Arts & Entertainment
Carrasco to play on Union Plaza today
Carrasco’s live shows span spectrum of locomotive rhythms
By Charles Lieurance
Staff Reporter_
Austin’s Joe “King” Carrasco,
unrivaled monarch of Tex-Mex New
Wave music, will perform a free
concert this afternoon from 3:30 to 5
p.m. on the Nebraska Union Plaza.
The event is sponsored by the Univer
sity Program Council’s Concerts and
Coffeehouses Committee.
Carrasco came barreling out of
Texas in the late 1970s like a cross
between Georgia’s B-52s and the
heyday of the Sir Douglas Quintet:
With farfisa shrieking around a
Norteno rhythm section, Carrasco’s
band, the Crowns, conquered bars
across the nation before turning out a
self-titled party masterpiece on vinyl
in 1981. Carrasco’s hiccupy tenor
guided the band through melodic
cthno-pop that could be touching, as
on the outlaw weeper “Federales,” or
just serve as mindless dance music.
The album was critically ac
claimed and landed Carrasco and the
Crowns a recording contract with
MCA for their second LP, “Synapse
Gap.” 1982’s “Gap” is a little harder to
digest than the debut album, with an
emphasis on Carrasco’s new-wave
side. The cover depicts Carrasco
floating in the Milky Way, and the
album is similarly spacy. The combi
nation of psychedelia, earthy ethnic
dance music and Devo-esque musical
pranksterism was a new, if not en
tirely accessible, idea. Still, the al
bum contained enough pure pop in
fluence to call the faithful onto the
dance floor.
By 1982, Carrasco naa aeveiopca a
loyal myriad of followers throughout
the bars of the nation’s midsection,
and his shows here in Lincoln were
always jam-packed with the king’s
eager serfs. Carrasco’s live shows are
dance extravaganzas, spanning the
spectrum of locomotive rhythms,
both foreign and domestic.
Carrasco’s rhythm guitar slashes
cleanly between the beat, giving the
music the same propulsive jump as
the finest ska. Kns Cummings’ ? and
-- KI—-—-**“***'**
the Mysterians farfisa blankets the
rhythms in 1960s garage exuberance.
The Crowns are exhaustive perform
ers without peer.
The “Party” LP in 1983 brought
the Carrasco sound back down to
earth with 10 variations on the theme
of the McCoys’ “Hang on Sloppy.”
The approach here is pure, derivative
party music that might be accused of
outright plagiarism if it weren’t for
Carrasco’s indomitably carefree atti
tude. He knows he’s not doing any
thing new and he couldn’t care less.
There’s not a note, musical phrase or
even song here that hasn’t been
played, onen 10 oeuer auvamage, oy
someone else. Still, somehow it
works, and halfway through the third
song you start to forgive the impish
upstart and give way to his glorious
fetishes.
That album’s “Tears Been* a
Failin’,” however, with its calliope
driven melancholy, is perhaps
Carrasco’s crowning achievement.
Carrasco will also perform Tues
day night at the Royal Grove, alpng
with Lincoln’s venerable Charlie
Burton and the Hiccups.
.. ■
Courtesy of JKC Productions
Joe “King” Carrasco and the Crowns
-r
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