Tyler: Interesting record we’ve got here, Travis. I’ll confess up front that I am a complete stranger to the work of Los Lobos, excepting their version of “La Bamba.” I’ve been aware of their status as a real American rock mainstay, and I know they’re still kicking around releasing new work. Kiko represents my first experience with their music. I must say, then, that I’m conflicted.
Travis: Kiko, while widely regarded as their best (and my favorite), is a bit of a departure for the band. It’s the first of two albums they made with producer Mitchell Froom, and his fingerprints are all over the sound. I’d say it’s more spare, consciously arty, and less immediate than a lot of their albums before or since. The Allmusic review by Mark Deming calls it “reminiscent of a Bunuel film” and I think that’s fair, at least for some of it. Didn’t immediately catch your ear?
Tyler: See, you’ve got it right there. My limited knowledge of the band’s style had me expecting a muscular, imprecise live sound. What Kiko offers instead is that like ‘90s-Jeff-Lynne precision.
Don’t get me wrong—there’s a place for precision.
Travis: I could see how the expectation could lead to it being hard to get into this particular album. Their meat-and-potatoes albums in the 1980s, How Will the Wolf Survive?, By the Light of the Moon, and The Neighborhood, have more of that live band vibe. On those albums, too, their disparate influences tend to manifest across different tracks–like, here you have your country ballad, here you have your R&B rave-up, here you have a rockabilly tune, here you have a Latin dance number–whereas on Kiko all those influences tend to turn single songs into hybrids. Like, opener “Dream in Blue” puts rockabilly licks over Latin rhythms.
I do think there are some songs on Kiko, though, that still have that loose vibe that shows how well the band play together. “Whiskey Trail” and “Short Side of Nothing” for example.
But in their discography there’s not really a precedent for songs like “Kiko and the Lavender Moon,” “Wake Up Dolores,” or “Angels With Dirty Faces.”
Tyler: “Whiskey Trail” is probably my least favorite track.
I just don’t buy it. It’s too polished.
Travis: “Whiskey Trail” isn’t my favorite. But, sadly, because they have been together for like 40 years and have 20 albums, it was the only Kiko song they played when I saw them live.
Tyler: Good show?
Travis: It was a good show. They played an eclectic mix across their discography and some rad covers, including “No Way Out” in Allman Brothers fashion.
Tyler: “Angels With Dirty Faces” has real merit, but those loops have gotta get outta here.
Travis: I’ve listened to his album so many times, idiosyncracies like the loops in “Angels with Dirty Faces” don’t stick out to me anymore. But I can see how the production tics can be bothersome. I remember you sharing some Sheryl Crow songs with me that have that Mitchell Froom touch and immediately being able to identify it.
Tyler: Her self-titled second album is rich with those, definitely. I’m still down with them, in that context. As you assess, too, Kiko isn’t the most immediate album. I’ve been working on it for about a month, which doesn’t compare to your many years of enjoyment. There could be room here to grow.
Big big fan, for instance, of “Kiko And The Lavender Moon.” That one stood out from the jump.
Travis: That song is good. Something I like about it is that it sounds like it could have come from any era, or no era. It feels timeless even with the odd instrumentation.
Tyler: It’s a smooth haunting mash of elements or instruments you expect from disparate genres.
Travis: And I understand it could be a grower and not a shower. This (beyond “La Bamba”, like you) was the first Los Lobos album I ever tried, probably 20 or so years ago. And it immediately won me over, but I can see that apart from a few songs it could be hard to take. But even after all that time it remains a favorite, a desert island disc for me.
Tyler: That’s high praise!
Travis: Something I like about Los Lobos as a band, not just this album, is that they write and sing about a Los Angeles that doesn’t get much play in popular culture. There’s no Hollywood, no beach, no Silver Lake (or whatever the hip spot is now) in the LA they write about. It’s all east of downtown, working class, immigrant LA. “Angels with Dirty Faces” is about Skid Row, “Wake Up Dolores” is one of a few songs in their discography telling the story of people trying to make it to America via Mexico (and in this case, not making it).
Any other songs that stood out to you positively or negatively beyond “Kiko and the Lavender Moon”?
Tyler: “When The Circus Comes” is a really nice track. A rather spare number. I’m not at all about “That Train Don’t Stop Here,” on the other hand. Another wannabe-raucous dust-up that can’t break free within the production.
I’m being too harsh.
Travis: Nah I think that’s fair. I think it’s a nice break between more difficult songs but can understand how the production doesn’t work for you there. I go back and forth on favorites on the album. For a while now it’s been “Short Side of Nothing.” In the past it has been “Dream in Blue”, “Wake Up Dolores,” and “When the Circus Comes to Town.”
Tyler: “Short Side Of Nothing” is a good’un. Another produced, but not too produced, standout.
“Dream In Blue” threw me off so sharply upon my first listen, and it still confounds me. It’s got a great first-track vibe and they roll out the instrumentation solidly. The lead singer’s “Oh no!” is a tremendous lick—and that’s from a listener who’s not altogether sold on how the singer comes off throughout this album—and the song overall just feels happy.
Confounds me, though, because I think I’m still thinking, like, “This is Los Lobos?”
Travis: I think either their first full-length, How Will the Wolf Survive?, or the later Good Morning, Aztlan would give you the Los Lobos you might have been expecting. Both are eclectic and hard rocking and show how the band can play and write just about any kind of American/Latin American roots music well and put their own twist on it.
Tyler: That’s what I wanna hear.
Travis: The other thing would be to see them live. Four of them have been playing together since 1973 and the fifth member joined in 1983 so as you can imagine the band interplay is pretty seamless. They stretch out songs and play a lot of covers, and live you can really see how the band’s different vocalists mesh well together.
One place to NOT go (even for me, as someone who adores Kiko) is their second collaboration with Froom, Colossal Head. It has a couple of okay songs but is mostly Butt.
Tyler: “Colossal Head?”
Travis: the album art is as bad as the title
Tyler: Maybe David Byrne could get away with that shit. As it stands, I’m looking yet again at you, Spin Doctors.
Travis: Their (Los Lobos, not Spin Doctors) most recent album is a collection of covers of songs, mostly LA artists, some obscure and some not. It has some winners and some losers.
Tyler: Any favorites from later in their career?
Travis: The Town and the City from 2006 is pretty good, a thematically linked album about the different parts of the LA area. The opening track “The Valley” is gorgeous. The Ride from 2004 is hit or miss but is their only album to feature a ton of outside collaboration on the writing and playing, from people like Richard Thompson, Elvis Costello, and Dave Alvin. There’s also an EP (Ride This) that came out at the same time with them covering songs by the people who contributed to The Ride. They cover Richard and Linda Thompson, Tom Waits, Bobby Womack, and some others.
Tyler: That all sounds pretty delectable.
Travis: Los Lobos came out of a very fertile roots rock scene in LA in the late 70s/early 80s that was sort of an offshoot of the LA punk scene. So it’s also worth checking out The Blasters (who share a member with Los Lobos), Lone Justice, X, and last but not least from that scene…Dwight Yoakam.
Tyler: Yoakam contains multitudes.
Travis: Do you have any final thoughts about Kiko?
Tyler: It’s left me wanting more from the band, and it’s one I will return to now and again, giving it a proper chance over time. There’s some hot shit here. And “Rio de Tenampa” is fire.
Travis: Rad. Like I said before, it’s a desert island disc for me and Los Lobos has plenty of other rad material as well. I could sign off by telling people to go to hell, but maybe it’d be more appropriate to say “vete al infierno.”
Writers' Loom 