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Texas native Joe "King" Carrasco has devoted his career to re-creating the Tex-Mex, Farfisa organ rock & roll sound of such '60s groups as the Sir Douglas Quintet and Sam the Sham & the Pharoahs. After playing in a succession of bands around Texas in the late '60s and early '70s, Carrasco founded his band El Molino in 1976 and recorded Tex-Mex Rock-Roll in 1978. (The album was reissued by ROIR in 1989.) By 1979 he had formed the Crowns and was calling his music "nuevo wavo," playing especially in New York, where he appeared on stage in a cape and crown. He was signed to the U.K. Stiff label and Joe Boyd's Hannibal label in the U.S., and released Joe "King" Carrasco and the Crowns in 1980. By 1982 he had moved up to major label MCA for Synapse Gap, followed by Party Weekend (1983). These missed the charts, however, and although Carrasco has recorded since, turning increasingly political meanwhile, his work has been harder to find. Bandido Rock (1987) on Rounder was credited to Joe "King" Carrasco Y Las Coronas. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
