Tucson-based Calexico is a truly American band, if ever there was one. To my knowledge, no other group (or “collective,” as Calexico leader Joey Burns calls it) working in the rock genre utilizes more idioms than Calexico – Americana, country, mariachi, conjunto, cumbia, and Tejano. You can hear all of it in this song.
I’ve heard Calexico’s music described as “desert noir.” If that moniker is valid, “Crystal Frontier” is proof.
Blood spills out on the streets
and bodies are missing for weeks
both sides keeping a close eye
watching the bullets fly here… on the Crystal Frontier
