The Thread that keeps us

Not that it should be something I brag about, but I'm still going to brag that I haven't eaten at Taco Bell since the mid 90's. Don't think this is at all about not liking whatever you want to call that Americanized food - I just want to stay alive. It's the same reason I'm wary every time I go eat at Chipotle as well.

I remember when I moved to New York I caught a wild rumor that there wasn't good Mexican food here. I think I'd like to disagree, but I would also like to put in more time confirming how good it really is (so I can eat more of it!). I've had some really good Tex-Mex since I've been here, but that's a horse of a different color.

But could there ever be something that's the Tex-Mex of music? There's Texas for sure - when we went to see Willie Nelson two summers ago the only set dressing was an everything's-bigger-in Texas flag hung as a backdrop. Mexican seems a bit harder to nail down; a few artists I thought were Mexican aren't, and while an artist like Carlos Santana is Mexican, I don't think of Mexico when I hear tracks from Supernatural.

So this week I give you what I think of when I think of Tex-Mex music: Calexico. Their band name is an actual border city in California, right across from Mexicali. Like the two cities, Calexico is mostly two members: Joey Burns and John Convertino. Their band has swelled and shrunk over the years, and when I first discovered them in the early 2000's they were touring with a full mariachi band that had their own short set in the middle of the show. I fell head over heels for a track called "Crystal Frontier" of their 2000 album Hot Rail, and really dug their sound when they teamed up with Iron & Wine for 2005's In The Reins.

Calexico just released their tenth studio album last week, The Thread That Keeps Us. The deluxe version available on iTunes is a twenty-two track smorgasbord that never feels long (and clocks in at only 68 minutes). The formula isn't altogether different, but the age and technology have given the band a good reason to blur the edges. There are some obvious electronic instruments adding parts here and there, and I like their judicious use.

The Thread That Keeps Us isn't as crisply produced as previous albums, and it seems that the band have also let the times we're in flavor that part of the album. Recorded in California, at times it feels if the smoke from wildfires can be imagined in the background as an organic effect. Calexico has also written/sung about the plight of Mexicans in their native southwest (they're originally from Tucson, Arizona), but the current political climate seems to be heavier on their minds than in the past. 

Still, the album isn't all doom and gloom - there is still plenty of upbeat, almost party-like songs here to enjoy. Some of the tracks feel like they were written specifically for driving down a dusty southwest highway with the windows down hoping like hell there's a gas station on the horizon. By the time you reach the end of the album it's dark outside, and you're sitting on a rock looking out over a seemingly endless sandy plain with a million stars overhead. 

If only there were tacos and tequila...

Recommended tracks: "Bridge to Nowhere," "Voices In The Field," "Dead In The Water," "Eyes Wide Awake," "Luna Roja," "Longboard," "End of the World With You"