The Phoenix Network:
 
 
About  |  Advertise
Adult  |  Moonsigns  |  Band Guide  |  Blogs  |  In Pictures
 
CD Reviews  |  Classical  |  Live Reviews  |  Music Features
Nominate-best-2010

Calexico: Carried to Dust

Quarterstick
By ZETH LUNDY  |  September 2, 2008
3.0 3.0 Stars
calexicoinside.jpg
If Calexico’s previous album, 2006’s Garden Ruin, was the Tucson band’s rabbit hole into indie-popdom, then this one is where they retrace their steps to more familiar geography: cinematic evocations of dry-heat desert winds, whispered twilit narratives, and the melting-pot manner of a border town. The band bring the tang of that elsewhere pop back to Carried to Dust, however, planting big-hook sensibility and the willingness to evolve within its Southwestern mood pieces. “Victor Jara’s Hands” and “Two Silver Trees” catapult rousing choruses from atmospheric depths; “Fractured Air” boasts mariachi-cum-dub horns and a wah-wah guitar that caresses the backbone of the hip-grind rhythm. True to its title, Carried to Dust moves along with wraith-like grace, a haunting and beautiful drift of songs about codebreakers, gravebound ghosts, and stars that “shone in slowness.” Amparo Sanchez, Pieta Brown, and Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam guest, but it’s Calexico’s two core members, Joey Burns and John Convertino, who continue to impress as a Southwestern Wrecking Crew — Convertino with his fluttering snare play and anxious rim shots and Burns with his partiality to nylon-stringed guitars and his secretive vocal delivery.
Related: Calexico, Elvis Costello and the Imposters, Replacements | Rhino Reissues, More more >
  Topics: CD Reviews , Sam Beam, Joey Burns, John Convertino,  More more >
  • Share:
  • Share this entry with Facebook
  • Share this entry with Digg
  • Share this entry with Delicious
  • RSS feed
  • Email this article to a friend
  • Print this article
HTML Prohibited
Add Comment

[ 02/09 ]   "Haitian Relief Concert"  @ Hard Rock Café
[ 02/09 ]   Triplefunk Trio  @ Alchemist Lounge
[ 02/09 ]   Marc Ryser  @ Williams Hall at New England Conservatory
[ 02/09 ]   Callithumpian Consort  @ Jordan Hall
[ 02/09 ]   "Evolution Tuesdays"  @ Rumor
ARTICLES BY ZETH LUNDY
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   FELA KUTI | THE ’69 L.A. SESSIONS  |  February 09, 2010
    Amiri Baraka put it best in his poem "In the Funk World": "If Elvis Presley is King/Who is James Brown, God?" So, by that logic, is Fela Anikulapo Kuti higher than or equal to God?
  •   BASIA BULAT | HEART OF MY OWN  |  January 27, 2010
    Like a Laurel Canyon Billie Holiday or a pixilated Tracy Chapman, Bulat sports a voice rich with vibrato, hearty oomph, and dignified lonesomeness.
  •   SPOON | TRANSFERENCE  |  January 13, 2010
    Any year now, Spoon will release an album consisting of one 35-minute unfailing groove anchored by bass and peppered with erratic guitar-chord grunts and Britt Daniel's wordless exclamations ("Awright!") — an idealized endgame that distills the band's reductive technique to its purest state.
  •   VARIOUS ARTISTS | CASUAL VICTIM PILE: AUSTIN 2010  |  January 06, 2010
    The notion that regional musical flavors exist independently in American cities is quickly becoming an archaic truism, seeing as how the world really is a stage these days, at least in the digital sense.
  •   CHARLOTTE HATHERLEY | NEW WORLDS  |  December 16, 2009
    Charlotte Hatherley is to the 1990s as the Black Crowes are to the 1960s: not a revivalist, mind you, but a sympathizer — a careerist.

 See all articles by: ZETH LUNDY

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed 



  |  Sign In  |  Register
 
thePhoenix.com:
Phoenix Media/Communications Group:
TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
Copyright © 2010 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group