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Not just another band
The latest CD from Los Lobos is earning them a well-deserved label: the best group in America.
By PHILIP BOOTH, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published October 31, 2002
[Publicity photo]
“We’re a harmonious bunch of guys,’’ says saxophonist-keyboardist Steve Berlin, left. “I think we realize that our strength is in our numbers, in our unity. We get along. We make music we enjoy. We’ve had a very pleasant career.”
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Hyperbole is difficult to resist when talking about Los Lobos, the Mexican-American rockers from East Los Angeles who survived a massive pop hit (1987's La Bamba) to mature into one of the most accomplished, creative groups in contemporary music.
So we'll let someone else do the honors: "There's no better American band," Blender writer John Morthland declared in his review of the recently released Good Morning Aztlan.
Why argue?
The CD, a return to a roots-pop approach after the experimental edges of 1990s releases Kiko and Colossal Head, sounds remarkably fresh, as if Louie Perez, David Hidalgo, Conrad Lozano, Cesar Rosas and Steve Berlin still needed to prove something.
That sonic vitality -- and the group's ability to endure for nearly three decades -- isn't just good luck.
"We don't really do a lot of stuff that doesn't interest us," says saxophonist-keyboardist Berlin, who joined the band in 1983. "Every project that we take on generally has something that isn't a lot of stupid work. We've never had to satisfy anybody, really, other than ourselves. It's never really a grind to get together and do stuff. It's an enormous amount of fun.
"We're a harmonious bunch of guys. I think we realize that our strength is in our numbers, in our unity. We get along. We make music we enjoy. We've had a very pleasant career."
La Bamba, from the movie of the same name about 1950s rocker Ritchie Valens, led the band away from that plan, Berlin says.
"There was a minute or two when we were getting unsound advice," he says. "We tried, a couple of times, silly little things that obviously weren't in our best interest. We found out we could only trust ourselves, our own instincts."
The band's latest release shows the wisdom of that discovery.
Done Gone Blue is a raucous six-string crunch, maybe the hardest-rocking tune the band has used as an album opener. Hearts of Stone is all sweet soul, pungent guitar explorations and gritty saxophone riffs, and Latin rhythms drive the bilingual Luz de Mi Vida, Malaque and the all-Spanish Maria Christina. Other tracks are variously informed by blues, R&B and gospel, and the lyrics occasionally hint at the band's tragedy. Rosas' wife disappeared in October 1999; her half-brother was convicted of murder and kidnapping a year later, even though a body hadn't been found. He later led police to her remains. Good Morning Aztlan, the first Los Lobos release since 1999's This Time, was assembled with the help of producer John Leckie, best known for his work with Radiohead, Dr. John and XTC. The new arrangement marked the end of a relationship with producers Tchad Blake and Mitch Froom dating to 1990's The Neighborhood.
Blake and Froom also have worked with Hidalgo and Perez in the Latin Playboys, and the band's other recent projects include a Rosas solo album, Hidalgo's blues-based Houndog project and the Berlin-produced Los Super Seven.
"It was clear to us that we wanted to change the sound a bit, to make a record that was, frankly, a little more accessible," Berlin says. "We felt we had said what we wanted to with the records we had made in the '90s."
Leckie oversaw the sessions at Rosas' home studio in East Los Angeles. "It took us a while to get up on the horse. But once we got things going, it came together very quickly," Berlin said.
"We just sort of follow the songs' trail, whatever's compelling to us. A song shows up, and we work on it.
"That's one of those things that has kept us around so many years: We don't overthink stuff very much."
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PREVIEW: Los Lobos plays Jannus Landing at 8 p.m. Wednesday as part of the Verizon Music Festival. Tickets: $20 in advance; $25 day of show. Call (727) 896-1244.
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