By the time Los Lobos were brought in to contribute music to "Rango," band principal David Hidalgo estimates that there were already somewhere between 12 and 20 takes at the theme to Gore Verbinski's spaghetti western-like animated feature. It was composer Hans Zimmer, said Hidalgo, who admitted defeat at trying to craft authentic mariachi music. 

"They could do it on their own, but it sounded funny," Hidalgo told Pop & Hiss. "It didn’t sound authentic. So they needed some Mexicans in there. That doesn’t sound kosher and it doesn’t sound right to say it that way, but in a way it is. You need someone who knows this music, someone to play it properly and get the real effect. That’s why they called us in."

Hidalgo hasn't seen how the band's music is used in the film -- a couple of storyboards and some rough scenes were all the band has been shown -- but the act's "Rango" theme will no doubt play a pivotal role, and act as an anchor to the soundtrack. Paramount Pictures' "Rango," about a Johnny Depp-voiced chameleon having an identity crisis, and who suddenly finds himself in a desert town with all the action of the Wild West, is the first animated feature from "Pirates of the Caribbean" director Verbinski.

"Rango" the film will be unveiled to the public on March 4, and "Rango" the song makes its debut below. Local label Anti- will release the soundtrack digitally on March 1, with a CD version available in stores on March 15.

Los Lobos - Rango Theme Song by antirecords

Los Lobos' "Rango" references Ennio Morricone and "Rawhide" in sound but is a 3 1/2-minute tale that envisions the once scrappy and hapless Rango as something of an American myth. Shown images of the desert-worn Rango, Hidalgo said he immediately went to a mariachi theme, although he noted Los Lobos cut multiple takes, including one with more of a surf-rock feel. 

"You see the film, and you see he’s kind of scrungy and old," said Hidalgo. "He’s worn out, older, lives in the desert. He’s dusty and dirty. So there’s the mariachi. Then you have to make that rough a little bit, as he’s been out there for years. We had to kind of get in character. They would say, ‘Can you make it more ethnic sounding?’ They didn’t want to say, ‘Sing it like a Mexican.’ I told them not to worry, it will come out that way."

It’s easy to get seduced by the relaxed bluesy shading of Los Lobos’ “Tin Can Trust,” but that doesn’t mean there aren’t moments that provide a jolt. Songwriting partners for more than a dozen albums now, Louis Perez and David Hidalgo can still chronicle the working class with vivid specificity. When Hidalgo sings “It’s only love I bring” on the title track, it’s a gripping moment of resignation; he’s channeling a narrator who seemingly knows full-well that adoration doesn’t always go as far as cash in a recession.

Recorded in the East L.A. neighborhood where Los Lobos were birthed in the early ‘70s, there’s plenty of scruff in the stories on “Tin Can Trust.” The 11 tracks are all carefully decorated, be it the vintage guitar strut of “On Main Street” or the sparse atmospheres of “27 Spanishes,” where the hand drums, rhythmic clanks and jagged guitars reverberate as if they were laid down in an alley.

Just as unsavory are the noir-ish horns that punctuate “West L.A. Fadeaway,” where Hidalgo sings of running into an “old mistake.” If there’s a qualm to be had here, it’s that Los Lobos make the grit sound a little too comfortable. Opener “Burn It Down” simmers, but never catches aflame, setting the stage for a collection of strife that doesn’t really gets its hands dirty. Make no mistake, the storytelling is detailed and the musicianship is precision-sharp, but dotted with faithful Spanish-language takes on cumbia and Norteno styles, and one unnecessary blues-jam interlude, “Tin Can Trust” ultimately eases into traditionalism.

— Todd Martens

Los Lobos
“Tin Can Trust”
(Shout Factory)
Three stars (Out of four)

 
It was fascinating to watch a new Los Lobos song grow from conception to completion over the course of three days in the spring that I popped in and out of the group’s recording sessions for the new “Tin Can Trust” album coming out Aug. 3.

Part of the creative process I got to see up close involved the collaboration between longtime songwriting partners David Hidalgo and Louie Perez. Hidalgo usually comes up with the music first, then Perez writes the lyrics.

For the final song they were recording, “The Lady and the Rose,” Perez delivered the lyrics to Hidalgo in the studio the same day he was scheduled to record the vocal. After trying out what Perez had written, Hidalgo suggested they drop a line in the song’s chorus that Perez wrote to indicate who was talking. The line they eliminated was “…said the Lady of the Rose,” a reference to Our Lady of Guadalupe, the subject of the song.

Perez said he didn’t mind; Hidalgo often fine-tunes his lyrics so they feel comfortable as he sings them. So even though that line doesn’t appear in the finished song, they kept it as the title.

Then band member Steve Berlin added a twist of his own — inadvertently — when he sent Perez an MP3 file of the final mix of the track.

“If you recall,” Perez told me in an e-mail a couple of weeks later, “I had the line ‘the Lady of the Rose,’ which we decided not to use in the song, but reserve it as the title. Well, when Steve just sent this, he mistakenly labeled it ‘The Lady And the Rose.’ I really dig it better. So now I have a new title. I love when this ... happens. I find that if you don't resist, it can be like getting presents on your doorstep. Lots of grinning often ensues.”

Look for more on Los Lobos' recent recording sessions on the cover of Sunday's Arts & Books section.

-- Randy Lewis

Photo (l-r): David Hidalgo, Steve Berlin, Louie Perez and Cesar Rosas listen to playbacks on their new "Tin Can Trust" album at Manny's Estudio in Lincoln Heights. Credit: Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times

What’s the response for a songwriter when a rock god decides to record one of your tunes?

That question came to mind when I got word last week that Robert Plant’s new solo album, "Band of Joy," due in September, would include, among other roots folk, rock and country songs, his version of Los Lobos’ "Angel Dance" from their 1990 album, "The Neighborhood."

So I put the question to Louie Perez, who wrote the haunting and bittersweet tune with his longtime songwriting collaborator, David Hidalgo.

"It was a surprise cuz it wasn't pitched by my publishing peeps," Perez said in an e-mail. "[I] haven't heard it yet. I actually talked to him about a week ago -- [he was] asking if David and I were interested in being in the video. Apparently he's been a fan of our songs for a long time. What a huge compliment as well as a thrill to talk to him."

And what a boost if it sells even half of what "Raising Sand," Plant's multiplatinum, multiple Grammy-winning collaboration with Alison Krauss, did.

“Band of Joy,” which will be coproduced by Plant and Americana musician-songwriter-producer Buddy Miller, isn’t slated to surface until Sept. 14 -- about five weeks after Los Lobos' new album, "Tin Can Trust," hits the streets Aug. 3. In the meantime, here’s a scorching 1991 live version from one of the L.A. music scene’s finest.  You can imagine where Plant might want to go with it.

-- Randy Lewis

Photo: Louie Perez. Credit: Bob Chamberin/Los Angeles Times