- Audio CD (Jun 15 2005)
- Number of Discs: 1
- Label: FAB
- ASIN: B000089CPF
- In-Print Editions: LP Record
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #32,976 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
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Product Details |
Track Listings
| 1. Sunken Waltz |
| 2. Quattro (World Drifts In) |
| 3. Stucco |
| 4. Black Heart |
| 5. Pepita |
| 6. Not Even Stevie Nicks... |
| 7. Close Behind |
| 8. Woven Birds |
| 9. The Book and the Canal |
| 10. Attack El Robot! Attack! |
| 11. Across The Wire |
| 12. Dub Latina |
| 13. Guero Canelo |
| 14. Whipping the Horse's Eyes |
| 15. Crumble |
| 16. No Doze |
Product Description
From Amazon.com
Unlike the ever-experimenting Lambchop, to whom they are often compared, Calexico stick to their niche. Since Calexico don't spring as many stylistic surprises on us as the sprawling Nashville ensemble, their track record is also less erratic. While Feast of Wireis a bit quieter than its three full-length predecessors, it also fits neatly into an ever-impressive body of work. John Convertino and Joey Burns--the Tucson band's core--only confirm their status as folk storytellers, their songs as irreducibly American as Cormac McCarthy novels, and their trademark Southwestern, sun-baked Ennio Morricone sound continues to be ambitiously timeless. "Black Heart," for instance, begins like a Portishead outtake before swelling majestically. Even when they shuffle styles ("Close Behind" marries '60s western grace with assured melodic chops, and "Attack El Robot! Attack!" goes off in an almost Devo-like direction before smoothly segueing into the full-on mariachi extravaganza of "Across the Wire"), they retain an immediately identifiable personality. Calexico may not make headlines, but this album solidifies their standing as one of the most endearingly idiosyncratic bands on the American scene. --Elisabeth Vincentelli
Album Description
Calexico is Joey Burns and John Convertino of Giant Sand. Their fourth album is a masterpiece of beauty and diversity, with desert-rock guitar interplay to expansive noir-ish sweep to full-mariachi grandeur. 16 Tracks. Quarterstick. 2003.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A feast of post-Mariachi rock music,
By ogmb "summa summarum" (El Cerrito, CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Feast Of Wire (Audio CD)
In a way the reviewer from Phoenix sums it all up, because if you believe in a world strictly divided into simple categories by intransigent boundaries, Calexico's music obviously isn't for you. Gringos shan't play with mariachi bands just as the white hillbilly kid from Tupelo, Miss., had no business stealing that negro groove (or even worse, their gospel music), Robert Zimmerman turned into Judas when he picked up the electric guitar and Sandy Koufax should have been driven off the mound because Jews don't play baseball. Boundaries are easy ways out for those who want to avoid the harder task of judging a work on its merit rather than by the classifiers it reinforces or breaches, and Calexico have always made it their business to negate the borderline that separates the Sonoran desert into a Calexican and a Mexicali part (which might explain in part why they're so much more popular in boundary-infested Europe than in their home country).For those who appreciate Calexico for who they are, this album is amazing. For most of the album Calexico's high wire (sic) act between the populist and the intricate works out perfectly, and unlike some of the earlier albums Feast of Wire actually flows. Sunken Waltz and Quattro find a perfect way to match the groove of the music and the sobriety of the message, and Black Heart even manages to top this feat. Ironically, for the most part the mariachi elements are muted and make place for a more pronounced European influence: the string arrangements on Black Heart and Close Behind recall Goldfrapp, Yann Tiersen or Francoiz Breut's stunning Vingt a Trente Mille Jours rather than Mariachi Luz de Luna. (Again, the influences here are mutual and far from a crowd-pleasing career move.) The instrumentals, long the Achilles heel on Calexico albums, work out perfectly and for the most part do what they are supposed to: link the vocal tracks and lead from one idea to the next. If there is one thing to complain though, it is that the album is frontloaded with vocal tracks (pandering to listening boothes?), and the album peters out on four quasi-instrumental tracks (especially the somnambulant No Doze) rather than end with a bang. But even with this minor blemish Feast of Wire is Calexico at the height of their skills and a strong contender for my album of the year.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Calexico became a prsonal theme,
By A Customer
This review is from: Feast Of Wire (Audio CD)
This album is so different and so diverse it will be like nothing you have ever heard before. Just when one track mellows you out the next track will take your breath away. This album should be illegal because it is so addicting. Calexico is the most innovative band I have heard in a long time. I turn everyone on to it.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Sweeping Southwestern Soundscape,
By
This review is from: Feast Of Wire (Audio CD)
My first taste of Calexico was a song they did on a Lee Hazlewood tribute album. I was intrigued by their sound and decided to get one of their CDs to broaden my overview. For no particular reason, I settled on Feast of Wire.There is a lot to like here, with a multitude of musical influences evident. Listening through, I swear at times I'm hearing Neil Young or Ennio Morricone. At other times, I hear the sounds of funk-soaked jazz soundtrack music a la Barry Adamson. And always around the corner one hears strains of the borderlands sounds that have come to be known as desert rock. Even the cover art is evocative of the southwestern frontier. My favorite songs here are Sunken Waltz, Quattro, the Morricone-infused Close Behind, Dub Latina, Guero Canelo, and the Adamsonian soundtrack jazz of Crumble. With Feast of Wire, Calexico offers a sweeping southwestern soundscape that will carry you far away from the cares of the day. I recommend this to anyone who is musically adventurous and has a taste for the borderlands in their blood.
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