JOE "KING" CARRASCO
Tales From The Crypt (ROIR)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson

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You may be just old enough to remember a video called "Buena" that made MTV fun to watch back in the early 80s. Okay, MTV was kind of fun to watch then anyway, but this was part of the reason. Joe "King" Carrasco and his band, the Crowns, had fun -- just fun -- in a silly little video that was actually SHOT on video, and the song, a Farfisa-driven Tex-Mex bootscooter, was so infectious I'm still singing it twenty-some years later. It was put out by England's Stiff Records, and it was pretty damned good, but the real story was about a cassette that had circulated among critics and industry insiders. It had been recorded in the basement of an Austin, Texas radio station, and it caught the band at their raw best. It was the word of mouth campaign resulting from this tape that got Carrasco and company signed to Stiff, and though they would later move on to MCA and a few other labels, it just never really happened for them. Damned shame, because they made great Tex-Mex party music, and there's just not enough of that to go around. So anyway, to make a long story short, ROIR managed to secure the rights to release the basement tape in 1984, and as I understand it the scene was a little like a bloody duck in a shark tank. All I know is they were long gone before I could get one. Now they're available on CD for the first time, complete with the original dozen tracks and one bonus track. Learn from my mistake and snag the thing now. Unlike most things called "The Basement Tapes," it sounds excellent, and it captures a fun band playing fun music with an authentic energy that'll sweep you off your feet. Can't recommend this enough.

© 2001 - DJ Johnson