New Calexico Album Due in Early September 2012!

Thanks to a post in the Yahoo Casa de Calexico group and thanks to my multi-lingual friend Brian at work, we find out from a posting on their European management’s site that Joey Burns and John Convertino of Calexico have started work on a new album — their first new studio release since their 2008 album on Quarterstick Carried to Dust. The album is due out on City Slang (Calexico’s European label) in the early part of September.

Here is a rough translation of the first part of the press release:

After a several-year break due to changes in their private lives,  the two leaders of [Calexico] are hard at work in the studio on new material. In fall 2012 Calexico will be back with a new album and two European tours.

The new album by the band appears in early September on City Slang; directly after the album release the band will play the first [of the two] European tours.

This is pretty exciting news! It will be interesting to see where they take the new album stylistically. Although it is true that they took a break from Calexico, they have been pretty busy since 2008. They have worked with Amos Lee on his last album, Iron and Wine on the “Flightless Bird, American Mouth” contribution to the Twilight soundtrack, and the wonderful vinyl box set of their tour releases Road Atlas as well as a bunch of other work that I’m probably forgetting.

Watch my site for any updates as the story progresses! Here’s hoping for a U.S. tour!

Free Download : “Absent Afternoon” from Calexico

As announced on Casa de Calexico— the official website of Calexico–  Threadless is hosting exclusively as part of its “Threadless Loves Travel” contest. The contest picked a shirt design by Alex Solis called “Bird Migration” that will be a regular teeshirt at Threadless. To celebrate, the got an exclusive track from Calexico for their site called “Absent Afternoon.” It has the very distinctive sound of Willie Nelson’s harmonica player Mickey Raphael on it which is pretty cool. Per Joey:

hello threadless nation

hope you and all at threadless like the song.
it’s one of my favs.
written at home looking out the window at the weekly funeral procession…
soul migration

nick luca played pump organ, first day back in the studio after recovering from a serious bout with keta acidosis and was in the hospital for a week diagnosed with diabetes type 1.

mickey raphael plays harmonica. we met him through the i’m not there movie when we recorded with he and willie nelson. he loves tucson and hangs out here whenever they are on tour. he wants to record a whole album with us here. should be fun.

paul niehaus on slide acoustic archtop guitar and lush pedal steel.

john convertino on badass drums

i play guitar, bass and sing.

enjoy threadless love what you do
thanks for being there and opening the door to our world

joey

It’s not clear to me how long they will host the song, so grab it while you can!

Click Here to download “Absent Afternoon” by Calexico

Click Here to see the winning design at Threadless