Slash/Warner Bros.
Los Lobos performs tomorrow on
Maui and Saturday at Nimitz Hall.
Beyond ‘La Bamba’
This innovative, energetic band
By Nadine Kam
has never fit into a musical mold
Assistant Features EditorStar-Bulletin
In the weird world of the music industry, Los Lobos might be considered weirder still -- a band that has been successful for more than 20 years without once resorting to dressing funny, spewing profanity, breaking instruments, ending up in police briefs, or heaven forbid, getting nude on stage. "Oooooo, you wouldn't want to see that," said the band's saxophonist Steve Berlin, a shudder in his voice.
"Believe it or not, it was a temptation we were able to resist all this time. We never had many opportunity to do much beyond what we do, certainly not anything with a fashion component, which has always eluded us. We never fit into any type."
So while the disco, new wave, punk, glam, hair and grunge bands came and went, the three-time Grammy Award-winning Los Lobos is still making critically acclaimed albums and touring coast to coast.
The band will perform Friday at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center and Saturday at Nimitz Hall with opening act Ween. On the surface, Los Lobos seems to have little in common with Dean and Gene Ween, the goofballs from Pennsylvania best known for the bouyant, helium-imbued "Push th' Little Daisies" and the Al Green-ish "Spirit of '76."
Ween's latest album, "The Mollusk," is a brine-filled package of lush ocean-inspired melodies with absurd lyrics, a bit of vaudeville and an old Irish drinking song that sounds like Tom Waits on a bad day. The album grows on listeners like a barnacle.
Both bands are musical experimenters, seemingly oblivious to the treacherous twists and turns of the musical landscape. Berlin is as surprised as anyone that Los Lobos has survived this long.
"Go figure. There's something to be said for letting the industry swirl around us, not paying attention and not being jealous of what other people were doing."
Instead, Los Lobos most recent album would give other bands plenty to be jealous about. "Colossal Head" presents a sensuous, textured melange of blues, funk, r&b, barroom boogie and jazz.
The mix will be new to anyone who still regards the band as "those guys who recorded 'La Bamba.' "
"I get that all the time," Berlin said. The Ritchie Valens song recorded by Los Lobos for the movie of Valens' life sparks the only glimmer of recognition in nonfans. "It's something that comes with the territory of having a hit record. At least it's made people aware of us.
"I can't begrudge anybody thinking that. Our goal then is to make a broader record to make people pay attention and make the perception change."
The difficulty there is that casual music listeners don't like change, and Los Lobos has always been about making giant leaps forward.
"Most people don't know what to make of us. We've never allowed a niche to be formed around us," Berlin said. "I'd rather be out in the fringe and making interesting music than trying to live up to defined expectations."
Original band members David Hidalgo, Conrad Lozano, Louie Perez and Cesar Rosas came together in East L.A. in 1974. Like any teens, they started playing rock, but as Perez has said, they couldn't escape "the soundtrack of the barrio."
They developed a traditional Mexican acoustic style that turned into a quest for broader knowledge of Latino music.
Berlin was a member of the Blasters, a rock and blues band that had a gig at The Whiskey. The two bands played a couple of shows together and Berlin, who grew up playing jazz in Philadelphia, found himself muy simpatico with Los Lobos. Both also shared a love of old blues and soul music.
At the time, leaving the Blasters for an uncertain future with a quirky, obscure Tex-Mex roots band seemed a foolhardy choice.
"The first thing I thought was 'there goes my weekly paycheck, but screw it.' It wasn't a sure thing in a financial sense, but within the Blasters my role was marginal. I had no decision-making power. In terms of a long-term career I might have killed myself. I was 24 and I wasn't going to be happy in that situation."
With Los Lobos, he said, "We were spiritually aligned from the beginning. We had the same outlook and approach to making music."
Los Lobos' first independent recording was 1978's "Los Lobos Del Este Los Angeles." The band won a Grammy for Best Mexican-American Performance for the song "Anselma," off its 1983 EP "... And A Time to Dance." The band also won Grammys for "La Pistola Y El Corazon" for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group in 1988, and for 1995's "Mariachi Suite," Best Pop Instrumental from the soundtrack for the film "Desperado." With 13 albums to their credit -- including the 20th anniversary double-compilation "Just Another Band From East L.A.: A Collection" -- the band's approach is increasingly streamlined, spare and intimate, thanks to a Fostex 8-track cassette machine that Hidalgo has owned "forever."
The machine was responsible for a little-known CD by the Latin Playboys (Hidalgo, Perez and producers Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake), that was a forerunner to the albums "Kiko" and "Colossal Head."
"It started as David and Louie writing songs together and making tapes at home. The machine was responsible for the sound they got. The Latin Playboys came about because they liked the sound of the demo. They didn't want to touch them. Rather than take it to the band and make us replay them, they released the album as is."
"A lot of 'Colossal Head' and (the album) 'Kiko' came out of the same cauldron.
"Their stuff has always sounded like that, but it's taken us a long time to realize we make better stuff at home than in the studio."
"Colossal Head" was written entirely in the studio and achieves the stripped down, living room aesthetic the band was striving for.
It's the opposite of what is heard on radio today. Berlin said, "A lot of what I hear is so tortured sounding it's unlistenable."
He has a friend whose theory is that Nirvana -- in its raw excellence -- was the root of all music industry evil.
"The idea that something magical could happen unexpectedly led record companies to sign up every new band, not knowing who might become successful overnight.
"But I think it's pretty obvious, even listening to the Foo Fighters (with Nirvana's Dave Grohl), that Nirvana was special, and it takes more than having three talented people play together."
Following the Hawaii concert, Los Lobos will work on the side projects that later fuel their work together. Hidalgo will be producing the debut album for Ozomatli, Perez will likely take up a paintbrush to create, Rosas will be working on a solo record and Berlin will produce an album for the Tragically Hip.
Berlin also plays with the band Tuatara in Seattle, which he has called home since 1989. His bandmates there are R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, The Screaming Trees' Barrett Martin and Luna's Justin Harwood.
Summing up a reason he left L.A., Berlin said, "In L.A., this kind of band project would have this whole pretentious superstar vibe. But we're just some knuckleheads who get together and fool around in the studio."
Los Lobos
Opening act: Ween
