Califone "A Chinese Actor"
Monday, October 16, 2006
I’m well used to having my opinions wholly formed by the brute hypnotic force of their record reviews, like in a Manchurian Candidate sorta way, but hey sweet, it is still possible despite the presence of hundreds of music blogs for this place to actually tell me of the existence of a record. So yeah, I agree with the young lady reviewer that the record is pretty great, but I might take a bit of issue with the “Americana”-ness of what’s quickly become my favorite jam from it: “A Chinese Actor” (mp3), and not just ’cause of the name, duh. I mean, the rest of the album could fall under the broad heading of “quintessentially American,” whatever that means, but this track, which I’ll reiterate is my jam, seems to be striving for the exact opposite. The radio-tuning montage-into-tribal rhythm opening of the song sounds more like Eno/Byrne than the Carter family, and the de-tuned guitars sound like something George Harrison would have done in 1966 to more closely resemble the sound of a sitar. Where the song ends up is actually in the direct vicinity of where I wish Beck would have ended up by this point in his career, instead of whatever he’s trying to get away with on The Information. And I suppose that might be one of the pitfalls of full-album reviews with a band like Califone—they seem to lend themselves toward an overall aesthetic vision, but then their central strength, their eclecticism, goes and makes a track like this that throws everything a little bit off. Not that much, but a little. And yeah, deadlines and whatever.
Buy Roots and Crowns from Thrill Jockey here.
HEY ERIC, HOW WAS YOUR WEEKEND? Well this pretty well ruined it*, but then this took a big step toward redeeming it.
* No injuries + not my fault = not too horribly awful though. I’m on the right, btw.
but I might take a bit of issue with the “Americana”-ness of what’s quickly become my favorite jam from it
She’s just saying that because they toured with Iron & Wine/Calexico. Dudes are drone-folkers all the way.
They were touring with Wilco for a while there a few years ago. Their penchant for eardrum-piercing shards of noise elevates them above the tired “Americana” tag, methinks.
Um, Califone is a national treasure and the fact that bloggers have all but ignored them is an embarrassment. People act like this is just some band that toured with Wilco?
They are contemporaries if nothing else! I mean, Califone (and Red Red Meat before them–I saw them open for the Pumpkins in 1994!) has been around for a looong time.
Thanks for posting this!
American? Okay – but I can’t help but hear Beck (guero, sea change, mutations) in lot of their songs. A little more dissonance, but same exact idea. Subtle and repeating vocals over grating guitars with multiple electroninc effects. Plodding beat. At least that’s my humble opinion in regard to Chinese House. Thoughts?