Record of the Week: Calexico 'Carried To Dust'

I am not especially a big fan of american music, especially when it borders on countrymusic, but I have always been an admirer of some of its interesting songwriters / bands with a strong local flavour. American Music Club, Iron & Wine, Eels, Lambchop, Sea and Cake, Pedro the Lion, Pernice Brothers... and the Tucson-Arizona scene I was talking about elsewhere earlier in this blog. The new Calexico album might not be their best to date (or maybe I need a few more listens) but their sound remains richly atmospheric and still has this southwestern american identity and manages to fly well above the rest. This latest offering features guests like DougMcCombs from Tortoise but most importantly Sam Beam from Iron & Wine for my favourite track of the album so far 'House Of Valparaiso'.

Visit Calexico on their website here
Listen to and watch videos of Calexico on MySpace

Album out on 9 September 2008