Joe "King" Carrasco & El Molino

Joe "King" Carrasco & El Molino

(Tornado) El Molino was the late-Seventies precursor to the Eighties nuevo wavo sound of Joe "King" Carrasco's Crowns, a most unlikely Tex-meets-Mex aggregation that paired a brash musician from Dumas with San Antonio's wickedest horn players. Engineered by S.A.'s Marius "Bubba" Perron and recorded at Zaz Studios, El Molino's brilliance may not be obvious at first listen to this reissued gem from 1978. The songs are simple: Some sound like swamp pop with its trademark triplets ("Please Mr. Sandman," "Tell Me"), some rock ("Every Woman (Crazy About an Automobile)," "Funky Butt"), but most are the delicious amalgam known as Tex-Mex ("Jalapeño con Big Red," "Rock Este Noche," "Mezcal Road"). Carrasco's range was limited and his voice nasal and flat, but he was on to something that transcended vocal limitations, and his unpolished vocals fit the bill. The rhythm section of psychedelic rangers with Tejano veterans performed with predictably quirky and utterly irresistible results. El Molino's life was brief, and by the time the album surfaced in 1978, the musical underground was rumbling. Across the ocean, a band called the Sex Pistols had wrapped up its U.S. tour and Never Mind the Bollocks was the recording of the moment, but the garage rock genius of "Just a Mile Away" was bridging the Sixties to the impending Eighties before the decade even started. Viva El Molino!