Los Lobos cruises past 30

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Entertainment Writer

Los Lobos, one of America's foremost rock 'n' roll/blues/Latin/fusion bands, recently celebrated its 30th year together with its latest release, "The Ride." The band will be in Hawai'i for a series of concerts — in Hilo on Saturday, on Maui Sunday and ending at the Pipeline Café Monday in Honolulu. Max Aguilera-Hellweg

From left, bassist Conrad Lozano, saxophonist Steve Berlin, drummer Louie Perez, guitarist/vocalist David Hidalgo and guitarist Cesar Rosas have been together for 30 years as Los Lobos. Hidalgo, Rosas, Lozano and Pérez formed the band while still in high school in 1973. Berlin joined the band a decade later. Cesar Rosas/Mando Tavares

Los Lobos 7:30 p.m. Monday Pipeline Café $30 (advance), $35 (door) Tickets available at Pipeline CafÚ, Jelly's, Cheapo Music & Books (Puck's Alley), The Liquor Collection, Good Guys Music & Sound, Hungry Ear Records & Tapes, Rainbow Books & Records (University Avenue), Samurai 589-1999 Also: In Hilo, 7 p.m. Saturday, Sangha Hall, $35, (808) 896-4845; on Maui, 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Maui Arts & Cultural Center's Castle Theater, $30, $35, $40, (808) 242-7469.

Los Lobos didn't want to pat itself on the back too much for sticking together through three decades. And it certainly didn't want anyone else paying an embarrassing tribute either. But the guys did feel some kind of party was in order.

So they invited a few friends over for "The Ride" — a mix-CD of new and old Los Lobos material as unique and eclectic as the East L.A. legends whose work it "sort of" celebrates. The lineup of guests riding shotgun on the record includes Bobby Womack, Tom Waits, Richard Thompson, Elvis Costello, Mavis Staples and Rubén Blades.

Still touring in support of the May release, Los Lobos plays its first Hawai'i concerts in seven years this weekend, ending with a Monday show at the Pipeline Café.

"The fact that it is our 30th year and we get to sort of mess around, look at old songs and play with old friends does make ('The Ride') pretty cool," said saxophonist Steve Berlin, suggesting that any other plan for a CD would've rung uncharacteristically false for the band.

"We wanted to reveal the ingredients that go into making our little bouillabaisse. It's equal parts blues, Latin, country, rock ... uh, whatever you'd call Tom Waits."

Berlin chuckled over the chug of a small engine he seemed to be working on at his Seattle home.

"We certainly thought long and hard about it being reflective of where we had been all this time and why it was this kind of record. ... The mission, to a certain extent, was just to say, 'This is how you get to be us. This is what works for us.' "

The Wolf Survives

The three decades since guitarist/vocalist David Hidalgo, guitarist Cesar Rosas, bassist Conrad Lozano and drummer Louie Pérez first formed Garfield High School's most famous band has seen remarkably few surface changes not geared toward building a better Los Lobos.

Hidalgo, Pérez and Rosas have matured into two of rock's most reliably brilliant composers — consistently stretching and redefining Los Lobos' sound without abandoning its traditional folk roots. Perez has stepped out from behind the kit to become the band's resident multi-instrumentalist genius. Seeking something more resembling a musical democracy, Berlin left The Blasters and its often-feuding lead siblings Dave and Phil Alvin for Los Lobos in 1983.

Berlin became the first — and last — invitee to join the ranks. No one has ever left Los Lobos.

Berlin joined at a pivotal career moment for Los Lobos: The band was parlaying the success of its fiery Tex-Mex EP "... And a Time to Dance" with its critically lauded full-length indie debut "How Will the Wolf Survive?" — moving from east L.A. wedding and restaurant gigs to concert halls.

The 12-album catalogue the band has amassed since arguably ranks among the greatest in rock history. But it's Los Lobos' late career works — where the band nixed cashing in on the surprise mainstream success of its "La Bamba" soundtrack in favor of more experimental pursuits — that has kept it safe from rock's over-stuffed has-been file.

The roots-of-rock stew "The Neighborhood" (1990), the wonderfully twisted "Kiko" (1992) and defiantly complex "Colossal Head" (1996) manage to challenge without coming off unnecessarily showy. By comparison, even lesser works like "This Time" (1996) and "Good Morning Aztl½n" (2002) seem more ambitious miscues than outright failures.

The lineup of invitees eager to pony up for "The Ride" proved Los Lobos' lofty place even among its peers.

Picking the best

"We started with a big dry-erase board and began writing down every single person even remotely connected to our concept," Berlin said of the band's initial fueling up for "The Ride" in Rosas' living room. "As people would walk by it, they'd write something down.

"After a while, we sat around, looked at it, crossed off the dead guys — of which there was more than a handful — and crossed off the ones that would probably have been a stretch under the best of circumstances."

The initial goal was matching up guests to Los Lobos songs either directly or indirectly influenced by them.

"And then it expanded from that to just letting people play on these songs and see how cool that went."

Everyone invited said "yes."

"Not long after, we realized that we had to stop asking people because we didn't want (the collaborations) to be the totality of what the record was about," said Berlin, laughing.

And what about that guest list, which also included Spanish rockers Cafe Tacuba, original garage rocker Little Willie G., Dave Alvin and The Band's Garth Hudson?

"All of these guys and girls, to a certain extent, represent what we're about, which is, I guess, a pastiche of all of these different things," said Berlin. "Everybody that we invited, we felt represented the same kind of ethic we had, which is, 'Build 'em for the long haul.'

"None of these people ever cashed a quick buck in their lives, I don't think. So we kind of liked that. That's who we invited."

A handful of misguided music critic comparisons of "The Ride" to the Grammy award-sweeping, career-revitalizing Santana duet album "Supernatural" have annoyed Berlin. Understandable, since you won't find the mainstream likes of Matchbox Twenty's Rob Thomas, Nickelback's Chad Kroeger or Michelle Branch anywhere on "The Ride."

"I think the clear difference is that we picked these people because these were the most soulful, imaginative and cool people we know," said Berlin. "Clearly, no one records Mavis Staples thinking they're gonna have a pop hit. We just thought it'd be fun thing to do. And it was! As was every session with each one of these people."

A Los Lobos Mix-CD

"The Ride" offers a trunkful of great musical moments.

"La Venganza de Los Pelados" with Cafe Tacuba layers menacing guitars and horns, and bluesy keyboard flourishes over playful Elfego Buendia vocals. Hidalgo's and Rosas' bluesy guitars over a funked-up Lobos beat work the real mojo on "Is This All There Is?" with Little Willie G. Blades gets solid mariachi-style backing on the percolating Afro-Cuban salsa jam "Ya Se Va."

Nobody's back-up band, Los Lobos kills in its own right with the blazing swamp rocker "Charmed."

The only disappointing part of "The Ride" journey?

"Everybody did their work so quickly, we didn't really get to hang out with them," said Berlin, laughing over the noise of nails he was shoveling off his driveway. ("How's that for a big rock star thing to do? We had to re-roof our house," he explained.)

Here, Berlin turned even more humble fan.

"Richard Thompson was in and out in about an hour. He just kind of sauntered in one day, sung the (expletive) out of the song and split. Ruben Blades was in and out in a half hour — we were looking forward to shooting the (expletive) with him."

Costello and Waits recorded their vocal contributions long distance.

"Bobby (Womack) was the only guy that really hung out all day just because I think he really wanted to," said Berlin, chuckling.

Their epic melding of Los Lobos' "Wicked Rain" and Womack's classic "Across 110th Street" as a R&B/gospel/Latin smorgasbord is the stunning sonic centerpiece of "The Ride."

Never satisfied

Asked Los Lobos' secret to sticking together for 30 years, Berlin answered quickly.

"We don't really rehearse ... period. So that's kind of worked out pretty good."

But seriously, Steve.

"We keep trying to grow," offered Berlin. "We've never really felt like we've arrived anyplace.

"We don't overthink, overwork, or get too overwrought about stuff. We realize that nothing is life and death, and if you hang around long enough, that you can basically outlive every trend."

Perhaps because its musical output remains so enviously potent after three decades together, the band has never even deigned to mention the word "retirement."

"That's another key to sticking around this long: never really planning," said Berlin, laughing again. "There isn't a five-year, one-year or much less a five-minute plan, really. ... We put every record out hoping it will be more successful than the last one. Sometimes that works out. Sometimes it doesn't.

"But the end result is we have a career that's lasted 30 years and we're able to provide for our families. That, in and of itself these days, is kind of a miracle."

And makes for quite a ride, as well.

Reach Derek Paiva at dpaiva@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8005.

Steve Berlin on Los Lobos' records

On its most successful: "La Bamba" soundtrack, 1987. (Billboard peak: #1)

"We were actually in Europe when it hit, so we really missed a lot of that early infatuation stage. We were hearing about it, but we didn't quite believe it. ... When we got home and found ourselves in the (Billboard) Top 10 (for both the soundtrack and a cover of Ritchie Valens' "La Bamba"), it was like even more of a joke. But as great as it was, we also knew that it wasn't really quite the same endorsement of us as a musical entity that it would've been had it been one of our songs or one of our albums. ... The world discovered us, which was great. But the end result was not that our tide rose with the fortunes of that song. When the hubbub died down and the movie had done its thing, we were pretty much right where we started before the whole thing went down."

On its best (in my opinion, anyway): "Kiko," 1992. (Billboard peak: #143)

"'Kiko' was certainly a special moment. That whole record was so dreamlike. I honestly can't tell you that I remember a great deal of it. The whole time of it seems like we were just floating in air somewhere. ... I remember at the end of it, listening to the record and going, 'Is that us?' ... It really was a very dreamlike thing and sort of sounds that way, I guess. ... 'Kiko' was also when we realized that we didn't really have to rehearse anymore. That's what sealed the deal."

On its most recent: "The Ride," 2004. (Billboard peak: #75)

"I'm really proud of this one. We set out to do a record that sounds pretty much exactly like (it) sounds. I've gotta take a lot of pride in that. More often than not, you sort of settle for something that happens along the way. But for this one, we really did say, 'This is what we want.' And it's pretty much what we got."