptacek has passed away in 1997 due to terminal cancer. His music is love and embraces the spirit in the most down to earth way."

9. Admiral Freebee - "Baby's Chest" from the album Songs
"Belgian crooner and disciple of the Neil Young school of poetic pondering and wandering heart songs that never tire of being spun or sung along to. This one drifts in like a cloud and hangs there in between stereo speakers and does what so many songs don't do. Floats like a ghost in the middle of the chest."

10. Erik Satie - "Danses Gothiques" and "Prelude de La Porte Heroique de Ciel" - Reinbert de Leeuw on solo piano
"Actually the whole 2 disc set on Phillips is essential listening, as the pianist takes the repertoire and for the first time interprets Satie's minimal music slower paced than pianists before him. The songs make more sense with air and space allowed into the mix. A great way to end a mix or drift into the end of your day. I am finishing mine in Paris, seems fitting."

bon soir - joey from calexico

Calexico's latest album, Garden Ruin, is available now in the ARTISTdirect Store.

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 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 and 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. ~ Robert Hick, All Music Guide