Too often, contemporary albums are a jumbled mix of singles rather than a coherent piece. There is no sense of reprise, and 10 out of 12 songs will serve as calk to fill in the cracks around two songs intended for airplay. So, I was delighted when I heard that Calexico was releasing an album loosely inspired by the Hollywood writers’ strike, which tells the story of someone who leaves work, and sets out on a journey with a marked map. The new release, “Carried to Dust,” doesn’t follow this narrative rigidly, but the concept of traveling lays the groundwork for a richly diverse and complex album.

The band, which comprises only two core members: vocalist Joey Burns and drummer John Convertino, is named after the California town, Calexico, which abuts the Mexican border. Indeed, the town’s name comes from the bordering state and country (Cal~ from California, and ~exico from Mexico). It is rare that a band’s name so aptly describes its music. Calexico writes songs in both Spanish and English, sometimes switching languages in the same song, such as on the new album’s opener, “Victor Jara’s Hands.” This approach augments the sense of wandering expressed in the lyrics: “All alone and lost/ My path is lit by flame/ Crossing lands never seen/ Crossing rivers of my destiny.”

Just as Calexico takes liberty with switching between English and Spanish on the album, the band liberally deploys influences from a wide musical array. The album’s second track, “Two Silver Trees,” immediately introduces a stylistic change from a flamenco-ridden feel to a more atmospheric sound. When listening to the song, you can almost hear a living, breathing body. You can feel the heartbeat of the bass pulsating and building. The chorus—dazed, elegant and celestial—invokes Iron and Wine singer-songwriter Sam Beam, who is featured later in the album. A reverb-heavy guitar, a catchy piano riff and a textural melodica create an alluring blend of ambient and clear-cut sound. It is a perfect bed for Joey Burns’ whispery voice. Here, Calexico creates the sound of a ghost, a ghost that floats in and out of the album. The apparition emerges again in tracks like “Man Made Lake,” in which an actual ghost metaphor is used in the first verse: “I’m gonna walk these streets/ Of cold concrete/ Like I’m a ghost/ Searching for its grave.” The song evokes a nightmarish and twisted future with no organic or human qualities, poetically expressed in the lyrics: “Then I’ll gather the leaves from cell phone trees.” That line may be a token of Calexico as a traveling band, because you really can find signal towers disguised as conifers splayed on U.S. highways. Perhaps Burns got the lyrics through touring.

Themes of disarray, longing, and the album’s overarching theme of drifting to uncharted territories are again found in “House of Valparaiso.” The song extracts the blissful, romantic uncertainty of the sea—that wonder and awe we often feel when at the beach, gazing across an endless ocean plain. It’s what Herman Melville must have felt when musing on Nantucket Island. The concept of seeking communication and a sign of life, uttered at the end of “Man Made Lake,” is revisited in “House of Valparaiso,” which alludes to a lost love. Often, those who yearn for a distant lover will turn their heads each time a door opens, thinking that person has returned. Ordinary people walking on the street who may have similar hair, clothing or posture will, for a second, morph into the likeness of the absent lover. For the character in “House of Valparaiso,” the ocean takes on the likeness of a lost flame: “Is that your shape in the foam of the sea/ After all these years coming home to me.”

Two instrumentals on “Carried to Dust” offer soothing breaks, giving space and relief to an album whose lyrical themes can be heavy. “Falling from Sleeves” struck me. It  combines a simple Venezuelan cuatro pattern, jazzy yet sparing drum brushes, and a stirring cello arrangement. It is simultaneously ambient and organized. The simplicity of each instrument’s part, strategically placed in the song, adds up.

Good job on “Carried To Dust,” Calexico.

www.myspace.com/casadecalexico

This review was originally published on WERS.org, September 9, 2008.

You could tell they were tired. It was the last day of Dr. Dog’s longest tour to date, and that morning they were still drinking beer when some people are sipping their first cup of java.

WERS was bustling that Friday. If people weren’t rushing to set up equipment, they were finalizing plans for a quickly approaching Live Music Week, in which the station would host nearly 40 in-studio performances. Everybody was busy, except the members of Dr. Dog. In front of a bright window looking out on Boston Common sat Scott McMicken, Toby Leaman, Zach Miller, Juston Stens and Frank McElroy, quietly staring at the floor. Calm, unassuming and passive, Leaman had the reflective expression of someone waiting for a train home.

“You’re all from Philadelphia, right?” I asked, trying to spark a conversation with the band. Their blank faces grew alert, and Leaman, wearing a plaid shirt and blue beanie, said he grew up outside of the city, in West Grove, Pa. Being a Chester County native myself, I made small talk about familiar towns and schools. When I mentioned that their new album, “Fate,” was July’s WERS Album of the Month, they grew humbly delighted.

It’s good they take compliments well. Since touring with My Morning Jacket in 2004, bloggers and music critics have praised the band, and, according to a July Philadelphia Inquirer article, even Lou Reed has called them his new favorite group. But recognition didn’t always come easily for Dr. Dog. They played for five years largely unknown. Until recently, their fan base didn’t generate enough money for the group to spend on hotel rooms while touring, so they usually stayed with the first person to offer them a place to crash, says Leaman. This rambling lifestyle brought them many friends, and also a few situations they would rather forget.

“There have been a lot of houses we’ve just straight up left,” says Leaman.

Luckily for Dr. Dog, the success of their last few albums gave them the luxury of two hotel rooms for most stops on their latest tour.

“We’re not couch surfing anymore,” Leaman says.

Around 1:30 p.m., Dr. Dog began setting up for their performance. Despite their lack of sleep, they became vivacious and sprightly as soon as they started warming up. They love playing, and it shows. When WERS in-studio host James Clark started his interview with the band at 2:30 p.m., keyboardist Zach Miller was noticeably anxious to play. If you listened closely, you could hear ambient sounds leading into their first song, “The Breeze,” for 30 seconds before the song’s commencement.

Then, after a few words with the DJ, the rest of the band joined in, and McMicken sang: “Are you moving/ much to fast/ and the good times/ that just don’t last/ if you’re always on the go/ put that needle to the groove/ and sing.”

Their live performance of the song was slightly nuanced at the bridge, sung by Leaman instead of McMicken. Leaman, who had been sipping on a licorice-based soar throat remedy he bought from Whole Foods, sounded extra raspy, and deep: “Are there dark parts to your mind/ hidden secrets left behind/ if no one ever goes/ but everybody knows.” He could have sung anything and it would have sounded profound. Really, the lyrics could have been about cheese dip, dental floss, non-stick frying pans—anything really—and Leaman’s voice would still give you chills.

Between songs, Scott McMicken talked about choosing their new album’s title. “Like many things with Dr. Dog, it sort of started with no real purpose or intent, and then quickly became full of purpose and intent,” McMicken said. “We tend to gravitate toward things on a real basic level, like: ‘Yeah, that sounds cool, I like that … I can envision that,’ and then once you’re comfortable with it on that level you start to create meaning.”

Everything gained a purpose, including the album’s artwork. The painting of Bonnie and Clyde featured on the cover is by Ken Ellis, a bartender at a Chicago joint called The Rainbow Club. As fate would have it, Dr. Dog noticed the painting upon stumbling into the bar, and asked Ellis who made it. They bought it, and the original painting, which is almost life size, hangs in the band’s Philadelphia studio.

Leaman sang the second song, “Ancients.” Screaming wildly, he evoked Joe Cocker, and one of his influences, Tom Waits. We were hearing the loud, unrestrained bark of the Dog, and by this time, a crowd of people were gathered outside on the sidewalk, peering into the station through the windows. Leaman’s speaking voice was noticeably rattled after belting out the final notes of “Ancients.” Before starting another song, McMicken talked about the band’s songwriting process. He said about half of their songs are old, sometimes going back six or seven years, and the rest are new. “In my brain,” McMicken said, “it gives a sense of variety because you’ve got these songs that you wrote when you were a completely different person than you are now next to these songs you wrote yesterday.” It was somewhat coincidental that McMicken talked about using old songs as he led into the third and final track of the performance, “Old Days.” The lyrics begin: “Let go of the old ones/ we’ve got some new ones/ hold on to the good stuff and let go/ and get real tough.”

After Dr. Dog finished, they packed up their van and took their instruments to the Middle East in Cambridge, ending their tour with San Diego band Delta Spirit. They start their European tour on October 30.

drdogmusic.com

This article was originally published on WERS.org, October 12, 2008

Boston Police make an arrest across the street from the Cutler Majestic Theatre around 1 a.m., March 27, 2008. Two busts occurred at the same address within an hour of each other. (Photo by Ross Dallas/The Berkeley Beacon)

By Ross Dallas

It’s dark at the corner, except for the glowing white light of the 7-Eleven.

A man in a heavy coat stands in front of the convenience store, holding the door for customers and asking if anyone can spare change.

At 2:20 a.m., a police car flashes its lights, and those standing nearby walk casually in separate directions.

This is the intersection of Stuart and Tremont streets. And it’s on the same block as Emerson’s Little Building and Cutler Majestic Theatre.

In the first four months of 2008, the number of reported robberies here has already matched the total for 2007, according to the Boston Police Department.

“It is one of our identified hot spots,” said Boston Police Capt. Bernard O’Rourke. “When we assign our police officers, we assign a lot more to that area.”

O’Rourke said crime in the area is partially a result of the intersection’s nearness to St. Francis House, a homeless shelter on Boylston Street.

He also said the steady pace of late night customers frequenting convenience stores makes it easy for criminals to blend in.

Chief George Noonan, director of public safety at Emerson, said crime in the Theatre District echoes to the neighborhood’s past.

Before Emerson’s campus left the Back Bay, the Theatre District was the center of a thriving sex industry complete with strip clubs, prostitution and porn theaters. Locals called it the Combat Zone, and the name stuck.

While adult entertainment has been reduced to just two strip clubs and a few pornography stores, people still come to the same intersection for drugs.

“This is where it’s always been,” Noonan said. “The drug dealers don’t want to move because this is where the people are coming.”

Emerson students interviewed said they have had their share of shady encounters on the block.

Senior Shae Minnillo said he witnessed an older businessman smoking crack cocaine in the bathroom of a bar across the street from the Cutler Majestic Theatre.

The audio major said he usually gets asked for money and cigarettes whenever he walks toward the 7-Eleven.

“It’s like any city,” Minnillo said. “You just avoid eye contact.”

He recalled an October 2005 incident in which two people were killed and a third person injured during a shooting at the intersection of Warrenton and Stuart streets, just behind the City Place building.

Tom McCusker, a senior writing, literature and publishing major, said one of his first impressions of the area involved someone screaming at him while McCusker was filming for Emerson Independent Video. The man, McCusker said, seemed under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

“We told him that we weren’t taping him,” McCusker said. “He eventually walked away but he walked away screaming at us.”

McCusker and Minnillo both said they have seen as much crime and drug dealing next to Downtown Convenience, on Boylston Street, as on the corner of Stuart and Tremont.

McCusker remembered once seeing police tape and blood on the sidewalk outside Downtown Convenience.

“I think I’ve gotten used to it,” McCusker said as an undercover police vehicle flashed its lights and turned on its siren next to Downtown Convenience.

O’Rourke said the nearby 7-Eleven is taking steps to control crime and shoplifting by installing security cameras. He said the store also switched from being open 24-hours to closing at 3 a.m. O’Rourke said he feels people will no longer have an excuse to remain on the corner later than that.

Noonan said he attends Midtown and Park Plaza neighborhood meetings, and frequently hears concerns about crime from Emerson administrators, local landlords, bar owners and area tenant groups.

“Never is there a meeting where the intersection of Tremont and Stuart streets is not mentioned,” Noonan said.

A version of this article appeared in The Berkeley Beacon, Emerson College’s student newspaper, March 3, 2008.

A bill that would ban the possession by and sale of spray paint to those younger than 17 years old in Massachusetts is expected to be referred to a committee next week.

The bill sponsored by Sen. Michael Morrissey, intends to combat graffiti in the commonwealth. It was first filed in 2006 after Quincy City Councilor Brian McNamee brought increased graffiti in Quincy to legislators’ attention.

“Graffiti demoralizes a neighborhood,” McNamee said. “You might as well take a trashcan and just turn it over.”

The bill calls for jail terms and fines for young offenders. It costs the United States $8 billion a year to clean up graffiti, according to the Middlesex County Sheriff’s Office.

Community groups have sprung up to combat graffiti in Boston. Anne Swanson, who cochairs the Graffiti NABBers for the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay said preventive graffiti laws are necessary. A neighborhood ordinance in the Back Bay already prevents minors from buying aerosol paint cans.

But Swanson says many graffiti taggers and vandals aren’t teenagers.

“Many of them are in their 20s, pushing 30, and they still seem to have no grasp of what the responsibilities are for living in a democracy,” she says. “They think freedom is freedom to do anything.”

Most taggers are between 12 and 21 years old, according to the National Crime Prevention Council. Sam Shames, 16, from Newton, said banning spray paint for those under 17 would be an arbitrary rule. If people older than 17 are tagging property too, Shames says, the age restriction should be higher.

“It doesn’t make that much sense,” he said.

McNamee said he hopes further spray paint regulations would follow the pending bill if it passes. He said the bill could establish a foothold for further legislation.

“I think you’re going to find that a lot of these offenders are older than you think they are,” he said, “but for starters, we can work on one segment of the population.”

McNamee said Krylon, a spray paint canister sold by Sherwin Williams, is one of the most frequently used products for taggers.

Dan Schreck, who works at Sherwin-Williams in Allston, said the bill wouldn’t create a significant change in sales at his store. He said that if there were suspicion about a teenager buying spray paint at his store, they would be asked to come back with an adult.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever actually sold spray paint to anyone who wasn’t at least 25,” Schreck said.

Though McNamee said the proposed spray paint law wouldn’t wipe out graffiti in the commonwealth, he said action must be taken.

“When you have somebody who does this kind of crime, it runs the neighborhood down,” he said. “It creates and environment of apathy and an environment of neglect.”

(This article was written on March 10, 2009.)

A bill to allow more effective means of capturing and eliminating coyotes that threaten Massachusetts residents will soon make its way to a committee and receive a date for a public hearing.

The bill, re-filed this year, would amend a law that restricts leg hold traps. That law, however, provides exceptions for trapping beavers and muskrats which present an imminent threat to public safety. The bill would create a similar exception for coyotes.

Rep. William G. Greene, Jr., the bill’s sponsor, proposed the legislation in 2007. He said the restriction of leg hold traps hinders animal control officers’ ability to deal with rabid coyotes. When dangerous coyotes are reported, Greene said, officers spend too much time hunting the animal.

“In one incident they spent several days hunting an animal with rifles,” Greene said, “whereas if they were able to put out a trap, they would have been able to catch it in one night.”

But the bill faces opposition from organizations like the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, a non-profit animal protection group.

Linda Heubner, MSPCA deputy director of advocacy, said the legislation could cause cruel trapping of innocent animals. Leg hold traps, she said, are unnecessary.

“They’re indiscriminate,” she said. “They’re inhumane.”

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) are also opposed to the bill. Ryan Hauling, a PETA coordinator, said in an e-mail that any legislation allowing the killing or inhumane trapping of wild coyotes is cruel. He said the state should choose “compassionate” solutions to coyote problems over “cruel” ones.

But there is support for the bill in the scientific community. Laura Hajduk, a furbearer biologist for the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, does extensive research on coyotes in the Bay State. She said traps for dangerous coyotes aren’t needed often because there are so few rabid coyotes. In the 50 years since coyotes first appeared in the Massachusetts, there were three attacks on humans, two from rabid coyotes. Between 1992 and 2007, nearly 3,000 raccoons tested positive for rabies in Massachusetts, according to a MassWildlife study. In the same span, only 10 coyotes in the commonwealth tested positive for rabies.

“It’s an extremely, extremely rare event,” Hajduk said.

Greene said that while coyote attacks are uncommon, it’s still important to prevent them.

“It doesn’t happen often,” he said, “but when it does happen it’s best to be aware that there are solutions, rather than just allowing the animal to run around.”

Researchers could benefit from the proposed law, Hajduk said, because it would repeal bans on certain traps for legitimate scientific studies. The box traps now used are problematic because coyotes must become acclimated to the trap for several weeks before they walk in.

Cathleen Ellis, a wildlife enthusiast and blogger from Cape Cod, said she supports legislation that helps eliminate aggressive coyotes. She said her friend, who lives in Bournedale, lost his dog to a pack of coyotes.

Ellis said overpopulation is a nuisance to people and other animals. She supports traps which enable research that helps control the population.

“I don’t think it should be ignored any longer,” she said.

Greene said he’s received several “nasty phone calls” from people saying his proposed legislation is cruel.

“It’s discouraging,” he said. “Some people have more concern for wild animals than they do for little kids.”

Greene opposed the original legislation to ban leg hold traps, which passed through a ballot referendum in 1996. The box traps, he said, don’t provide a better solution for dealing with dangerous animals. He said the method used now involves the animal sitting in an enclosed box overnight until an officer comes in the next day.

“The trapper shows up and beats it to death with a stick,” he said. “I don’t think there’s a lot of logic here, it’s all gut feel.”