Minimal

A week ago, I hadn’t even heard of Calexico. Now I’ve got one of their albums (well, ordered it) and I’ve seen them play live. All thanks to Jack playing a couple of their CDs on Saturday night — and a lot of luck with the gig’s timing.

If you’re as unaware of them as I was, Calexico play a blend of... country, rock, folk, near-jazz... errr... well, they’re a bit difficult to pin down. Jack called it “desert music”. For me, that pretty much nails it. Like someone put Ennio Morricone and REM into a blender and hit pulse. Their sound combines acoustic and electric guitars, drums, steel guitar, bass guitar, double bass, trumpets, keyboards, xylophone, harmonica and more to great effect. Maybe it’s the new sound that Rudi and the Spider were looking for in the Boosh?

Some of tracks played last night at The Sage leant more towards the "exico" than "Cal", while others were more mainstream indie-rock, the latter comparing favourably to any of your NME regulars. Personally, I preferred it when they stuck with the trumpet-laden desert music, but that’s just me. I just hope my copy of Hot Rail makes its way across the Atlantic soon (it’s cheapest to order from their site in the U.S.), or I’ll end up buying a second copy from iTunes. :)