Joe ''King'' Carrasco & the Crowns - Anthology [CD Re-issue]

Texas native Joe "King" Carrasco has devoted his career to re-creating the Tex-Mex, Farfisa organ rock & roll sound of such '60s groups as the Sir Douglas Quintet and Sam the Sham & the Pharoahs. After playing in a succession of bands around Texas in the late '60s and early '70s, Carrasco founded his band El Molino in 1976 and recorded Tex-Mex Rock-Roll in 1978. (The album was reissued by ROIR in 1989.) By 1979 he had formed the Crowns and was calling his music "nuevo wavo," playing especially in New York, where he appeared on stage in a cape and crown. He was signed to the U.K. Stiff label and Joe Boyd's Hannibal label in the U.S., and released Joe "King" Carrasco and the Crowns in 1980. By 1982 he had moved up to major label MCA for Synapse Gap, followed by Party Weekend (1983). These missed the charts, however, and although Carrasco has recorded since, turning increasingly political meanwhile, his work has been harder to find. Bandido Rock (1987) on Rounder was credited to Joe "King" Carrasco Y Las Coronas.

[William Ruhlmann]

Although he barely registered a blip on the popular radar, Joe "King" Carrasco's new wave/Tex Mex albums from the early '80s were fun, frothy, and relatively adventurous party music. Wearing his Doug Sahm badge proudly, Carrasco also brought quirky Devo, Blondie, and Men at Work qualities to his burrito. It didn't always work, and some of the songs repeat the formula with too few variations, but his style remains unique among his peers. This 18-track compilation reissues the bulk of his major-label work for MCA (two albums) and includes two songs ("Dance Republic" and "Kantina") that were not on either one. However, the lack of even the most cursory liner notes or explanation of where the tracks originated from exemplifies the budget nature of the collection. Aspects of the studio audio, in particular the synth and drum, seem thin and dated. But Carrasco's upbeat, perpetually goofy approach will keep listeners grinning along. Reggae, East Indian, and surf join with the Tex-Mex heart of this music, and for the most part this is a successful if limited synthesis of sounds. The knowingly cheesy slant is part of the overall appeal, but about an hour is all most people could handle at one sitting since, even with a few change-ups, the consistent tone eventually gets tiresome.

[Hal Horowitz]