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HAPPY HOMESTEAD is mixed, mastered, printed and ready to fall into your hot little hands! It's subtitled "12 Songs on the Paradox of the Human Condition...and a Waltz". You can listen to four of the new songs here on myspace. To purchase a copy, go to cdbaby.com/carnivaleros3.

Here's a recent review from the FAME website:

I was exceedingly happy, two years ago, with this group's Lost in the Graveyard, and this one tops it, retaining the backyard BBQ feel and preserving a base sound this time impeccable in the documentation process, while evolving. I have to suspect the switch of Gary Mackender, who is The Carnivaleros when all is said and done, to sole production and engineering duties is the key, along with a co-engineering role in Chris Giambelluca. Note, please, that both are musicians and smart fellas. This, however, truly is Mackender's band, as the almost completely new roster of players attests, and the sound is as unique, delightful, sometimes hilarious, and attractive as ever.

Happy Homestead more clearly shows the strange inspissation of Jimmy Buffett, Tom Waits, and Herb Alpert—as long as you drag brassy sax in with the trumpet—in the bayou, booze, and folk-blues embodied by the Carnivaleros' music, from a number of mutant musical strains right through to the satiric, insightful, and loopy lyrics (here from the title cut):

The meek shall inherit nothin' Long as nothin's what you're after Hide in your happy homestead all day long

'Cause your new life as an outlaw Will repel your inlaws They won't overstay their welcome any more

Such sentiments sit right alongside absolutely deathless advice as well: "Doncha listen to Rush Limbaugh any mo'!," which should be inscribed over the entry to the White House. From it all, the listener extracts a more heady dose of what Mackender's all about and, as good as the last ensemble was, this one's letter perfect, more laid back and sussed, swaying in the hyacinth back alleys and magnolia trailer-park lawn lots than Lost had. Interestingly, Mackender's accordion is a good deal less pronounced than was earier the case, concentrating more fully on the organ. He even picks up a bass guitar through half the cuts.

Homestead is what Carnivaleros music really is, 110% this time, and what that is, is infectious as hell, swingin' like a gin-swozzled junebug, and as sage as a grinning ranch-hand looking toward darkening skies. Yeah, Gary flats out on the vocals every so often, but that's part and parcel of the genre, which ain't exactly operatic, y'know? And oddly enough, the occasional trait perfectly counterpoints a musical bedrock always reaching for the next beer while carrying the day in a swingin' back porch recital. Thus, when you're tired of all the cinematic, staid, proper, and approved musics in every media source blaring at you, finding yourself looking for a disc you can take your shoes off to and buddy up with, here, my friends, is precisely what you want.

Mark S. Tucker, Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange

Check out the VIDEO for DASHBOARD JESUS from HAPPY HOMESTEAD:

Here's a review for The Carnivaleros previous release, Lost In the Graveyard:

"Starting off with a coolly creepy Waits-esque ramble on mid-West oddities and homeliness, Gary Mackender and crew initiate a very interesting collective of accordion-centered instrumentals and lyrically intriguing tunes. The Carnivaleros occupy that ghostly twilight niche manned by lurking gatherings of really good musicians who keep a tight lock on neighborhood familiarity and loose professionality by capturing a Saturday Night vibe and keeping it firmly stoked. Every track seems cut straight from dives, socials, backroom jams, and jes'-plain-folks get-togethers. Elsewhere in this corner of the musical universe, there's a great longstanding (30+ years) bluesrock band, the Nighthawks, that has the trip down cold, not to mention a righteous hybrid TexMex rock-swing band, the Juke Jumpers, equally friendly. Anyone familiar with those ensembles should well know whereof I speak. The indies are probably the sole resort for such things, but they're not often enough host to this high a degree of warmth, inventiveness, and strangely attractive mutations".

Mark S. Tucker, Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange.

Bandleader and accordionist Gary Mackender has recently stepped back into the visual art world after a ten year hiatus. A new web site has been launched (olpuebloboy dot com) along with a blog page (olpuebloboy dot com/pblog).

The video below documents the final journey of a decaying organic sculpture piece that lasted a decade...1988-1998. Created by artist/musician Gary Mackender, the video features music from The Carnivaleros first CD "Step Right Up!".

I've had a few comments about the nature of using food in art perhaps being wasteful. This sculpture was part of a series of "junk food" sculptures I made in 1987-88 which were comments on the crap food being fed to us by corporations. The pizzas used in the piece were of the frozen variety that had no natural ingredients whatsoever. I also made an aquarium filled with Big Macs and had two or three swimmers floating across the surface. There was also an ammo box filled with L'il Debbie Snack Cakes. All pieces lasted about ten years, which tells ya something about the "food" used...thanks for the comment and eat your vegetables, fruit and nuts!

The Pizza Sink Saga

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Lost In the Graveyard