Unfortunately for them, it didn't sell very well. The end result was a punchy album full of infectious little rockers. This allowed them to launch into their 2000 album "Warning" with a fearlessness that bordered on being reckless. This broadened their horizon or, for want of a better phrase, broke the punk rock shackles they were tied to.
Firstly, in 1997, they released their single "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)", which strayed from their standard punk rock roots and became a "middle of the road" smash hit. In the five years between 19 a couple of fortuitous events occurred to US punk band Green Day that did not appear to be so at the time.
Victor Jara was a poet and a political activist in Chile who was arrested and murdered during the 1973 coup that overthrew President Allende. What is unexpected on the track is the appearance of guest vocalist Jairo Zavala whose voice adds an elegant depth to the song. "Victor Jara's Hands" opens "Carried to Dust" in the manner you'd expect from Calexico, with a set of intricate rhythms created by Convertino and then grown on a garden bed of mariachi horns. Their 2008 album "Carried to Dust", described by Allmusic as a "chiaroscuro tour de force", leans heavily on their travels and experiences through South America and it expands on the more direct pop-style approach that they'd employed on their previous album "Garden Ruin" (2006). Over the years they have garnered great acclaim for their mariachi influenced Americana/Tex-Mex sound and their meticulously crafted albums. The two men who have been the constants behind the band Calexico are Joey Burns and John Convertino.
"Vincent" can be found on Don McLean's 1972 album "American Pie". McLean winds up the number on that note as if to paint Van Gogh's suicide "a sane moment in an insane world". Vincent was also a social outcast "they would not listen they did not know how" and a schizophrenic "how you suffered for your sanity". He then moves to laud Van Gogh's use of colour "paint your palette blue and grey", highlighting the two colours that are the heroes of "Starry, Starry Night" (1889), also the subtitle of this song.
His line "the ragged men in ragged clothes" is a nod to Vincent's works such as "The Potato Eaters" (1885), "Peasant Woman Digging" (1885) or "The Sorrowing Old Man" (1890). McLean uses words as his canvas to highlight Van Gogh's affinity with both rural life and those that were "down at the heel". "Vincent" is Don McLean's 1972 tribute to Vincent Van Gogh, the Dutch Impressionist painter, long considered to be one of the most important artists in the history of art.
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