Search - Califone :: Heron King Blues

A good indie album

alexliamw | Oxford | 04/04/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Califone are a US indie band who make music somewhere between the indie jam session ethos, sweet alt-country and luscious post-rock. Tracks like opener 'Wingbone' are more conventional, folky, acoustic ballads, while those like 'Trick Bird' juggle more disparate sounds, with weird beats, flickering guitars and thick atmospherics underpinning a sinister yet restrained sound, incredibly well-produced. Sometimes the album drifts into background-music status, but it usually has an attention-holding collage of sounds floating around, if somewhat unfocusedly at times. The standout, though, is the excellent '2 Sisters Drunk On Each Other', which features a funky wah-wah guitar over its template, adding real colour and interest to its psychadelic textures, which build, ebb and flow through the song. The title track is an epic quasi-instrumental. These are really original sounds here, especially when it gets noisy, but it just ocassionally lacks the focus and clarity between songs to be essential. An underground record well-worth investigation, though."

Pass me some o' that Wingbone

Jellybones | On Tour | 07/22/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Having picked up the latest release from these guys recently, and not having listened to them before, I am pretty floored. I guess I had them mixed up with Calexico or something (stupid me), which couldn?t have gotten me more off track when I prepared to listen to them the first time. This band is absolutely amazing, taking pages from the alt-country playbook and mixing in psychedelic bluesy noise, and calling the occasional funky groove audible. Take ?2 Sisters Drunk on Each Other?? its like a P Funk cover band is laying it down in the back room with the throaty Layne Staley singing. Man, does it ever sound sweet. The panoramic title track is an album highlight and one of the best songs. It twists you up, pushes you down and around, and springs you like a jack in the box over the course of its fifteen minute expanse. Please pass some of that alt-country feelin? stuff? Here you go, try ?Wingbone?, what might have been had we somehow managed to splice together some Sam Beam and Beck?s great underground K release ?One Foot in the Grave?. And, oh, the sweet psychedelic outro, drizzling screeching guitar break offs over some sort of weird sound that might have once been a seventies sit com but reversed and reverb?d. Mostly though, I?m struck by and forced to compare this release to Beck? the singer often sounds very similar and the eclectic song structures make it unavoidable. Don?t take that as a cut, it?s just an undeniable influence. This band has much more of a jam-band feel than the studio concoctions of the aforementioned songster."

Glad I discovered them today

Manny Hernandez | Bay Area, CA | 03/19/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I can't be so critical of this band's work comparing it with their previous albums (as most of the other reviewers), because this is my first approach to Califone, and I sure am happy I ran into them. From the get-go, "Wingbone" caught my attention and I worked along with the album in the background in a loop most of the afternoon, with a permanent smile of [glad] surprise in my face. Looking for more info about them, I ran into this description captures their essence perfectly: "nobody cross-pollinates the blues, folk music and broken electronic instruments like califone..." Think Wilco and you'll probably fall short, but you will have a good idea about how Califone sounds like.There's plenty of great independent acts out there, and Chicago-based Califone (a home for the songs of Tim Rutili, playing alongside fellow bandmembers of Tim's other band, Red Red Meat) sure qualifies as one. Learning that they've been around since 1998 just confirms the theory once more: don't believe everything you see or hear to be the best thing. Out there, somewhere, there's something better. Glad that I discovered them today!"