Los Lobos
www.loslobos.org

At this stage in their illustrious career, a new album by the East Los Angeles rockband Los Lobos is a highly anticipated event. Since they began as Los Lobos DelEste Los Angeles in 1973, they have evolved into a respected artistic entitysearching for themes and topics that are an interpretive pulse of our times.

Using musical molds built on the blues, rockabilly, jazz, Latin and their ownMexican-American heritage, Los Lobos have never beat their fans over the headwith politics or agendas. Instead, they subtly challenge them with conscience-raising songs and thought-provoking lyrics. Their latest Hollywood Records release- “The Town and The City” - certainly does that.

“As artists, we take our experience and put it into painting, stories or songs,” saysLouie Perez, a multi-instrumentalist with Los Lobos and the principal lyricist for this2006 album. “Right now, when the world is in this incredible state of flux, it’simpossible for this experience not to affect your work.”

“Somewhere halfway through the making of this record I found this linear sort ofplot, a story of struggle” explains Perez, “So I thought, I’m not going to resist andfollowed my intuition. It was like a flashlight waving at the end of a tunnel that Ihad to go after.

”The epic “The Town and The City” is told in the first-person, with each song servingas an episodic step in a rough journey that is in your face at times, comforting andnostalgic at others. Most of the thirteen songs are co-written by Perez and DavidHidalgo; Cesar Rosas contributes two songs.

“The Valley” opens the album with a mournful narrative soulfully delivered byHidalgo. “When I got the music from David, I almost immediately thought aboutsome sort of beginning, almost a creation myth,” continues Louie. “I began toimagine indigenous people traveling across the land and what evolved was the ideaof people coming to a new place.

”The journey takes on a darker, more desperate tone with “Hold On,” a metaphoricalblues about the trials and tribulations that could lead one into grips of drug andalcohol abuse. “David and I talked about the theme and the following day he cameto the studio with a lyric written for the chorus” adds Perez, “and I told him ‘I’ll getthis done but its not going to be pretty’.

”“The Town and The City” travels over emotional peaks and valleys. Cesar Rosa’s“Chuco’s Cumbia” is a lighthearted dance groove sung in calo, the English-Spanishjargon of Mexican zoot-suitors. “Road To Gila Bend” is an immigrant ode told as acowboy lament. Personal and vulnerable reflections appear on “If You Were OnlyHere Tonight,” “Luna” (Moon), and “Two Dogs and a Bone.”

Sonically, the album is a jewel, reflecting the introspective quality of the songs inradiant, ambient textures. In hindsight, Los Lobos records have evolved, creating asound that combines hi-fi with lo-fi, acoustic with electric. Steve Berlin admits itwas a challenge to process the ideas and character of the songs

.“We tried to make each song like it was a miniature movie that ties together as anoverall coherent statement. I think we’ve come full circle in trying to make moreimpressionistic records using sound as paint, with any sound being right formanipulation or destruction if need be.”

“Little Things” bears the influence of Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale” withits brooding cathedral organ. In essence, it’s representative of the profound respectLos Lobos have for archaic timbres from 1960s British Rock, raspy Howling Wolfguitar, rockin’ R&B Baritone sax or Wes Montgomery jazz octaves. Lyrically, itspeaks of the small but important parts of life that often are ignored.

The centerpieces of the album - “The City” and “The Town” - serve as urbanreflections of immigrant arrivals. “The City,” with its references to the glow of “neonlights,” articulates the mystique of the boulevard and the electricity it generates inthe lives of those that wander its sidewalks.

“The City” comes from our own experiences growing up in East L A, on the edgeof downtown Los Angeles,” explains Perez. It’s about the hustle of the city and howthe individual is often lost in the shuffle. Musically “The City” is very cinematic,”explains Perez. “So lyrically I took a more impressionistic approach: Takingsnapshots of a reckless night out.”

“The Town” is a nostalgic reminiscence of back home, wherever that may be, anda counterbalance to the here and now of “The City.” It is a comforting cruise withshades of the Eastside Sound as represented by bands like El Chicano and TheVillage Callers.“

When he sings, ‘I close my eyes and it’s all I see,’ it means that anywhere youare you can never deny where you came from. And it’s not just about thesebeautiful pastoral pictures you might have of where you came from. For me, therewere also disturbing images of police helicopters flying over the neighborhood, thesound of shots going off late in the night. These are the details that also make upour memories. And even those things, as bitter as they are, can sometimes besweet as well.”

“Don’t Ask Why,” “No Puedo Más,” and “Free Up” complete the album, with everysong saying something significant about the mysterious journey that creates a newlife in a society much different from where it began. It can be the first-personimmigrant story that repeats itself every day along the US/Mexico border but witha universal message about the struggle between right and wrong.

“This is a record of this moment,” concludes Steve Berlin. “There are places whereit’s dark and foreboding and that’s certainly how many people I know feel right now.And though there are songs in Spanish, this is a universal story at a time when we’reall moving through something into something. No one I know is standing still. We’recaught up in the tide of history in a profound way and everybody’s moving whetherthey want to or not.”

“In the larger scheme of things I hope that these songs will communicate to peoplein way that can be interpreted into their own lives,” says Louie Perez. “We as aband have had an interesting life so far and if it all ended tomorrow I could sit backand be proud at what we’ve accomplished. But we’re not done yet and I’m blessedwith the opportunity to keep chiseling away at this huge stone and wait for moreto be revealed.”

www.loslobos.org