Southwestern American band Calexico have announced they’ve signed with Anti- Records, and will release their first album in four years, Algiers, on September 14.
Core duo Joey Burns and John Convertino relocated to New Orleans with co-producer Craig Schumacher for the bulk of the recording sessions, living and working in a converted church in the outskirts neighborhood for which the record is named.
Revitalized and reborn by the city, Burns and Convertino wrote several of the album’s dozen new songs in the studio. “The place is strong and bold, soulful to the core, but surrounded by a sea of darkness,” Burns says of New Orleans. “There’s something creepy and old on the edge of town and written throughout the town’s histories. Those kinds of aesthetics help with the writing.”
Other influences are embedded within ‘Algiers,’ as well. ‘No Te Vayas’ is a collaboration between long-time Calexico member Jacob Valenzuela and Jairo Zavala of Depedro, and the trumpet-embellished drama of ‘Sinner In The Sea’ reflects Burns’ desire “to map out a song that wed our west coast roots to our experience working in Havana with Amparo Sanchez a few years ago.”
Since the release of their 2008 album ‘Carried to Dust,’ which the New York Times called “eerie and poetic” and Paste described as “a beauty from start to finish,” the band has performed with Arcade Fire, Wilco, and Andrew Bird among others, collaborated with Amos Lee on his #1 Billboard debut ‘Mission Bell,’ and wrote/recorded soundtracks for the documentary film ‘Circo’ and the Irish film ‘The Guard,’ starring Brendan Gleeson.
In May 2011, Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords dedicated the band’s song “Slowness” to her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, as the wakeup song for the crew aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour’s final flight.
Algiers is set to be released on September 14, 2012. You can watch their new music video for their brand new single ‘Para’ here.
‘Algiers’ Tracklist:
1. Epic
2. Splitter
3. Sinner in the Sea
4. Fortune Teller
5. Para
6. Algiers
7. Maybe on Monday
8. Puerto
9. Better and Better
10. No Te Vayas
11. Hush
12. Solstice of a Vanishing Mind
