Fans of Calexico have already come to expect the unexpected from Tucson, Arizona residents Joey Burns and John Convertino. Each of their albums, from their dusty, lo-fi debut Spoke (1996) to the noir-infused dramatic power of The Black Light (1998), the breakthrough, mariachi madness of Hot Rail (2000), to their hugely successful most recent album, Feast of Wire (2003), which flirted with ambient electronica and Gil Evans infused jazz, charting in 14 European countries, selling close to 250,000 albums across the continent.

In 2006 comes Garden Ruin, officially the band’s fifth album, apart from their many tour-only CDs. Written in Bisbee, AZ. Recorded in Tucson, AZ. Mixed in Brooklyn. Mastered in California. It sees a new, and surprising episode unfolding in the Calexico story.

A little catch-up: In early 2004, Calexico brought out a live DVD, taken from a stellar performance at the Barbican in London, while the past couple of years has seen the duo contributing songs and collaborating with Nancy Sinatra, Laura Cantrell, Neko Case on her forthcoming album for Anti, Gotan Project’s new album, wrote the music to Marianne Dissard’s French lyrics for her new album (Marianne previously sang on Hot Rail’s ‘The Battle of Cable Hogue’). John Convertino married and welcomed a baby son into the world, and released a solo album, Ragland, while sundry other Calexico dalliances include appearing as the bar band in the Michael Mann film Collateral (starring Tom Cruise), performing at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005, and perhaps most significantly, completing the In The Reins album with Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam, which saw the two groups pair up and tour the US throughout the latter half of 2005 (alongside the likes of James Mercer from The Shins & M Ward). Calexico also snuck in tours to Australia, NZ and Japan at long last, amongst their usual heavy European and North American commitments.

Naturally, Garden Ruin is informed by all these recent developments. As John Convertino says, “A band has got to keep changing and moving or it will get boring and break up.” While Joey and John remain at its heart, the multinational touring band they have gathered around them – Tucson’s Jacob Valenzuela, Germans Martin Wenk and Volker Zander, and former Lambchop pedal steel player Paul Niehaus – are much more involved in the studio on this album. Calexico’s influences have traditionally come from sources as diverse as Portuguese Fado, 50’s jazz, Gypsy or Romany music and its offshoots, 60’s surf and twang - from Link Wray to Duane Eddy - to the spaghetti western epics of Ennio Morricone, but this time, they were heading somewhere else.

“This album was a conscious decision to try something new and tap into strains in our musical fabric that haven't been highlighted in the past,” Burns says. “Touring with bands like Wilco and Iron & Wine had some influence, but everyone was trying new instruments or techniques. Backup vocals became more a focus than trumpets or strings, I was just concentrating more on the songs and singing – songs that didn’t necessarily go back to the same pool of influences as before. There are no instrumentals, and I wound up playing more in major keys, and there are more pop elements. And a bit more rock, too. John kept encouraging us to experiment, or diverge from set lists or musical habits on tour.”