Los Lobos

Main | Biography | From the Archives | Album Reviews | Photo Gallery | Discography

Album Reviews

Photo

Los Lobos

Just Another Band From East L.A.  Hear it Now

RS: 2.5of 5 Stars

2009

Play View Los Lobos's page on Rhapsody

When Los Lobos appeared on the national scene in 1984, with How Will the Wolf Survive?, the band had already been playing for eleven years. For the first seven years, they were Los Lobos del Este de Los Angeles, a drummerless, acoustic quartet that specialized in Mexican folk songs. The only documents of that early phase were 1,000 copies of a low-budget, 1977 vinyl album, Just Another Band From East L.A. -- the rarest of roots-rock rarities. Now that album has finally been reissued on CD, and amid the clinking beer bottles and good-natured banter you can hear the contagious joy of sons of immigrants discovering a cultural heritage they had previously ignored. The music isn't as accomplished as its Mexican models or as Los Lobos' other folk album, 1988's La Pistola y el Corazon, but from the Frank Zappa pun of the title to the rockabilly drive of the guitars, the music has a youthful irreverence and enthusiasm that are hard to resist. And this early apprenticeship in the songs of their ancestors lent a weight to everything Los Lobos did afterward.

You can hear much of what they did afterward on El Cancionero, a four-CD box set that spans everything from two songs from Just Another Band to a track from the upcoming Los Super Seven II. In between are smartly chosen samples from every Los Lobos disc, plus rarities from side projects, tribute albums, movie soundtracks, demos and live shows. Taken together, these eighty-six songs suggest that Los Lobos deserve to be remembered as chroniclers of the American Dream, as much as Bruce Springsteen or Curtis Mayfield, and not just as singers of the fluke hit "La Bamba."

GEOFFREY HIMES

(Posted: Oct 18, 2000)

Advertisement

News and Reviews

Advertisement


How to Play This Album

  • Click the play button.

  • Register or enter your username and password.

  • Let the music play!

No commitment.
It's FREE.

 

Track List

Play All

Photo

 

Your Turn

Give us your review of Just Another Band From East L.A.

Advertisement

 

Everything:Los Lobos

Main | Biography | From the Archives | Album Reviews | Photo Gallery | Discography

 

RSS Subscribe to Rolling Stone Los Lobos feed

See all available RSS feeds / learn more

Advertisement

Advertisement