BORDER MUSIC
Tucson's Calexico mixes styles and offers a unique alternative

“I've never really felt like we were that different,” says Calexico's John Convertino in a recent phone interview. “It's not any more unique than what Los Lobos was doing 20 years ago, or even Santana. Latin-flavored rock has been going on for a long time.”

His argument isn't very convincing, though. While its music is quite listener-friendly and not really avant-garde, Calexico is decidedly different. Its surreal, moody, mutated mariachi music sounds nothing like other bands and has little in common with typical Latin/fusion “world music.” Instead, Calexico conjures a shadowy film noir atmosphere more in line with a soundtrack for a hypothetical version of Twin Peaks staged on the California/Mexico border. Calexico's music is decidedly several planes of reality removed from “La Bamba.”

Throughout the '90s, singer-guitarist Joey Burns and percussionist Convertino were the rhythm section for Tucson's legendary indie band Giant Sand. They also had a mid-'90s instrumental side project called the Friends of Dean Martinez, with Giant Sand's steel guitarist. That group inspired Burns and Convertino to develop the creative vision that would become Calexico in 1997.

There's another key difference between Calexico and the likes of Carlos Santana and Los Lobos. Unlike Calexico's creative core, those other guys are Latinos. Since neither Burns nor Convertino have a single cell of Hispanic blood in their ancestry, a few ethnic-music purists have responded negatively to the idea of these gringos and their “fake” Latin music.

“It doesn't really bug me though,” Convertino says. “People who think that way don't really see the bigger picture. I really believe that pure forms of music are really rare, if existent at all. That's the beauty of music: it's able to mesh and mix up with all kinds of different origins, whether it's the country that the musician is from, where his grandfather came from, or just what they personally like.” Convertino describes the deep role of his diverse influences, saying, “They come inside your being and your soul, and when you come to do your own thing, it comes out different.”

For the non-purist music fan bored with a stale, unimaginative music industry, Calexico's uniquely stylized instrumental and vocal repertoire offers a refreshing, evocative alternative. “Joey and I both love the relief of being able to get away from strict 4/4 and rock 'n' roll and distorted guitars and always having to hear someone sing to have a vocal line carrying the melody,” Convertino explains.

Assessing their non-instrumental songs, Calexico isn't exactly in Top 40 territory. Dominant themes include a desert-wandering restlessness, dark border intrigue and epic tales of the everyday working class. “There's nothing wrong with love songs or relationship songs — they're great,” Convertino says. “But with us, we're trying to do something different with lyrics. And especially since our music conjures up images of the border and Mexico, we want to address that and understand it more. We're obviously not politicians, but we're trying to understand why some of this stuff has to happen. Why does there have to be such a huge border? Why does it have to be so difficult for cultures to mix?”

Calexico's lyrical presentation is too abstractly poetic to ever be considered political activist folk-rock. The emotional and politically charged subject matter instead more subtly manifests itself in an intensely dreamlike, eerie mood.

“It's just so shocking to live in a border town and be walking down the street and, bam, you hit the wall or you hit the fence,” Convertino says. “It's a shocking feeling that hits you in a weird way.” Convertino finds that the feeling still carries all the way to Tucson, two hours from the Mexican border, “but the further away you get from Mexico — and that line, that fence, those machine guns, those cameras, those border patrols — the safer you feel and the less violent it feels.”

The band is named after the actual border town of Calexico, California, and this past July, it played its first show in the town, a benefit for an organization that works to promote border-crossing death awareness and prevention. “We played in a beautiful old auditorium built in the 1920s, and there was kind of a municipal feel, with the mayor and other city people there.” Furthermore, local U.S. Congressman Bob Filner honored the band by officially proclaiming July 9, 2004 “Calexico Day,” with a formal congressional-sealed proclamation.

Calexico has been turning up in some other interesting places this summer, too. It appeared on the new Alejandro Escovedo tribute album, Por Vida, and wrote and performed with Nancy Sinatra on a song for her upcoming new album. It also made its onscreen Hollywood film debut in the El Rodeo nightclub scene in the new Tom Cruise movie Collateral. And it's just embarked on another tour.

In the band's early days, Burns and Convertino held their own in live performances as a duo, but as the band has become more established, Calexico has been taking more musicians with it on the road, including (ethnomusicology snobs, take note!) some of its Latino amigos. As was the case at its downright magical appearance two years ago at the Beachland, Friday's show will feature a full instrumental onslaught of horns, vibes, percussion, steel guitar, upright bass and other not-to-be-missed surprises.

(Originally published inThe Cleveland Free Times, September 8, 2004)