"A band has got to keep changing and moving or it will get bored and break up," insists John Convertino, their drummer.

Even when they're not out on the road touring, they're recording for themselves or with other bands, such as Iron And Wine.

It's a work ethic that guitarist and vocalist Joey Burns and Convertino – the engine that drives Calexico – have maintained ever since they worked with another endlessly productive individual, Howe Gelb, with whom they constituted rock band Giant Sand for a decade.

Case in point – since their fourth album Feast Of Wire's release in early 2003, Calexico's work ethic has birthed a live DVD as well as collaborations with Nancy Sinatra, Neko Case, Francoise, Gotan Project, Amparanoia and Marianne Dissard, while Convertino even found time to release a solo album, Ragland.

Since their inception a decade ago, many people have heard the band without knowing who they were listening to. Its Tex-Mex country rock sounds have featured on countless commercials and soundtracks over the years.

Most recently, the group featured as one of two house bands on the soundtrack to the Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There, ably backed up by My Morning Jacket's Jim James, Iron And Wine's Sam Beam and Willie Nelson.

But Calexico is beneath the radar no longer, thanks to two big releases in 2006 that gave them their biggest sales to date. That year's Garden Ruin (Touch & Go) shifted around 45,000 copies in the US, while In The Reins, a collaborative EP with Beam, sold 92,000.

It has proved to be important in the set-up for the next album, Carried To Dust, which is released on Monday, and can be heard when they come to the Queen's Hall on Thursday.

"I feel the main thread here is movement," says Burns, alluding to all the musical exploration the band has undertaken to date, which has given them a newfound confidence. "I think we've been fortunate to have all these different projects.

"There's a lot of imagination in the music, and I think that's because it's all over the map. It's indicating its diversity," he adds.

Noting that the process of creating the album was "less about the performances and more about the technique of recording," Burns says the band "had a wide range of expression to choose from, and this time we were just loose and open to more beautiful mistakes."

Convertino notes that the band were keen to make a radical break with their last album, Garden Ruin, though he accepts they will probably always be pigeon-holed.

"I guess, having done that now and still getting the same labels put on us is kind of like, 'Well, what the hell. It doesn't matter', he says.

"Know what I mean? No, but it's true. I think the big departure was with Garden Ruin and trying to streamline the songs more, develop that aspect of the band which was more of a pop sensibility and, you know, it was a challenge to do it that way.

"It was fun to do that, and people were always asking us if it was a new direction. It's not necessarily a new direction, it's just developing that aspect of it because we still love instrumentals and we still love ambience in our music and we love trumpets, so I think we still want to use those elements, and that's what we did with the new album."

He adds, "You've just got to keep doing what you feel like you've got to do, and I think for this record we really were. I think the going back part is just realising which songs we like to play live the most, and we wanted to try to write some more songs like that because when you're out touring as much as we are, the songs that are the most fun to play live are the best ones."

The band have always been down-to-earth sorts but, earlier this year, when the space shuttle Discovery took flight en route to the International Space Station, friends and family of the astronauts got to make musical selections to wake the pilots from their space sleep.

Commander Mark Kelly handed responsibility to his wife, Gabrielle Giffords, who saw fit to include Crystal Frontier by Calexico.

"It was cool," recalls Convertino of when he heard the news the song had been selected. "I immediately could relate to it because I was named after an astronaut – John Glenn. My mom made this big deal about me being born on the same day he was splashed down from his orbit around the Earth in space. And she wrote him a letter, and he wrote back and said congratulations and sent an autographed picture.

"I thought that was pretty neat. I mean, when you think about it, he's an astronaut. How much time does he really have to respond to fan mail? But he did," he adds.

Interesting as it would be to know how Calexico's experimental twang would sound in outer space, most of us will have make do with a trip to the Queen's Hall next week.



Calexico, Queen's Hall, Clerk Street, Thursday, 7pm, £14, 0131-668 2019



AND THE BAND PLAYED ON: Ten years of travelling and recording have kept the Arizona band built around their drummer and lead singer from getting stale and breaking up



Heart and soul looks like making Allan's band big



Gary Flockhart

Music matters



Since the start of the year, I've heard the hype surrounding Glasvegas a thousand times. I've read Alan McGee banging on about the band in his blog. I looked on in bewilderment as the major record companies got involved in a bidding war for their signatures. I scratched my head when NME put them on the front cover, declaring them "the best new band in Britain." As the year went on, it got out of hand. I avoided the band like the plague.

Finally, when their debut album arrived, I gave in and gave Glasvegas a listen - and found them to be even more brilliant than advertised. Do you realise how rare that is?

The music press don't wait for a band to release their first album to start beating the drum. The hype machine begins building the minute a band plays a few decent gigs, often even sooner. Aggressive PR is an integral part of the music industry.

For the bands, it can often be too much to live up to – especially when there's not enough talent to support it. That's why for every Arctic Monkeys, there's a Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong; why the most hyped band of last year, The Twang, failed to take off in the way predicted; and why the debut album from the most hyped band of 2008, Glasvegas, will either be the record that lives up to all that's been promised, showcasing the young quartet as the most exciting Scottish band since Franz Ferdinand, or it won't.

Speaking to the Dalmar-nock band's singer James Allan this week, I couldn't help but be impressed with the guy. Without being arrogant, he has what all great artists have – that self-belief that says, 'I don't care if people like my band'. He isn't doing it for the fame; he isn't in it for the money.

It doesn't hit the shops until Monday, but what I can tell you about Glasvegas by Glasvegas is that it's aston-ishing - a record that should easily be up there in 'Best Of' polls come the year's end.

It remains to be seen if the album goes on to become the chart-topper many are predicting but, given the success of their singles, and considering the clamour for tickets to see the band whenever they play live, it doesn't take a crystal ball to know that it will do okay.

Regardless of whether they score a No 1 or not, they are already the most important British breakthrough band of this year alongside Tings Tings.

Lyrically, Allan is a special talent - a poet rather than a songwriter. Yes, you get the impression the quiffed-up man-in-black doesn't sit at home reading Balzac most nights, but his world view comes straight out of the east end Glasgow housing schemes he was raised on - songs about tough life in working-class Scotland.

Granted, he might never pen anything as clever-clever as Morrissey, but the kitchen sink realism of tear-jerking current single Daddy's Gone is every bit an achievement.

How you are my hero

How you're never here though

Remember times when you put me on your shoulders

How I wish it was forever you would hold us

Right now I'm too young to know

How in the future it will affect me when you go

You could have had it all

You, me, and mum y'know

Anything was possible...

This is real deal song-writing, full of emotional honesty that can only come from writing about what you know. All the better that he didn't need a thesaurus for it.

Allan insisted earlier in the week, "The way I see it, whether something gets in the charts or not, the most important thing is that I can get to sleep at night knowing I gave myself away to the song and the music. What I was trying to say in the music – that's more important than any hit will ever be."

He's right, of course, but that doesn't stop Glasvegas being the band of the year so far – even if they have got a dodgy moniker.



And that's how Brummie

kids get their Arcadian Kicks



gary flockhart

BRUMMIE kids The Arcadian Kicks are two girls and three boys – all 18 years old.

Don't be fooled by their tender years, though. Having been given the accolade of the 'band to watch in 2008' by The Birmingham Post, the fledgling outfit charmed a huge crowd at the Isle Of Wight Festival this summer.

They have also recently made their first television appearance, performing live on Sky's Death Disco show, as well as giving a good account of themselves on tour with both The Last Gang and Elliot Minor.

The Arcadian Kicks began their journey as school pals in classroom practise sessions and soon were masquerading as adults to play gigs at the request of local Midland's promoters.

They entered themselves in to the Surface Unsigned band competition where Charlatans' drummer Jon Brookes was guest judge.

Although the band didn't scoop the big prize, Brookes had seen enough in that short 25-minute set to ask them if they were interested in letting him go on to manage them.

"We started off doing covers when were about 16 – old songs like Led Zeppelin, and stuff like that," explains lead singer Becky Wilson, who brings her band to Cabaret Voltaire on Wednesday.

"Once we left school we started taking the band more seriously and began writing our own songs - indie-rock, soul, that sort of thing, and now we've moved into different genres. We're just really experimenting a lot – trying to work out our sound," she adds.

The next step after their tour of Scotland is to head into the studio and cut their debut album.

"We'll be doing some recording shortly," confirms Wilson. "We did some last year of all the songs we had up until that point, but now that we've got new material, we really want to get that down as soon as we can."

And who came blame them? After the rave reviews they've had recently, The Arcadian Kicks want to strike while the iron's hot.



The Arcadian Kicks, Cabaret Voltaire, Blair Street, Wednesday, 7pm, £6, 0131-220 6176



BRUM, BRUM: Frontwoman Becky Wilson, centre, and her Arcadian Kicks cohorts



local and live: email your band news to theguide@edinburghnews.com



THE Capital's newest live music venue opened its doors last night, with a special launch party featuring bands The Velcro Quartet, Action Group and a DJ set by Ladytron.

The Mill, an exciting new platform for emerging music talent in Edinburgh, has a simple manifesto: support those bands that are pushing the boundaries, both in their music and their approach to create a platform where they can play to their full potential.

Developed to enable both emerging artists and their audiences to benefit from the rapidly changing landscape of the music industry by bringing them together in a direct and uncomplicated way, The Mill, situated on Niddry Street, looks like becoming a real favourite.

Artists appearing benefit from the investment in the venue's lighting and sound as well as a unique promotional package, including having their live tracks mixed by established producer Tony Doogan and a live performance video.

The live tracks will then be available as free downloads at both themill-live.com and specially selected bars in Edinburgh via dedicated Bluetooth- enabled pods.

Artists appearing at The Mill will be chosen by a team of specially assembled industry experts, featuring the key movers and shakers of the Scottish music scene.

Their goal is simple – to ensure that The Mill delivers the best in emerging talent on a weekly basis.

The new venue will open its doors every Thursday, and entry is completely free.