![\"carrasco_chiliando\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/carrasco_chiliando.jpg\")
Those listeners who dug deeper than the commercial pap foisted upon us by Top 40 radio in the 1980s discovered something called college rock (also known as alternative rock). The kinds of music made \u2013 intentionally or not \u2013 under that umbrella varied widely, from hard rock to synthy sounds to proto-Americana to the \u201cPaisley Underground\u201d scene, and many others. But what most all of it had in common was a greater sense of authenticity, and of immediacy.<\/p>\n
One of the acts those-who-were-there might recall is Joe \u201cKing\u201d Carrasco and the Crowns<\/b>. Theirs was a kind of new wave-y update of the sounds popularized by Doug Sahm<\/b> and the Sir Douglas Quintet<\/b>. Carrasco was a brief (and minor) sensation on MTV, with both \u201cParty Weekend\u201d and the less novelty-flavored \u201cBuena.\u201d Good tunes both, and the 1980\/81 LP Joe King Carrasco & the Crowns<\/i> is a fun artifact of its era. But the deluge of good \u201calternative\u201d music in those days, coupled with the on-to-the-next-thing ethos of MTV, meant that Carrasco’s moment in the spotlight was brief.<\/p>\n
So you may be as surprised as I was to learn that Carrasco (real name Joseph Charles Teutsch) has continued to release a steady stream of albums \u2013 more than two dozen(!) to date \u2013 and that the guitarist, now based in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, has released hs latest, Chiliando<\/i>, with his current band, Los Side FX<\/b>.<\/p>\n
The Tex-Mex flavor of Carrasco’s early material is still there: \u201cNo Way Jos\u00e9\u201d sounds not a thousand miles away from War<\/b>‘s \u201cCisco Kid.\u201d But the album’s overall flavor is far closer to early 1970s Rolling Stones<\/b>. \u201cAnytime You Need Me\u201d could be a track from the Exile on Main Street<\/i> sessions, right down to the wailing female backing vocals.<\/p>\n