Calexico, a Tucson collective of musicians focused around Joey Burns and John Convertino, forged an eclectic identity through their exploration of Southwestern culture. Composer Ennio Morricone's spaghetti Westerns as well as Portuguese fado, Afro-Peruvian music, and '50s and '60s jazz, country, and surf music all factored into Calexico's music.
Burns studied classical music at the University of California-Irvine before starting his rock career. Calexico formed after Burns met John Convertino in Los Angeles in 1990. At the time, Convertino was playing with Howe Gelb's experimental rock group Giant Sand. Burns joined the group as their upright bassist for a European tour. Burns and Convertino found their voice as a duo during a break from work with Giant Sand. They moved to Tucson in 1994 and began collecting instruments from the Chicago Store. First, they worked with Tucson's neo-lounge combo Friends of Dean Martinez. They started to play marimba, cello, accordion, and vibraphone in addition to their usual work on bass, guitar, and drums. After a split with Friends of Dean Martinez founder Bill Elm in 1996, the duo began to get session work with Barbara Manning, Richard Buckner, Victoria Williams, Michael Hurley, Bill Janovitz, Vic Chesnutt, and Lisa Germano (as the trio OP8). Burns and Convertino experimented on their own with their new instruments in a home recording studio in 1996, releasing their debut CD, Spoke, on Germany's Haus Musik Records. After signing with Quarterstick/Touch and Go Records in Chicago, they released The Black Light in 1998 and The Hot Rail in 2000.

For their 2001 EP, Even My Sure Things Fall Through, Calexico enlisted the support of longtime members Martin Wenk, Volker Zander, and Jacob Valenzuela, as well as members of Mariachi Luz de Luna. The song "The Crystal Frontier" was inspired by Carlos Fuentes' novel and the cumbia rhythms of Mexico. "Sonic Wind" was a remixed instrumental version of a song originally on The Hot Rail, featuring Valenzuela's trumpet solo. "Untitled III" was a remake of a song by the electronica group Two Lone Swordsmen. "Chanel No. 5" was a cover of an American Music Club song. "Banderilla" was a reworking of an outtake from The Hot Rail. Session work with Richard Buckner and the Louvin Brothers' song "Knoxville Girl" inspired "Crooked Road and the Briar." And "Hard Hat" was an ambient version of the song from The Hot Rail.

Even My Sure Things Fall Through (Quarterstick), in effect, was a collection of outtakes from the group's 2000 CD release, The Hot Rail, as well as B-sides, remixes, and previously unreleased material from their European label, City Slang. In 2003, the band issued their most cohesive material to date with Feast of Wire. An EP of covers, Convict Pool, followed a year later. The concert DVD orld Drifts In: Live at the Barbican London was also released in 2004, and the group spent the rest of that year and 2005 collaborating with artists such as Nancy Sinatra, Neko Case, Laura Cantrell, and Iron & Wine's Sam Beam, with whom they recorded In the Reins. Along with touring with Iron & Wine in support of that album and appearing in a cameo in Michael Mann's film Collateral, Calexico found time to record with producer J.D. Foster. The results were the band's 2006 album Garden Ruin, Calexico's most song-oriented release to date.