Customer Reviews

Heron King Blues

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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!

Califone's sound has always struck a balance between the monotone jam and the patient, economical delivery of a prepared tune. Heron King Blues makes a sharper distinction than 2003's QSCS or 2001's Roomsound. Frontman Tim Rutili's deathbed vocals mark a return to a more phonetic rather than lyrical contribution to the music. This record demands more patience than Califone's two previous offerings, but remains worth the effort. A more group-oriented offering finds the band returning to the experimental form of their live shows, but with less of an emphasis on climax and catharsis.

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.

Califone know how to rub you down with a gentle massage of sonor beauty and still manage to dig their knuckles into that sore spot...that jagged feeling of nerve into bone which feels uncomfortable yet achives wonderful results in the long run. When you put this cd on read into the lyrics and let the music paint pictures of nightmarish wonderment in your head. Califone manages to create a very dirty southern blues sound and blend it with avant scraping beating and hum. If you want something new and totally different - pick up this album.

but its still great music. There seems to be more emphasis on jamming all kinds of instruments rather than the usual lyrical nonsesne tim rutili breathes out. the cd only has 8 songs, which sux, even though on here it says it has nine(why?). There are still the usual califone gems on the album, such as Wingbone, roomsound-ish. Some of the songs reminds me of some of the red red meat stuff. It helps to listen to it while buzzed at a volume just loud enuff to hear all the instruments.
2 sisters drunk on eachother is very amusing song, a bit funkadelic. If your a califone fan, than you should get this album. It takes a few listens, but it flows, it flows like wine.

A step in a new direction, this is some great experimentation from the Chicago and L.A.-based group. A ground-breaking work that allows the band to get creative and stay interesting without becoming boring or annoying.

sisters are so sleazy. takes a few listens.
best if cold weather and warm drink are involved.

This album reminds me of all the reasons why I don't by cds blind.

I purchased it because of a profile on the group and the making of the album in the last Paste Magazine. It made Califone sound like a group that experimented with a rich roots sound, combined with old-time blues, rock riffs, and the occasional electronic loop.

What I got instead, as best as I can tell, was an interminable, monotonous drone, song after song. Each uninspiring track, which sounded eerily similar to the one that preceded it, was a ghastly mix of background feedback, the same 4 notes intoned by the lead singer, and the occasional dissonant guitar twang.

I lay the blame for this experience less on the band than I do on the reviewers who made the disc sound like a moveable musical feast. Perhaps if I had been expecting the musical slow boat to china, I would have enjoyed this drab album more.