Send "Calexico " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Popmatters |
 If you're at all familiar with The Sadies' excellent 2002 album Stories Often Told, and then give Calexico's latest CD a spin, you can't help but be struck by the fact that both records share several similarities. Both The Sadies and Calexico are two of the best ('scuse the term) alt-country bands in existence right now. Key members of both bands played significant backing roles on Neko Case's terrific recent album Blacklisted. They both have a Canadian connection (The Sadies hail from Toronto, Calexico singer Joey Burns was born in Montreal). They both spice up their albums with several instrumentals of the highly theatrical, sweeping variety, heavily influenced by the film scores of Ennio Morricone. Both bands evoke thoughts of rugged landscapes, while at the same time, daring to stretch their sound beyond the constraints of the rather narrow-sounding "alt-country" label. And like Stories Often Told, Calexico's new album, Feast of Wire, is a bit of a grower, but it's one that wins you over in the end. Whereas The Sadies bring to mind cold, snowy winters and roaring wood-burning stoves, Calexico immediately make you think of withering heat and scorching desert vistas. Like the California border town that the band is named after, Calexico are masters at blending the country twang of the American South with the colorful mariachi sounds of Mexico. Following up their very good 2000 album The Hot Rail, Feast of Wire continues the steady progression of the band's sound, blending in additional styles such as rock, folk, and jazz. Anchored by singer/multi-instrumental whiz Joey Burns and drummer John Convertino (both former members of seminal alt-country band Giant Sand), Calexico has crafted an album that's rich in variety, yet still manages to maintain a cohesive sound throughout. Feast of Wire gets off to an unassuming start on the stately, accordion-infused "Sunken Waltz", with Burns's smooth tenor voice sounding in fine form, while "Quattro (World Drifts In)", the album's first single, veers off into more diverse territory, with ethereal, almost indecipherable lyrics backed up by the contrasting combination of a bossa nova-style beat, swirling pedal steel guitar and a more down-to-earth-sounding horn section. On the gentle ballad "Woven Birds", Burns sounds like a traditional mariachi more than anything else, singing plaintively and gently playing acoustic guitar. A grim ballad about Mexicans crossing the US border, "Across the Wire" dives headlong into Mexican folk music, with its sumptuous horns and arresting lyrical imagery ("Spotted an eagle in the middle of a lake / Resting on cactus and feeding on snakes / The waters recede as the dawn closes in / Revealing a whole lake of sleeping children"). "Guero Canelo" is more lighthearted fare, blending a winsome Latin beat and a call-and-response chorus with, oddly enough, mimicked Speak-and-Spell style verses. The ominous "No Doze", with its electric guitar feedback and bowed bass sounding very much like like rolling thunder, closes the album on an unsettling note, as if hinting at a very cold night after a sweltering day of tequila-fueled kicks....full text |
| Sputnikmusic |
| Calexico is comprised of two core members, Joey Burns and John Convertino. The band's name is a combination of CALifornia and mEXICO. "Feast of Wire" is undoubtedly their Calexico's most accomplished recording to date. It's a musical journey through the southwestern U.S. and south of the border. This is NachoChez's review, which I have been wating for him to post here. He probably forgot about it, so here it is (It was in the Alt&Indie Suggest an album thread). I know some people have been wanting the review, so here you go. :) Excellent band that OrbDragon got me into. No other band I've heard combines mariachi, folk, country, rock, and so many other things into one great style like this. Sunken Waltz: One of my favorites on the album. It's got a really authentic Western feel. The vocals fit really well, the singer has a country-sounding voice but without an annoying Southern accent. Addictively catchy. Quattro: Starts off with some interesting percussion, and gradually brings in the instruments which results in a cool-sounding effect. It's really relaxing; it works as background music but is also fine to listen to just because it's a good song. The instruments flow really well, and it sounds like there's a lot of them (there probably are)....full text |
| Dustedmagazine |
| Sunken Waltz," the first track on Calexico's Feast of Wire, is a heartbreaker. At only two and a half minutes, it captures a world of desolation, squalor, and beauty only hinted at by the bleak artwork encasing the album. And while it should rightfully go down as one of history's finer album openers, it poses a problem: the rest of the album has to live up to its example. It's not completely unrealistic for Feast of Wire to succeed, of course, nor would it do for it to include sixteen “Sunken Waltzes”, but all the same it's a conundrum. A tough act to follow, that's all. So then comes the melancholy "Quattro (World Drifts In)." From the beginning it's more grounded in the vein of the Calexico catalog: twangy guitar and sticks playing the rim of the snare drum, pedal steel and mariachi horns, Joey Burns intoning a familiar despair. Soon enough this one is pretty lovely too; intricate in the right way and spare at the right moments; overused instruments in just enough harmony to sound miles deep and truly sad. After a fuzzy 20-second interlude, far-off drums usher in the intriguingly sinister "Black Heart." Burns snarls verses like "Can't find the poison/ Now I got no cure/ Fangs are stuck inside my skin," and then croons the chorus while a formidably cinematic string part swoops down to bite again. "Black Heart" is windblown and lonely enough to make the finest of the country troubadours proud, yet its instrumental conclusion is majestic and intimidating. Three songs in and Feast of Wire isn't even tired. Calexico, as you might guess, is geographically and sonically somewhere between California and Mexico. The town is deep in southern California; the band is from Tucson, Arizona. If ever there were a case for regional influence, this would beat the Strokes all to hell: you can almost hear the desert wail in "Black Heart," just as you can hear Cinco de Mayo in "Pepita." Feast of Wire is a decidedly more somber affair than 1998's The Black Light and bleaker still than 2000's Hot Rail; if those two were soundtracks to a small Southwestern community, Feast of Wire is the same town during a drought and a depression. These are atmospheres that recall cheap wine and railroad crossings, lyrics of sleeping on cardboard crates and vanishing associates, triumphant orchestral swells amidst harmonies that can make you uneasy deep, deep down....full text |
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