“The city of L.A. really did birth us. Why not try something that says thank you with an homage to the people that inspired us? What could be cooler than that?”

We sat down with Los Angeles Times to talk about the upcoming album, early beginnings, the music that inspires us, and more.

Read here!

Check out the feature articles about the new Los Lobos album, "Native Sons" !

American Songwriter Feature

SPIN Feature

Jambase Feature

The Hollywood Reporter published this stellar review of the band its performance of most of Kiko at the Grammy Museum. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/los-lobos-kiko-concert-reissue-20th-anniversary-365230

Great Billboard article about Kiko's 20th and the band's upcoming 40th anniversaries.

http://www.billboard.com/news/los-lobos-talk-rubic-s-cube-of-options-for-1007865752.story

Los Lobos is revisiting its watershed 1992 album "Kiko" in a 20th anniversary reissue, adding to the original studio album with previously unreleased early and alternate takes of several songs. Simultaneously, a document of the band's 2006 performance of "Kiko" in its entirety will be released separately on CD, DVD and Blu-ray, with both "Kiko" projects coming Aug. 21.

"Kiko" was hailed in 1992 as a new artistic pinnacle for the widely lauded East L.A. group and appeared on numerous critics' yearly Top 10 lists. It was the No. 1 choice in The Times‚ consensus Top 10 among its staff writers and regular contributors, and made the Top 10 of Village Voice magazine's annual poll of some 300 pop music critics.

" 'Kiko' is the band's masterpiece -- a startling leap forward in sonic reach and depth of vision," Mike Boehm wrote in reviewing the album for The Times two decades ago. "'Kiko' is a long, troubled dream of an album that holds the temporal and the spiritual in a single gaze: It shows us a suffering humanity an angel's breath removed from an overarching realm of spirits, magic and hallucination."

"Kiko Live" has never been released or broadcast, and includes interviews with the band members and others about the making of the album. In 2006, Los Lobos did a series of live performances focusing on it in its entirety. The link below includes exclusive video of the group's performance of "Kiko and the Lavender Moon".

The CD also includes three tracks the band recorded live at Capitol Records in Hollywood for a "Hollywood House Party with Los Lobos" special that aired in 1992 on National Public Radio. The album reissue and the "Kiko Live" DVD/Blu-ray are being released by the Shout! Factory reissue specialty label.

Instead of "segregating our influences, treating them parochially," as band member Steve Berlin described the band's approach before "Kiko," for that album "whatever our unconscious minds‚ response was to the stimuli, that was what we wanted. We let our imagination take over and didn't try to control it."

The band is continuing on a tour that included the first Los Lobos Cinco de Mayo Festival at the Greek Theatre, at which the group headlined a bill that included Mariachi El Bronx and X and such guests appearing with Los Lobos as Neko Case, Alejandro Escovedo, Flaco Jimenez, and Dave and Phil Alvin.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2012/05/los-lobos-kiko-20th-anniversary-live-video.html

Q and A with Steve Berlin about being in Los Lobos, how they make it work and how they keep on creating great music.
Click here to read article.

Musical favorites, from fuzzy funk to 'Cha Cha Cha' on Kentucky.com

Click here to read story.

Click here to read article

Click here to read.

Click here to read.

The pop and jazz critics of The New York Times have compiled a selection of this year’s New Year’s Eve shows that is as eclectic as the city itself.

Click here to read the article.

Click here to read.

Here's a great article on the band from Jim Washburn.

Click here to read.

Los Lobos hits the road in February for a 16-city acoustic tour, dubbed the Acoustic en Vivo tour.

The 34-year-old band will mix songs from their latest album, The Town and the City, with Los Lobos' classics and traditional Latin American folk-songs, playing acoustic instruments like guitarones, jaranas and bajo sextos.

The Town and the City, Los Lobos' 13th album, was released September 12, 2006, on Hollywood Records.

Los Lobos' Acoustic en Vivo tour dates

February

8 - La Jolla, CA @ Mandeville Auditorium, UC San Diego

13 - Arcata, CA @ Van Duzer Theater, Humboldt State University

14 - Chico, CA @ Laxson Auditorium, CSU - Chico

15 - Redding, CA @ Cascade Theatre

16 - Davis, CA @ Jackson Hall, UC Davis

17 - Santa Cruz, CA @ Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium

22 - Santa Barbara, CA @ Campbell Hall, UCSB

23 - Tucson, AZ @ Rialto Theatre

24 - Mesa, AZ @ Mesa Arts Center

March

6 - Baltimore, MD @ Rams Head Live

7 - Red Bank, NJ @ Count Basie Theatre

8 - Glenside, PA @ Keswick Theatre

9 - Falls Church, VA @ State Theatre

14 - Bowling Green, KY @ Van Meter Auditorium, Western Kentucky University

15 - Arlington Heights, IL @ Metropolis Performing Arts Centre

16 - Arlington Heights, IL @ Metropolis Performing Arts Centre

17 - Dayton, OH @ Victoria Theatre

Best of 2006 trax

By Bliss

Artists responded to 2006's tumult with music about various global crises. Rock titans Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen weighed in on the Iraq war, while U2 frontman Bono continued his globetrotting campaign to reduce Third World debt. Katrina-ravished New Orleans inspired worthy releases by Irma Thomas, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Chris Thomas King, Shawn Mullins, Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint. Hip-hop dominated pop culture despite faltering sales; the Roots and Michael Franti addressed current affairs in their music, but doubts lingered about the street cred of superstars like Jay-Z. Meanwhile, Bob Dylan stymied expectations with the blues-soaked "Modern Times," Woody Guthrie sidekick Ramblin' Jack Elliott made a critically hailed comeback with "I Stand Alone," and Joanna Newsom, Vetiver and the ubiquitous Devendra Banhart gave legs to the freak-folk movement.

Amidst industry preoccupation with iPods, iTunes, Cubes, MySpace, satellite radio, the launch of Zune and the demise of Tower Records, Brit popsters Lily Allen and the Arctic Monkeys overcame odds stacked against indie artists and generated international buzz that actually carried more substance than hype.

Despite the impatience of a soundbyte-addicted culture, albums continued to be the forum of choice for artists making thoughtful statements. As the nation swept its Congressional house and grappled with the tragic consequences of a war of its leaders' making, it was only fitting that several of the year's most potent albums addressed mortality, and the

intangible beauty and meaning of life.

1) TIE: Los Lobos, "The Town and the City" and Tom Waits, "Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards": Los Lobos' song cycle about society and immigrant experiences in LA had a lock on the top spot, thanks to its "Kiko"-esque instrumental texture, universally relatable lyrics and stirring musical gumbo of R&B, blues, Chicano and garage rock, cumbia and Mexican folk. Then came the chameleonic Waits' three-disc epic "Orphans" with its inverted madhouse revels in rock, blues, gospel and jazz - a complex, towering view of creativity and humanity's messy sprawl that's as demanding as it is musically sublime. Both discs

conjure alternate worlds; dive in.

2) Ali Farka Toure, "Savane": A hypnotic, beautiful masterwork by the Malian guitarist and unwitting "desert blues" progenitor, who recorded this inspiring 12-song collection of traditional dances, love ballads and topical songs when he was dying.

3) Kris Kristofferson, "This Old Road": The Country Hall of Famer proves himself a poetic, compassionate sage for the ages - and, not unlike longtime friend and hero Johnny Cash, crafts tuneful music that transcends genre boundaries with this intimate, timely set that stands tall alongside his early-'70s classics.

4) The Decemberists, "The Crane Wife": Using a Japanese folk tale as a lyrical springboard, the Portland indie-rockers retain their quirky sensibility and sound on their major-label debut, which improbably balances buoyant melodies with dark themes of longing, sacrifice and death.

5) Alan Jackson, "Like Red on a Rose": Jackson and producer Alison Krauss' mutual admiration society yielded one of 2006's most unexpected surprises: this quiet, gorgeously performed and produced stunner that eschews Jackson's customary good-time conviviality for sober midlife reflection. "I don't sing like I used to," Jackson intones on Robert Lee Castleman's melancholy "Firefly's Song," a statement that belies his interpretive powers. "Sometimes less is more." Amen.

6) Quetzal, "Die Cowboy Die": The Eastside ensemble continues to gratify open-minded listeners with impassioned performances, deeply principled songs and a dizzying embrace of styles: son jarocho, salsa, Chicano rock, soul and R&B. By far Quetzal's most cohesive and accessible album, "Die Cowboy Die" also comes closest to capturing the spontaneous

exuberance of their concerts.

7) Arctic Monkeys, "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not": If they were only about the jackhammer urgency of their hit "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor," the Arctic Monkeys would just be one more overhyped British import. Add the defiant likes of "Fake Tales of San Francisco" and thoughtful songwriting of "Riot Van" to a bracing lack of pretense and seriously insistent beats, however, and you've got one

compelling combo.

8) Rosanne Cash, "Black Cadillac": A thoroughly moving, genre-transcending meditation on love and the spiritual and familial ties that bind, composed in the wake of the deaths of her mother, stepmother and legendary father.

9) Johnny Cash, "American V: A Hundred Highways": The Man in Black's enduring relevance lies in his stature as an all too human icon dueling with painful inner demons while championing principles of decency and tolerance. Recorded when he knew his raspy breaths were numbered, his final album is grave, uplifting and at times unbearably poignant, his weakened vocals paradoxically underscoring his spiritual vigor.

10) Jake La Botz, "Graveyard Jones": Blues is defined more by feel and groove than intellect, with a primal pulse geared most often toward juke-joint gyrations or pyrotechnic guitar flash. This ain't that. La Botz lays on the groove grease with muscular support from guitarist Rick Holmstrom and drummer James Goodall, but it's his creation of a Buddhist-informed mythology that elevates his gritty, spectral blues and makes this ambitious song cycle food for the mind as well as the soul.

11) Keith Jarrett, "The Carnegie Hall Concert"

12) Ray LaMontagne, "Till the Sun Turns Black"

13) Michael Franti, "Yell Fire"

14) Chris Smither, "Leave the Light On"

15) Solomon Burke, "Nashville"

16) Toumani Diabate's Symmetric Orchestra, "Boulevard de l'independence"

17) The Roots, "Game Theory"

18) Cat Power, "The Greatest"

19) Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris, "All the Roadrunning"

20) Salif Keita, "M'Bembe"

Lovin' Los Lobos

I had the genuine pleasure this past holiday weekend of attending Umphrey's McGee's three-night run at Chicago's Aragon Ballroom. One of the cooler aspects of these shows was that UM handpicked three great bands to open each night of the run. The North Mississippi Allstars opened the show on the 29th, followed by Los Lobos on the 30th and Taj Mahal on New Year's Eve. It was incredible to get a taste of all of those bands before Umphrey's owned my face.

Of the three opening acts, the band I most enjoyed was East L.A.'s Los Lobos, a Mexican-American rock band that has been going strong for more 30 years.

I was mostly familiar with Los Lobos' music, but I had never gotten a chance to experience them live. You can surely color me impressed now.

I expected a set filled with new tunes from the recently released The Town and The City, so I was very happy to see them mix and match songs from all the different time periods of their existence. Kiko is my favorite album, so I was particularly excited when they opened with Dream In Blue, a sweet rocker that got people up and dancing. I Walk Alone from 1990's The Neighborhood showed a grittier side of Los Lobos, which was followed by the rollicking Evangeline.

Los Lobos showed many different looks as the set continued, never content to settle on any one style. One of the highlights of their set was a cover of Sublime's Pawn Shop, a song that was immediately familiar to the crowd and got a nice response. They followed Pawn Shop with My Baby's Gone from By The Light of the Moon, dedicating the funky number that was more happy in tone than somber to James Brown. My favorite original song of the night was Kiko and the Lavender Moon, a haunting number that hit on a number of emotions.

Towards the end of the set Los Lobos broke out a fine rendition of I Got Loaded, intertwining verses of Turn On Your Lovelight, which garnered a roar from the audience. At that point David Hidalgo welcomed UM's Jake Cinninger to the stage, which got the crowd even more pumped up. The energy in the beautiful Aragon hit a peak as Los Lobos and Jake began Buddy Holly's Not Fade Away.

Jake and Hidalgo each took ripping solos before landing on the Grateful Dead's Bertha, a song Los Lobos covered on 1991's Deadicated. The band has the skills to be a prototypical jamband, as each and every member pushed Jake harder and harder as they tore their way through Bertha. I nearly thought the Aragon was going to explode as they teased the crowd with multiple crescendos. As the jam finished, everyone on stage had huge smiles, nearly as big as mine.

I couldn't be more impressed with every aspect of Los Lobos' music, performance and stage presence that evening. You can definitely count me in the next time these guys come through my town.

Amazon.com has selected The Town and the City as the #54 best album of the year according to their editors' poll. The entire list can be seen here.

GEOFFREY HIMES

1. The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, April 28-30 and May 5-7. The first Jazz Fest after Hurricane Katrina challenged musicians to articulate all the pain, anger and hope stemming from the failure of several levees and governments. Famous visitors (Bruce Springsteen and Elvis Costello) and lesser-known Gulf Coasters (John Boutté,

Bobby Lounge, Allen Toussaint, Snooks Eaglin, Susan Cowsill and the Pine Leaf Boys) responded with some of the best performances of their lives. Working together, Costello and Toussaint transferred that spirit to a CD ("The River in Reverse") and a DVD ("Hot as a Pistol, Keen as a Blade").

2. Drive-By Truckers, "A Blessing & a Curse." What good is it to be the world's greatest rock 'n' roll band if the world at large doesn't care? The DBTs contemplate that and other dilemmas of adulthood on this bleak, brilliant album.

3. Kenny Garrett and Pharoah Sanders, "Beyond the Wall." Garrett, the young alto saxophonist, joined his hero and elder, tenor saxophonist Sanders, for the year's best jazz album and for a terrific show at Blues Alley on Sept. 17.

4. The True Believers Alumni Association. Two of the year's best rock 'n' roll albums came from former bandmates in the Austin roots-punk band, the True Believers. Alejandro Escovedo's "The Boxing Mirror" was good, but Jon Dee Graham's "Full" was even better.

5. Anthony Hamilton live. The best R&B singer-songwriter of the current decade, a cross between Curtis Mayfield and Bill Withers, supported his latest album, "Ain't Nobody Worryin'," with stunning shows at the South by Southwest Music and Media Conference in Austin on March 16 and at Baltimore's Lyric Opera House on May 10.

6. Gnarls Barkley, "St. Elsewhere." Producer Danger Mouse got most of the credit for the irresistible blend of pop and hip-hop on "St. Elsewhere," but the soulful vocals of Goodie Mob's Cee-Lo Green gave the hooky songs heart as well as smarts.

7. Bill Frisell at Lisner Auditorium, Nov. 16. The jazz guitarist released a terrific trio album, "Bill Frisell, Ron Carter, Paul Motian," but was even more impressive when he brought his eight-piece, horns-and-strings Unspeakable Orchestra to Lisner.

8. Don Rigsby, "Hillbilly Heartache." The year's best country singing could be heard on the new album from this Kentucky mandolinist, still underrated even in his own bluegrass circles.

9. Los Lobos, "The Town and the City." Immigration was in the news all year, but no commentators were more perceptive or more articulate than these five East Los Angeles musicians on this album.

10. The SFJazz Collective , "SFJazz Collective 2." This octet, led by Joshua Redman and sponsored by the San Francisco Jazz Festival, is a rarity among jazz bands today: a well-rehearsed, large combo that moves surely from notation to improvisation, from solos and duets to trios and ensembles. The group proved it with this album and an exciting show at the Music Center at Strathmore on March 22. ·

Tom Waits, Beck, Be Good Tanyas Marked American Music in 2006

By Douglas Lytle

Dec. 29 (Bloomberg) -- The music industry has become so fractured, and tastes so diffuse, that it's almost impossible to prepare a comprehensive list of the ``best'' of the year.

How can I tell you what the best dance music was when I didn't have time to get funky in my khakis at the local club? I barely drive anymore, so I don't listen to the radio, and thus miss out on the rotating Top 10.

I did catch a lot of new releases, including Bob Dylan, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam, Jay-Z, Prince, Cat Power, Gnarls Barkley, Tom Petty, Sufjan Stevens, Bruce Springsteen and Madonna. Parts I liked, some I danced to and others I just plain ignored, never fancied or couldn't find time enough to fit in my life.

The following are a few of the artists, videos or trends that caught my attention enough to remain lodged in my brain.

Rosanne Cash ``Black Cadillac'' (Capitol Records) -- It's one thing to deal with the death of a parent, it's quite another when your father is Johnny Cash. Rosanne Cash sets aside her family's myths and legends in favor of examining her feelings about the death of her

father, his second wife June Carter Cash and also her own real mother. A sad and revealing record that allowed us to see these people as complicated human beings.

Todd Snider ``The Devil You Know'' (New Door Records) -- For me, the year's most exciting record. While the portrait Snider paints of America is often bleak, his renditions of people living life on the margins are as finely wrought and as funny as any songs by Randy

Newman, John Hiatt or John Prine. The music also rocks as hard as the Rolling Stones on many tracks. Though Snider is lumped in with the alt-country and folk crowd, his music ranges far beyond those borders.

Los Lobos ``The Town and the City'' (Hollywood Records) -- Another elegiac portrait of life lived by the masses, this time in Los Angeles. Los Lobos, who have worked together for more than 30 years, continue to produce their unique brand of rock n' roll that mines a wealth of sources, especially from their Latino roots.

Be Good Tanyas ``Hello Love'' (Nettwerk Records) -- These three musicians from Vancouver produce down-home music that sounds like Appalachian soul with a touch of the blues. Listeners get new tracks like ``Human Touch'' along with a torrid rendition of Neil Young's ``For the Turnstiles'' and a ``hidden'' version of Prince's ``When

Doves Cry'' that turns the Purple One's 1983 hit into a down-home spiritual. Wistful, sensual and heartfelt.

Beck ``The Information'' (Interscope) -- I listen to Beck's records the way filmmaker Quentin Tarantino watches movies. He apparently sees a film first to get the plot and other stuff out of the way and then goes back to look at it again and again so he can really get into it. Digging into a Beck record is a similar experience as one

paws through a bizarre carpet of sampled noises and funky rhythms and lyrics like ``paranoid jumbotron.''

Tom Waits ``Orphans'' (Anti) -- Fifty-four outtakes, new songs and rare recordings spread out over three lovingly prepared discs from one of the U.S.'s most treasured musicians. Listen to the ``Brawlers'' disc when you're feeling mean, ``Bawlers'' when you want

slow and sad and ``Bastards'' when you're feeling downright weird. A key inclusion here is Waits's rendition of Disney's ``Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho,'' from a formerly out-of-print record of Disney songs from 1988 called ``Stay Awake,'' in which the sprightly work song becomes a funeral dirge, appropriate for greeting Monday mornings.

Neil Young ``Heart of Gold'' (Paramount Home Video) -- This film, directed by Jonathan Demme, captures Young's folk-country side in a sublime performance from Nashville's Ryman Auditorium. Like Martin Scorsese's ``The Last Waltz,'' Demme opts for long panning shots

rather than hyperkinetic MTV-era jump cuts that so often ruin the enjoyment of watching artists performing live.

Biggest Disappointment: Madeleine Peyroux's ``Half the Perfect World'' (Rounder Records) -- came out of the box sounding exactly like her last jazz-influenced record ``Careless Love.'' I loved ``Careless Love.'' Why couldn't I warm to the new effort? Her ability

to sound exactly like Billie Holiday became less charming and more grating. Having this playing put me in the mood to go shopping for new cutlery in a mall.

Most Unwelcome Trend: Singers cranking out ``tribute'' records to long-dead artists, or worse, going whole hog and covering batches of songs from entire eras. Notable offenders this year include Michael Bolton (``Bolton Swings Sinatra'') and Rod Stewart (``Still the

Same ... Great Rock Classics of Our Time.'') Ol' Rooster Head has now hit a second wind by working his way through most of the eras, starting somewhere around Pearl Harbor and ending in Woodstock. What's next? ``Stewart Sings Streisand''?

Judging by the numbers of people who bought Tony Bennett's ``Duets'' album, baby-boomers who once looked down at their parents for watching the Lawrence Welk Show and ``Singing Along With Mitch Miller'' better watch out. They're getting uncomfortably close to the

abyss.

(Douglas Lytle is a writer for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed

are his own.)

To contact the writer of this story: Douglas Lytle at

dlytle@bloomberg.net .

Year's best: CDs

Critic's pick of notable 2006 CDs includes American classics Dylan and Waits, a New Orleans tribute and an orchestra from Mali

By Walter Tunis

CONTRIBUTING MUSIC CRITIC

They come bursting with redemptive music from New Orleans and global grooves that originated from Mali but reverberated all over the world.

They sang of life, loss and affirmation. They chronicled almost regal heartbreak. They reflected homelands old and new.

They boasted the blues, suggested the apocalypse and professed a fractured, folky faith.

And one even sported orphans -- 54 of them.

They are the best recordings of 2006. And while only one hit the top of the charts, all are assertive, original works where genres blend, emotions mingle and a sense of fine, unassuming aural art is achieved. What more could you want from great music?

Here, then, is a critic's pick view of the 10 best albums of 2006:

1. The Bottle Rockets, Zoysia. Zoysia is the sound of a bar band that has grown up without losing its edge. The electric spirit of mid-'70s Neil Young guides the music, but Brian Henneman and pals have a wily and worldly sound all their own. The title tune typifies the album's magic by using lawn grass as a means of urban dŽtente. That's how

homespun Zoysia is at heart. But the guitar charge that backs it up tells you how much The Bottle Rockets still mean business.

2. Los Lobos, The Town and the City. For all its adventurous rock and Tex-Mex spirit, Los Lobos' best songs relish in themes of home and family. Such sentiments abound here, but in much darker fashion. More ominous in tone and temperament than previous albums, The Town and the City's sense of home is more displaced. Hints of immigration

heighten echoes of vintage soul, wary blues and surrealist pop and make Los Lobos sound more vital than ever.

3. Jolie Holland, Springtime Can Kill You. Springtime designs a parlor-music setting for songs of personal misery. The tunes expand and contract like an accordion at times and breeze along with the merest suggestion of swing at others. But the sentiment here is all

blues. Hence, Springtime is full of pouty, lovelorn laments that defy the elegance of their melodies. In other words, Springtime is the very musical winter of Holland's discontent.

4. Toumani Diabate's Symmetric Orchestra, Boulevard de l'Independence. From Mali comes this expressive and forward-thinking groove festival. The tunes' sly percussive strut and joyous vocal slant are built around Diabate's playing on the lute-like kora. But

there is a Senegalese-Cuban-American connection at work here as elements of salsa, along with arrangements by veteran jazz-funk saxman Pee Wee Ellis, season the session. This is world music in every celebratory sense of the term.

5. T Bone Burnett, The True False Identity. Having reshaped and preserved Americana music as a producer in recent years, Burnett gives us the first album of his own music since 1992. The results blend mythic folk imagery, lyrics that fall between hip-hop and beat

poetry and jagged guitar that spits across the grooves like crossfire. The True False Identity gives Americana music a worldly voice and then makes it dance in an especially dark countryside.

6. Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint, The River in Reverse. Of the many tributes and laments sung in the wake of Katrina, this collaboration by the master British songsmith and one of New Orleans' sharpest composers and arrangers resonates strongest. Much of River is made up of Toussaint classics whose swampy, soul-smitten sound

lets Costello have a field day. But in the album's elegiac title tune and the Professor Longhair- inspired Ascension Day, you sense hope for a still-ravaged city.

7. Tom Waits, Orphans. Initially rumored to be a mere excavation of unreleased works from Waits' 35-year career, Orphans actually comes stuffed with 30 or so new tunes. This sprawling but fascinating three-disc, 54-song set is subtitled and sorted into discs of jittery rockers (Brawlers), oddly poignant ballads (Bawlers) and wondrous

eccentricities (Bastards) to form a mammoth carnival ride hosted by a deliciously twisted American original.

8. Rosanne Cash, Black Cadillac. Black Cadillac's most personal influences -- the deaths of Cash's famous father, mother and stepmother within a two-year period -- has garnered as much press as the album itself. But the record is more an affirmation than a

eulogy. And in the case of Like Fugitives and the sublime title tune, the ones being mourned are the living. Alternately ambient and rockish, Black Cadillac is the year's most fascinating meditation on love and death.

9. Bob Dylan, Modern Times. Blues chestnuts retooled into modern ruminations, reveries suggesting vintage jazz and ragtime and, of course, those glorious moments when Dylan's poetic muse boils over and doomsday rolls your way from a dozen directions. In other words, we have Dylan at his quixotic best. "Today's the day I'm gonna grab

my trombone and blow," he sings at the album's onset. And so he does, with another restless lullaby for modern times.

10. The Wood Brothers, Ways Not to Lose. One of 2006's great sleeper records was this folk-blues exploration by Medeski Martin & Wood bassist Chris Wood and his brother, a little-known guitarist and vocalist from Atlanta named Oliver Wood. MMW keyboardist John Medeski produced Ways Not to Lose, but the album couldn't be more removed from the trio's avant jazz grooves. The brothers' loose-limbed tunes abound with a roots sound that is lean, relaxed and infectious.

From Arizona Reporter

City: Mesa, AZ -- The original backyard party band from East LA, Los Lobos brings their unique blend of R & B, Mexicana, blues, folk and plain ol' rock ' n roll for an acoustic evening on February 24th at 8 pm in Mesa Arts Center's Ikeda Theater, 1 E. Main St. in Mesa. This renowned group has its fingers in rockabilly, blues and jazz genres, as well as focusing on certain aspects of a Latin tradition. call for info...more info: 480.644.6500 la posada hotel arizona's grandest hotel

Since their beginnings in 1973 as Los Lobos Del Este Los Angeles, the group has evolved into highly respected artists, known for their graceful songwriting, conscience-raising songs and thought provoking lyrics. Founded by David Hidalgo, Cesar Rosas, Louis Perez and

Conrad Lozano, Los Lobos has been on top of their game for over 30 years, despite having very little airtime on traditional radio.

With an intensity that can only be witnessed live, the band is known for its astonishing eclecticism, blending a wide range of musical styles, and instruments. Their diverse style can be seen in the array of artists they cover - - from the Beatles to Louis Prima, from Tom Waits to their beloved Ritchie Valens. They've contributed tracks to tribute albums of

such music legends as Buddy Holly, Grateful Dead, and Jimi Hendrix and have toured with a countless array of top artists, from Bob Dylan, and The Clash to U2 and Dave Matthews.

Drawing on their Chicano roots, the group rose from East LA where they had become local heroes playing at weddings, barbeques and their local Mexican restaurants to become 3 time Grammy -winners with an avid fan base across the globe. Their cover of the Ritchie Valens'

hit "La Bamba" for the movie of the same name brought them world wide attention as that smash rose to #1 on Billboard Singles Chart and became the song that dominated the airwaves during the summer of 1987. The Town and the CityLos Lobos' songs are often inspired by Arizona, from their instrumental "Arizona Skies" (1992) featured on their

acclaimed album Kiko to their newest single "The Road to Gila Bend"

featured on their new album, The Town and the City. The Town and The City is told in the first person, and takes on the big theme of immigration and is described as "an album about people, the hard life of outsiders in a new place."

Tickets for Los Lobos are available only at the Mesa Arts Center Box Office, located at 1 E. Main St. in downtown Mesa. Tickets are available by phone at 480-644-6500, walk-up (during Box Office hours) or online at www.mesaartscenter.com . Box Office hours are Monday through Saturday, 10am to 5pm, Sunday noon to 4pm, and two hours prior to performances.

Los Lobos: This renowned group has its fingers in rockabilly, blues and jazz genres, as well as focusing on certain aspects of a Latin tradition. They sculpt subtly socially conscious songs that ease you in and don't beat you over the head with politics. 8 p.m. Wed, Aladdin Theater, 3017 S.E. Milwaukie Ave.; $39.

When Wilco was reaping critical hosannas for the disjointed desolation of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, some Los Lobos fans must have wondered if Jeff Tweedy was Brett Ratner to David Hidalgo's Bryan Singer. A full decade before black and white documentaries were made about Chicago's favorite skronk-country rockers, the best band ever to come out of East L.A. released Kiko, a masterpiece about disconnection from love and loss that

didn't try to break your heart, it just did. Los Lobos has spent the years since wandering in the wilderness of oxymoronically dull experimentation, a path Wilco appears poised to follow. With The Town and the City Los Lobos finally find their way back to greatness; this raging quintet hasn't let the random squawks and sampled beats obscure

the instrumental muscle that made 2005's Live at the Fillmore (or any Los Lobos

concert) such a treat. The band, in short, is once again playing to its considerable strengths. "Little things all around me/Little things I could not see," Hidalgo sings, and with a band this good, the little things add up.

By Steve Hyden

From Boston Herald

By Christopher Blagg

Monday, November 20, 2006

Early retirement is usually a good idea for most aging rockers. Yet despite graying bands such as the increasingly creaky and out-of-touch Rolling Stones, Los Lobos has somehow managed to continue putting out fantastic and jaw-droppingly vibrant music. Their show Saturday night at Avalon proved that though the East L.A. quintet may have formed during the last days of the Nixon presidency, their brilliance and relevancy have remained unquestioned.

Touring in support of their new record, “The Town and the City,” Los Lobos gave the crowded faithful a little taste of everything from their vast catalog. Electrically charged cumbias such as “Luz de Mi Vida” and “Maricela” stood in contrast to the band’s earthy roots-rock tendencies and heavy flirtations with New Orleans r & b, exemplified by the early-set highlight of “Evangeline.”

Feeling no pressure to concentrate on their new material, Los Lobos’ riff-chugging Mexican immigration anthem, “The Road To Gila Bend,” was just the first of only a few tunes off the new record, and was given a resoundingly positive reaction.

On this night, the 33-year-old quintet favored their earlier material. Accordion-fried r & b burners such as “Let’s Say Goodnight” and the blessedly dirty “Georgia Slop” attested to the band’s nostalgia-leaning setlist, yet the band didn’t just phone in its new compositions. Tempos were reined in for the meditative “Hold On,” singer/guitarist David Hidalgo crooning wearily to the crowd, “I’m killing myself just to keep alive, killing myself to survive.”

Unlike other, more high-profile veteran rock bands, Los Lobos didn’t rely on a high-octane stage show or elaborate set designs to keep the audience interested. In fact, most of the musicians barely moved the entire show, flexing just their larynx and their guitar-picking fingers throughout the night. Because the music moves so effectively, the band doesn’t have to.Los Lobos prefer to let their tunes and performance speak for themselves. It would seem after more than 30 years of churning out arguably the finest rock ’n’ roll in the world, they’re deserving of at least that much.

From Boston Globe

By Jonathan Perry, Globe Correspondent | November 20, 2006

Encircled by a slow, simmering sound that felt like the aural rendering of either a gathering storm or a man being pushed to his psychic breaking point, or both, Los Lobos singer-guitarist David Hidalgo sang softly, as if a mantra to himself, Saturday night. "Hold on, hold on to every breath, and if I make it to sunrise, do it all over again," came the words, amid a tribal rattle of percussion and the subtle throb of guitars. "Now I'm killing myself just to keep alive, killing myself to survive."

The song, "Hold On," about an immigrant's back-breaking labor in the fields, was from the veteran Los Angeles band's new "The Town and the City," and the exquisite tension conjured by the six musicians onstage at Avalon was a riveting highlight in an evening spiked with

many. That Los Lobos is still making music into its fourth decade together is perhaps less surprising than the fact that the Mexican-American band is still making music this powerful, this provocative, this good.

While it lacks the personal charisma or onstage dynamism that mark most great bands -- the staid, visually bland ensemble is made up of musicians rather than performers -- Los Lobos's vibrancy and personality lies almost completely inside its deep, richly textured catalog of sound. When it came to the music itself, the band's set overflowed with personality, heart, soul, and an all-encompassing stylistic reach that embraced '50s-style rock and soul ("Evangeline"), muscular roots-rock ("The Road to Gila Bend"), salsa-spiced grooves (the Spanish-language sung "Chuco's Cumbia"), and just about everything in between.

For every soul-searching anthem such as "Hold On" or moonlit sonata in the barrio (the sensual, accordion-accented "Kiko and the Lavender Moon"), there were joyful party jams like the reggae-tinged "Maria" and the Bo Diddley-meets-Buddy Holly bop of "Bertha." The latter workout weaved together several generations of pop as the band's front line of guitarists -- Hidalgo, Cesar Rosas, and Louie Perez -- took the tune from sock hop to Woodstock, tussling and tossing notes back and forth until the whole band had locked into a jam reminiscent of the Allman Brothers and Grateful Dead at the Fillmore.

With Boston's very own R&B shouter, Barrence Whitfield, gleefully bounding onto the stage for an encore guest spot, Los Lobos proceeded to tear into a holy trinity of covers that sounded as if they had been beamed down from some cosmic classic-rock jukebox in the sky: Neil Young's "Cinnamon Girl"? Check. Jimi Hendrix's version of "Hey Joe"? Check. Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love"? Check. That settled it: Los Lobos was, at that moment, the best wedding band on the planet.

Los Lobos

The Town and The City

Hollywood Records

These old vatos have about as much soul as you could ever hope to find in a band. Their history goes back to a time when most of y'all were wearing diapers and sucking on your mama's swollen titties. With disposable media oozing out of every pore in our society and transparent pop tunes clogging up the arteries, it's a breath of fresh air to hear music so pure played by actual musicians. With that said, these old dogs are not against using modern effects and technology to enhance their current sound; they just aren't totally dependent upon the crutch of modern studio trickery. The opening track "The Valley" is as cool as they come, providing a slow melodic tale of days gone by that is down to earth, and full of comfort. This album radiates the feeling of a warm friendship that has been stoked and kindled though countless years of close camaraderie. The overall pace is not rushed and benefits from an easy-going demeanor that occasionally shifts gears, as in the upbeat "Chuco's Cumbia" or the uniquely rousing rhythm on "Luna". Other than that, it's smooth sailing upon a placid sea of bluesy tales and calm ruminations. In a world so full of nastiness rushing ass over elbows to get to nowhere fast, it is really nice to step back and enjoy this perspective from time to time - that is until the next wave crests and knocks you down again. - RMK

Los Lobos is certainly not a band I am unfamiliar with. In my old concert promotion days I brought them to Cleveland twice. Since that time I have kept up with their recordings...always interested in seeing what new stuff they came up with. Known for their Tex-Mex rock, roots and Mexican music with tinges of jazz, blues and more, they began to branch off into a fresh and different direction on the CD Kiko. Now they have really expanded more on that with this brand new album, resulting in their finest, deepest, most creative offering to date.

The music here is comprised of dark moods and strange grooves – done mostly at medium or slow tempos and loaded with emotion. The concept is a look at life in America today...working harder and harder just trying to survive, not to mention so many other problems in today’s society, those of immigrants and in the world in general. Each song carries a different message and very different music to convey it, sometimes with some eerie things going on with the guitars, keyboards or percussion. Los Lobos actually began in 1973 in L.A., but became well-known with their mid eighties album How Will The Wolf

Survive? This is their 13th album with the same bandmembers; and the long road they’ve travelled, and experience they’ve garnered together certainly shows here. This is a keeper to be played again and again. Viva Los Lobos! Crank it up.

Bill Wahl

LONE WOLF: HANGIN' WITH STEVE BERLIN

Words by Scott Caffrey

Los Lobos is easy to take for granted. As certified musical trailblazers, their path has always been a more difficult one.

Trailblazing involves struggle and strife, misguided criticism, and can take eons for anyone to recognize it as a worthy pursuit. But as their latest album The Town and the City attests, it's clearly the only thing this 32-year-old quintet knows.

Being a maverick in the '80s music business was tricky, to say the least. A band making its own decisions was either a big gun or had some credibility in the hit parade. But even then, those breaking artistically free were often castigated to the "eclectic" bin. If they were ever heard from again, it was in the underground scene. A select few of these bands, however, made it out with their careers intact, and have become the New Legends.

Los Lobos is one of these legendary bands. They made their name by consciously, constantly, and creatively moving in the opposite direction of their last recorded step. And it worked because they're damn good. It's one of the ballsiest moves in rock 'n' roll, and they don't get enough credit for doing it. Because no matter how beloved any band is, making the anti-album is always a risk. But for The Wolves, these moves are normal, and they have come to define Los Lobos's career.

As history has vindicated, "eclectic" is now a badge of cool. And the guys in Los Lobos wear it well. While most people know them for their hit Ritchie Valens covers on the La Bamba soundtrack, not enough know them for the brilliant musical grandeur that comprises Kiko. So today, they command something of a comfortable middle ground - they had a whiff of big time stardom and have earned their stripes underground.

The group's continued success and rabid fan-base speak directly to the accessibility of their diverse music. On stage, their schizophrenic setlists foster a self-professed mission of intercultural and intergenerational harmony. Their shows have become something akin to a hip family reunion. It's such a loose and friendly atmosphere that you can walk up, meet each one, and even request "La Bamba" if you absolutely have to hear it. The thin line between success and failure has been kicked out of whack, bent out of shape, and moved clear to the other side by a quartet of Chicano friends from East LA - David Hidalgo, Louie Pérez, Cesar Rosas, and Conrad Lozano - and their lone recruit, Steve Berlin.

Born September 14th, 1955 in Philadelphia, Steve Berlin moved to Los Angeles at the ripe age of 19 after getting a call for a can't-miss gig. He quickly became a hot commodity as a session saxophonist, and it was during his stint with The Blasters that Berlin remembers seeing Los Lobos for the first time. The year was 1980, and Los Lobos were opening for Public Image, Ltd. at the Olympic Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles. The punk audience threw everything they could - literally and figuratively - at the long-haired, fuzzy foursome as they played their way through a set of traditional, acoustic Norteño music. The gutsy display fascinated Berlin, who would later equate the impact to "finding a tribe of Indians living under a freeway underpass."

Steve Berlin

It wasn't until the second time he saw them live, as openers for his own Blasters, that Berlin was gripped into a healthy obsession. "We ended up hanging out and I remember many, many times where I would do a gig with The Blasters or somebody else and then go screaming across town to catch the Lobos encore. Anything to get to play with them, to me, was what I would do. No matter how far, or how ridiculous the commute was, I was gonna be there just because I enjoyed it so much."

With fascination eventually turning into full-time work, no decision was ever really made for Berlin to join as honorary Chicano. "I played with them long enough, and worked with them long enough. It wasn't like they came to me and said, 'Would you?' I was sort of like, 'Hey could I?' So it all kinda melded into one big thing, I guess." Berlin would go on to co-produce their Grammy-winning EP ...And a Time to Dance with T-Bone Burnett in 1983 and more-or- less officially join Los Lobos sometime in 1984.

With his position in the band now firmly in place, Berlin continued playing countless sessions all over Southern California with a diverse array of bands, including the Beat Farmers, Translator, and Flesh Eaters. But as you'll soon read, it was a "record label family" assignment on Paul Simon's landmark Graceland that would shake Berlin to his core. And though Graceland amounted to a painful learning experience that none of the members have forgotten, one year later Los Lobos finally enjoyed their first taste of commercial success with La Bamba.

From there, Berlin's reputation as a producer continued to grow. He helmed sessions for acts as diverse as Faith No More, The Tail Gators, and his former Blaster-mate Dave Alvin. He remained a stalwart on the alternative rock scene and worked with the likes of The Replacements, John Lee Hooker, Leo Kottke, Sheryl Crow, and The String Cheese Incident.

Armed with obvious studio acumen, Berlin works hard to make the recorded Lobos sound meet the band's vision. And because of this prowess and thirst for record making, he spent every necessary minute poring over everything that was needed to create the wonderfully complicated The Town and the City. "Let's put it this way - I was the only guy there every single day. A lot of guys got to take some days off, but I didn't."

The Town and the City falls perfectly in the Los Lobos canon. It has an undeniable patience and tranquility, even when the guitars are jacked up. It also focuses on one big theme close to the band's

heart: immigration. This is an album about people feeling out of place. It's about the hardships that come with being, and feeling, different.

The intricacies of sound presented on the album sway from the heart- wrenching laborer's lament "Hold On" (I'm killing myself to survive)"

to the anthemic guitar power of "The Road to Gila Bend." Along with the unique sensibilities of producers Tchad Blake and Robert Carrazza, the band is still able to emit those subtle, strange, and weird noises - like the effulgent feedback guiding the listener through "The Valley." The Town and the City demands attention and repeat-listening. It's far too heady to get it all in one sitting.

This album is the culmination of a musical family, living life together. Once again, Los Lobos has opened the doors to its collective heart and spoken for the world at large.

Lobos Live in Lowell: Ridin' On

Published: September 23, 2006

All About Jazz

By Doug Collette

Los Lobos

Boarding House Park

Lowell, Massachusetts

September 1, 2006

Los Lobos should be honored as a national treasure. Appearing in the home of Jack Kerouac near the end of the Massachusetts city’s summer music series, this band from East LA displayed an affectionate enthusiasm for their audience that, combined with musical diversity and instrumental chemistry at their command, provided an ever so rare means of inaugurating the autumn.

Outside in the cool late summer early fall air in the middle of Lowell, Lobos let rip right from the start. In contrast to the acoustic concerts the group’s played in recent months, this was a high-energy affair beginning with, appropriately enough, “The Neighborhood.” Brandishing his Fender most of the evening, the affable but inscrutable David Hidalgo fired off the first of a series of gritty solos the likes of which should’ve earned him the title of guitar hero years ago.

Flanking him on the opposite end of the stage, as if to symbolize the symmetry in the band’s personality, was the irrepressible Cesar Rosas. Slyly masked as usual in dark glasses even as night set in, his consecration of the audience as “music lovers” and recognition of the dancers on their feet added a different fuel to the fire that was cooking in the park.

Los Lobos didn’t jam extensively or enact long segues September 1st. But if there is anything more enjoyable to experience than a great band in the full flight of improvisation, it’s hearing a band build up a full head of steam song by song like “I Walk Alone” and “Manny’s Bones.” Los Lobos kept themselves in control and tight alignment all the way, right down to the cold stops signaled with a flourish by Cougar Estrada.

“Los Lobos' affectionate enthusiasm for their audience is equalled by the musical diversity and instrumental chemistry at their command.”

The young drummer, now sole percussionist for this great group, has much to do with their dynamism, especially as he interacts with Conrad Lozano. The bassist’s deep simple lines lock with the kick drum and toms to give tremendous bottom to a sound that was quite clear even in the open air. It was only when Hidalgo donned the accordion for “Kiko,” just at the right time for a change of pace, that charter member of Lobos Louie Perez forsook his guitars for drums (once his permanent spot in the lineup) and his lighter fluid attack recalled, appropriately enough for tunes such as “Maria Christina,” the early days of the band playing traditional Mexican music at weddings and local gatherings.

Clearly Los Lobos haven’t forgotten, much less forsaken, their roots (including those that stretch into garage rock and punk). The new album “The Town and The City” from which they introduced three cuts, is the story of their exploration into a new world made universal in a well-wrought song cycle. “Chuco’s Cumbia” and “The Road to Gila Bend” each spoke eloquently about stages of that journey, the former with Spanish effervescence buoyed by Rosas' delivery, the latter, like “Hold On,” a more atmospheric blues rendered sensitively but with the appropriate strength by Hidalgo.

These novel originals sounded as well practiced as standards of the Lobos repertoire. With the often requested and eventually played “Mas y Mas,” the band entered overdrive, in part through the inclusion of the horn section and percussionist of opener Jen Kearney’s Lost Onion band (the frontwoman joined in on the uproarious “Cumbia Raza”). Now a ten- piece band, Los Lobos pumped their way with abandon through their sole mainstream hit “La Bamba” within which they interpolated “Good Lovin’.”

And who but Los Lobos would invite upwards of thirty audience members on stage to sing, dance and effectively obscure the band itself from sight? Not only that, but all of those invitees would leave the stage without hassle as the band climaxed its set proper. The good natured mien of the audience is a direct reflection of Los Lobos and their fundamental generosity, another aspect of which they exhibited with a lengthy encore, backing Barrence Whitfield on vocals for “Hey Joe” and “Baby What You Want Me to do?”

The breadth of the band’s influences, from Jimi Hendrix to earthy R&B becomes all the more astonishing when you hear the ease and finesse with which they move from genre to genre. Lobos’ own fluid chemistry is as impressive in the lysergic-laced licks from Hidalgo on the former as the redemptive joy that emanated from the latter (notwithstanding the overwrought delivery from Massachusetts semi-legend Whitfield). Steve Berlin’s guttural sax work was a joy throughout the evening, not just when he was interacting with three other horn men at the close of the show.

While much of the Commonwealth crowd seemed to be present out of habit and/or just for the sake of curiosity, virtually no one was left sitting by the time Los Lobos had asked them to stand before roaring to the close of their two hour set. The power of great music takes many forms, as a dynamic Los Lobos demonstrated here in no uncertain terms, with all due versatility at their disposal.

Los Lobos Tour Promotes New CD 'The Town And The City'

By Larry London

Washington, DC

27 October 2006

Tex-Mex rock is alive and well after more than 33 years thanks to the original sounds of Los Lobos. The group recently released their new CD, "The Town And the City", that includes a return to the experimental sound that earned them three Grammys. Founding members Louie Perez and David Hidalgo talked with VOA's Larry London about their journey.

What is it that compels a band of musicians to remain together for more than three decades? I asked that question to two of the men responsible for starting Los Lobos in East Los Angeles, David Hidalgo and Louie Perez.

DAVID:

"The core of it is friendship. We have been friends since high school, and I think [there is] something [special] about this band that we all believe in and that is why we stick with it."

LOUIE:

"As much as we might complain about getting up early, flying, and being away from home, we still have the best job in the world, really. You cannot beat it. Being able to go around the world with your friends, you stay a kid all your life … that is a good gig [job]."

With 15 albums and three Grammys, the band has secured a place in rock history. Did the first Grammy in 1987 change their lives?

LOUIE:

"After I won the Grammy, my youngest [child] was just an infant. I got home and I walked in the door, and my mother-in-law was watching my son. She looked at me and said, "Congratulations! We are out of diapers". So I was at the market pushing a cart [shopping for diapers] and the family is the equalizer.

What exactly does Los Lobos mean?

DAVID:

“It is 'the wolves.' And the full title of the band was Los Lobos Del Este De Los Angeles (just another band from East L.A.) but it was too much for the marquee."

Los Lobos is well received all around the world and Hidalgo is looking forward to playing for international audiences.

DAVID:

"It has been good, you know. We are starting to go more often. We kind of laid off of going overseas for quite a few years, and I think it kind of was not good for us, actually. So, we have been going back, trying to go at least once a year, trying to rebuild the audience over there (overseas). It seems to be working."

And after all the years of success, what was the highlight?

LOUIE:

"Being able to travel around the world -- for guys from East L.A. that never went anywhere, and to discover there [are] a lot more similarities than differences. I think that is really, it was a real awakening for me."

Perez says the new CD "The Town And The City" is very personal.

LOUIE:

"The idea of the song (is)sort of (a) progression, (it) is of remembrances about our childhood and our parents. It is dedicated to our parents. We have been a band for 33 years this coming November. We are kind of getting to be older guys now. That funny thing starts to kick in when you start to think about how things used to be … how things are a lot nicer when they are simpler. So this record is about our experiences growing up, and seeing our parents work hard to try and provide for us. The kind of thing that happens everywhere all over the world."

Los Lobos

The Town and the City

Mammoth/Hollywood PRCD-11803-2 (2006)

True artists that they are, Los Lobos have taken a current and important subject and addressed it in its music, creating a recording about the immigrant experience in America. And the great band that it is, Los Lobos has produced a CD that is as appealing as it is relevant. It is a musical landscape that begins in "The Valley," a hauntingly hopeful and

lushly discordant expression of life worked on green land and lived into blue nights. There are myriad emotions relating to the album's theme that emerge from the music. In "Hold On" the singer seems resigned to a quiet despair as he tells of "killing myself to survive." "Luna" and "Chuco's Cumbia" are joyful in their respective celebrations of Mexican music. "Little Things" is sweeping and sad, a story of precious love lost in pursuit of a bigger plan. The musical styles are as mixed as the emotions. "Free Up" is that most dependable of rave-ups, a lite gospel-inflected anthem with jazzy guitar. "The City" is the centerpiece, its scope breathtaking. Specific sounds merge with the changing music. Is that a barking dog or a revving motorcycle? No matter. It evokes a gritty panorama with "lovers kissing by the door..." and "sidewalks shining from the rain..."

While this release is groundbreaking, there are enough elements present that have become a familiar part of Los Lobos' music over the span of its more than 30-year career. "Two Dogs and a Bone" is fine roadhouse rock, and "The Road to Gila Bend," the tale of a fugitive immigrant, is full of the band's signature sound with a strong melody, interwoven guitars, and great harmonies. And of course David Hidalgo's earthy vocal clarity can be heard throughout. Evoking the intoxicating sonic ambiance of 1992's Kiko, The Town and the City boasts interesting chord changes and varying rhythms that lend it an improvisational tone. And while it in no way can be categorized as that most American form of music, it all comes together in the tradition and greatness of the coolest of jazz.

- Ellen Geisel (Ballston Lake, NY)

The Town and the City

Hollywood

By Alex Rawls

Los Lobos are one of the handful of bands that genuinely seem to pursue their own muse, so much so that there's rarely a track or musical decision that seems like a concession of any kind. Rather than viewing its audience as subtle jailers, locking them into musical modes they've already explored, Los Lobos seem liberated by their audience to go further. In the case of The Town and the City, that sense of freedom allowed them to make a subtly excellent album, with tracks becoming distinct and special with repeated listens. Only "The Road to Gila Bend" is memorable after the first few listens, and it's a little reminiscent of the Grateful Dead. Soon, though, "Hold On" and its Latin Playboys-like production emerges, then "No Puedo Mas," which recalls classic Santana. And so on. Piece by piece, the album becomes rich, complex and beautiful.

The Town and the City is also Los Lobos at their most political, addressing illegal immigrants with the intelligence and subtlety you'd expect. The album opens with "The Valley," which is sung by someone who has successfully crossed the border and is working "as long as we are able," but the trade off is "bread on the table," and the compressed,

Robert Fripp-like ascending guitar line signals this as a good thing. By the album's closer, "The Town," a bittersweet song in which the speaker in the song lives in fear, signaled in the first verse by a gunshot in the distance, and his only connection to his hometown is his dreams. In between, Los Lobos bring people to life and turn the political sturm und drang over illegal crossings of our southern borders into a drama that involves people who have bought into the American Dream more genuinely than many of the supporters of the party that wants to fence off that border.

Los Lobos in extraordinary L.A. homecoming

By Darryl Morden

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Most bands would push a new album early in a show. But Los Lobos has never been an ordinary band. The group didn't even get to the material from its new release "The Town and the City" (Mammoth/Hollywood) until the latter half of Friday's richly rewarding performance at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.

The show celebrated nearly three decades of remarkably diverse recordings and a Mexican-American heritage encompassing myriad musical styles from both sides of the border. The music was festive and reflective, enchanting and boisterous.

A series of acoustic songs in Spanish led off by their own "La Pistola y el Corazon" displayed the band's traditional side. For the most part, the group put aside the full-jam mode that fires up appearances at outdoor venues and festivals, and instead played as artisans engaged in often-delicate craftsmanship imbued with heart and soul.

David Hidalgo still amazes as a multi-instrumentalist, easily moving from violin to accordion, then unleashing emotion-soaked electric guitar leads. His plaintive tenor rang out in the marvelous acoustics of the venue for the country-rock American fable of "One Time One Night" and was filled with weary melancholy in "When the Circus Comes."

Singer-guitarist Cesar Rosas was de facto master of ceremonies for much of the night, quipping several times about the date, Friday the 13th -- especially when the band encountered a few sonic troubles. His weathered growl turned gentle and caressing for "Sabor a Mi" and cut loose for the John Lee Hooker-inspired boogie "Don't Worry Baby."

Other band members took their turns on lead vocals as well: Louie Perez shone on the lovely, dreamlike and harp-stroked "Saint Behind the Glass," and bassist Conrad Lozano turned in a joyous "Guantanamera."

With a long, thin, graying beard plus hat and shades, Steve Berlin looked like a bohemian Hasidic as he added subtle keyboards and punctuating sax and flute. Steady drums and percussion came from Cougar Estrada, though Perez took over his former seat at one point to summon the spirit of old times.

When finally addressing the new album, the group focused on some of the most blues-steeped songs, including the brooding "Hold On," with its quiet desperation set to a heartbeat tempo. The band soared on the arid folk-rock of "The Road to Gila Bend," inspired by the Arizona hometown of Hidalgo's mother.

Several guest musicians added to the special evening, including pedal steel wizard Greg Leisz, who took the two-step "Our Last Night" right into the honky-tonk, and a pair of violinists who joined Hidalgo on fiddle for the lullaby prayer of "Be Still."

A lively encore was capped by the bump and groove of "Cumbia Raza," with irresistible rhythms that brought the audience to its feet. A folkloric band, blues band, dance band and so much more -- that's Los Lobos.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserve

Oct. 16, 2006

Los Lobos

By Darryl Morden

Walt Disney Concert Hall
Friday, Oct. 13

Most bands would push a new album early in a show. But Los Lobos has
never been an ordinary band. The group didn't even get to the
material from its new release "The Town and the City" (Mammoth/
Hollywood) until the latter half of Friday's richly rewarding
performance at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.

The show celebrated nearly three decades of remarkably diverse
recordings and a Mexican-American heritage encompassing myriad
musical styles from both sides of the border. The music was festive
and reflective, enchanting and boisterous.

A series of acoustic songs in Spanish led off by their own "La
Pistola y el Corazon" displayed the band's traditional side. For the
most part, the group put aside the full-jam mode that fires up
appearances at outdoor venues and festivals, and instead played as
artisans engaged in often-delicate craftsmanship imbued with heart
and soul.

David Hidalgo still amazes as a multi-instrumentalist, easily moving
from violin to accordion, then unleashing emotion-soaked electric
guitar leads. His plaintive tenor rang out in the marvelous acoustics
of the venue for the country-rock American fable of "One Time One
Night" and was filled with weary melancholy in "When the Circus Comes."

Singer-guitarist Cesar Rosas was de facto master of ceremonies for
much of the night, quipping several times about the date, Friday the
13th -- especially when the band encountered a few sonic troubles.
His weathered growl turned gentle and caressing for "Beautiful Maria
of My Soul" -- the band's song from the soundtrack of "The Mambo
Kings" -- and cut loose for the John Lee Hooker-inspired boogie
"Don't Worry Baby."

Other band members took their turns on lead vocals as well: Louie
Perez shone on the lovely, dreamlike and harp-stroked "Saint Behind
the Glass," and bassist Conrad Lozano turned in a joyous "Guantanamera."

With a long, thin, graying beard plus hat and shades, Steve Berlin
looked like a bohemian Hasidic as he added subtle keyboards and
punctuating sax and flute. Steady drums and percussion came from
Cougar Estrada, though Perez took over his former seat at one point
to summon the spirit of old times.

When finally addressing the new album, the group focused on some of
the most blues-steeped songs, including the brooding "Hold On," with
its quiet desperation set to a heartbeat tempo. The band soared on
the arid folk-rock of "The Road to Gila Bend," inspired by the
Arizona hometown of Hidalgo's mother.

Several guest musicians added to the special evening, including pedal
steel wizard Greg Leisz, who took the two-step "Our Last Night" right
into the honky-tonk, and a pair of violinists who joined Hidalgo on
fiddle for the lullaby prayer of "Be Still."

A lively encore was capped by the bump and groove of "Cumbia Raza,"
with irresistible rhythms that brought the audience to its feet. A
folkloric band, blues band, dance band and so much more -- that's Los
Lobos.


Copyright 2005 The Hollywood Reporter

POP MUSIC REVIEW
Friday the 13th: A lucky day for Lobos
The seminal L.A. band fills Disney Hall with its passionate and exciting
mix of sounds.

By Steve Appleford, Special to The Times

Some bands are built to last, fueled not by trends or chart action but
by an internal commitment to culture and community. Los Lobos has played
big rooms and small ones in Los Angeles over the last 33 years, and the
result is always the same: a sound that is traditional, eccentric,
intimate and exciting.

On Friday, Los Lobos brought that rewarding mix to the epic scene of
Walt Disney Concert Hall, where the band delivered more than two hours
of music. But the tone and texture were set from its first few moments
onstage, as Los Lobos picked up acoustic folk instruments (and Steve
Berlin's tenor sax) for the sweet, forlorn "La Pistola y el Corazón."

Los Lobos can rock hard when it chooses to, and the group did so Friday
night. But the warm acoustics at Disney Hall seemed to inspire a desire
for subtlety, with several more folk tunes and Spanish words of love and
drama, mostly sung by guitarist Cesar Rosas, and the excited plucking
and strumming of guitars by David Hidalgo and Louie Pérez.

There was a gentle, urgent "El Cuchipe" and some great honking sax work
on "Maricela." And bassist Conrad Lozano took a rare lead vocal on the
Cuban standard "Guantanamera."

"This is Friday the 13th, man," Rosas warned with a smile. "Anything
could happen."

Disney Hall is barely two miles from the old concrete cavern of the
Grand Olympic Auditorium, where in 1980 a then-unknown Los Lobos del
Este de Los Angeles made its debut on the local rock scene, opening for
Public Image Ltd., whose unruly punk fans showered the stage with
quarters. By then, Lobos had been playing for years at East L.A.
weddings and other social events, a band of Garfield High kids raised on
traditional Mexican folk and classic rock and blues.

That is an old story now, but it still says something of the band's
longevity and scope. There have been wild experiments through the years,
from roots rock to cosmic trips into the nether regions of folk, jazz
and pop, yet the music has somehow always been grounded in a Mexican
folk and lowdown blues.

The band was loose and comfortable despite the inevitable formality of
Disney Hall, and members dealt with a few technical glitches with good
humor. As Hidalgo prepared to perform the rich, swampy blues of a new
song, "Hold On" (from Los Lobos' elegant new album, "The Town and the
City"), his guitar slipped from his hands and fell hard to the stage floor.

"Friday the 13th," he said with a smile, and soon joked, "We're trying
to put together a big show for you guys, but we just don't know how."

Not likely.

Los Lobos at Disney Hall was just what we've learned to expect these
last three decades -- warm, passionate and infinitely rewarding.

Los Lobos at Disney Concert Hall

Having clawed their way up through the murky hellholes of early-’80s Hollywood clubland, and then managed to shake off the stranglingly restrictive roots-rock mantle and launch themselves into an artistic strata that has absolutely no limit, these guys never cease to amaze. Case in point, their extraordinary new CD, The Town and the City, another instantly — and widely — acclaimed collection of remarkably executed songs focused on the immigrant experience that reaches both profound emotional depths and dazzling pinnacles of musicality. With their characteristically unpredictable mix of traditional Latin, earthy rhythm & blues, roiling funk, and rock & roll wallop, Los Lobos continue what undeniably rates as one of the most impressive ascensions this town has ever had the privilege to witness. (Jonny Whiteside)

Posted on Fri, Oct. 13, 2006

For the love of Los Lobos
The east Los Angeles ensemble makes the road trip to Cincinnati worth it
By Walter Tunis
CONTRIBUTING MUSIC WRITER

Talib Kweli, Los Lobos and OK Go

6 p.m. Oct. 14 at Fountain Square, Fifth and Vine streets in
Cincinnati. Free.

As we edge further into fall, the promise of cooperative weather for
an outdoor concert becomes more and more remote. Just ask the cold
and wet multitudes that waited on the Rolling Stones recently at
Louisville's Churchill Downs or the more modest turnout that braved
the rains to check out Al Green at last week's Tall Stacks Festival
in Cincinnati.

This weekend, another intriguing outdoor show beckons us to again
brave the elements. This one takes us straight to downtown Cincinnati
and marks the official reopening of Fountain Square after a
renovation that took more than a year and an estimated $42 million to
complete.

And so, Cincinnati will strike up the music in a big way tomorrow.

Festivities get under way at noon with a true variety of sounds and
styles: a joint performance of the Cincinnati Symphony, Opera and
Ballet along with a poem written and read by Nikki Giovanni -- all
which will be emceed by the city's forefather of funk, Bootsy Collins.

The big fun gets started around 6 p.m. New York hip-hop stylist Talib
Kweli (assisted by Cincinnati's Hi-Tek) gets things started while
Chicago rockers OK Go (of A Million Ways and Get Over It fame) close
out the evening.

But the sound that will be rocking between those two acts is what
makes the event worth the road trip from Lexington and, of course,
another chance encounter with the elements. It's the return of Los
Lobos. Though decidedly unflashy onstage, the East Los Angeles
ensemble has been mixing expert songwriting with music that runs from
Tex-Mex traditionalism to immensely resourceful rock and soul for
over 30 years.

Still need convincing that standing on a street corner for a few
hours is a cool way to spend your Saturday night? Then give a listen
to The Town and the City, Los Lobos' highly topical new album -- a
richly reflective song cycle of life, immigration, family and loss.

And we're not alone in our love of the Lobos. The current issue of
Rolling Stone magazine proclaims "with exception of U2, no other band
has stayed on top of its game as long as Los Lobos."

Sure, this is a night when Cincinnati reclaims a beloved downtown
landmark. But for those of us in Lexington, it's a chance to get out
of town and celebrate one of the mightiest bands in the land.

For more information, go to www.myfountainsquare.com.

Los Lobos
(Walt Disney Concert Hall; 2,265 seats; $85 top)
By PHIL GALLO

Cesar Rosas and Los Lobos overcame some Friday the 13th oddities to
perform at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Presented by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Assn. David Hidalgo, Cesar
Rosas, Conrad Lozano, Louie Perez, Steve Berlin, Cougar Estrada. Guest,
Greg Leisz. Reviewed Oct. 13, 2006.

Friday the 13th was blamed for a handful of occurrences at Los Lobos'
packed debut at Disney Concert Hall: An amp wouldn't stop feeding back;
a strap broke and an electric guitar crashed to the floor; and
instruments that had sat idly were suddenly wildly out of tune. But East
L.A.'s finest soldiered on through more than 2? hours of music, spending
a fair amount of time with the Mexican tunes of their youth and,
unfortunately, only scraping the surface of their fine new album, "The
Town and the City."
Los Lobos used the beginning of each of their two sets in the career-
covering concert to reach back to songs from their days as a backyard
party band in the 1970s, playing the romantic bolero "Sabor a Mi" with a
steamy guitar solo from Cesar Rosas and a fine version of the Bolivian
tune "El Chuchipe."

But it also meant time was spent with the unnecessary warhorse
"Guantanamera" and a shaky "La Pistola y el Corazon."

The band appeared rusty on a number of the tunes, and probably for good
reason: They don't need to perform this material at every show. This is
the great American fusion rock band, rooted in more strains than anyone
would care to count and highly capable of making a sound artistic
statement with their own works rather than trying to fit some outdated
description of a Mexican-American band. To isolate them, whether with
folkloric music, Ritchie Valens covers or the intensely quiet material
of their masterpiece "Kiko," is to sell them and the audience short.

David Hidalgo, an astoundingly inventive guitarist, has given
considerable shape to the new music. Rosas is a burner, a guitarist who
excels when he builds up speed on the frets; his solos give the Los
Lobos aud an adrenaline rush. Hidalgo is more painterly, capable of
going dark and abstract just as easily as he can tackle a still life.

On "The Valley," one of "The Town and the City's" most striking songs,
the Hidalgo sonic treatment was a unique highlight: He twisted the blues
with a hollow guitar tone that pinpointed the intersection of Wes
Montgomery and Jimi Hendrix. Perf was a gem.

"The Town and the City" (Mammoth/Hollywood) is a rugged and grounded
work, a solid return to form for the band that's both lively and solemn
-- a rock 'n' roll record with Latin American accents and a healthy dose
of reflection in the lyrics. It ventures close to being a song cycle
about the immigrant experience, from stealthily crossing the border to
preserving traditions. As an artistic statement for Los Lobos, the
concert would have been more intriguing had the band played the record
all the way through.

Los Lobos continues to work with a three-guitar lineup on every song --
in the early days, Louie Perez stuck to the drums before moving to
various instruments -- and the denseness of the sound didn't always find
a kind match in Disney Hall's acoustics. Powerful rockers "The Road to
Gila Bend," a new tune, and "Don't Worry Baby," one of Rosas' grittiest
works, were exceptional in execution and, surprisingly, sound reproduction.

"Rita," brimming with George Harrison overtones from late-period
Beatles, from their overlooked album "The Ride," also was a nice
addition to the set; guest Greg Leisz played pedal steel on two numbers
and helped a forgetful Hidalgo salvage the country two-step "Our Last Night."

Los Lobos, The Town And The City (Hollywood Records) ****
By Julian Cole
THE veteran American band, 33 years in music, have been in an out of favour, hitting mainstream success in 1987 with La Bamba.

Now they are heavy-set and sport goatee beards, their appearance suggesting perhaps a certain weighty menace.

Yet the music on this excellent album displays a light touch, mixing pop and rock with flourishes of South Americana.

continued...
From opener The Valley, Los Lobos create a layered organic sound that fits the music so well, with everything having a place and a purpose.

Hold On is a soulful lament wrapped in sweet music, while The Road To Gila Bend - charting the struggles of immigrants, an old Los Lobos theme - is memorable rootsy pop.

Infectious blues take over on Free Up, a song made for shuffling.

Los Lobos Takes the Pulse of Urban Life in `Town and the City'

By Douglas Lytle

Oct. 4 (Bloomberg) -- The new album by Los Lobos, the lauded band
from East Los Angeles, begins quietly with a kick drum and snare
leading off a hangdog shuffle. It's a simple pulse that anchors ``The
Town and the City,'' the group's 15th album in a 23-year career.

That heartbeat is important. It's an affirmation of life running
through the 13 stories comprising this ambitious chronicle of urban
existence that ranks among the band's greatest achievements.

Documented here are the generally honest folks who make your
expensive coffee each morning, deliver your packages ordered on the
Internet, then go to bed with aching feet, scraping to get by and
keep their families intact. These are stories of people who struggle
to keep their heads high while gang violence swirls around and the
pull of drugs and alcohol takes down family members.

``Here in the valley/Bread on the table/Work through the day/For as
long as we are able,'' guitarist David Hidalgo sings in ``The
Valley,'' the surrealistic, ambling first track.

While this is hardly a bitter record, the view is often bleak.
Consider ``Hold On'': ``Hold on/Hold on to every breath/And if I make
it to the sunrise/Do it all over again/Do it all over again/And I'm
killin' myself just to keep alive/Killin' myself to survive.''

Although many probably only know this band as the ``La Bamba'' guys
from the movie of the same name, Los Lobos is wildly more than just
three-chord roots rock. It toured extensively with the Grateful Dead
and explored the more ambient, arty edges of contemporary rock with
side projects like the Latin Playboys.

Smeared by Feedback

As in ``Kiko,'' the band's much-loved record from 1992, those
experiences have filtered into the music here, with the songs smeared
by feedback, murmuring, ghostly voices and distorted horns.

There's a sound and a beat here for everyone, from the Santana-
inflected lilt of ``No Puedo Mas'' to the bouncy pop of ``Free Up.''
Things swing a bit with ``The Road to Gila Bend'' and ``Chuco's
Cumbia,'' a dancing folk song that pulses with horns and Cesar
Rosas's growling voice.

``Little Things'' is anthemic, opening with ringing chords
reminiscent of Sam Cooke's ``A Change Is Gonna Come,'' and delves
into the meaningful things that are buried close around us every day,
the little things ``we never see.''

The careful listener will keep hearing that steady pulse through the
music, especially on the downbeat ``If You Were Only Here Tonight.''

Heartbreak and Sorrow

This is a record that could only have been made by musicians who have
spent years together, experiencing their own successes, heartbreak
and sorrow, while also endlessly prowling the streets, soaking up the
culture and people. It is at once a celebration of community and also
a wake for its destruction.

The record closes on a grim, haunting note in ``The Town,'' with what
is presumably Hidalgo's guitar tracing long, languid lines through a
cinematic vista of an unsettled, crime-ridden neighborhood at
twilight. In the background, the kick drum is offering that steady,
irresistible pulse. A pulse of life.

``The Town and City'' is released by Hollywood Records in the U.S.
and by EMI overseas. The U.S. retail price is $18.99.

(Douglas Lytle writes about music for Bloomberg News. The opinions
expressed are his own.)

To contact the reporter on this story: Douglas Lytle at
dlytle@bloomberg.net

LOS LOBOS DEBUT BEGINS THE 2006/2007 WORLD MUSIC SERIES
AT WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL

Performances by Guinga, Paco De Lucia and Salif Keita Complete Series

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2006 at 8 PM

Los Lobos
East Los Angeles rockers Los Lobos make their debut appearance at
Walt Disney Concert Hall, commencing the 2006/2007 World Music Series
on Friday October 13, 2006 at 8pm. Performing both acoustically and
plugged-in, Los Lobos plays selections from their 13th full-length
album, The Town and The City, as well as other music from their
acclaimed career.

Los Lobos' career kicked into high gear in the summer of 1987 with
the release of La Bamba. Los Lobos' cover of the title track shot
straight to #1 on the Billboard Singles chart, remaining there for
three weeks, transforming Los Lobos into mainstream stars. However
this "overnight success" arrived 14 years after the band's inception.
What started as a group of schoolmates gathering to play traditional
Mexican music in the early '70s, launched a distinctive career that
has prevailed for over three decades. From traditional Spanish and
Mexican music, to rock, folk, jazz and even psychedelic sonic
experimentation, Los Lobos has successfully redefined their sound,
collecting three Grammy awards and consistently topping the charts.
Their latest Hollywood Records release, The Town and The City,
expands upon their roots-rock sound, and as the title suggests,
serves as a reflection of "the city" – Los Lobos' experiences growing
up in East L.A. - and "the town" – a nostalgic reminiscence of back
home, a counterbalance to the hustle and glow of the boulevard. Ben
Wener, music critic for the Orange County Register, calls The Town
and The City "one of Los Lobos' all-time best."

The 2006/2007 World Music Series at Walt Disney Concert Hall
continues with Brazilian songwriter and guitar virtuoso Guinga, who
performs with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, on Friday, December 1,
2006. Internationally recognized master of Flamenco guitar, Paco de
Lucia, performs on Sunday, February 4, 2007, and Malian superstar
Salif Keita, often called the Golden Voice of Africa, performs on
Saturday, April 28, 2007.

LOS LOBOS began as Los Lobos Del Este Los Angeles in 1973, having
since evolved into a respected artistic entity searching for themes
and topics that are an interpretive pulse of our times. Using musical
molds built on the blues, rockabilly, jazz, Latin and their own
Mexican-American heritage, Los Lobos have never beat their fans over
the head with politics or agendas. Instead, they subtly challenge
them with conscience-raising songs and thought-provoking lyrics.
Their latest release, The Town and The City, does just that. Told in
the first-person, each song serves as an episodic step in a journey
that travels over emotional peaks and valleys. The centerpieces of
the album – "The City" and "The Town" – serve as urban reflections of
immigrant arrivals. Most of the thirteen songs are co-written by
Louie Perez and David Hildago; Cesar Rosas contributes two songs.
Every song says something significant about the mysterious journey
that creates a new life in a society much different from where it
began. The release of The Town and The City marks a highly
anticipated event at this stage of Los Lobos' illustrious career.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, under Music Director Esa-
Pekka Salonen, presents the finest in orchestral and chamber music,
recitals, new music, jazz, world music and holiday concerts at two of
the most remarkable places anywhere to experience music — Walt Disney
Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl. In addition to a 30-week winter
subscription season at Walt Disney Concert Hall, the LA Phil presents
a 12-week summer festival at the legendary Hollywood Bowl, summer
home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and home of the Hollywood Bowl
Orchestra. In fulfilling its commitment to the community, the
Association's involvement with Los Angeles extends to educational
programs, community concerts and children's programming, ever seeking
to provide inspiration and delight to the broadest possible audience.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2006 at 8 PM
WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL, 111 S. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles

Los Lobos
Steve Berlin, saxophones, percussion, flute, midisax, harmonica,
melodica
David Hidago, guitars, accordion, violin, banjo, vocals
Conrad Lozano, bass, guitarron, vocals
Louie Perez, drums, guitars, percussion, vocals
Cesar Rosas, guitars, mandolin, vocals

Tickets ($33 - $85) are on sale now at the Walt Disney Concert Hall
box office, online at LAPhil.com, or via credit card phone order at
323.850.2000. A limited number of $10 rush tickets for seniors and
full time students may be available at the Walt Disney Concert Hall
box office two hours prior to the performance. Valid identification
is required; one ticket per person; cash only. Groups of 12 or more
may be eligible for special discounts for selected concerts and
seating areas. For information, please call 323.850.2000.

With the exception of U2, no other band has stayed on top of its game as long as Los Lobos. But while U2 constantly reinvent themselves and compete with new generations of bands, these East L.A. vets just keep on making the same golden blend of blues, R&B, cumbia and barrio rock & roll that they first laid down when Jimmy Carter was president. The Town and the City, Los Lobos' best album since 1996's Colossal Head, takes on one big theme: immigration. It's an album about people -- the hard life of outsiders in a new place -- told without moralizing or sentimentality.

The production favors restraint over the lush, chaotic arrangements of albums like Kiko. But the band still sneaks in bits of weird noise -- the incandescent guitar feedback that bleeds into "The Valley," about the shadow life of itinerant farm laborers; the chain-gang beat that underpins "Hold On," with one laborer's lament that, "I'm killing myself to survive." The album's standout, "The Road to Gila Bend," is a classic Lobos anthem, powered by David Hidalgo's smoky vocals and a hurricane of Neil Young-like guitar. Other songs are subtler and take a little longer to sink in. When they do, you marvel: This is what happens when five guys create a magical sound, then stick together for thirty years to see how far it can take them.


JASON FINE

LOS LOBOS
The Town And The City

For more than 20 years, Los Lobos have been writing the soundtrack to
the U.S./Mexico border debate from the perspective of its most
vulnerable participants: the immigrant workers. While The Town And
The City is more rigidly focused on this theme, its struggling,
displaced and generally hopeful inhabitants are strikingly similar to
those populating each of the band’s records. This time, however, grey
clouds hover over past optimism like a grim reaper. “Hold On” is a
desperate mutant-blues tune that follows a recovering addict through
the DTs. On “If You Were Only Here Tonight,” David Hidalgo’s weary,
heartbroken vocals mirror the exhaustion of a sleepless, guilt-ridden
soul after committing a violent crime. These are the tales of people
who have been swallowed up by the anonymity of a big American city,
far from mom’s sage advice, apart from loved ones, unable to focus on
the little things that make life worth living. There’s clearly an
intent to match this mood with the haunting sonic adventurousness of
Kiko, Los Lobos’ 1992 masterpiece, but ambition often outdistances
the underlying quality of the songs. “Two Dogs And A Bone” fails to
live up to the band’s best rockers, and “Free Up” is clearly intended
as a spiritual release but comes off as little more than a dippy,
laid-back jam for Jack Johnson acolytes. All this doesn’t mean to
imply you are excused from owning everything this American
institution records—just that you may have to dig around a little
this time to find moments of true brilliance. [Mammoth, www.mammoth.com]

—Ken Brandell

BY JIM CALIGIURI

Few, if any, American bands can match Los Lobos in terms of longevity and creativity. The Town and the City, their 13th studio effort, is more than just another album from East L.A.'s most famous quintet.

Essentially, it's a suite of songs dealing with migration and the pains and perils of city living. Done in mostly dark hues matched to thoughtful lyrics chiefly composed by the band's multi- instrumentalist Louie Perez, this is a disc that reveals itself only after several listens. There are echoes of their previous work, especially in the more adventurous tracks like "The Valley" and "The City," whose slinky rhythms and near psychedelic musical beds recall those of Kiko or on "The Road to Gila Bend," which brings to mind their early days of roots-rock survival. Cesar Rosas delivers his usual Latin flair with the deceptively sly "Chuco's Cumbia." His Santana-like "No Puedo Mas" features a near-reggae feel. Yet The Town and the City is no repeat. It's Los Lobos confronting who we are today, in the only way they're capable, and with new sounds, fresh rhythms, and a brooding manner that's sure to get under your skin.

Los Lobos
The Town and the City
(Hollywood Records)
US release date: 12 September 2006
UK release date: 14 August 2006
by Andrew Gilstrap
PopMatters Associate Music Editor
cover art
* Amazon

Not many bands make it to the thirty-year mark, and of those that do,
fewer still make it with any vitality intact. Los Lobos are the rare
exception.

True, the band seems to have been in a holding pattern recently, what
with a record focused on collaborations (2004’s The Ride, a covers EP
(The Ride‘s accompanying Ride This disc), and a live album (2005’s
Live at the Fillmore)—oh, and a best-of disc earlier this year. But
their latest, The Town and the City, stands as one of the band’s best
efforts, even if the band’s success initially works against them.

The “problem” with Los Lobos, at this point, is that they’ve
basically spoiled us, making it easy to take them for granted.
Fourteen years past what will probably stand as their watershed
moment, 1992’s Kiko, Los Lobos have continued mining a rich vein of
traditional forms, rock, experimentation, and soulful lyricism. If
efforts like Colossal Head and This Time seemed like weaker efforts,
it’s largely because Kiko left little room for improvement (and yeah,
maybe because, here and there, the experimentation didn’t always
coalesce into solid songs).

So when you listen to The Town and the City, it’s tempting to call
the album more of the same: Los Lobos doing what they do in their
typical unassuming manner. There aren’t any songs that initially seem
like they’re going to dethrone “Just a Man”, “I Walk Alone”, “Mas y
Mas”, or “Kiko and the Lavender Moon” as Los Lobos classics—just one
solid song after another.

After a bit, though, the record’s darker feel begins to make itself
known. “The Valley” tells of those who “work through the day for as
long as we are able”; the backing arrangement has a gentle, pastoral
lope, but a keening guitar line arcs through, sometimes cutting into
the foreground, as if to underscore the hardscrabble life depicted in
the song. “Hold On” goes it one better, backing lyrics like “Hold on
to every breath / And if I make it sunrise, do it all over again /
Now I’m killin’ myself just to keep alive / Killin’ myself to
survive” with a measured rhythm, like a clock ticking towards the end
of a long day. “The Road to Gila Bend”, with overloaded electric
guitar crackling like it’s hooked to an amp via an electric fence,
tells the tale of a breakneck run across the border.

At this point, three songs in, it sounds like Los Lobos might be
making an album specifically about immigration. But by album’s end,
it sounds like they’re more concerned with the equally complicated
experience of simply living, whether it’s in a small village “back
home” or in an American city—really, the same themes they’ve been
addressing since The Neighborhood and before. The snarling guitar
bounce of “Two Dogs and a Bone” accompanies a mother’s practical
advice to her two sons, while the wistful “Little Things”, full of
regret over lost focus in modern times, simultaneously evokes Marvin
Gaye’s “What’s Going On” and Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale”.
“The City”, decorated with broad, cosmopolitan chord progressions and
sonic swirls, follows the sentiment of “c’mon let’s go out tonight”
through never-sleeping nighttime streets.

The disc closes, though, with “The Town”, which may turn out to be
one of Los Lobos’ very best tracks. A counterpoint to the evening
adrenaline of “The City”, “The Town” opens with gunshots in the city
night, and the narrator’s conviction that things are better back
home, a place he sees whenever he closes his eyes. It’s evocative
enough on its own, especially as a conclusion to an album this
strong, but the lead guitar work puts it over the top. A nuanced,
fluid mixture of sympathethic chords, jazzy double-stops, and bluesy
wails, it’s perhaps the best Los Lobo guitar work since “Just a
Man“‘s solo sounded like the band were opening up actual veins in
order to let the torment out.

If you’ve kind of let your attention to Los Lobos slide, The Town and
the City marks the perfect opportunity to get back into the fold.
With every passing year, it seems like the band is less and less
interested with peeling the pain from the roadhouse walls, but with
age and wisdom comes something subtler, and just as long-lasting.


RATING: 7 on a scale of 10
— 28 September 2006

Los Lobos
The Town and the City
(Hollywood Records)
US release date: 12 September 2006
UK release date: 14 August 2006
by Matt Cibula
cover art
* Amazon


I got this CD a few months ago, and was astounded by how vital and
fresh and deep it was. Hadn’t Los Lobos turned into a boring jamband
about 10 years ago? So this summer was largely a re-examination of
this band, which I once loved more than maybe I should have. After
all, How Will the Wolf Survive? was prime “let’s get drunk” music in
college, my wife and I fell in love to the La Bamba soundtrack, and
I’ve been known to crank up our graphics department’s copy of Kiko at
work to get a project done. But what have I been missing by ignoring
them since then?

Well, I’m ashamed to say that the answer is: a whole hell of a lot.
It turns out, after my research into all their studio albums and box
sets (man, I love the library system), that Los Lobos never fell off
at all. The warm, rugged beauty in David Hidalgo’s voice kept on
delivering even after I stopped paying attention, and Louie Perez’
lyrics on albums like Colossal Head and Good Morning Aztlan remained
folk poetry of the highest order. The box set called El Cancionero:
Mas y Mas has largely taken over my iPod, and I can even recommend
2004’s The Ride, which celebrated their 30-year anniversary as a
working band.

But forget all that history jazz for right now; let’s get back to the
record that sent me on my mission. The Town and the City is just as
tight and adventurous as anything else coming out this year, a lean
and hungry record full of beauty and pain and fear and hope by five
guys who know what the hell they’re talking about.

It starts out in atmospheric/psychedelic mode with “The Valley”, a
song full of swirling guitar sounds and a disorientingly circular
structure in both its music and its words. We go from the founding of
Los Lobos’ beloved Los Angeles ("They seemed pleased with what they
had found") to the present-day struggles of its people to keep “bread
on the table” with no warning whatsoever. It is an epic beginning for
what turns out to be an epic album.

Because a few songs after we visit “The Valley”, we run right up
against “The City”. This is a grinding rock song full of unexpected
bursts of be-bop chords built up over a beefy mambo beat, and it will
take a lot longer than a summer for me to fully understand how it
works. The talk is all about going out and celebrating, but in a
threatening (and threatened) way: “Come on let’s go out tonight /
Shoot out all the neon lights”. The freaky ambient noises and lengthy
guitar explorations make this a pretty unreliable signpost on our
journey.

In the meantime, we have come through a lot of different places and
styles and moods. “The Road to Gila Bend” is a standout, a
straightforward-seeming song with a revved-up guitar sound and a huge
pop drumbeat with spooky lyrics about staying ahead of the law with
four silver dollars and a mortal need to get to Tucson by the morning
light. We never actually learn why this character is fleeing, but the
disconnect between the words and the music is haunting—and the solo
is cool as hell. “Little Things” sounds like the Band covering “A
Whiter Shade of Pale”, but one chord change at the end of the first
verse deepens it immensely.

Some of the blues stuff here is shockingly effective. “Hold On” rides
Tchad Blake’s mix into surreal territory, an appropriate place about
a protagonist working himself into an early grave: “Killing myself
just to stay alive / Killing myself to survive”. “Two Dogs and a
Bone,” on the other hand, uses charm and guile to turn a childhood
memory into a universal statement about, um, sharing.

But Los Lobos retain their ability to kick any Latin genre they
choose. “Chuco’s Cumbia” is tough and lovely, giving Steve Berlin the
opportunity to blast a twisty-turny baritone sax solo. “No Puedo Mas”
takes cumbia even further into dub territory, while “Luna” reaches
further back into Mexican music’s folk past. But even these tunes are
darker and edgier than the band has seemed on their last couple of
records.

Everything comes back home on the final track, “The Town”. On its
surface, it is a simple song about the lifelong effects of growing up
in poverty; these effects are both negative (poverty) and positive
(family cohesion, cultural identity). It combines rock and folk and
Latin music, and its hushed tones are both lullaby and warning. Like
“The Valley” and “The City”, this song uses a sharp guitar tone and
some out-there sonics to make itself bigger than it is, but it is
already huge. In fact, “The Town” may be huge enough to be the
definitive statement on what may be the definitive album of one of
the most overlooked bands of our time.


RATING: 9 on a scale of 10
— 28 September 2006

In the Mix - Music

Los Lobos
The Town and the City
Hollywood Records

By Edward Dunn

The 13 confident tracks on The Town and the City form a loose
narrative, following an immigrant’s travels and travails al norte.
True to Los Lobos’ past musical statements, the songs take a personal
rather than politicized look at the issues at hand. But the band’s
music remains the real story here. The collection is intimate,
stirring and stylistically diverse, with pounding border-blues-rock,
slow funk and a rousing cumbia leading right into a plaintive ballad.
Two tracks split the album’s title, highlighting the emotional
dilemma faced by many immigrants with heartfelt ties to two “homes.”
“The City,” an intriguing mix of moody, ringing modulations and a
pulsing, hand-muted guitar lick, is full of a new arrival’s brash
hopes, while “The Town” is a gorgeous homesick lament.

Los Lobos, "The Town and the City" (Hollywood). Los Lobos has never delivered an album south of excellent over its two decades together. One record, however, has long stood out as a pinnacle - the early-'90s release "Kiko," a multi-idiomatic blend of musics married to startlingly imaginative production values. The band followed "Kiko" with records that are almost as brilliant, but not until the release of "The Town and the City" has the group matched "Kiko's" dreamlike magnificence. This new record packs in everything that Lobos has always done well - willfully twisting tropes pulled from Mexican-American music, jazz, Latin, blues and folk and coming up with a sound that deserves to be called unique. "The Town and the City" has plenty of the magic dust that elevated "Kiko" toward the sublime as well, much of it coming courtesy of the brilliance of the arrangements, the subtlety of the compositions, and the hypnotic, wide-screen imagination of the production - handled by the band members themselves, and given a final sweetening by Tchad Blake's mix. A fully realized masterpiece from a band we should expect nothing less from.

4 Stars (Jeff Miers)

By Doug Collette

Los Lobos
Boarding House Park
Lowell, Massachusetts
September 1, 2006

Los Lobos should be honored as a national treasure. Appearing in the home of Jack Kerouac near the end of the Massachusetts city’s summer music series, this band from East LA displayed an affectionate enthusiasm for their audience that, combined with musical diversity and instrumental chemistry at their command, provided an ever so rare means of inaugurating the autumn.

Outside in the cool late summer early fall air in the middle of Lowell, Lobos let rip right from the start. In contrast to the acoustic concerts the group’s played in recent months, this was a high-energy affair beginning with, appropriately enough, “The Neighborhood.” Brandishing his Fender most of the evening, the affable but inscrutable David Hidalgo fired off the first of a series of gritty solos the likes of which should’ve earned him the title of guitar hero years ago.

Flanking him on the opposite end of the stage, as if to symbolize the symmetry in the band’s personality, was the irrepressible Cesar Rosas. Slyly masked as usual in dark glasses even as night set in, his consecration of the audience as “music lovers” and recognition of the dancers on their feet added a different fuel to the fire that was cooking in the park.

Los Lobos didn’t jam extensively or enact long segues September 1st. But if there is anything more enjoyable to experience than a great band in the full flight of improvisation, it’s hearing a band build up a full head of steam song by song like “I Walk Alone” and “Manny’s Bones.” Los Lobos kept themselves in control and tight alignment all the way, right down to the cold stops signaled with a flourish by Cougar Estrada.

“Los Lobos' affectionate enthusiasm for their audience is equalled by the musical diversity and instrumental chemistry at their command.”

The young drummer, now sole percussionist for this great group, has much to do with their dynamism, especially as he interacts with Conrad Lozano. The bassist’s deep simple lines lock with the kick drum and toms to give tremendous bottom to a sound that was quite clear even in the open air. It was only when Hidalgo donned the accordion for “Kiko,” just at the right time for a change of pace, that charter member of Lobos Louie Perez forsook his guitars for drums (once his permanent spot in the lineup) and his lighter fluid attack recalled, appropriately enough for tunes such as “Maria Christina,” the early days of the band playing traditional Mexican music at weddings and local gatherings.

Clearly Los Lobos haven’t forgotten, much less forsaken, their roots (including those that stretch into garage rock and punk). The new album “The Town and The City” from which they introduced three cuts, is the story of their exploration into a new world made universal in a well-wrought song cycle. “Chuco’s Cumbia” and “The Road to Gila Bend” each spoke eloquently about stages of that journey, the former with Spanish effervescence buoyed by Rosas' delivery, the latter, like “Hold On,” a more atmospheric blues rendered sensitively but with the appropriate strength by Hidalgo.

These novel originals sounded as well practiced as standards of the Lobos repertoire. With the often requested and eventually played “Mas y Mas,” the band entered overdrive, in part through the inclusion of the horn section and percussionist of opener Jen Kearney’s Lost Onion band (the frontwoman joined in on the uproarious “Cumbia Raza”). Now a ten- piece band, Los Lobos pumped their way with abandon through their sole mainstream hit “La Bamba” within which they interpolated “Good Lovin’.”

And who but Los Lobos would invite upwards of thirty audience members on stage to sing, dance and effectively obscure the band itself from sight? Not only that, but all of those invitees would leave the stage without hassle as the band climaxed its set proper. The good natured mien of the audience is a direct reflection of Los Lobos and their fundamental generosity, another aspect of which they exhibited with a lengthy encore, backing Barrence Whitfield on vocals for “Hey Joe” and “Baby What You Want Me to do?”

The breadth of the band’s influences, from Jimi Hendrix to earthy R&B becomes all the more astonishing when you hear the ease and finesse with which they move from genre to genre. Lobos’ own fluid chemistry is as impressive in the lysergic-laced licks from Hidalgo on the former as the redemptive joy that emanated from the latter (notwithstanding the overwrought delivery from Massachusetts semi-legend Whitfield). Steve Berlin’s guttural sax work was a joy throughout the evening, not just when he was interacting with three other horn men at the close of the show.

While much of the Commonwealth crowd seemed to be present out of habit and/or just for the sake of curiosity, virtually no one was left sitting by the time Los Lobos had asked them to stand before roaring to the close of their two hour set. The power of great music takes many forms, as a dynamic Los Lobos demonstrated here in no uncertain terms, with all due versatility at their disposal.

CD review | ‘The Town and the City’

Among the most durable of bands, Los Lobos continues to explore the
human condition through music, be it R&B, blues, straight-ahead rock,
or norteno and other styles from Mexico, elsewhere in Latin America
and the Caribbean.

The band’s latest memorializes what it means to lose one home in
search of another, as Los Lobos chronicles the often-dangerous
passage of Mexicans to “El Norte” and what awaits them.

“The Town and the City” represents Los Lobos at some of its
philosophical best, dispensing well-crafted electrified music from a
weathered, wiser band. It displays the almost resigned mood and quiet
strength that has colored more of Los Lobos’ work since “Kiko” in 1992.

“The Town and the City” is a fine addition to the Los Lobos catalog.

— Steve Burkholder, special to the Hartford Courant

By Doug Collette

The Town And The City is music for the head, heart and soul. Its sound is deeply atmospheric, its songs emotionally resonant and its concept keenly intelligent. This is the work of a great band uniting its musical and cultural roots in a song cycle imbued with universal relevance.

That might sound pretentious if Los Lobos themselves weren't such down to earth musicians and The Town and The City (titled the same as Jack Kerouac's first major novel) so understated. In fact, some listeners will find the song cycle a challenge, in a negative sense, for that very reason. Instead of assaulting the senses, the music, in all its diverse forms, insinuates itself into the senses. Mixed almost in its entirely by Tchad Blake, who began working with Los Lobos on 1992's Kiko (Warner Bros.), these thirteen tracks are replete with small touches that in total carry profound meaning.

For instance, "Luna" immediately follows the late night/early morning rumination of "If You Were Only Here Tonight." The arrangement of percussion and flamenco-styled acoustic guitars, around which curls the burly sound of Steve Berlin's sax, furthers the vivid imagery of the lyrics. On "Valley," David Hidalgo's electric guitars simultaneously recall both George Harrison's work on Revolver (1966) and the spacious likes of early Jimi Hendrix. The deep deliberate tones of Conrad Lozano's bass only expand the mood of a song that suggests its locale, like its title, is all a state of mind.

"No Puedo Mas" sounds like just another Spanish romp of Cesar Rosas'
until Hidalgo's electric blues guitar snakes through it and the rhythm morphs into a reggae skank. In an album that thrives on contrast, Rosas'
voice and the trills in his singing on "Chuco's Cumbia" are an effective change of pace from the doleful tones of Hidalgo's vocals.

The genius of Los Lobos resides in their innate ability to find the redemptive power of music, no matter the style they choose to play.

Accordingly, "The Road to Gila Bend," a country song, bears witness to the premise the journey takes precedence over the destination (an illustration of which is Los Lobos' own thirty-plus year career).

"Little Things" is an R&B ballad of the highest order and deepest feeling. In "Two Dogs and A Bone," the band speaks through the character in the song and thereby avoids pontificating.

The light bounce of "Free Up" finds the musicians singing a good-natured challenge to their own mortality, just before once again solemnly recalling their past in "The Town." By the time this track plays, it's been a journey of no small consequence since "Hold On," a declaration of faith that belies its refrain: "I'm killing myself just to stay alive."

Only a single track on The Town and The City, "Don't Ask Why," exceeds five minutes. The cumulative effect of hearing the disc in its entirety, however, will bring rewards long after its playing time is over.

MASTERPIECE: Los Lobos' new album, "The Town and the City," ranks
among the band's best.

HOLLYWOOD RECORDS

Friday, September 15, 2006
Sound Check: A slew of new notables sound check
By BEN WENER
The Orange County Register

Record-biz bigwigs may not have touted it as such, but where I shop,
the day after 9/11 was a release-heavy Super Tuesday if there ever
was one. All this plus the return of Justin Timberlake, Bob Seger and
Shawn Colvin? No wonder I haven't even cracked open the new Yo La
Tengo opus yet.

•Los Lobos, "The Town and the City" (Hollywood) – Now that this
subdued little wonder has arrived, that string of dates late last
year during which these never-say-die Wolves played "Kiko" (their
greatest achievement) in its entirety makes a lot more sense. Clearly
that was indicative of their mind-set lately, for finally, 14 years
later, they've managed something of a sequel to it.

True, the band is now known for fusing austere atmosphere with
detailed stories of Mexican-American life amid an array of musical
styles, from roots-rock to cumbia. But since "Kiko" such experiments
have typically been tossed into a more straightforward mix.

On this self-produced (but clearly Tchad Blake-assisted) effort,
however, the captivatingly murky mood is expertly sustained. It
enhances both David Hidalgo's soothing voice and searing solos and
adds impressionistic shading to the overall concept: a vivid,
ambitious, deliberately ambiguous examination of immigration.

From the promise of "The Valley" to the labor pains of "Hold On,"
from the identity-losing lament of "Little Things" to the crushing
reality of "The Town," in which the protagonist realizes he's perhaps
no better off for having made the journey, every song cuts deep, even
the celebratory ones. Every answer only raises more questions. One of
Los Lobos' all-time best. (The band plays Oct. 13 at Disney Hall.)
Grade: A

Listen: Howl

Los Lobos' new release and more

By PHIL GALLO

Los Lobos, “The Town and the City” (Hollywood)

The East L.A. rockers return to form with their most assured album since “Colossal Head” a decade ago. Like their masterpiece, “Kiko, this new release is a multi-textured affair, pushing straightforward melodies into a host of sonic directions. Lyrics for the 13 neatly performed tunes are tied to the Mexican-American experience — family ties, the dream of a better life across the border, nights out in the city. “Town” proves yet again that this is one of America's finest rock ‘n' roll bands.

By Dave Ruden Los Lobos has forged a reputation as one of the premier roots-rock bands -- and should be considered one of the best rock groups, period -- for constantly taking its music in different directions. Each album serves as a collection of short stories, with similar structures etched around experimentation, territory few others would attempt. On "The Town and The City," Los Lobos comes closest to matching its masterpiece and critical favorite, "Kiko." Methodical in pacing and with fewer straight-out rockers, there are layered, unorthodox sounds that spring from David Hidalgo's guitar. The album warms up slowly with a pair of slow numbers before taking a rare turn into high gear with the infectious "The Road to Gila Bend." On "Little Things," one of the album's many strong ballads, and the rhythmic "No Puedo Mas," the group sounds like it has spent time listening to old Procol Harum songs. Other highlights include "Luna," which could have been lifted from the Kiko sessions, and "The Town," the perfect edgy closer to this engaging 13-track collection. As always, Cesar Rosas' vocals are in fine form, and after a brief foray into working with some favorite artists, Los Lobos again proves it is one of the tightest bands around. "The Town and The City" requires a few listens for its virtuosity to set in, but the time is well-spent and the result is one of the best recordings of the year. Copyright © 2006, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.

DiscSpace
Sep 14, 2006

LOS LOBOS | The Town and the City | Hollywood Records

Over their 33 years, Los Angeles’ Los Lobos has been many bands.
They’ve been a group of Americana music aficionados that play
straight blues, soul and country numbers. They’ve been a collective
of adventuresome musicians recording soundscapes with surreal lyrics—
a phase explored further on their superb side projects as the Latin
Playboys. And, at other times, they’re just a Chicano band hoping to
get the party started with their cumbias and covers of Ritchie
Valens’ tunes.

On their 13th album, The Town and the City, which is one of their
best studio efforts of the last decade, Los Lobos wallow in their
diversity. The opener titled “The Valley” has an experimental sound
due to the track’s effects-laden guitars, which sound like laser
beams. With its percussion and dark lyrical content, “Hold On” could
be a number off of Tom Waits’ Rain Dogs, while “The Road to Gila
Bend” is a fuzzy country rock stomp that would make Neil Young proud.
Most of the latter part of the CD finds Los Lobos taking a more
straightforward approach to their songs, from the electric blues of
“Two Dogs and a Bone” to “Little Things,” which sounds like a classic
rock nugget.

It’s a real testament to the band that none of these genre excursions
sound forced, and in the end, The Town and The City seems to have a
little bit of something for all different types of Los Lobos fans. —
Stuart Thornton

Maybe Los Lobos' best disc since 1992's Kiko, The Town and the City isn't as adventurous, but it's a sinewy set dominated by contemplative David Hidalgo songs about the Mexican American experience, on both sides of the border - something the Wolves know a thing or two about. It's got its fair share of Cesar Rosas dance tunes to keep spirits high.

Los Lobos are still as good as ever, hitting us with thirteen tracks on their killer, thirteenth full-length album, The Town And The City.
The band expands their roots-rock sound by adding darker tones and themes. Where Kiko has a psychedelic dream vibe to it, The Town And The City has more of an experimental blues feel, which allows them to still hit hard and rock as they have done in the past.

The Town And The City opens with the dark, mellow blues of “The Valley” and “Hold On”. Both have solid drums and percussion and are filled with light guitar picking (both acoustic and electric) and background sounds that help to set the mood. The lyrics here are also linked in their solemn tone and by David Hidalgo’s easygoing and mournful yet passionate vocals. “Hold On” describes how in a sunrise things can change and how easy it can be to slip into a world of abuse, be it self or substance. I dig this moody number with its tribal drums and chorus of “killing myself to survive”. It hits the working man hard, making you reflect on why and how you can get up every morning to continue doing what you think is right.

With the third track, “The Road to Gila Bend”, things start to jump and the band kicks into the house rockers that they are; the drums thump, the bass is solid, and the guitar soars. Hidalgo’s vocals pick up as bit as well as they always do on such songs. The lyrics are about the twist and turns on life’s road — how it seems there is no end and no place to lay one’s head.

“Chuco’s Cumbia” is the first of three songs in Spanish, each with a different feel and vibe. Cesar Rosas delivers it with authenticity in Pachuco Calo, a Spanish-English slang developed by zoot-suited Mexican-American hepsters in the 1930s and ‘40s. The song reflects the title, a danceable cumbia beat filled with swinging horns and Rosas’ vocal pep. “Luna” is the band’s take on the traditional sounds of Mexico, pushing it into something all their own, twisting the acoustic guitar and bass just far enough to keep a psychedelic feel to the song. “No Puedo Mas” is a song where you can hear some of Los Lobos’ “Eastside sound” influences, from such local bands as Malo and El Chicano. Heavy organ, hard-edged electric guitars, funky bass lines and Rosas’ Chicano soul vocals fuel the track.

Two standout tracks are “If You Were Only Here Tonight” and “Two Dogs And One Bone”. “If You Were Only Here” is a slow blues driven by Hidalgo’s sorrowful vocals about the absence of someone special, even just the sound of their voice, and how that could keep you from doing something that you might regret. The powerful lyrics of the night slowly becoming another day have this one hitting home for me: “what am I to do/ when the clock says half past two/ do I stare out in the dark/ or try to look for you” and “wouldn’t have did what I have done/ if you were only here tonight”. On the opposite end of the ladder is “Two Dogs”, a jump tune where the power comes through its music rather than its words, reeling and rocking the blues away.

“The City” and “The Town”, the dual title tracks, are excellent numbers that explore the themes, feel, and difference of those locales. “The City” is a study of the calling of the neon nightlife and the vices it offers. A very lively yet dark tune, propelled forward and downward by heavy organ and plunking piano, in the middle of the track there is an odd sound as if a dog's barking. It captures the scene of a late night out perfectly, how it can spiral out of control into the break of day. “The Town” is a reminiscence of the place of one’s youth and how that place in time can seem more innocent and somewhere that your heart truly resides, a place where all your friends and family are together, at least in dreams.

The rest of the album rounds out with three very 1960s soul-inspired tunes, “Little Things”, “Don’t Ask Why”, and “Free Up”. These songs are very much in the vein of soul legends Solomon Burke and Otis Redding as well as local Chicano heroes Thee Midniters and Little Ray. Los Lobos’ soulful influences shine on this CD and they twist it just far enough to make it all their own as they have done with everything else they’ve done in the past.

So what does the new Los Lobos CD say to me? It screams that after all these years, David Hidalgo, Cesar Rosas, Conrad Lozano, Louie Perez, and Steve Berlin have stuck together to create the music that they want and love. They have formed a brotherhood and are strong enough and talented enough to keep turning out solid, thought- provoking albums that can reflect the world around you as well as the one inside you. That this band can go through these ups and downs and still lean on each other as friends as well as a musical unit is something that we can all learn from. Friends, like true talent and really good albums, are hard to come by, so appreciate what you have.
As for Los Lobos, here’s to lucky number thirteen and may you provide us with many more as the years roll on!

So yeah, run out and grab this one. Go now! Come prepared, bring something with you and take something as you go. I’m sure the band wouldn’t have it any other way.

Written by Fantasma el Rey

“The Town and the City” circles back to the thoughtful territory Los Lobos staked out on albums like “Kiko and the Lavender Moon” and “Colossal Head”: some roots-rock, some Caribbean rhythms, some rangy guitar and some existential reflections. The band has rediscovered a sense of mystery.

“Where’s the place that I once knew?” David Hidalgo sings in “Don’t Ask Why” on “The Town and the City,” Los Lobos’ latest album. “Gone away, disappeared into the blue.”

That sense of displacement runs through the band’s somber, impressive new album. Los Lobos has swerved away from the upbeat music it plays on the jam-band circuit (and on its 2005 album “Live at the Fillmore”), harking back to its quietly startling 1992 album, “Kiko.” The new songs, most of them by Mr. Hidalgo and Louie Pérez, are about journeys to uncertain destinations and what’s lost along the way.

The music is rooted in the 1960’s, connected to blues, soul, the Band and Neil Young as well as Mexican music. But those roots provide little security. Sounds loom up out of nowhere, and silence opens mysterious hollows; both occur in “Hold On,” which is as hypnotic as an old one-chord blues but filled with ghostly instruments and eerie electronic shimmers. “Killing myself to survive,” Mr. Hidalgo intones.

When Mr. Hidalgo sings about going out to have a good time in “The City,” the band’s cheerful cumbia beat keeps getting interrupted, while minor guitar chords tug the music toward someplace ominous. “The Town” is about childhood memories of a distant hometown — gunshots in the night, worried parents — and thoughts of dying there. For Los Lobos there’s no comfort in sight, ahead or behind. JON PARELES

While politicians and protesters were busy marching and making speeches on immigration in recent months, East L.A.'s acclaimed Chicano rockers were in a recording studio quietly preparing their own statement on the subject. The result is this outstanding new album, due in stores today.

It's a subtle, suggestive and at times ambiguous look at an issue often drawn in trite extremes of pro and con, black and white.

This set of 13 evocative songs is told from a clear immigrant point of view, as you might expect of four Mexican Americans (and one Anglo fellow traveler) who have found fame and stature, if not fortune, while remaining loyal, artistically and personally, to their barrio roots.

But in a debate where talk is cheap, the strength of this work rests heavily on what's left unsaid. This is an album in the classic, pre- digital sense, in which the very sequence of songs suggests meaning and connection.

Los Lobos (who perform Oct. 13 at Disney Hall) use lyrical images and moody soundscapes to convey what it feels like to be an immigrant. Buzz words -- border, illegals, cheap labor, homeland security -- are banned.

They speak of hope and heartache, ambition and disenchantment, sacrifices and healing.

Because immigration is always a journey, the album opens with "The Valley," which evokes the dawn of a new life in a promised land. But already, layers of sonic dissonance create an unsettling undercurrent.

Dreams of arrival immediately turn into the droning, chain-gang blues of "Hold On," about the oppressive drudgery of low-skill work: "Killing myself just to keep alive/ Killing myself to survive."

The songs then explore the unexpected changes immigration always brings to people who undertake it. The lively, carefree "Chuco's Cumbia," with its Chicano calo (slang) and hot sax, serves as transition to a cool new culture. But "Little Things" laments the loss of values and "Don't Ask Why" the emptiness of shattered illusions.

Near the end, the gospel-tinged "Free Up" urges a philosophical adjustment to a snappy beat. Happiness comes to those who wait, for the peace of death. "When it comes my time/ You won't find me cryin' / When I'm gone/ Everything will be fine."

Yet the album closes with the torn and unsettled yearning of "The Town."

Where has the journey led us? Full circle to dreams of a better place, always out of reach:

"I can go there when I dream/ I close my eyes and it's all I see./ The town where I come from."

-- Agustin Gurza

CLICK HERE for feature on Extra! En Espanol. Click on the image of The Town And The City.

Tucson makes a cameo in Los Lobos' upcoming release, "The Town and the City."
It's quick and you might miss it if you aren't paying close attention.
But it is there.

"Got to Tucson in the dark / Keeping eye out for the law / 500 miles or more from a broken heart," sings David Hidalgo on the mournful track "The Road to Gila Bend," which documents the border-crossing experience.

The song also references our Arizona neighbor to the south, Nogales.

Of course, the honorable mention isn't the only reason to purchase "The Town and the City," especially for fans of Los Lobos' eclectic sound.

The album twists and turns through straight East L.A. rock ("The Valley"), festive cumbias ("Chuco's Cumbia") and rough-and-tumble roadhouse blues ("Two Dogs and a Bone") with ease.

An entertaining listen, even without the Tucson cameo.
— Gerald M. Gay

CD reviews: Los Lobos; Warner Drive; The Matches

By Paul Maldonado Jr.
Tribune Music Writer
September 8, 2006

Los Lobos, "The Town and The City" (Hollywood Records/Mammoth, out
Tuesday)

For the latest chapter in their 33-year career, Los Lobos return to
the psychic moods and existential experimentation of "Kiko" and
"Colossal Head": sparse instrumentation but a dense, very intimate
sound. The sonic dreamscapes just wash over.

This is a concept album of the nth degree: The immigrant story told
in the first person. But it could also be the story of the fleeting,
fading American dream, as this is the band's darkest record in years.

The disc begins with the three-song punch of "The Valley," a languid,
dreamy creation epic about leaving home; "Hold On," a mystic
indigenous blues about survival; and the honky-tonk organ-vamping
rocker "The Road To Gila Bend" that gives an overview of the
immigrant journey.

Next is the first of Cesar Rosas' compositions. "Chuco's Cumbia" is a
Mexican cumbia about fitting in in a new place with new "friends"
with lyrics sung in calo, Spanglish slang; this song reminds me of
growing up in the barrio in El Chuco (i.e., El Paso). His second is a
sensuous rocker with a Latin lilt "No Puedo Mas" about betrayal in
love and life and friendships; the guitar break could give Santana a
run for his money. In the other song sung in Spanish, David Hidalgo
wraps his haunting baritone around the longing love song "Luna," a
mutating samba that goes tropical.

However, the guys do rock out. "Two Dogs And A Bone" is '60s garage
rock 'n' roll. And speaking of stuck in the '60s, "Little Things" is
a sorrowful, soulful church organ/guitar brood a la Procol Harum's "A
Whiter Shade Of Pale." The morality play "Don't Ask Why" evolves from
dirge to Latin rocker; while the jazzy and loungey "The Town"
proffers nostalgia for home, for a bygone time.

The heart of the album, the song that encapsulates the overarching
theme while capturing the inner turmoil of the current circumstance
with longing for the past or an idealized version of it is epitomized
on "The City." The music is a mash-up of styles - rock 'n' roll and
cumbia - that serves as a musical metaphor. It's sonic assimilation,
the meshing of genres/cultures, yet they remain distinct. Neither is
dominant and in the end something new is formed.

Like all of Los Lobos' CDs, "The Town And The City" is a journey of
discovery. It's at once familiar, friendly and inviting . . . if you
open your mind (as the band suggests on "Free Up").

Los Lobos visit our town and city, bringing compadres Ozomatli along
for the ride. The Latin rock twin bill goes off at 8 p.m. Saturday at
Tingley Coliseum as part of the New Mexico State Fair, Expo New
Mexico, 300 San Pedro Drive N.E. Tickets for the all-ages show range
from $10-$30, plus service charges, at Ticketmaster outlets or call
883-7800.

Los Lobos isn't destined to revisit the mainstream popularity of the "La Bamba'' days, judging from the sparse attendance at the band's show last year at House of Blues.

That doesn't mean the band doesn't continue to make compelling music. The Town and the City (in stores Tuesday) is the most unaffected and evocative batch of songs that Los Lobos has released in some time.

There's a broad theme at the root of this material about the aspirations and hardships of immigrants, but it's delivered gently. Having already produced one of the most poignant songs ever on that topic ("A Matter of Time''), it's unreasonable to expect that these new songs could outshine that gem.

They don't, although the late-night country shuffle "If You Were Only Here Tonight" comes close with its wistful signature line: "I wouldn't have did what I had done, if you were only here tonight."

Lyricist Louie Perez has described the opening "The Valley'' as a "creation myth" and the words unfold above an eerie instrumental track that sounds primordial. It's followed by the hardship tale "Hold On," with its insistent Latin percussion and hypnotic guitar riff.

Just when the album seems as if it's ready to sink into its atmospheric production, the band starts to find its energy with "The Road to Gila Bend." It would be barroom blues, except for the moody, overdriven guitars.

Sonically, The Town and the City excels at blending the band's familiar Tex-Mex, Latin, rock, folk and jazz influences. "Chuco's Cumbia" is an old-school number suitable for bon-bon shaking, "Two Dogs and a Bone" is a rollicking revisitation of 1950s rockabilly and "The City" unites swinging rhythms with some experimental noise.

It shows that even if Los Lobos has lost some of its "La Bamba" audience, it still has a clear vision of its own identity.

Los Lobos’ latest harks back to the depth and emotion of ‘Kiko’
~ By CHRIS MORRIS ~

Is there a band in Los Angeles as in touch with its identity and as in control of its art as Los Lobos? Doubtful. Now in its 33rd year as an ensemble, the East L.A. group has made one of its periodic reconnections with its unique collective genius; the result is the splendid and powerful new album The Town and the City (Hollywood Records), due this Tuesday.

The record comes after a protracted period of time-marking, which saw the release of the covers collection The Ride and a live set cut at the Fillmore. But a series of recent concerts in which the Lobos performed their 1992 masterwork Kiko in its entirety appears to have ignited a creative burst. Certainly the band hasn’t essayed a work as deep and as emotionally direct as The Town and the City since that musically expansive precursor.

Early chatter has connected the two albums, but they’re very different animals. The self-produced new set does sport the same sonic density and rich mood as its predecessor, and Tchad Blake, Kiko’s imaginative engineer and a member of the Lobos side project the Latin Playboys, mixed nine of the album’s 13 tracks. But, whereas Kiko was a fabulist reverie, The Town and the City is grounded in harsh and sometimes forbidding reality; the layered, clattering sound of the earlier record animates material that can be considered ancestors of the story-songs told on such Lobos opuses as How Will the Wolf Survive?, By the Light of the Moon, and The Neighborhood.

The key songs are set geographically. “The Valley,” which opens the album, could be California’s Central Valley in its paradisiacal state; it may be there where the (presumably migrant) narrator of “Hold On” is, as David Hidalgo sings, “killing myself to survive,” trapped in an endless cycle of poverty-line labor. “The City” namechecks downtown Los Angeles and environs; its lyrics suggest gaiety, but the music hovers like a threatening cloud, and by its end Hidalgo is waving a pistol to “shoot out all the neon lights.” The album concludes with “The Town” – maybe it’s one of those cities to the east; there, Hidalgo hears shots ringing in the night, and the children are told not to stray too far from the yard. It’s home, but an uneasy one.

The most potent tracks are clammy with fear, heavy with regret. On “The Road to Gila Bend,” the nameless narrator flees through the Southwest, broke, ducking the law, escaping some shattered love he left behind; the song is animated by a Neil Young-like guitar line that buzzes like an enormous, enraged bee. “Little Things” sports one of Hidalgo’s most plaintive, heartbreaking vocals and an organ-based melody that threatens to break into “A Whiter Shade of Pale.” Many of Los Lobos’ songs weigh the American dream; the singer here is one who has embraced the dream, to the loss of all else, left to stand in the glittering wreckage of a loveless life.

With Hidalgo and his career-long cowriter Louie Perez summoning all manner of pitch darkness here, it is left to the irrepressible Cesar Rosas to admit shafts of light into the proceedings. He takes the lead on two tracks in Spanish, the self-explanatory “Chuco’s Cumbia” and “No Puedo Mas,” where he flexes his reggae chops like a Latin Marley. Hidalgo accounts for the sunnier “Luna” (the only number that truly harks back to the magical sound of Kiko), the brawny blues buster “Two Dogs and a Bone,” and the lightly swinging “Free Up,” but even in the latter some thoughts of impending death blacken the horizon.

Reflective, somber, and fabulously textured, The Town and the City is an album of serious and mature intent. It’s another essential entry from Los Lobos, and yet another reminder that this ever-estimable L.A. resource should never be taken for granted.

Chris Morris hosts Watusi Rodeo on Indie 103.1 FM, every Sun. at 11 a.m.

After variously celebrating their 30th anniversary with the star- studded The Ride, documenting their bracing live shows on Live at the Fillmore and doing a little intimate musical retrenchment on the self- released Acoustic En Vivo, Los Lobos returned to the studio with creative exploration on their minds. The result is their most sonically adventurous, thematically taut collection since the heady days of Kiko and Colossal Head. With lyrics penned mostly by multi- instrumentalist Louis Perez, the album's first-person narrative views a myriad of larger issues through slices of local life, from the immigrants' physical and spiritual travails of "The Valley" and "Hold On" to the liturgical grace of "Little Things" and the haunting, neo- psych impressionism of "The City." The musical tack even more adventurous one, one that seamlessly infuses diverse flavors that range from the infectious calo Spanglish patois of Cesar Rosa's "Chuco's Cumbia" and neo-norteno "The Road to Gila Bend" to the chunky r&b groove of "Don't Ask Why," the Caribbean-Latin fusion of "No Pueda Mas" and the shadowy, jazz reflectiveness of the "The Town." The Lobos blend it all into a compelling sonic landscape, one that's tamed the playful, psychedelic spirit of Perez and Louis Hidalgo's free-spirited Latin Playboys side project and focused it into a band context with rich rewards at every turn. -- Jerry McCulley

That Los Lobos has been a functioning band for over three decades is remarkable in itself. That the East L.A. combo continues to put out quality music after so long is nothing short of miraculous, especially in rock & roll. (Just ask the Rolling Stones, who’ve been creatively bankrupt for as long as Lobos has been around.) A song cycle of sorts concerning the immigrant experience in a democracy in turmoil, The Town and the City is a typically eclectic journey through the band’s artistic vision. Blues (“Two Dogs and a Bone”), frontier rock (“The Road to Gila Bend”), Latin excursions (“No Puedo Mas,” “Chuco’s Cumbia”), quirky R&B (“Free Up,” “Don’t Ask Why”) and ethereal avant-garde pop (“The Town,” “The City”) fit comfortably side-by-side, held together by the force of the group’s distinct personality. The band’s self-production strikes a balance between earthy and ambient, reminiscent of the group’s experimental masterpiece Kiko, though there’s a less risky vibe here. There’s none of the band’s ass-kicking rock & roll, alas, but otherwise The Town and the City deftly showcases the many strengths of Los Lobos.
Michael Toland

By KATHLEEN DEELY, Sun Staff

Los Lobos plays Boarding House Park tonight.

Los Lobos came up on the mean streets of East L.A., but they have a dose of Lowell in their blood, even if they don't know it.

The band's sax player, Steve Berlin, lets it slip by phone that their first concept album, out this month, is called The Town and the City.

"Named after the Kerouac book?" I ask.

"Yes. You are one of the first to get that reference," says Berlin, who at this point doesn't know that Jack Kerouac hailed from Lowell.

When I break the news to him, along with directions to Kerouac Park, a block away from Boarding House Park where the band plays tonight, he is audibly excited.

"That is very cool. Our drummer is reading On the Road right now."

It's an appropriate story for this traveling rhythm-and- blues band, which has been on the road steadily since they formed in 1973.

Founded by Dave Hidalgo and Louis Perez, Los Lobos, which means The Wolves in Spanish, started as a good-time wedding and bar band until they had the good fortune to cover the Ritchie Valens hit "La Bamba"
in 1987. That upbeat wedding song secured them a permanent notch on the pop culture rung.

Berlin said getting the rights to that song for the movie by the same name about Valens must have been written in the stars.

"We knew Ritchie's family in the early days. Anytime we were in Santa Cruz, we would hang out at their house. We were seen as part of their family. So when it came time to agree to the movie rights, the family put in the stipulation that Los Lobos would do the song or they wouldn't hand it over."

Call it a lucky break, Los Lobos made this celebratory song their own. And unlike many bands that refuse to play the songs that made them big, Los Lobos does not hold back.

"It's not our most favorite song to play, but we are human. It's not a double-edged sword. We got to experience life as a hit band," said Berlin,

It's an experience that has eluded them since.

Although they get traction on satellite and college radio these days, they are almost ignored by commercial radio.

"They were big supporters once upon a time. Now they can't play us.
They fall victim to the corporations that tell them what to play,"
said Berlin, who lives in Portland, Ore.

With a Spanish influence, rock and soul backbone, Los Lobos does not easily fit into a genre -- the type that record and radio companies are governed by.

Clearly, the game has changed since the '80s and Berlin is glad the band broke into the big time when it did.

"The most notable thing is we have two great singers, two voices and songwriters. In the '70s and '80s, to have one good singer was amazing. Anything beyond was unbelievable," said Berlin, who joined Los Lobos after jumping ship from The Blasters, a rockabilly band.

Since then, they've been prolific, coming out with new albums frequently -- the most notable Kiko, a breakthrough, dreamy album considered their most accomplished. A greatest hits CD, Wolf Tracks, was released this year.

After 33 years of touring steadily and creating new sounds, this group of 50-year-olds is not looking to be the most downloadable band on iTunes. Hits are not in their playbook.

"I don't think in these terms. We have bigger fish to fry. The music business and pop industry is not something we try to figure out,"
said Berlin.

As long as they remain true to their mission of keeping music spiritual, Los Lobos will be satisfied with their place in the annals of rock.

"I'll take a 30-year career to 30 minutes in the spotlight and then you are flipping burgers," said Berlin.

Lowell's fiery femme fatale Jen Kearney and the Lost Onion open up.

"Wicked Rain"

While rainfall tallies from Tropical Storm Ernesto were less impressive than expected across the Florida peninsula, the storm will bring some "wicked rain" to the Carolinas tonight and tomorrow, with Mid-Atlantic rainfall continuing into the weekend.

I'll therefore use this opportunity to feature one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite albums of one of my favorite bands as this week's "Wednesday weather song." The tune "Wicked Rain" is the 12th track from Los Lobos' 1992 album, Kiko. Another weather-titled tune is "Can't Stop the Rain" from Colossal Head and weather imagery is used throughout "Will the Wolf Survive?," from the 1984's How Will the Wolf Survive?, the band's major label debut album.

Los Lobos fans can look forward to new music, as the band's new album, The Town and the City, will hit store shelves on Sept. 12.

Any other Los Lobos fans out there? Feel free to post other weather- related tunes I may have missed. Also feel free to make a suggestion for a future "Wednesday weather song" by clicking the comment button below.

BY RICK MASSIMO - Journal Pop Music Writer

Instead of entrenching itself in nearly 30 years, band works harder for inspiration

Nearly 30 years into their careers, the members of Los Lobos are putting out some of their best work (witness 2004's The Ride). And their latest record, The Town and The City, coming out next month, continues the trend for the L.A.-based quintet.

The record tells a story of striving and change, and the cost of that striving and change. It also illustrates the meeting points between Anglo and Mexican culture while continuing the sonic explorations the band started with 1992's Kiko and especially 1996's Colossal Head.

Saxophonist-keyboardist Steve Berlin says the recording process, where soundscapes are born and the groove is carried out with occasionally whacked-out drum sounds, is "the part of this job we probably enjoy the most," adding that it gets harder to come up with something we haven't done at least a couple of times already." It may have been enjoyable, Berlin says, but it wasn't easy.

"This record presented challenges like there never were before. There were songs in the past that would show up and just magically play themselves. This time around was anything but the case.

"We kind of had to whittle them down and sometimes wrestle them down. I think we were, at this point, spoiled from being able to just go into a recording studio and having inspiration follow us in. This time we sort of had to chase it around the building more than a few times."

He says there was no specific factor that made this record a difficult process -- "It's just the way that it is" -- but that it was part of the job.

"I say that with the knowledge that this isn't supposed to be easy. If it were easy, anybody could do it. It's a challenge, and a challenge we happily take on. And we kind of relish it. I think it just took us a minute or two to realize that it wasn't going to be the painless, simple process that it had been."

Berlin says the band's set list contains three songs from The Town and The City, and would have more, but their relentless touring schedule makes it difficult to rehearse new material (we spoke over the phone on a single off day between a European and an American tour). "Hopefully we're going to try to incorporate more as we go."

When not playing with Los Lobos, Berlin, who played with L.A. rockabilly revivalists The Blasters before joining Los Lobos, does a lot of producing, with clients including singer-songwriter wunderkind Jackie Greene. But the band's the thing, and at this point their longevity and independence are a point of pride.

"It's not like you go into it thinking 'The clock's ticking.' . . . I'm certainly pleased it's lasted this long. Frankly, at this stage it's hard to imagine us doing something profoundly different. I'm certainly pleased by that; it's an amazing gift to be able to do something this long, and basically never having to retrench anything."

Los Lobos plays on the main stage Saturday night at the Rhythm & Roots Festival at Ninigret Park in Charlestown.

By GARAUD MacTAGGART
News Contributing Reviewer

Los Lobos
Tuesday night at Artpark Outdoor Amphitheater in Lewiston.

LEWISTON - What a great night. The weather was pleasant in a cool, almost fall sort of way and one of the most magnificent rock bands of the past two decades was up on stage as the final big-name act in Artpark's set of free concerts. If you weren't there, you missed one of the best shows of the summer.

Los Lobos, originally a quartet based out of east Los Angeles, played at all kinds of barrio functions before breaking out of that niche and performing in various rock venues. Since that time, the group has won Grammy Awards, played in support of the Farm Workers Union and sold a fair number of albums.

The band hasn't lost touch with its roots either, combining language and rhythm from its formative years with new melodic riffs to build timeless tunes like "Luz De Mi Vida" and "Maricela."

Tuesday night's gig also featured a classic rock tune ("Come On, Let's Go" - originally by Richie Valens, the prototypical Mexican rocker) and a few original songs inspired by the past including "Don't Worry Baby," "Let's Go, Let's Go" and "Evangeline."

"The Town and The City" is the band's new album (due for release Sept. 12) and it played a few cuts. Based on the cuts Los Lobos performed, it seemed to have crafted its usual blend of catchy riffs and sobering lyrics. The moody "Hold On" and "The Town" were balanced out by the more uptempo "Chuco's Cumbia" and "The Road to Gila Bend."

From a musical standpoint, the band was outstanding. Guitarists Cesar Rosas and David Hidalgo were outstanding, bassist Conrad Lozano was fluid yet understated, and saxophonist/flutist/keyboardist Steve Berlin was perfect when comping in the background but capable of strongly characterized solos as well.

Los Lobos, Jazz Cafe, London
By Gavin Martin

Heavy-set and stone-faced they sport shades, goatees and pork-pie hats. Los Lobos look like the Reservoir Dogs of Chicano rock. Thirty-three years since they began, Los Lobos' brief dalliance with mainstream success (their 1987 soundtrack to the Ritchie Valens biopic La Bamba) may be past, but, as tonight proves, their musical engagement is a lifelong affair.

On the opening "Hold On" Dave Hidalgo is a tender giant, his sweet cry of soulful resolve pivoting on a determined declaration to "do it all over again" while bass player Conrad Lozano provides a loping swamp groove. Then, swapping his frazzled blues guitar for a set of maracas, Cesar Rosas takes the first of several Spanish-language lead vocals, an intoxicating blend of high kicking cantina fiestas and slow waltzes. All the while the newest member, the excellently named, suitably lethal, drummer Cougar Estrada, maintains an agile and alert pulse.

"Chains" initially seems to be a generic bump'n'grind blues but soon explodes into one of the exultant jam-band lift-offs. The title track of the 1990 album "The Neighbourhood" is a reminder that the personal struggles of immigrant, communities have been a long-standing concern. That's the theme binding their current, excellent, The Town And The City album. "Road To Gila Bend" one of many new tracks featured from it, is transcendent, its classic pop chorus as instantly memorable as the shimmering "Kiko And The Lavender Moon".

Abandoning a tantalising blast of Van Morrison's "Moondance", Rosas cracks a grin and wryly defers to the venue by introducing a "jazz" song. But the smoking desert rock of "Whiskey Trail", like a cross-border ZZ Top, proves to be a long way from the textbook description of "jazz".

But then, as seasoned musicians versed in everything from the garage-punk ballistics of "Don't Worry Baby" to the nortenos and conjuntos of their family and musical forebears, Los Lobos are right to leave categorical quibbles to the radio playlist barons.

The finale was a world-shaking, jet-powered assault on "My Generation", with the guitars of Louie Perez, Rosas and Hidalgo in adrenalin-charged unison.

Heavy-set and stone-faced they sport shades, goatees and pork-pie hats. Los Lobos look like the Reservoir Dogs of Chicano rock. Thirty-three years since they began, Los Lobos' brief dalliance with mainstream success (their 1987 soundtrack to the Ritchie Valens biopic La Bamba) may be past, but, as tonight proves, their musical engagement is a lifelong affair.

On the opening "Hold On" Dave Hidalgo is a tender giant, his sweet cry of soulful resolve pivoting on a determined declaration to "do it all over again" while bass player Conrad Lozano provides a loping swamp groove. Then, swapping his frazzled blues guitar for a set of maracas, Cesar Rosas takes the first of several Spanish-language lead vocals, an intoxicating blend of high kicking cantina fiestas and slow waltzes. All the while the newest member, the excellently named, suitably lethal, drummer Cougar Estrada, maintains an agile and alert pulse.

"Chains" initially seems to be a generic bump'n'grind blues but soon explodes into one of the exultant jam-band lift-offs. The title track of the 1990 album "The Neighbourhood" is a reminder that the personal struggles of immigrant, communities have been a long-standing concern. That's the theme binding their current, excellent, The Town And The City album. "Road To Gila Bend" one of many new tracks featured from it, is transcendent, its classic pop chorus as instantly memorable as the shimmering "Kiko And The Lavender Moon".

Abandoning a tantalising blast of Van Morrison's "Moondance", Rosas cracks a grin and wryly defers to the venue by introducing a "jazz" song. But the smoking desert rock of "Whiskey Trail", like a cross-border ZZ Top, proves to be a long way from the textbook description of "jazz".

But then, as seasoned musicians versed in everything from the garage-punk ballistics of "Don't Worry Baby" to the nortenos and conjuntos of their family and musical forebears, Los Lobos are right to leave categorical quibbles to the radio playlist barons.

The finale was a world-shaking, jet-powered assault on "My Generation", with the guitars of Louie Perez, Rosas and Hidalgo in adrenalin-charged unison.

Critics' concert picks for the week of August 25-31.

POP/ROCK

Los Lobos take a pretty serious turn on their upcoming album, "The Town and the City," due Sept. 12. Produced by experimental guru Tchad Blake, it's a more downbeat, poetic riff on the struggles of nomadic life, be it a rock band's or an immigrant's. Whether the East L.A. rock legends preview the disc or stick to their standards at these two zoo gigs, they're always a sure bet for summer concerts. (7:30 p.m. Fri. & Sat., Weesner Amphitheater, Minnesota Zoo. $30.
651-989-5151.) (C.R.)

Yes, this eclectic Los Angeles ensemble has put out some great albums over the years ("How Will the Wolf Survive?" "Kiko," "Good Morning Aztlan"), but Los Lobos has always been one of those bands that's immeasurably better in concert. If the band has ever put on a show anything short of excellent on its many Twin Cities visits, we haven't heard about it. And the amphitheater at the zoo has emerged as a favorite venue for them, one where they tend to really cut loose, perhaps in tribute to the nearby Mexican wolves that share their moniker. Since they're playing two nights there, it's a good possibility the two set lists won't share too many common tunes. 7:30 p.m.; Weesner Family Amphitheater, Minnesota Zoo, 13000 Zoo Blvd., Apple Valley; Aug. 25-26; $30; 651-989-5151. — Rob Hubbard

Friday-Saturday: Yes, this eclectic Los Angeles ensemble has put out some great albums over the years ("How Will the Wolf Survive?"

"Kiko," "Good Morning Aztlan"), but they've always been one of those bands that's immeasurably better in concert. If Los Lobos has ever put on a show anything short of excellent on its many Twin Cities visits, we haven't heard about it. And the amphitheater at the Zoo has emerged as a favorite venue for them, one where they tend to really cut loose, perhaps in tribute to the nearby Mexican wolves that share their moniker. Since they're playing two nights there, it's a good possibility the two set lists won't share too many common tunes. 7:30 p.m.; Weesner Family Amphitheater, Minnesota Zoo, 13000 Zoo Blvd., Apple Valley; $30; 651-989-5151.

By BILL WHITE

It took a while for East L.A. rockers Los Lobos to get the Woodland Park Zoo crowd off their lawn chairs, but midway through Wednesday night's show, the place was undulating like a hippie love-in.

The band opened its 90-minute set with the title track from 1990's "The Neighborhood," a benediction for lowlifes in need of street salvation. Continuing with "Don't Worry Baby," the speeded-up John Hooker riff that broke them in 1984, the band delivered a 17-song set packed with gems from their back catalog, as well as three new ones from "The Town and the City," which is due next month.

Fronted by guitarists Cesar Rosas and David Hidalgo, who alternated on lead vocals, Los Lobos boasted a rock 'n' roll vocabulary that stretched from the Peppermint Lounge twist sounds of "I Got Loaded" to a one-chord, tremolo-soaked blues dirge off the upcoming release.

Peppered throughout the set were a handful of more traditional songs, with Spanish and bilingual lyrics. Hildago voiced his disappointment when "Luz de Mi Vida" failed to generate party sparks, but reconciled himself to the sedentary crowd with the comment, "It's all right; whatever you want to do."

It was the irresistible bass breaks of the Who's "My Generation" that finally got the crowd on its feet. Once standing, the audience stayed up and, when special guests Lee Oskar (harmonica) and Harold Brown (drums) from War came onstage to jam on "All Day Music" and "Baby Brother," the party fever animated even the most sedate.

The show ended in the street tough "Mas y Mas," which translates as "more and more," but what they were really saying was, "Bring It On." And they did. It was an all-out barrio brawl that put a rowdy cap on the evening.

They encored, as has been their tradition for some years, with a version of Neil Young's "Cinnamon Girl" that made maximum use of three very different sounding guitars.

The Minus Five, fronted by Scott McCaughey and featuring Peter Buck on bass and Bill Reiflin on drums, opened with a 45-minute set of derivative '60s Britpop. When McCaughey jokingly referred to the "Ballad of John and Yoko" as his original composition, one almost believed him, so dearly did he emulate the Beatles in his writing.

Roy Trakin c/o HITS magazine

Los Lobos, The Town and The City (Hollywood): This under-appreciated band from East L.A., going on 23 years since their debut album, return with their 13th studio effort on Sept. 12, reason enough to declare them a national treasure.

The disc is being touted as the successor to the experimentation of 1992’s Kiko, and it doesn’t disappoint, carving a narrative of immigration and assimilation while still maintaining its unique cultural identity.

David Hidalgo’s heartfelt soul illuminates the beginning of the journey on “The Valley,” which leads into the deep blues of “Hold On,” a depiction of a new world’s dangerous temptations before giving way to Cesar Rosas’ joyous “Chuco’s Cumbia,” a tribute to the zoot suit past. “Little Things,” with its nod to Procol Harum’s “Whiter Shade of Pale,” marks the band’s roots in British rock as it notes life’s smaller pleasures, while “Don’t Ask Why” is an R&B-soaked homage to the Grateful Dead, and “No Puedo Mas” comes off as a reggae-tinged tip of the cap to fellow Latino rockers Santana.

“The City” and “The Town” form bookends to the Lobos sensibility, with one foot in the brave new world of urban chaos, the other in the enduring pull of their ancestral homeland, standing for both America’s promise and its perils, a living, breathing example of how we are all just immigrants searching for a place to call our own. —RT

From humble beginnings in East Los Angeles to four Grammys, worldwide recognition to critical respect, Los Lobos — and, by extension, its multi-instrumentalist members Steve Berlin, Louie Perez, Conrad Lozano, David Hidalgo, and Cesar Rosas — have lived that part of the Great American Dream we hold most dear. To hear a Los Lobos record is to hear what it sounds like to be an everyday Mexican-American in a melting pot. Their great strength has always been to recognize each distinct side of the hyphen — “Mexican” and “American” — as they live and create from the third, “Mexican-American.”

Appearing: 8/24 at Ravinia in Highland Park.

Los Lobos hit number one with their cover of Ritchie Valens’ “La Bamba,” yet their most critically acclaimed albums — How Will The Wolf Survive and Kiko — are musically catholic: Jazz, blues, rock, country, Tex-Mex, Mexican folk all mesh into an expansive, distinctive sound. Los Lobos manage to be meditative and thoughtful but always raggedly real.

Given all that, it’s probably time (if not past time), for Los Lobos to look at what it means to be an immigrant in a country composed of them, yet deeply divided about them. This what they do in The Town And The City, due out in September. With songs that are often in the first person and a loose story arc over the course of the album (both departures for Los Lobos), the band look at an issue that is as intensely political as it is personal, and do so characteristically: walking softly, carrying big sticks. Emotional and powerful, The Town And The City is as much an expression of a band at the height of their powers as Kiko.

“This record took on its own life,” says Louie Perez. “I don’t know quite what it was. The last time I felt this way was when we made *Kiko. Once the songs started to unfold for *Kiko and we went into the studio, it [was] almost like we were spectators, observing this thing go on. I felt the same way about this one. There was something going one that I couldn’t completely claim credit for.”

The Town And The City didn’t come easily. Perez and Hildago, the primary songwriters, began writing the album thinking to make a more acoustic record. The band tour a lot and so Perez and Hidalgo write most of their music on the road or just prior to going into the studio. From the outset, The Town And The City was different. “We usually come into the studio with two or three songs that serve as prime for the pump,” Perez explains. “After about a month of going back and forth, he called me and said, ‘You got anything goin’?’ I said, ‘No. Do you?’ ‘No. I was hoping you had somethin’.’ It was really difficult to get anything started.”

He continues, “Finally David had a couple things on tape and one of the them was the song that ultimately became ‘The Valley.’ I heard that and I immediately thought there’s almost something primordial happening with all that atmospheric thing going on, almost like creation. So I felt that the only way I can approach that is by taking myself back to the very start. I started to think about our parents and the struggles that they went through when they first came to the U.S. I started to think of what’s been going on about immigration, which is something that you can’t ignore and I thought to myself that if I was sitting in the chair across from Larry King and he asked me what my take was about immigration, I’d say, ‘Larry, what do you expect me say? I wouldn’t be sitting here. I wouldn’t have four Grammy awards if my parents hadn’t crossed the border into this country.’

“So I started to draw a picture about people traveling and coming to a new world. It wasn’t exactly a story with characters but there certainly are characters and there certainly is something that is persona. That one song and everything else just started to kind of fall in line almost in a linear plot like way.”

Los Lobos had a lot to pull from in their backgrounds. Born and raised in East L.A., they are part the wave of artists of the early ’70s who lived the disparity between the ideal world they saw as children in television shows like “Father Knows Best” and “Leave It To Beaver” and the real world of their own backyards. Their work reflects that, The Town And The City in particular. But where so many artists have dwelled on the differences between the two, Los Lobos go further. The album recognizes the allure of that TV life (and, hence, American life) but also the cost of attaining it — a cost paid in traditions lost, not dollars.

“When we were just out of high school,” says Perez, “We decided we wanted to play Mexican music. Nobody had ever done that. This was the whole melting pot process of modernization, you know. Most kids our age were trying to sanitize themselves from the culture. But we did it because it felt right and whenever something felt right, that’s what we did.”

To learn more about the melting pot of Los Lobos, find the August issue of Illinois Entertainer, available throughout Chicagoland.

By Allison Plean, Arts and entertainment editor

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — Thursday night's free concert brought long lines of illegally parked cars, long food lines, long beer lines and long bathroom lines.

But there were no long faces at the Los Lobos concert at the base of the Steamboat Ski Area.

Los Lobos saxophonist Steve Berlin used an analogy that fit both the way the band recorded its latest CD and the way its music engaged the crowd.

"Everyday we were starting from the farthest bottom part of the hill and trying to push the rock up it," Berlin said.

From a stage on the Headwall ski trail, Los Lobos' eclectic sound swelled over the crowd, starting with the tight group of dancers near the bottom of the trail to the free-running children at the top.

The band covered songs ranging from Grateful Dead to Santana to the Allman Brothers Band.

"I'm impressed with their diversity," Eli Campbell said. "I hear a little polka, a little Latin and some rock. See, now there's ‘50s music."

David Caddell described Los Lobos' sound as "Widespread Panic from Mexico."

"There's a misconception that these guys only play Mexican music," Caddell said. "They are one of the most well-respected bands around as far as roots rock ‘n' roll. There aren't many bands out there as good as them. Tonight they have played original music, a short reggae break and a salsa-influenced Latin beat with rock ‘n' roll."

The music inspired every type of dancer.

Allison Plean/staff

Los Lobos played an ecletic mix of music for a festive crowd at the base of the Steamboat Ski Area on Thursday. The show was part of the Free Summer Concert Series.

There were African dance moves, shoulder rolls, nodding heads, stomping feet and classic jam band spasms.

Knees bent deeper the closer they were to the stage.

Behind a pocket of quiet dancers was Erik Johnson, who was doing "the sway."

"Because that's what I do," he said. "I don't move good."

And then there were people like Dan Lemmer, who don't attend the Free Summer Concert Series to dance or listen to live music.

"I just come here to talk to people," he said.

As nightfall settled over the hill of smiling concertgoers and the music ceased, people took their time exiting.

Eventually, only empty plastic beer cups and paper plates were left -- except, of course, for the one dedicated fan who yelled out a final "Encore!"

Los Lobos, The Town and The City (Hollywood): This under-appreciated band from East L.A., going on 23 years since their debut album, return with their 13th studio effort on Sept. 12, reason enough to declare them a national treasure. The disc is being touted as the successor to the experimentation of 1992’s Kiko, and it doesn’t disappoint, carving a narrative of immigration and assimilation while still maintaining its unique cultural identity. David Hidalgo’s heartfelt soul illuminates the beginning of the journey on “The Valley,” which leads into the deep blues of “Hold On,” a depiction of a new world’s dangerous temptations before giving way to Cesar Rosas’ joyous “Chuco’s Cumbia,” a tribute to the zoot suit past. “Little Things,” with its nod to Procol Harum’s “Whiter Shade of Pale,” marks the band’s roots in British rock as it notes life’s smaller pleasures, while “Don’t Ask Why” is an R&B-soaked homage to the Grateful Dead, and “No Puedo Mas” comes off as a reggae-tinged tip of the cap to fellow Latino rockers Santana. “The City” and “The Town” form bookends to the Lobos sensibility, with one foot in the brave new world of urban chaos, the other in the enduring pull of their ancestral homeland, standing for both America’s promise and its perils, a living, breathing example of how we are all just immigrants searching for a place to call our own. —RT

How have this band of East LA wolves not only survived but thrived in the hostile midlands of popular music for 30 years? Perhaps the answer lies in their mid-career decision to embrace their Chicano cultural birthright to the laidback life, even when they’re rocking as hard as any Chicago blues band. Although they briefly tried to follow up the Springsteen-esque border-life anthems of their 1984 debut album, in the end they stepped back to roam through a heritage that runs from straight rock to corridos to ’60s-style pop to classic covers (not just “La Bamba”) to hallucinatory yet earthy memories of childhood that stand as their own gift to every American’s rock-and-roll heritage. So casual and basic is their command that this first-ever single-disc retrospective might at first feel too easy, too simple (nothing from the booming Colossal Head, no transcendent “Saint Behind the Glass”). But it honors the arc of their discography and captures the essence of their achievement through 20 tracks that transcend the “roots rock” label as surely as The Best of Creedence Clearwater Revival.

By Clover Hope

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Veteran Latin rock quintet Los Lobos has set a September 12 release date for its latest collection, "The Town and the City," a 13-track disc chronicling the immigrant experience in America, according to the band.

Selections from the album, issued via Mammoth/Hollywood Records, include "The Valley," "Chuco's Cumbia" and "The Road to Gila Bend," a story about an immigrant fugitive. Several tracks are in consideration for the lead single.

"Right now, when the world is in this incredible state of flux, it's impossible for this not to affect your work," says Louis Perez, who co-wrote the bulk of the album with fellow band member David Hidalgo. "As artists we take our experience and put it into painting, stories or songs."

The new offering was produced by the band and mixed by their frequent contributor Tchad Blake, a former member of the foursome Latin Playboys, which also featured Perez and Hidalgo.

Los Lobos' last studio album, 2004's "The Ride," has sold 120,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

The band will support "The Town And The City" on a tour later this year.

Click Here for Full Article

by Tjames Madison liveDaily Contributor
Los Lobos have added several new dates to their perpetual touring calendar, which will find the band supporting its as-yet-untitled new album later this year.
New dates added by the East Los Angeles roots-rockers include several new shows in California and two new dates in the Colorado Rockies, to go along with a previously announced July 28 show in Snowbird, UT, and a pair of overseas festival billings, Aug. 15 at the Marktrock Festival in Leuven, Belgium, and Aug. 19 at the Drammen Festival in Drammen, Norway.
The band's new album--which doesn't have a name yet--is set for a Sept. 12 release, according to the band's record label. Saxophonist/keyboardist Steve Berlin recently told the Yes! Weekly of Greensboro, NC, that the album was nearing completion.
"As we speak we're at the eleventh hour and fifty-ninth minute of a new record," Berlin said in the interview. "It's just a question of, is everything we want to say in there?"
"With the last record and 'Good Morning Aztlan' we wanted to get back to more songwriting with the traditional verse-chorus thing," he added. "This record's much more impressionistic. I think we're back to the 'Kiko' era. It's kind of like picking up mercury. We've spread pieces all over the floor and we're trying to pick it up."

Nik Dirga

The Wolf Tracks: The Best of Los Lobos

Los Lobos isn't just "La Bamba." That impossibly catchy 1987 hit tune defines them to many, but the tapestry this pioneering Latino roots-rock band has weaved is broader than that. The new CD Wolf Tracks: The Best Of Los Lobos presents a handy, compact primer to their sound.

The band from east L.A. absorbs elements of R&B, Mexicana, blues, folk and plain ol' rock 'n' roll into a sonic stew that's uniquely American.

Accordions dance with saxophones, guitars and marimbas with mandolin.

Frontman David Hidalgo's broad, booming voice can croon traditional tunes as well as big-blast rockers in English or Spanish or both, wringing real heart out of his songs. Together with Cesar Rosas, Conrad Lozano, Louie Pérez and Steve Berlin, Hidalgo crafts an open, inviting sound that's steeped in the dusty, multi-cultural soil of Southern California, a land that's soaked up the influence of dozens of immigrant cultures.

The band's best tunes tell little all-American tales about people from the neighborhood, such as "One Time One Night," which beautifully sums up an immigrant's hopes and fears. Wolf Tracks follows Los Lobos from their earliest EP in 1983 up to 2002's Good Morning Aztlán, with extended stops at some of their biggest hits, 1984's How Will The Wolf Survive and 1987's By The Light of the Moon. It's here you find the band trying on new styles left and right, yet never sounding like anything but themselves.

The very traditional sounding Spanish-language "La Pistola Y El Corazon"

sounds timeless and elegant, while the lonesome bluesy ballad "A Matter of Time" could come from nearly any culture, so universal are its lyrics. Other real highlights on Wolf Tracks are the moody, semi- psychedelic "Kiko and the Lavender Moon" from 1992, which fades in and out like a gauzy dream, while 2002's "Good Morning Aztlán" thunders along like the gritty soundtrack to a road trip down never-ending sun- drenched dirt roads. The CD also includes the live gem "Volver, Volver"

and the previously unreleased track "Border Town Girl."

And of course, there's "La Bamba," the remake of Richie Valens' hit classic from the film of the same name. It's still a hooky treat, and it's so addictive that I swear I didn't ever notice until recently it doesn't contain a word of English (I admit I'm not always real observant). "La Bamba" doesn't sum up Los Lobos' sound -- no one song here really can -- but it's still a great single.

With 20 tracks trying to cover a 30-plus year career, Wolf Tracks can't quite be comprehensive, and die-hards will surely have favorites that didn't get on. The earlier box set Just Another Band From East L.A.

remains the definitive overview for those who want to dig deeper. Wolf Tracks only has three tunes from after 1992, covering three albums'

worth of songs. The band's output has slowed since their 1980s heyday, yet they've still put out some solid material on later albums.

Yet for a novice to Los Lobos, Wolf Tracks is a winning survey of an eclectic legacy, one of the richest roots-rock bands around. Wolf Tracks is worth howling about.

The Chicano superstars Los Lobos had a huge hit with 'La Bamba', but there's much more to the outfit than that. With a new live album out, their leader and veteran front man, David Hidalgo, gives Andy Gill a lesson in the ways of Latino popular music

Published: 29 July 2005

For a big man, David Hidalgo carries himself with an unassuming nobility that hints at an inner sensitivity. Though naturally quiet and diffident - in previous interviews, his monosyllabic discomfort could easily be mistaken for aloofness, rather than shyness - he nonetheless shoulders the burden of being the spokesman for Los Lobos, the Mexican-American band he's fronted for more than three decades.

They're probably best remembered over here for their hit version of the title-song from the Ritchie Valens biopic La Bamba, though that hardly does justice to the range and variety of their music. Nor, for that matter, the skill with which it's performed, not least by Hidalgo himself, who hefts his Telecaster like it's a ukelele as he rips out stinging lead lines, before switching to accordion, fiddle or one of the acoustic guitars with which the band play more folksy, Latino songs.

In the open courtyard of London's Somerset House on a balmy summer's evening, Los Lobos deliver a rousing set of tough blues-rock spiced here and there with charming conjunto songs and the cumbia pieces that offer many in the crowd the opportunity to show off the steps they've learned at the capital's increasingly popular Latin dance classes. The infectious cumbia rhythm, I suggest, is rather like the Latin American equivalent of reggae.

"Yes, it is," he agrees. "They do fit together, and there's a lot of bands that kinda mix the two rhythms. Cumbia comes from Colombia, but it's real popular throughout Latin America. The Cumbia Kings do a pop version of it - they were formed by the brother of Selena, the Mexican pop singer that got killed in 1995. Kinda light, but it's alright - the people love it, so what the heck?"

Hidalgo's laissez-faire attitude is characteristic both of his own easy-going nature and of his band's all-channels-open approach to music, which in Hidalgo's case leans strongly towards country and Southern soul, from Hank Williams and Merle Haggard to The Staple Singers and Johnnie Taylor. And while he's over in the UK, he's keen to acquire the John Entwistle anthology, The Ox. It is a pretty diverse range of influences. And, while Los Lobos may play the more Latinate parts of their set with due fastidiousness, they're not averse to mixing genres together, or striking out in directions that have no previous musical signposts. How else would they have come up with such a strange, idiosyncratic piece as "Kiko and the Lavender Moon", a song that seems haunted by the past even as it pushes at the future? It's one of the stand-out tracks on the band's new live album, recorded live last year at the legendary Fillmore West, once the focus of the San Francisco hippy scene.

Always mindful of their cultural history, Los Lobos jumped at the chance to record there, particularly since San Francisco, like their native Los Angeles, supports a sizeable Chicano (Mexican-American) populace.

"Well, it's more of a mixed Latino community," explains Hidalgo. "There's a lot of Mexicans, but there's also people from Latin America - Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Hondurans and so on. There's an area called the Mission District, which is where they all live, that's pretty much the Latin side of town. They've always had a large Latin music scene up there, though it's more like salsa."

Is there much difference between the native Mexican culture and the immigrant Chicano culture of North America?

"Well, yes and no," he says. "We're familiar with each other's cultures, and there's a lot of pride involved between them - each country thinks they're better than the other! So there's a little bit of rivalry there, but when it comes down to it, we pull together."

Applying my own adaptation of Norman Tebbit's cricket test, I enquire whether Hidalgo follows soccer or American sports, like gridiron football and baseball. He admits to a passing interest in soccer during the World Cup, but is basically an all-American kid when it comes to games. "Mostly it's football and baseball, because I grew up in the States," he says. "I support the Dodgers, but as regards football, I don't know now."

The Dodgers, of course, were the baseball team brought from Brooklyn to LA, where their stadium was built in the former Chicano neighbourhood of Chavez Ravine - a story now made famous by Ry Cooder's latest (and best) album, with which Hidalgo was marginally involved.

"Ry called me about some Mexican musicians, such as Lalo Guerrero, who's just passed away," he explains. "Lalo was a friend of ours from LA who did the original zoot-suit music - he was the first of the Mexican-Americans to do music that reflected what was going on in LA, a kind of Latin swing." Lalo Guerrero and Willie G were two of the guiding lights of Chicano music in the post-war years, as the immigrant culture strove to establish its own sense of community in an often unwelcoming land. "I knew how to get hold of Lalo," continues Hidalgo, "and Willie G, who used to be with The Midnighters - I gave Ry the numbers, and it worked out great, because Willie ended up writing a lot of the numbers with Ry, and singing a lot of it. And I played a little rhythm guitar on it, but not much."

As befits a band whose cartoon-wolf logo bears the legend "Musica Es Cultura", Los Lobos have a deep interest in their antecedents. Though Hidalgo acknowledges that those regional differences have, effectively, been destroyed by the spread of MTV - "things are more alike than they used to be" - Hidalgo remembers the local stars of his youth with great fondness.

"In the neighbourhood, Willie G and The Midnighters, they were the biggest thing to come out of East LA," he recalls. "They had regional hits, and we'd see them on TV, the dance shows and stuff like that. And Cannibal and The Headhunters, they actually opened for The Beatles when they came over on their US tour. And there were other bands that we listened to when we were growing up: The Premiers, who did 'Farmer John', another regional hit, and R&B and doo-wop bands like The Flirtations, The Exotics, and The Jaguars. It was mostly R&B based. The same thing was happening in Texas, and across the country - Detroit had ? and The Mysterians; and though Doug Sahm was German, the rest of his band, besides Augie Meyer, were Mexican guys from San Antonio. So there was a good mixture of things."

Not that the young Chicanos ignored the mainstream Anglo-American pop of the era. "We were American kids," he explains. "Of Mexican descent, but we grew up in the States, so we were affected by everything in the media, like everyone else. I was nine years old when The Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show - I fought with my brother over it! His band had practice at the house, and they wanted to watch the roller derby, which was on at the same time as The Beatles were on Ed Sullivan, so we were fighting over the TV - 'No, man, we don't wanna see that shit, we want the roller derby!' 'No, man, it's The Beatles!'.

"And James Brown was really big. He was the cat! James Brown was everything in those days. That's all my brother's band played, James Brown - but they made a good job of it. They learned a lot from James Brown - the whole presentation was really slick, they'd wear the uniforms, do the steps and all that. James Brown, and Jackie Wilson too, had a big influence on all the bands from East LA, in the style, the way they carried themselves. It was a pride thing: let's show the world that we're not just a bunch of hooligans and crazy people, let's prove that we have class and can present ourselves in a proper way. We could relate to the R&B - it was a passionate music, about love, and sung with a lot of soul, which is why so many Chicano kids adopted R&B. The sentiment was the same."

Alongside Anglo-American and Chicano pop, the future Los Lobos musicians were also getting a grounding in the more traditional Mexican music forms, like conjunto and norteno, which Hidalgo explains are effectively the same thing.

"If it's from south of the Texas border, they call it norteno, because it's from northern Mexico," he says. "If it's from north of the Mexican border, they call it conjunto. Then there's Texano, which means 'from Texas', that's more of a modern, pop version of conjunto music, with keyboards and horns. That stuff has been around from the Sixties too - there was Little Joe & La Familia, Ruben Ramos, and the Tortilla Factory, who played mostly blues; and back in the late Sixties, early Seventies, there was another movement, kinda like a Blood Sweat & Tears or Chicago version of conjunto music, with all the horns and the fancy arrangements, mixed up with rock and funk and stuff - but it always ended up a polka! So there's different variations, but it all comes down to the same thing, the polka that comes from Texas, that was brought over by the Czechs, Poles and German immigrants."

Unsurprisingly, there's strong support for Los Lobos in the Chicano heartlands of Texas and South California, although Hidalgo says that their most fervent following is in Chicago. "There's a big Chicano population in Chicago," he explains. "We Mexicans follow the railroads and the crops, so there's a lot of us spread throughout the Midwest. I didn't realise that until we started touring those areas. Mexicans and Latinos just follow the work, and settle where it takes them, and a lot of families ended up in Chicago."

But even immigrant settlers move on eventually, not least the members of Los Lobos. Despite having once written an emotional paean to the "peace and serenity" of "the neighborhood", Hidalgo no longer lives in the same district of Los Angeles where he spent his childhood. It's a familiar story of rising crime, declining infrastructure and predatory gang culture forcing a move to more salubrious environs.

"It's changed, you know," he concedes. "Families move out, and it's getting rougher. We're still on the east side of town; but back where we used to live, the people there wouldn't even know us any more."

'Live at the Fillmore' is out on Warner

For a big man, David Hidalgo carries himself with an unassuming nobility that hints at an inner sensitivity. Though naturally quiet and diffident - in previous interviews, his monosyllabic discomfort could easily be mistaken for aloofness, rather than shyness - he nonetheless shoulders the burden of being the spokesman for Los Lobos, the Mexican-American band he's fronted for more than three decades.

They're probably best remembered over here for their hit version of the title-song from the Ritchie Valens biopic La Bamba, though that hardly does justice to the range and variety of their music. Nor, for that matter, the skill with which it's performed, not least by Hidalgo himself, who hefts his Telecaster like it's a ukelele as he rips out stinging lead lines, before switching to accordion, fiddle or one of the acoustic guitars with which the band play more folksy, Latino songs.

In the open courtyard of London's Somerset House on a balmy summer's evening, Los Lobos deliver a rousing set of tough blues-rock spiced here and there with charming conjunto songs and the cumbia pieces that offer many in the crowd the opportunity to show off the steps they've learned at the capital's increasingly popular Latin dance classes. The infectious cumbia rhythm, I suggest, is rather like the Latin American equivalent of reggae.

"Yes, it is," he agrees. "They do fit together, and there's a lot of bands that kinda mix the two rhythms. Cumbia comes from Colombia, but it's real popular throughout Latin America. The Cumbia Kings do a pop version of it - they were formed by the brother of Selena, the Mexican pop singer that got killed in 1995. Kinda light, but it's alright - the people love it, so what the heck?"

Hidalgo's laissez-faire attitude is characteristic both of his own easy-going nature and of his band's all-channels-open approach to music, which in Hidalgo's case leans strongly towards country and Southern soul, from Hank Williams and Merle Haggard to The Staple Singers and Johnnie Taylor. And while he's over in the UK, he's keen to acquire the John Entwistle anthology, The Ox. It is a pretty diverse range of influences. And, while Los Lobos may play the more Latinate parts of their set with due fastidiousness, they're not averse to mixing genres together, or striking out in directions that have no previous musical signposts. How else would they have come up with such a strange, idiosyncratic piece as "Kiko and the Lavender Moon", a song that seems haunted by the past even as it pushes at the future? It's one of the stand-out tracks on the band's new live album, recorded live last year at the legendary Fillmore West, once the focus of the San Francisco hippy scene.

Always mindful of their cultural history, Los Lobos jumped at the chance to record there, particularly since San Francisco, like their native Los Angeles, supports a sizeable Chicano (Mexican-American) populace.

"Well, it's more of a mixed Latino community," explains Hidalgo. "There's a lot of Mexicans, but there's also people from Latin America - Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Hondurans and so on. There's an area called the Mission District, which is where they all live, that's pretty much the Latin side of town. They've always had a large Latin music scene up there, though it's more like salsa."

Is there much difference between the native Mexican culture and the immigrant Chicano culture of North America?

"Well, yes and no," he says. "We're familiar with each other's cultures, and there's a lot of pride involved between them - each country thinks they're better than the other! So there's a little bit of rivalry there, but when it comes down to it, we pull together."

Applying my own adaptation of Norman Tebbit's cricket test, I enquire whether Hidalgo follows soccer or American sports, like gridiron football and baseball. He admits to a passing interest in soccer during the World Cup, but is basically an all-American kid when it comes to games. "Mostly it's football and baseball, because I grew up in the States," he says. "I support the Dodgers, but as regards football, I don't know now."

The Dodgers, of course, were the baseball team brought from Brooklyn to LA, where their stadium was built in the former Chicano neighbourhood of Chavez Ravine - a story now made famous by Ry Cooder's latest (and best) album, with which Hidalgo was marginally involved.

"Ry called me about some Mexican musicians, such as Lalo Guerrero, who's just passed away," he explains. "Lalo was a friend of ours from LA who did the original zoot-suit music - he was the first of the Mexican-Americans to do music that reflected what was going on in LA, a kind of Latin swing." Lalo Guerrero and Willie G were two of the guiding lights of Chicano music in the post-war years, as the immigrant culture strove to establish its own sense of community in an often unwelcoming land. "I knew how to get hold of Lalo," continues Hidalgo, "and Willie G, who used to be with The Midnighters - I gave Ry the numbers, and it worked out great, because Willie ended up writing a lot of the numbers with Ry, and singing a lot of it. And I played a little rhythm guitar on it, but not much."

As befits a band whose cartoon-wolf logo bears the legend "Musica Es Cultura", Los Lobos have a deep interest in their antecedents. Though Hidalgo acknowledges that those regional differences have, effectively, been destroyed by the spread of MTV - "things are more alike than they used to be" - Hidalgo remembers the local stars of his youth with great fondness.

"In the neighbourhood, Willie G and The Midnighters, they were the biggest thing to come out of East LA," he recalls. "They had regional hits, and we'd see them on TV, the dance shows and stuff like that. And Cannibal and The Headhunters, they actually opened for The Beatles when they came over on their US tour. And there were other bands that we listened to when we were growing up: The Premiers, who did 'Farmer John', another regional hit, and R&B and doo-wop bands like The Flirtations, The Exotics, and The Jaguars. It was mostly R&B based. The same thing was happening in Texas, and across the country - Detroit had ? and The Mysterians; and though Doug Sahm was German, the rest of his band, besides Augie Meyer, were Mexican guys from San Antonio. So there was a good mixture of things."

Not that the young Chicanos ignored the mainstream Anglo-American pop of the era. "We were American kids," he explains. "Of Mexican descent, but we grew up in the States, so we were affected by everything in the media, like everyone else. I was nine years old when The Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show - I fought with my brother over it! His band had practice at the house, and they wanted to watch the roller derby, which was on at the same time as The Beatles were on Ed Sullivan, so we were fighting over the TV - 'No, man, we don't wanna see that shit, we want the roller derby!' 'No, man, it's The Beatles!'.

"And James Brown was really big. He was the cat! James Brown was everything in those days. That's all my brother's band played, James Brown - but they made a good job of it. They learned a lot from James Brown - the whole presentation was really slick, they'd wear the uniforms, do the steps and all that. James Brown, and Jackie Wilson too, had a big influence on all the bands from East LA, in the style, the way they carried themselves. It was a pride thing: let's show the world that we're not just a bunch of hooligans and crazy people, let's prove that we have class and can present ourselves in a proper way. We could relate to the R&B - it was a passionate music, about love, and sung with a lot of soul, which is why so many Chicano kids adopted R&B. The sentiment was the same."

Alongside Anglo-American and Chicano pop, the future Los Lobos musicians were also getting a grounding in the more traditional Mexican music forms, like conjunto and norteno, which Hidalgo explains are effectively the same thing.

"If it's from south of the Texas border, they call it norteno, because it's from northern Mexico," he says. "If it's from north of the Mexican border, they call it conjunto. Then there's Texano, which means 'from Texas', that's more of a modern, pop version of conjunto music, with keyboards and horns. That stuff has been around from the Sixties too - there was Little Joe & La Familia, Ruben Ramos, and the Tortilla Factory, who played mostly blues; and back in the late Sixties, early Seventies, there was another movement, kinda like a Blood Sweat & Tears or Chicago version of conjunto music, with all the horns and the fancy arrangements, mixed up with rock and funk and stuff - but it always ended up a polka! So there's different variations, but it all comes down to the same thing, the polka that comes from Texas, that was brought over by the Czechs, Poles and German immigrants."

Unsurprisingly, there's strong support for Los Lobos in the Chicano heartlands of Texas and South California, although Hidalgo says that their most fervent following is in Chicago. "There's a big Chicano population in Chicago," he explains. "We Mexicans follow the railroads and the crops, so there's a lot of us spread throughout the Midwest. I didn't realise that until we started touring those areas. Mexicans and Latinos just follow the work, and settle where it takes them, and a lot of families ended up in Chicago."

But even immigrant settlers move on eventually, not least the members of Los Lobos. Despite having once written an emotional paean to the "peace and serenity" of "the neighborhood", Hidalgo no longer lives in the same district of Los Angeles where he spent his childhood. It's a familiar story of rising crime, declining infrastructure and predatory gang culture forcing a move to more salubrious environs.

"It's changed, you know," he concedes. "Families move out, and it's getting rougher. We're still on the east side of town; but back where we used to live, the people there wouldn't even know us any more."

'Live at the Fillmore' is out on Warner

Click Here for Article at RollingStone.com As the members of Los Lobos have embellished numerous recordings by other artists over the years, so it makes sense that when they called in on favors, their friends responded en masse. Lobos' new album, The Ride, is due May 4th and features a guest list of Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, Richard Thompson, the Band's Garth Hudson, Mavis Staples and a gaggle of others. "We had a wish list, and I consider them all friends," says multi-instrumentalist Louie Perez, "but we weren't sure whether they'd be available or interested. We didn't anticipate that nobody would tell us no . . . it was a good problem to have." The Ride is, in many ways, the quintessential Los Lobos album. For a band that has always found a way to fuse old and new, the record is a further refinement of that practice, featuring a bundle of new tracks as well as a few from the back catalog, dusted off, re-conceived and freshly recorded. "When you make a record," Perez says, "you usually have to live with it for awhile. This was our way of saying, 'Hey, you know what, I had an idea twenty years ago . . .'" The band's history is also reflected by some of the guests, from Dave Alvin ("Somewhere in Time"), who with the Blasters used to share Los Angeles stages with Lobos more than two decades ago, to producer Mitchell Froom, who recorded five Lobos albums between 1990 and 2000. The album also features Lobos Latin influences and influence: from legendary Sixties rock troupe Thee Midnighters' Willie G and Panamanian singer/actor/politician Ruben Blades to newcomers like Mexican alt-rockers Cafe Tacuba and pan-Latin folk rockers Quetzal. As for the old-songs-made-new, the bluesy "Wicked Rain" (from 1992's Kiko) is fused with Seventies R&B classic "Across 110th Street" and boasts an appearance by that song's originator Bobby Womack. Staples injects her trademark gospel blues into "Someday," and Costello, unable to join the band in the studio due to touring commitments, recorded a vocal for "Matter of Time" (originally on 1984's How Will the Wolf Survive) during a sound check in Oslo, Norway. "We'd be at the studio, just waiting for his package to arrive," Perez says. "It was like Christmas. We gathered around and put it on; it's a stunning performance." Los Lobos hooked back up with Froom on the new cut "Rita," which he peppers with his sweeping keyboards. Richard Thompson's staccato guitar licks and vocals color "Wreck of Carlos Rey." "It took a little gymnastics, but we did it," Perez says. "Mavis and Bobby, we had to go to them. We'd send Garth Hudson a file and he'd go nuts on it. Waits, we sent an eight-track cassette and he messed around with it and sent it back. Then there were days where I'd pull up to Cesar's [guitarist Rosas] house and I look in the rearview mirror and Richard Thompson's pulling in behind me. There were so many different ways it got done, but this was really a needle and thread sewn into the fabric of what we're all about." You won't find it billed anywhere on the package, but 2004 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the time when Perez, Rosas, multi-instrumentalist David Hidalgo and bassist Conrad Lozano pulled away from other groups to become the modestly tagged "Just Another Band From East L.A"; saxophonist Steve Berlin joined a mere twenty years ago. "This wasn't put together as any kind of anniversary record," Perez says. "But I guess maybe we're just waxing a bit sentimental at the time. We're going to be doing all of the things that go with putting out a record, and I think it could run all year long. It's going to feel like an extended birthday party." The Ride track list: La Venganza de los Pelados (with Cafe Tacuba and Garth Hudson) Rita (Mitchell Froom) Is This All There Is (Thee Midnighters' Willie G) Charmed Somewhere in Time (Dave Alvin) Wicked Rain/Across 110th Street Kitate (Tom Waits and Quetzal's Martha Gonzales) Hurry Tomorrow Ya Se Va (Ruben Blades and Alberto Salas) Wreck of Carlos Rey (Richard Thompson) Someday (Mavis Staples and Lonnie Jordan) Matter of Time (Elvis Costello) Chains of Love (Garth Hudson) ANDREW DANSBY

Click Here for Article at KTVU.com By Dave Pehling Revered by some critics as one of the best American rock bands of the last two decades, Los Angeles-based outfit Los Lobos has evolved from bluesy roots-rock and Latin origins to incorporate funky R&B grooves, folk and experimental electronica into its eclectic sound. Founded by multi-instrumentalists Dave Hidalgo and Louis Perez, guitarist Caesar Rosas and bassist Conrad Lozano in 1973, the group honed its fiery style of playing at bars, weddings and anyplace else they could get a gig for a decade before actually recording an album. Before he joined Los Lobos in 1984, saxophone player and keyboardist Steve Berlin had ample experience on the LA music scene playing in The Blasters and starting a promising career as a producer (he would eventually work with everyone from Faith No More to Rickie Lee Jones). When BayInsider recently got a chance to talk with the musician about his time with Los Lobos, the band's upcoming album and its annual concerts at the Fillmore. BayInsider: The members of Los Lobos all stay pretty busy with various side projects, solo albums, session work and production work. I was wondering if this helps the band come up with song ideas and different approaches that you take in the studio? Or do you just look at it as a break from Los Lobos? Steve Berlin: In terms of what it brings to us musically, with every musical experience that I have, I try to learn something from it and take it with me wherever I go. Whether it's a Lobos project or something else. So, yes to a certain extent; but I'd say probably less than you might think. At this stage in our career, we're not really trying to reinvent the wheel or anything. We're just trying to make records that move us. Honestly, at this point we're more into capturing cool performances and less inclined to try out wacky contraptions, which is unlike what we might have been doing as recently as five or six years ago. As we carry on with this career of ours, the things that really move us become more emotional and less technical. BayInsider: That kind of touches on my next question: You worked pretty extensively with Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake through much of the '90s. I was wondering what precipitated the change to producer John Leckie for 'Good Morning Aztlan' in 2002? You've kind of already answered that ... Steve Berlin: I'll speak to that if you want. We did three records with them [Froom and Blake] and even Mitchell said "I think you guys need to do something else." You know, it's funny to talk about 'Aztlan' now, because just this week we're finishing a new record. I mean, obviously you haven't heard it; no one's heard it outside of the band, so it's a little funny talking about it. But we produced this one ourselves, which I think is what we were sort of aiming for all along. I mean, there's no lack of production experience among us: I've done a zillion records and Dave [Hidalgo] has done a bunch of records and Cesar [Rosas] has even done a couple, so it's not like we don't know how. I'm very happy with the way this one is turning out, so I think at this point the producer, to a certain extent, becomes less of a point of interest. I think it's more about what we do and how we do it. Leckie, to his credit, is a fine gentleman and a fine producer. But I really don't think there's a note of music on 'Aztlan' that I'd say "That was John's idea." He's a great guy to hang out with and he's a great engineer, but I think we produced that record. I think it says "Produced by John Leckie and Los Lobos." John engineered it, but we produced it. Now we're at a stage where that's what we want to do. There's no point in sharing credit or paying someone that's probably not going to come up with any ideas that we like better that the ones we're going to come up with. BayInsider: I noticed on the Los Lobos Web site that the upcoming album is a collaborative work that's going to have new versions of a couple older Los Lobos songs, but that there's going to be a lot of new material. Could you run down some of the names of the people involved with the recording? Steve Berlin: We have, in no order whatsoever, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Mavis Staples, Bobby Womack, Richard Thompson, Billy Gibbons [of ZZ Top]. Mitchell Froom actually contributed on one song. Dave Alvin, Cafe Tacuba, Garth Hudson from the Band. I know I'm forgetting somebody ... It's quite a list. When you read that, people are probably going to think, "Oh, it's like that Santana record" ['Supernatural' from 1999], but where we've done something that I hope is going to be interesting is that we've actually brought in those people and had them play on our songs. I don't want to damn with faint praise here; the Santana idea is to sort of bring these people in and in effect have Carlos blowing a solo over these other people's songs. These are definitely Los Lobos songs; we just happen to have a really cool vocal or a great guitar part added. You know, it's kind of like what we like to do live when anybody is around. We just throw them up there and make them work and that was kind of how we went at it. I hope it feels more like a Los Lobos record rather than something coming out of the current collaboration-mania vibe ... BayInsider: It sounds like there are a few people that Los Lobos has collaborated with in the past or that members of the band have done sessions for. Was this a matter of approaching people and just saying "Hey, we've worked together before; would you be interested in doing this?" Calling in favors? Steve Berlin: Exactly. That's pretty much the way it went down. BayInsider: So the new album is projected for release when next year? Steve Berlin: May. This week is allegedly our last week of work. So we'll see what happens on that ... BayInsider: On a separate subject, I know the band had its biggest mainstream success with the 'La Bamba' soundtrack and has done some other soundtrack work, I think most notably on the 'Desperado' soundtrack [the second film in Robert Rodriguez's 'El Mariachi' trilogy from 1995]. The versatility of the band would seem to make Los Lobos a natural for soundtrack work; do you get approached often for this kind of thing? Steve Berlin: There've been a few, but it's less than what I'd like. That's work that I personally enjoy a lot. It sort of comes and goes. We did a whole season of a television show last year [the WB's family sitcom 'Greetings From Tuscon'], which was kind of fun. That was interesting work. But more often than not these days, the soundtrack thing has become a grab bag for people throwing together songs that functionally have nothing to do with what a movie is about. It seems like it's a little bit harder to come by, but these things tend to run in cycles. Maybe next year there'll be a bunch of them. A friend of mine called me last night to say that he heard that we were up for something, so we'll see. But we enjoy it a lot. It's a really fun way to make music; it's not as precious as an album, so you get a little bit more freedom to experiment. The most experimental stuff generally worked the best in most of the soundtracks we worked on, so that makes it fun. There are a few that haven't come out as records. There was a movie called 'The Wrong Man' that we did about six or seven years ago. I think there might have been one song from that on our box set from a couple of years ago ['El Cancionero: Mas Y Mas,' released in 2000]; I think the theme from that was on there. We actually did some stuff on 'Spy Kids' that was on the record as well, although we didn't do the whole soundtrack. We did four cues, as they're called. BayInsider: So Robert Rodriguez definitely isn't against using you guys in the future? Steve Berlin: No, but the bastard's gone and learned how to play guitar a lot better, so now he's doing it all himself. We're mad at him. Well ... no, not really. But on the new movie, 'Once a Upon a Time in Mexico,' in addition to writing, filming, editing and producing, he also performed the soundtrack, so he has no more use for us unfortunately. BayInsider: I was kind of curious if you'd been offered work on 'Once Upon a Time in Mexico,' but I guess that answers that question ... Steve Berlin: Yeah, we dropped some giant hints, but he didn't go for it (laughs). You know, the truth of the matter is that he's just unbelievably talented. Even when we worked together [in the past] it was a lot of fun. He supplied a lot of ideas. He's really smart, he knows how to play guitar and he's actually a good engineer as well. His temporary tracks were always really good, so a lot of the time we had to kind of chase his temp tracks and try to make ours as good as what he was coming up with. We're happy for him and I'm sure we'll work together again in the future. In fact, I just talked to him the other day. They're going to do a DVD box set of the 'Desperado' stuff and he had some footage of us in the studio working out the 'Desperado' theme and so we were talking about that. They're going to use what looks like a surveillance video of us writing the song. It's kind of perfect for what he's after. BayInsider: I also read something on the Los Lobos Web site about the band's 30th anniversary approaching. Is this tour a celebration of that? Steve Berlin: Well, these shows are our annual Fillmore visit, which we look forward to greatly. But next year, this coming year, will be our 30th anniversary, at least to the best of our ability to tell. It's sort of an uncertain date of parentage. But we're going to call it our 30th birthday and that's kind of the rationale for going back and redoing a few of our older songs on the new record. Honestly, we're not going to sell it like that. I would personally prefer to underplay the anniversary. I mean, it's a fact; I'm certainly not going to walk away from it, but I don't want to make it a bigger deal than it is. I'm as proud as I could be about the new songs on the record. I think it's some of our best work and I would hate for the new work to be subsumed by this 30th anniversary deal. If there's a way to politically play it as another fact in addition to this cool record we've made, that's what I'm kind of hoping for. I'm really just happy to have a career that spans this much time. It's really not that easy of a thing to do, to stay viable for 30 minutes much less 30 years. BayInsider: There's another thing I was wondering about, if only to satisfy my personal curiosity. There are a number of songs on the last few albums that have tunes that are relentlessly funky; has anyone ever approached you about sampling songs from 'Kiko' or 'Colossal Head'? Steve Berlin: It hasn't happened yet, but hopefully it will. I would be honored if that were to happen. I think it would be great. We were talking about that yesterday; somebody thought they heard 'Kiko' sampled on something, but it turned out not to be. I'd be fascinated to hear somebody take a shot at it. Actually, where you are [in the Bay Area] is where some of the most interesting stuff is happening. A lot of the collectives in Berkeley are doing some really cool stuff, so they can consider this an invitation. BayInsider: I guess the last question I had was in regard to playing at the Fillmore. I've never seen you there before, but I've heard that your performances there are a little more loose-limbed and jam-oriented than usual, with the odd cover song thrown in the set lists. Is this a matter of the spirit of the venue coming through the band? Steve Berlin: Yes, absolutely. We do feel that in the room, and certainly the stuff that's gone down in the Fillmore touches you. It's a shrine. And you can't stand on that stage and not feel it, to be honest with you. So, yes, it's conscious. It's something we're very aware of. We go out of our way to honor the tradition and hopefully honor some of the amazing music that's been made on that stage. Copyright 2003 by KTVU.com. All rights reserved.

by Ben Quiñones

Photographer Gregory Bojorquez and I roll down Atlantic Boulevard in East Los, bumpin’ 2Pac through the speakers of Greg’s fat pale-yellow ’78 Coupe de Ville. We make a right on Sixth Street, then another quick right on Frasier, and pull up next to a metallic-green ’66 El Dorado. The ranfla belongs to Conrad Lozano, bassist for Los Lobos. Celebrating their 12th album, The Ride, and 30 years as a band, the group have returned to reminisce at Garfield High School, where founding members Lozano (class of ’70), Louie Pérez (class of ’71), David Hidalgo (class of ’72) and Cesar Rosas (class of ’72) got started. It’s been 20 years since the four and Steve Berlin, who joined in 1983 and is also here today, released their major-label debut, How Will the Wolf Survive?

“I remember metal shop used to be right here,” says Lozano, pointing to an empty classroom by the entrance gate. Laura Alvarado, one of Garfield’s assistant principals, walks us over to the lunch area, where all the food fights go down. Hidalgo gestures toward the new school layout: “All of this was just grass, none of this was here.”

Word quickly gets out that Los Lobos are on campus. Interim principal Onofre di Stefano shows up with a poster, and the group sign it. But before this becomes an autograph session, we walk into one of the buildings for a photo shoot.

“My locker used to be right here,” says Pérez, tapping on one.

“Do you remember the combination?” someone asks. The band, eager to see the rest of the school, can’t stand still while being photographed.

“Hey, is Woessner still around?” asks Lozano.

“Yes,” says Ms. Alvarado. “His class is just down there.” I’m amazed — Tom Woessner was my A.P. European-history teacher when I was a senior (class of ’90). “Man,” says Lozano, “I was late to Woessner’s class all the time. I got thrown out of his class.” He strolls down the hall to pay a surprise visit, and student and teacher reunite — a nice moment.

Band, principal, vice principal, teachers and students crowd over to the field bleachers, where students are jogging around the track.

“I remember running around the track,” says Rosas, sporting his signature black shades. “And then when we got to the ROTC building, I’d stick my middle finger out at all the preppies.”

Steve Wright, the longtime cross-country coach, approaches. He remembers seeing Los Lobos at a dive called Manny Lopez’s on Atlantic. “Right there,” he says, pointing. “Me and, like, three other people. They played every Thursday for a $1 or $2 cover.”

Since we’re right above the cafeteria, the topic quickly moves to Los Lobos’ favorite subject, food.

“Remember the grilled cheese?”

“Oh, how about the Bulldog Burrito, all deep-fried.”

“How about those breakfast cinnamon rolls — and the coffee cakes, man, those were good.”

The varsity football team is out on the field for spring practice; I ask if the guys ever went to the East L.A. Classic. (The Garfield-Roosevelt football game is the largest high school rivalry west of the Mississippi.)

“Oh yeah,” says Pérez. “We’d go to Shakey’s and throw chingasos” — punches, that is. “You’d walk in and the whole place was throwing.”

In the bleachers, before we begin our interview, Los Lobos decide to grub on a big, fat, brown-stained bag of tamales and other Mexican goodies Pérez has picked up from his old neighborhood. I bust out my microcassette.

“Let’s test it out,” says Hidalgo. He pulls out a chicharrón and snaps it into the recorder. Pérez takes it up a notch, biting down on a chicharrón. I rewind and play back.

Cccrrrrunch!

Eighth-grade plastic shop at Stevenson Junior High, just down Whittier Boulevard, is where Hidalgo first encountered Rosas. “We were both sniffing laminating fluid,” jokes Hidalgo. Pérez and Lozano lived a block from each other, but wouldn’t meet till they got in trouble together at Garfield.

The four finally converged in an art class, discussing rock & roll instead of drawing & painting.

“We were all silly troublemakers,” recalls Hidalgo.

Hidalgo, Rosas, Lozano and Pérez were members of different neighborhood rock groups. “We all had bands,” says Rosas, who played in a Tower of Power–style crew. Lozano was in the Chicano Eastside outfit Tierra. The four friends jammed out as Los Lobos del Este de Los Angeles (the Wolves of East L.A.), a name derived from the norteño band Los Lobos del Norte. When Lozano began spending more and more time with Los Lobos, Tierra gave him an ultimatum. You know his response.

Los Lobos began to play Mexican folk music they heard around their parents’ house: corridos, rancheras, norteños.

“No one else our age was doing it,” says Hidalgo.

They performed everywhere — restaurants, backyard parties, quinceañeras. “We played all around the neighborhoods for 10 years, and we played for anyone that would hire us. We played a lot of weddings around East L.A. and Montebello,” says Rosas.

“Mole and all the beer we could drink,” adds Hidalgo.

“We could go to any barrio, and somebody knew who we were,” says Lozano. (In the Bloods-and-Crips film Colors, Los Lobos’ music shows up in South-Central.)

The band started doing shows at Cal State L.A., and at East L.A. College, which they attended; young professors used them to re-introduce Mexican folk music to their peers and the younger generation. Los Lobos’ folkloric outreach was so successful that PBS taped a 1975 special on the group.

In 1978, Los Lobos recorded their first album, the independent release Just Another Band From East L.A., which contains classic folk songs such as the Mexican bolero “Sabor a Mí.” That disc is so rare, Pérez doesn’t even own a copy. “We printed a total of 600 to 800 copies,” he says. “The last 400 printings had side one on both sides.” “Those are real collectibles,” laughs Hidalgo. “They’re worth, like, 50 bucks.”

After 10 years of acoustic playing, the band turned to some of their musical influences — Curtis Mayfield, B.B. King, Jimi Hendrix — and plugged their electric guitars back in.

Two momentous events would change their lives. In 1980, a group called the .45s canceled on an opening slot for John Lydon’s Public Image Ltd. at the Olympic Auditorium. A friend from another band on the bill, Tito Larriva of the Plugz, got Los Lobos the gig. They were pelted with everything that wasn’t tied down, but they got their name out there.

Then one night at the Country Club, they met Phil Alvin of the Blasters and gave him a five-song tape of music they had recorded in Lozano’s garage.

“We’re from East L.A.,” Hidalgo told Alvin. “What part of East L.A.?” Alvin asked — then he recognized them from the PBS special. A month later, he called them: “Hey, you wanna open up for us?”

The Blasters were the hottest band in L.A. at the time, doing five nights at the Whisky. On January 22, 1982, Los Lobos blew away the packed punk crowd. The guys from the other side of the river were now part of the Hollywood punk scene, where they would bill with the Germs, X and the Circle Jerks, even opening for the Clash.

Steve Berlin, with the Blasters at the time, met Los Lobos at the Whisky; they told him their music had a saxophone tradition and invited him to jam. He performed with both bands for a while, but “I thought life would be a lot more fun playing with these guys.”

Everything moved quickly. In 1982, Los Lobos signed to Slash Records. “Slash was it,” says Berlin. “Everybody was on Slash or SST. All the punk bands signed with SST. We weren’t quite punk, so we signed with Slash.” In ’83 they recorded the EP And a Time To Dance, and won a Grammy for the song “Anselma.” Warner Bros. scooped up the group, and How Will the Wolf Survive? was released in 1984. By the Light of the Moon, which included the killer “One Time One Night,” followed in 1987.

In 1988, the band returned to their acoustic tradition with La Pistola y el Corazón, which won them a second Grammy for the title song. 1990’s full-on rock album The Neighborhood followed. In 1992, having “nothing to lose,” says Berlin, Los Lobos took a leap and began experimenting with different sounds on KiKo. 1996’s Colossal Head continued in a similar adventurous style. 1999’s Hollywood Records premiere, This Time, was a collection of eclectic R&B. The multiflavored Good Morning Aztlán dropped in 2002. The new one, The Ride, mixes exciting new material with old songs featuring legendary performers.

Los Lobos’ schedule is full today; they’re due in Echo Park for another photo shoot. Signing copies of The Ride, they accept Garfield T-shirts from the student body — “These are extra-large, right?”

Berlin suggests I jump in the car with him and Pérez and finish up the interview on the ride to Echo Park. Berlin drives, talking about his days with the Plugz and the Blasters, and the challenges of a Philly-born Jewish guy playing with four Mexicans: “I had no exposure to the folk music they were playing — it was very exciting.”

Berlin also comes up with some insider history: “Slash signed Los Lobos and a band called Green on Red on the same day. Bob Biggs [president of Slash at the time] said he was more excited about signing Green on Red. He thought Green on Red would be big stars.”

At the Jensen Recreation Center on Sunset Boulevard, the guys have pressing matters to attend to before the shoot. From a Mexican street vendor, tour manager Armando Tavares has bought them all fruit salads with powdered chile, which they devour immediately — the tamales were obviously not enough. But they’d rather be eating tacos from King Taco on Third Street in East L.A., or burritos from El Tepeyac in Boyle Heights. Wolves are carnivores, after all.

Tavares says it’s not uncommon for Los Lobos to drive to an East L.A. taquería after a show at the Greek Theater; he demands that Hidalgo tell “the tortilla story.” It seems they were touring in Switzerland, and Lozano was the only one carrying prepackaged Mexican food — hard to find in the Alps. Hidalgo got a craving and nudged a tortilla out of Lozano. They went to a restaurant, but Hidalgo couldn’t make the waitress understand that he wanted the tortilla heated up to complement his bacon and eggs. So he shouldered his way back to the kitchen griddle and flipped it himself, bewildering the staff and cracking up the band.

Posing for their pictures, Los Lobos look like rebels — hair slicked back, black T-shirts, cuffed 501 jeans, black shoes and boots. But what’s underneath? Tavares has known them for years; I ask him to describe them.

“Dave’s the jokester.” Not to mention that he’s the lead singer, and plays the guitar, the violin, the accordion and numerous Mexican acoustic instruments. “Conrad is the guy everyone knows and loves; everyone has a Conrad story. Louie is the artistic one; he does all the album covers.” He also co-writes the majority of the songs with Hidalgo. “Cesar is the soulful one, and Steve, he’s the eclectic one — he brings different music to the table.”

A dog walks into the picture. “Where’s the food, bitch?” Hidalgo demands of it. Wolves are related to dogs, and they hunt in packs.

Moving to Lozano’s Cadillac, which is parked next to the fruit-vendor cart, the shoot begins on the sidewalk but quickly proceeds onto the street; Los Lobos are stopping traffic. Lozano’s license plate reads “HEALERS” — he tells me it’s the name of his son Jason’s blues band. Hidalgo’s sons David Jr. and Vincent play with Suicidal Tendencies and, with Pérez’s son Louie III, in a punk band called Los Villains. Like East L.A. acts such as Quetzal and Ozomatli, Los Villains have gotten the chance to open for Los Lobos.

“That’s what it’s about — giving opportunities, to help and give a hand,” says Hidalgo.

“I wish we could do it more,” says Pérez with a straight face. Then he adds, “But most of the bands suck out there.”

Los Lobos laugh so hard, they’re howling.

by freelance writer James Porteous

I must confess that I looked forward to this new Los Lobos release with some trepidation. Although I enjoyed many songs from Colossal Head -and the ones I liked seemed to really blossom after a few weeks on the road- on the whole much of the album sounded like it was written in the studio. Of course a lot of it was written in the studio from what I gather. There is nothing wrong with this approach, really, but I think there is a fine line between spending too little and too much time preparing for an album. Perhaps Colossal Head could have used a bit more time, a few more overdubs, a few less tweaks and a couple more songs that moved the band ahead musically.

My other concern was the new label. I am not familiar with Hollywood but my fear was that if they were prone to interfere, they might push for a more commercial-sounding effort.

As it turns out I need not have feared on either count. This Time is not only a wonderful collection of new songs, but a marvelous, cohesive, band-effort in every respect. From the first song to the last, it takes more twists and turns than a cross-country trip driving at 100 miles an hour. With you head hanging out the window for good measure.

From the pensive title song to the brash sounds of Oh Yeah, Viking and High Places to the absolutely beautiful Cumbia Raza and then back again. Here is an album that appears to be one thing the first time you listen to it, and something else altogether in each subsequent listen. It is like a great movie that seems to mean something different each time you watch it; has the movie changed, or have we, the viewer, changed? No matter, I suspect our perception of This Time will continue to change as we change.

And the sound of the album is as pure as anything the band has ever done. The guitars are unabashedly front and center, creating a 'wall-of-sound' that is as 'thick' as any album I've ever heard. And Mitchell, who I really respect as a producer, seems to have stepped back a bit with this effort, forsaking the Froom-tweaks for a straight-ahead sound (although thankfully it is not entirely without a few Froomisms. Note the odd background sound that plays throughout the title track. What the hell is that sound!)

Indeed my only compliant is that it all ends too soon. One more song would have rounded it off quite nicely. But since I usually end up listening to the title song twice, it all works out in the end!