Calexico - Even My Sure Things Fall Through EP
(Quarterstick)
In the years 2000 and 2001, Calexico released three EPs on
Europe's City Slang label, two ("Ballad of Cable Hogue" and
"Service and Repair") as singles for songs off their latest album,
Hot
Rail, and one ("Crystal Frontier") as a single for
one of the B-sides from the "Ballad of Cable Hogue" single.
While Calexico is notorious for releasing lots of limited, hard-to-find
releases (several other Europe-only EPs and tour-only full lengths),
the band has re-released the non-album tracks from those three recent
EPs (and only those three EPs) in the United States on their new EP,
Even My Sure Things Fall Through. The fact that one of these B-sides
went on to become the lead track on its own single should give you a
good idea of the quality of this compilation.
While there songs on the EP that are representative of all sides of Calexico--the
mariachi band, the indie rock band, the fusion band, and the
soundscape band--the songs lean heavily toward the indie
rock band-side of Calexico. The third European single this EP draws
from (the one that is a single for a B-side) is
"Crystal Frontier," which is very similar to the indie rock songs
off Hot Rail, using a big trumpet sound, quick tempo, and lyrics
centering on the plight of Mexican immigrants
and illegal aliens. Two versions of the song are provided, one
electric and one acoustic. Also fitting their indie rock
format, Calexico include an instrumental
version of "Sonic Wind" (off of Hot Rail), with a trumpet taking over
the vocal melody, and cover Mark Eitzel with their down tempo version
of "Chanel No. 5."
While indie rock dominates the EP, other styles are presented.
"Banderilla" is authentic mariachi music, "Hard Hat" is a barren
soundscape sounding much like the music from the band's recent ABBC
collaboration, and "Untitled III" is remixed by Two Loneswordsmen, turning
the Western sounds into something eerily urban.
To round out the EP, three music videos directed by John Pirozzi are
included, "Crystal Frontier (Widescreen Version)," "Ballad of Cable
Hogue," and "The Black Light." The first two are very much like early
1980s music videos, simply mixing performance footage with images related
to the songs' content. The quality of the video is good, though, with rich
colors and a good, clear transfer, but the images add little to the song
other than, for example, being able to see who sings the female vocals in "Ballad."
The video for "The Black Light" is, at least, more artistically done, juxtaposing
images and using a projector to add texture and odd lighting to the
performance footage.
B-sides compilations usually bring out the low quality sub-filler, but
the songs here are of merit to fans of the band (except probably the
alternate versions and remix which are of little interest), especially
to those people who were rather fond of Hot Rail. With all the band's
hard-to-find releases, though, a more complete double CD compilation may have
been more appropriate. If you skip through the remix and the alternate
versions, the EP seems thin, despite the quality of the songs.
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