Send "Calexico " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pastemagazine |
 If you’ve just recently become a Calexico fan and missed out on any of the band’s eight self-released tour CDs, you’re in luck. The band is releasing Road Atlas 1998-2011 Nov. 22 on Quarterstick Records. The vinyl box set will be limited to 1,100 copies and will contain all of the band’s self-released tour albums. All of the recordings were never officially released on the band’s studio albums.“We’ve been receiving many requests from fans over the years to print the tour only albums on vinyl and so we’re excited to finally house them all into one garage,” guitarist/vocalist Joey Burns told us via email, “[Each release] all has their own unique personality and read somewhat like a travelogue.”...full text |
| Pitchfork |
| The first time I saw Calexico live was in 1998, when they were opening for the Dirty Three at a tiny venue in Memphis. It was just Joey Burns and John Convertino up on stage, filling out their austere songs with resonant guitar fills and intricate drum patter. More than a decade later, I caught another show, this time at a large club in Washington, D.C., and it couldn't have been more different: The duo was joined by a small orchestra of musicians, who added horns, pedal steel, bass, and various other instruments. The sound was larger and louder, but equally cinematic. That contrast between early Calexico and later is telling. While their lineup has shifted almost constantly over the last few years, absorbing so many musicians in the Tucson scene, Burns and Convertino still approach Southwestern musical and oral traditions through the lens of indie rock records and film scores. And that approach has proved much more durable and rewarding than it might have seemed when they were openers instead of headliners. So it's fitting that this major retrospective release from the band isn't a greatest hits, but a collection of tour-only LPs, available on vinyl for the first time and summarized on a 16-track CD. Calexico have been releasing these limited-edition LPs on their own Our Soil Our Strength label since 1999, using them as clearinghouses for outtakes, one-offs, live cuts, and mostly studio experiments with various techniques, instruments, and musical genres. Packed together as Road Atlas 1998-2011, they form a compelling history of Burns and Convertino's partnership as they broke free of Giant Sand and Friends of Dean Martinez and gradually discovered what all they could do on their own. The vinyl set is almost a real-time account of a band feeling its way forward, and the fact that they never intended for these LPs to be "real" Calexico releases means they didn't have to worry about adhering to any particular approach or dynamic. Calexico could be a slippery entity, reassessing the possibilities with every note. In that regard, these LPs are essential to the band's identity....full text |
| Exystence |
| 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 During the past 14 years, Calexico have self‐released eight tour CDs pressed in limited quantities – made available only at Calexico’s live shows. Comprised of recordings not included on any of Calexico’s “official” releases, these CDs have served to chart the alternative listening history behind the releases; offering a career spanning look at the evolution of Calexico....full text |
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