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Preview unreleased tracks from Real Animal at alejandroescovedo.com...
By: Tom Speed
 Alejandro Escovedo by Mick Rock |
Alejandro Escovedo has, on the surface, lived the typical life of the critic's darling - doted on by writers, lauded by a small but vocal group of ardent fans, largely ignored by mainstream music audiences. He's damn-near deified in Austin, Texas, cited as a major influence on songwriters everywhere, and even had a litany of A-list stars contribute versions of his songs to a double-disc tribute album (2004's Por Vida). Infamously, the alt-country (whatever that is) bible No Depression even went so far as to name him "Artist of the Decade" two years before the decade was even over.
But there's much more beneath the surface, and its all but typical. To pigeonhole Escovedo as merely a critic's darling or an earnest alt-country troubadour would be to overlook a far more interesting career, one that has taken him from the nascent punk rock scenes of both the West and East coasts to the emerging alt-country movement and the blossoming of his solo career throughout the 1990s. Along the way, he's had flirtations with big time success, squabbles with record labels and a serious near-death encounter with Hepatitis C in 2003 that came to a head when he was rushed to a hospital after vomiting blood during a performance. He got well and addressed the experience in the triumphant 2006 comeback album, The Boxing Mirror.
Now, he's taken all of those experiences and weaved them into a compelling narrative of in his latest CD, the autobiographical Real Animal (arriving June 24 on Back Porch Records). Co-written by Chuck Prophet and produced by Tony Visconti (David Bowie, T. Rex), Real Animal tells these stories not only with Escovedo's trademark lyrical and melodic punch but also incorporates all of the aural elements that have fueled his career into one whirling sound that is all his own - punk rock urgency, contemplative and moving ballads, blustery blues and his unique brand of string-laden Americana. Real Animal finds Escovedo engaged and energetic, defiant and sometimes wistful.
The title comes from the song "Real As An Animal," an appropriately balls-to-the-wall blast of Stooges-stirred catharsis that was inspired by Iggy Pop. It reveals Escovedo's love of the spirit that coaxed him into the rock world to begin with. "He represents everything I've ever loved about rock 'n' roll," Escovedo says of Pop. "The total unabashed spirit of abandon, the danger, that whole 'fuck you' attitude."
While Escovedo has encountered plenty of documented danger, Real Animal reads more as a story of a life lived to the fullest, an optimistic and appreciative remembrance.
Though he comes from a musical family (his father played in mariachi bands, his percussionist brothers Coke and Pete Escovedo both played with Santana, and his niece is Prince protégé Sheila E.), and grew up an avid music fan, Alejandro never played music until he was in his mid-twenties. Born in San Antonio to Mexican immigrant parents, Escovedo and his family relocated to Huntington Beach, California when he was seven. "My parents told us we were going on a vacation, and we never went back!" he recalls.
It was in mid-'60s Southern California that Escovedo frequented a music club called The Golden Bear. He cut his teeth on a never-ending cavalcade of rock bands. "Buffalo Springfield played in the little club on the corner. There was a little place right next to Golden Bear called The Salty Cellar. It was where all the garage bands would play. We saw Limey and The Yanks, The East Side Kids, all those really cool bands," Escovedo says.
In the early 1970s, Escovedo moved from Huntington Beach to Hollywood. "At that point, I was already sold on English rock 'n' roll," he says, "bands like Roxy Music and Bowie and Mott and T. Rex." A few years later, he migrated north to San Francisco, "following a girl." Like most pivotal events in his life, it's recalled in song on Real Animal in the beautifully ethereal "Hollywood Hills."
A Four Piece Band
 Alejandro Escovedo |
Escovedo's first foray into the music world was with a group of San Francisco-based punk rock misfits called The Nuns. Even then, the primary reason he assembled the group was to produce a student film he was working on about "the worst band ever." "We had a lot of potential," Escovedo says, "but we didn't really know how to play." Nonetheless, they opened for the Sex Pistols at their very last show at San Francisco's Winterland and performed a memorable gig with Roxy Music. "They thought we were freaks," chuckles Escovedo.
Soon, The Nuns moved to New York, where they set up shop at the Chelsea Hotel and toured the East Coast by Amtrak Train. They played Max's and CBGB's, sharing gigs with kindred spirits like The Ramones. In "Chelsea" from Real Animal, Escovedo describes the yearning of the band to move to New York to "live inside the myth of everything we'd heard." The Chelsea Hotel was also home to Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen. "When Sid and Nancy got to the Chelsea I was actually in the lobby that day" he says. "I saw them and we said hello and everything. It must have been a couple of months later that Nancy was killed there."
The rest of The Nuns soon headed back west but Escovedo stuck around, playing with Judy Nylon and others. He later joined up with Chip and Tony Kinman in the seminal cowpunk band Rank and File.
"Chip called up after [his band] The Dils broke up," says Escovedo. "He wanted to come out and we'd reform Rank and File. So, he came out and we formed it with Barry Myers, who was the Clash DJ and Kevin Foley who had played with me in the Judy Nylon band. So that was Rank and File at that time."
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