Search - Giant Sand :: Cover Magazine

A Hodge Podge At Best

Elyon | Mesilla, New Mexico | 04/30/2002

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Either the band's fooling us or fooling themselves. After Gelb's lacksadaisical piano putterings on Lull, followed by this erratic and loose collection of covers, one is left to wonder whether Howe Gelb and crew have either lost interest, steam or both. Perhaps, looking at the inner liner photo of a golfer at the end of his swing, captioned "retirement," we should all, band included, take the hint? If so, a sad closure to one of America's most innovative and eclectic musical careers.While there are a couple bright moments, it is perhaps significant that the high point of the album is the cover of their own tune, Blue Marble Girl. However, the Neil Young sonic stylings layered across the original are not enough on their own to rescue the rest of what is largely a muddled or unconvincing effort. Despite comments above, Bono's The Beat Goes On barely amuses in the closing, let alone the initial version, with both the reprise of Miller's King of the Road and Cash's I'm Leaving Now (Adios) failing to measure up to the orginals. And was there any credible reason, besides mucking around, to revisit Black Sabbath's Iron Man? If so, this becomes a rather odd and unfocused imitation. Finally, the cut Plants and Rags holds some interest, as does the segued combination of El Paso and Out On the Weekend, though Giant Sand certainly makes no real inroads upon the Neil Young original as performed with Crazy Horse, and the merging of the two songs at times appears contrived.Overall, this seems an ill considered and poorly thought out performance on the part of Giant Sand, almost as if thrown together as an afterthought. After all the other great music this group has produced over the years, both together and in solo projects, the issue of this album can only come as a disappointment, and should be reserved solely for the die-hard, bury-your-head-in-the-Sand fan. Otherwise avoid and hope for something better in the future, or a less frugal or discerning friend willing to burn you a copy of track eleven."

A fan of more than music from San Francisco

04/30/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I attended the Giant Sand show on Easter night in San Francisco and I felt the show was spectacular as is this new record, Cover Magazine. Each of the previous dozen times I've seen Howe & co.(Giant Sand, Calexico, Friends of Dean Martinez, Richard Buckner)live over the last seven years has been amazing and revelatory. All expectations and assumptions must be set aside when approaching Howe Gelb's live shows and recorded work. Howe Gelb is a multi-instrumental genius who has forgotten more about music than most musicians will ever learn. In fact, I would categorize Howe as more of a performance artist than simply a musician. If you think you'd enjoy hearing impromptu sound effects added to songs such as playing a piano by plucking the strings from the inside and causing distortion by putting the microphone inside the drum kit then you will like Giant Sand. When I first saw Howe live back in '96 I already owned fifteen of his records and he didn't play a single song with which I was familiar and he still blew me away! Howe is a complex artist/musician who is constantly changing and evolving. You will never attend a live show of Howe Gelb, Giant Sand, Calexico, etc. and hear a song played the way it was recorded on their commercial releases, or even hear the same song played the same way twice! Like any experimenting, jamming, free-form jazz band, this isn't a bad thing. They do not tour, or record, to regurgitate cookie cutter versions of their greatest hits to please the shallow pop music fan. Cover Magazine, like all of Howe's recorded work and live shows, is a slice of ethereal sonic time, captured like a photograph and never to be reproduced. Unexpected, sometimes discordant, sometimes inaccessible, idiosyncratic, off-the-wall, rough, turbulent, confusing - yes, these terms can all be used to describe Cover Magazine. However, I would be more prone to use terms such as "complex", "challenging", "intelligent", "horizon expanding", "exciting", "moody", "instinctual", "stimulating", "evolutionary", "eclectic", "personal", "strangely beautiful", "wryly humorous" , etc.If you love Calexico, an exceptional band led by the amazing Joe Burns and John Convertino and deserved of all their recent success, check out their long time sage, Howe Gelb, via Giant Sand's Cover Magazine."

For Hardcore Fans Only

04/02/2002

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Giant Sand has been very prolific over the years. Most of their releases, while being quite uneven in terms of quality, contain some gems. A few, such as Swerve, Ramp, Chore, and especially The Love Songs and Center of the Universe, are real keepers. Cover Magazine falls into the first category. You can't fault Gelb for his choice of covers, however the performances are quite uninspired with Gelb half-heartedly mumbling the lyrics over joyless, sun-baked, cocktail loungey-music---a style that seems to be Gelb's latest muse. It worked on Chore of Enchantment. It worked on the OP8 project with Lisa Germano. It doesn't work here, despite support from the likes of PJ Harvey and members of Grandaddy I've seen Giant Sand do some of these covers live and they are quite exciting when given the full rock treatment. Why strip them down so as to render them practically unlistenable? The final three tracks were recorded live and they almost salvage the release, especially a great version of Blue Marble Girl from Gelb's solo release Confluence."