With their Latin- tinged, desert-ready tunes, Joey Burns and John Convertino, better known as Calexico, have forged an indie niche befitting their dusty Tucson, Ariz. roots. The band owes as much to rock and Americana as it does a Tex-Mex sonic palate birthed in the act’s namesake California border town. But with their most recent album, the locally recorded Algiers, they venture New Orleans way.
Calexico plays One-Eyed Jacks on January 24, 2013.
A lovely, atmospheric wash of Southwest-meets-Gulf Coast textures, Calexico’s seventh full-length release is a curious yet no less authentic melting pot of the band’s varied influences: ‘50s jazz, ‘60s surf, Havanan rhythms and horns, Duane Eddy, Ennio Morricone.
Burns says of the Crescent City connection (they set up shop at the Living Room), “We were talking about wanting to go to Europe and record, but we never get our shit together in time to make plans that far in advance. So where do you go that is nearby and has a European feel? The place is strong and bold, soulful to the core, but surrounded by a sea of darkness. There is a heaviness there that I like, and in some way Tucson shares a similar vibe.”
The result is a simpatico mashup of old and older that manages to feel warmly new. Or to hear Burns explain it, “When you are there, on Algiers Point or on the river or standing outside the chain-link fence at Congo Square, you go back across the water to Haiti, Cuba, Africa. Some strange circles down there resurface.”
Plan A: Calexico with BahamasVenue: One Eyed Jacks
Address: 615 Toulouse St.
Date: January 24, 2013
Doors: 7 p.m.
Ticket Price: $20
