Los Lobos Prepare Four-Disc Retrospective

Nearly three decades after the band's birth, the members of Los Lobos are rustling through old boxes of photos and scribbled lyrics as they put the finishing touches on a four-disc box set called "El Cancionero," currently slated for a mid-November release.

One of the principal songwriters in the band, Louie Perez routinely plays drums, guitar, and keyboards on Los Lobos albums. But lately, he said, he's set his instruments aside to work as an archivist, helping to ready the "El Cancionero" package.

"We've been working since the beginning of this year and it's quite an undertaking," Perez said. "The first thing was to narrow it down to the music that will kind of tell the story of how we came up. We thought one way to get into that was to offer up a lot of rarities and outtakes and alternate mixes. At first we thought of putting a lot of live stuff on it, but it wasn't working for us. … What we decided we should do [instead] is put out a live record someday."

Los Lobos will still include obvious hits such as their smash cover of Ritchie Valens' "La Bamba," but the emphasis will remain on the obscure and the unusual, such as a cover of Fats Domino's "I'm Going to Be a Wheel Someday," a live staple that hasn't yet made an album, and "I Want to Be Like You (The Monkey Song)" from Disney's "Jungle Book," a track from an album that featured artists such as Tom Waits and Sinead O'Connor singing Disney movie songs.

"One song I sing is from a Johnny Thunders tribute record released only in Japan," Perez said. "It's 'Alone in the Crowd,' an old Johnny Thunders rave-up. I showed up to the studio one day and everyone was staring at me and I was like, 'What did I do?' and they were like, 'You're singing this song.'"

Accompanying the box set will be an 80-plus page booklet with early photographs, lyrics and several essays, including pieces by producer Luis Torres and Billboard writer Chris Morris.

On Sept. 12, prior to the release of the box set, Los Lobos will re-release their first album, "Just Another Band Out of East Los Angeles." Produced by Torres and first issued by Los Lobos themselves, Perez said the out-of-print album has become something of a collector's item over the years.

"For a few years, we sold them at local gigs in East L.A. We probably ran about 1,100 of them. … It kind of documents the first time we recorded and where we were in 1978. ... Our friends Luis Torres and David Sandoval approached us and said, 'Hey, let's put something down.' Listening to it now is like a snapshot that you'd find in a photo album or something that takes you back to that page where you're a kid in mouse ears at a theme park."

In addition to their upcoming releases, Los Lobos have kept busy with extracurricular activities. Perez co-wrote three songs on the new Joan Osborne album. Los Lobos members also placed their cover of "Johnny 99" on "Badlands--A Tribute to Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska," and continue to work with side project Los Super Seven. Comprised of a rotating line-up that includes Perez and Los Lobos bandmates David Hidalgo, Cesar Rosas, Conrad Lozano, as well as Raul Malo from the Mavericks, Joe Ely and Rick Trevino, Los Super Seven's second album builds and expands on the sound established with the first.

"We're eight songs into it," said Perez of the new Los Super Seven album. "The way Raul sings is phenomenal. [David Hidalgo] put it real well: he said he sounds like a Latino Roy Orbison. We've been talking to people like the guys in Rage Against the Machine to maybe do something. We've set up an outline of the new album. It's not going to be so specific and regional as the first one ... This record is going to be more Caribbean and Cubano."