Just Another Hall of Fame Band from East L.A.

In 1993, Slash Records released a Los Lobos anthology album with the title, "Just Another Band from East L.A."  While accurate as far as it goes, that's a little like calling The Beatles "just another band from Liverpool."  

Los Lobos have of course never come close to matching the popularity of the Beatles, nor have they had the cultural impact with the general public the way those lads from Liverpool did.  In a perfect world it would be a different story, and Los Lobos would be one of the most popular bands in the world.  

Last week, Governor Gavin Newsom and the first partner Jennifer Siebel announced this year's inductees into the California Hall of Fame, and along with fellow L.A. icons The Go-Go's (whom I'll write about in a separate post), Los Lobos was on the list.

The announcement sent me down a deep Los Lobos rabbit hole.  As it turns out, I own 12 of their albums on physical media - 3 on vinyl, 9 on CD - and I've spent the last week giving them all a listen.  First, it was a very enjoyable experience.  Second, I left the exercise (well, it's probably not quite over yet) with the following observations:

- Los Lobos have never made a bad album.  Sure, some are better than others.  And while that may not sound like such a big deal, there really aren't a lot of artists you can say that about.  For example, Bob Dylan has made a bad album (several, in fact).  Neil Young has made a bad album (Neil has had bad decades, for that matter!).  R.E.M. made a bad album.  Prince made a bad album (although to be fair, the guy was so damn prolific that with him, it's not that bad).  The Rolling Stones?  Historically great.  Numerous bad albums.  Don't despair - these are all members of various Halls of Fame; it just comes with the territory.  

- The band's masterpiece, to these ears, is 1992's Kiko.  But there are others that come close: How Will the Wolf Survive? (1984), The Neighborhood (1990),  and Colossal Head (1996) are all a solid A (on the Christgau scale), and By the Light of the Moon (1987), The Ride (2004), and The Town and the City (2006) are an A-.  The rest?   Somewhere between A- and B+, and every single one features at least one track that's an absolute killer.

- The Lobos have been self-producing their albums for a while now, but it's fascinating to compare their earliest work with T. Bone Burnett at the helm to their middle (and probably best) period, where Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake really took the bad in directions that few bands are capable of going.  If you look at the band's Wikipedia page, it lists eight genres that the band's work falls under: Chicano rock, Roots rock, Latin rock, Tex-Mex, Country rock, Americana, Heartland rock, and Cowpunk (which I admit is a new one for me).  And it's really not a stretch.

Heartiest of congratulations to Los Lobos - David Hidalgo, Louie Perez, Cesar Rosas, Conrad Lozaano, and Steve Berlin - on their achievement.  And thank you for more than four decades of incredible music.  If you're interested, head on over to my Spotify page (I think you can find your way) for my 60-song tribute to the band.