Hometown benefit show
Calexico shares its success with community
By Kevin W. Smith
KSMITH@AZSTARNET.COM
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 11.30.2006
Joey Burns is just like you.
He lives in Tucson, enjoys the local music scene and loves the city for all its different cultures.
Unlike you, he is in Calexico, a band that's coming off arguably its biggest year. It toured the world behind two critically acclaimed releases, the gorgeous EP "In the Reigns," a collaboration with Iron and Wine, and the band's equally eloquent "Garden Ruin," its fifth full-length album. The band played everywhere from the UK to the renowned "Austin City Limits" television show.
Despite the success, the Latin-infused dust rockers are still tied to Tucson and particularly concerned with issues on the border, a region that drew even more publicity this year than Calexico.
"I'm not a big fan of building a Berlin Wall in the middle of the desert," Burns said. "I find it's going in a backwards direction as to what this country stands for and what we're promoting worldwide."
The band kicks off a brief West Coast tour Saturday night with its fourth annual hometown benefit show. The proceeds will go to community radio station KXCI (91.3-FM), Solar Culture Art Gallery and the Humane Borders organization.
Along for the ride at the Rialto Theatre will be representatives from Music for America, a nonprofit group that encourages political awareness, and Humane Borders.
"If someone anywhere is in need of help, they should be offered aid," Burns said.
Calexico won't begin making any Springsteen-like border anthems, but it is currently finishing up a track with Iron and Wine for the upcoming Bob Dylan bio-pic, "I'm Not There." The song, which is a cover of Dylan's "Dark Eyes," should appear on the movie's soundtrack sometime next year — around the same time Burns, 39, hopes to begin work on the next Calexico album.
"Garden Ruin" was well-received by the burgeoning indie-music scene, receiving strong ratings from sites like Pitchforkmedia.com and helping the band tour with such buzz acts as Beirut and Annuals, not to mention splitting an "Austin City Limits" show with indie superstar Sufjan Stevens.
"I never thought we'd be on a television show in the United States," Burns said, "just because our music is too removed from what's happening in the mainstream."
Even after exploring the historic "Austin City Limits" venue, which has hosted such legends as Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash, the Canada-born Burns still calls Tucson home.
"Tucson has given us so much inspiration and it's been such a great place to come back home to from traveling so much," he said. "We're very grateful."
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