News

CALEXICO announce 9th studio album ‘The Thread That Keeps Us’ out Jan 26 on City Slang- New single & tour dates

October 14, 2017

CALEXICO

– Announce 9th studio album
– ‘The Thread That Keeps Us’ out January 26th on City Slang
– Lyric video for single End Of The World With You online now
– European live dates announced including London & Bristol

Calexico have announced details of their ninth studio album with a new single and accompanying lyric video, as well as European tour dates for March 2018.

The ninth studio album from Calexico‘The Thread That Keeps Us’ is due out on January 26th through City Slang and provides a timely snapshot of the Arizona-bred band: a family portrait capturing their stylistic variety and unpredictability while still finding solace in limitless creativity.

In bringing the album to life, vocalist/guitarist Joey Burns and drummer John Convertino found a spiritual home in unusual surroundings—not in Arizona, but on the Northern California coast in a home-turned-studio called the Panoramic House. Built from debris and shipyard-salvaged timber—and dubbed “The Phantom Ship” by the band—the grandiose house and its edge-of-the-world-like ambience soon made their way into the songs. The specter of California also had a powerful effect: as both dream state and nightmare, its infinite duality is mirrored in the music, giving Calexico a new direction and new edge. With less polish and more grit than ever before, The Thread That Keeps Us’ both honors enduring traditions and reveals Calexico’s supreme confidence in songwriting, ultimately setting a whole new standard for the band.

As heard on the album’s lead single and opening track, the drama of the landscape directly impacted the making ofThe Thread That Keeps Us’. Driven by sing-song melody and galloping rhythms, “End of the World with You”discovers an unlikely romanticism in volatile times. With its lyrics illuminating “Love in the age of the extremes,” the track is the perfect intro to an album that endlessly explores the contrast between bright and dark, hope and fear.

Working with their longtime engineer Craig Schumacher, Calexico co-produced ‘The Thread That Keeps Us’, gathering musicians from across the globe to dream up an earthy yet expansive sound spiked with jagged guitar tones and flashes of distortion. “There’s a little more chaos and noise in the mix than what we’ve done in the past,”Burns points out. Although that chaos has much to do with “where we’re at right now as a planet,” it also echoes Calexico’s dedication to constant experimentation. “Whenever we’re writing and we come up with something that feels too familiar, someone will end up saying, ‘That feels good, but let’s keep going and see what else we can uncover,’” Burns says. “It’s been really important to the arc of this band’s evolution for us to always keep on trying new things.”

Like “End of the World with You,” much of The Thread That Keeps Us’ captures the anxieties and unease of living in tumultuous times. But while the album draws a kinetic energy from all that uncertainty, its lyrics unfold with a literary nuance and sense of setting and character. “Instead of writing straight-up protest songs, I want to tell stories,” Burns says. Largely inspired by his wanderings around Northern California during the album’s production, the narratives embedded in the record reflect on displacement, transitory existence, and—in Burns’s words—“returning to your home after being gone for some time and seeing how things have changed, and maybe not in the best way.”

Calexico are Joey Burns, John Convertino, Martin Wenk, Jacob Valenzuela, Sergio Mendoza, Jairo Zavala Ruiz, and Scott Colberg.

Pre-order ‘The Thread That Keeps Us’ here: https://calexico.lnk.to/TheThreadThatKeepsUs

Calexico 2018 live dates:
Mar 09 Hamburg, DE @ Grosse Freiheit
Mar 10 Berlin, DE @ Tempodrom
Mar 11 Munich, DE @ Muffathalle
Mar 13 Rome, IT @ Auditorium Parco Della Musica
Mar 14 Milan, IT @ Alcatraz Milano
Mar 16 Bologna, IT @ Estragon
Mar 17 Fribourg, CH @ Fri-Son
Mar 18 Zurich, CH @ X-Tra
Mar 19 Linz, AT @ Posthof
Mar 21 Stuttgart, DE @ Im Wizemann
Mar 22 Lyon, FR @ Epicerie Moderne
Mar 23 Cologne, DE @ E-Werk
Mar 24 Antwerp, BE @ De Roma
Mar 25 Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso
Mar 27 Paris, FR @ Elysee Montmartre
Mar 28 Bristol, UK @ Trinity Centre
Mar 29 London, UK @ O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire

‘The Thread That Keeps Us’ track list:
01. End of the World With You
02. Voices in the Field
03. Bridge to Nowhere
04. Spinball
05. Under the Wheels
06. The Town & Miss Lorraine
07. Flores y Tamales
08. Another Space
09. Unconditional Waltz
10. Girl in the Forrest
11. Eyes Wide Awake
12. Dead in the Water
13. Shortboard
14. Thrown to the Wild
15. Music Box

‘The Thread That Keeps Us’ artwork:

Links:
www.casadecalexico.com

You Might Also Like

No Comments

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.