So glad the Sunday visitors got worked up enough to indulge me in my grammar fetish on the post for The Boy Least Likely To. Always love a little crossfire on grammar and prepositions. Keep the comments comin’ … except for the ones rippin’ Matt at YANP. Come on, now.
Anyway, I just counted, and including this here post, seven of my past eight posts involve some sort of radio broadcast. That can mean one of two things: There’s some excellent radio out there; or I’m spending far too much time in front of my computer. Or, maybe both. Yeah, probably both.
What’s there to say about Calexico that hasn’t been said already? As a proud Arizonan, I can puff my chest a little more when talking about Joey Burns and John Convertino, given their Tucson residence. From personal experience of living here for a good 20 years, I can tell you that no other group captures the soundtrack of this state quite like Calexico. As Burns calls it during the interview, “the high lonesome sound.”
He continued: ” … It’s a feeling of longing, sadness, sorrow. But yet at the same time it’s not toally depressing; it’s also uplifting.” It makes living in the desert sound so mystical.
Calexico, live on KEXP, 4/14/06:
1. Yours and Mine (such a great song)
2. Cruel
3. Roka
4. Deep Down
Listen to KEXP.
Stream KEXP at glorious 128 kbps.
Support KEXP.
I always think of So Much Silence as the number one one stop blog for radio sessions and your recent run has been just glorious. It is so much more interesting to grab an exclusive radio session by a band than the “everyone post the same three tracks from the new album” thing that happens on most blogs. while it is true that blogs can serve to turn people onto new bands by posting album tracks, i would hope that most of your visitors are generally up to spec with whats going down anyway. I don’t need to download tracks from the new calexico because it’s all ready a given that i’m going to buy the album anyway, where as a radio session serves to enhance and enrich my calexico experience far more. (enrich my calexico experience- did i really just say that?) While at the same time radio sessions work just as well in turning me on to new bands as much as posting just album tracks, so they really are the best of both worlds in real terms. anyway that’s my penny’s worth on the subject. oh and i’m really quite nervous about posting on your site because my grammatical abilities have always strayed towards the dubious side, and my spelling isoften erratic to say the least…you’re not going to start underlining mistakes in red and adding “must try harder 6/10” are you? Oh and much thanks for giving us the Elbow last week , it was wonderful and i can’t wait for the promised KEXP session by them. Thanks again and keep up the great workk
Jaylia Strange
First and foremost, thanks for yet another radio show track downloads. However, In the future, I think I would really appreciate the interview segments as well.
Being from the state of Arizona as well, I feel one should watch his/her over-romanticism of the so-called “Arizona sound†that Calexico has created. Remember, half the state is high country, which is completely different to the Sonoran Desert of Tucson and Phoenix. So would Mariachi and slide guitar sounds be associated with Sedona, Flagstaff or The Grand Canyon? Also, I believe that the Tucson aesthetic and way of life is completely different than that of Phoenix. So watch that pride there buddy, I believe many Tucsonans hate Phoenix! Calexico has given great props to their home turf and the state.. They have proven themselves to be great ambassadors to the City of Tucson and their fantastic music scene.
Wow, Jaylia … best comment ever, perhaps. That’s unbelievably nice, and your words are quite encouraging. (Don’t worry, I won’t drop the grammar hammer on ya.) I’m really glad you enjoy these sets. I’ve got Elbow on KEXP on tap, too, and it’s *really* good. Thanks again.
Kevin, you’re right. There is a difference in Ariz. between the high country and southern desert. And I suppose there is a bit of difference in attitude between Phoenix and Tucson, but I think as a whole, Calexico captures what it feels like to live here, or to at least have driven through some of the more desolate areas.
As for the interviews, I generally don’t post them for two reasons: a) it means more time on my end (and I’m usually posting late into the night as it is); b) it keeps hosting usage to a minimum. The original interviews are always pretty easy to find from the links.
hey commenter kevin,
if you want the interview segments in mp3 format, do it yourself. kevin puts in a lot of time to convert the songs into handy mp3s for us, i think it’s pretty tacky to ask him to do the interview portions too.
Thanks much for posting those. What great sound. Having moved not quite a year ago from Tucson to Flagstaff, I know that the terrain certainly varies across the state. But that said, “place” is as imaginary as it is real, and I love the Arizona that Calexico captures, and I love having had the chance to see the guys live a few times back home.
Hey Kevin the host,
Kevin the rude commenter here. I in no way meant to imply that I wasn’t grateful for you hosting and putting theese songs up for us. I appreciate your hard work. I very naive when it comes to converting music to mp3’s and blog hosting. Hell, I can barely figure out how to download onto my cumputer let alone converting.I realy have no clue. So forgive if I offended on that front!
Cheers,
Kevin the rude commenter
Kevin,
No sweat. I didn’t think you were rude at all. No offense taken. I appreciate the comments so keep ’em comin’.
I’ll usually have a link to whatever radio session I ripped; it’s usually just easier to stream it. Well, easier on me!
Either way, glad to know I got some Arizona peeps up here!
I share Jaylia’s sentiments precisely. Thanks so much for all the tasty offerings on your site! (And, wishing*hoping that you might be doing the same for Calexico’s session on KCRW from last week?)