Iron & Wine / Calexico / In the Reins / Rating 8.5
Calexico and Iron and Wine. You know them; you probably love them.
After all these years of both bands doing what they do best, having exceptional press, playing sold out tours, positioned in the soundtrack to hit movies / M+M commercials, and so on… this particular collaboration spells out a good thing, a sure thing.
That is if you like these bands to begin with.
No point in a long drawn out review, this cd sounds EXACTLY like you would think it would. One part Calexico and one part Iron and Wine. Starbucks couldn’t have arranged a more winning combination. ( Does the Starbucks music division make anybody else’s stomach hurt more than their bitter coffee does?) There is no insult to spill from this exotic folk cocktail yet to put it simply my drink menu doesn’t particularly favor / feature either band. In the Reins bores me silly but instead of inappropriately finding faults where there are none I would rather offer it up as a TFM give-a-way item in the up coming weeks. (Girl Scout honor I will!)
Anybody reading this blog could have predicted a PFM 8.5 rating as well as every other wordy version of a standing ovation. It's too bad that most of these tracks have been floating around for years and fans of both bands more than likely already own most of this material. Surprisingly PFM doesn’t mention this back story but to make up for it, here is a great review that does.
The final chapter to this predictable tale is there will be an October tour featuring both Calexico and Iron and Wine. You must be very excited.
Forgive my lack of enthusiasm but there comes a point where I don’t feel like discussing a band’s new record in great detail because it doesn’t need any extra exposure and people are gonna love it no matter what I or anybody else has to say.
You can look forward to my Wolf Parade review that will feature more of the same why bother attitude. There are so many incredible bands out there so do you need one more blog / magazine / webzine to tell you Wolf Parade are the next Modest Mouse or Arcade Fire? Look at The NY Times, Spin, PFM, Brooklynvegan.com, Prefix….insert any music fan with a computer here and I will show you a review setting this band up to be the next big thing. (Google the record and it will prove this point ten fold) I must have looked at 20 Brooklyn based blogs today and you would think that this one NY borough had group hipster sex and produced a child prodigy called Wolf Parade. This is especially disturbing since the band actually comes from the great white north but then again adoption is less painful than actually giving birth.
Wolf Parade / Apologies to the Queen Mary / Rating 9.2
You know what. Fuck it. That is my Wolf Parade review. It appears the entire indie rock community of cool is in rare agreement that Apologies to the Queen Mary is the one record of the year you absolutely need to own. Without it a hideous void will swallow your very being so act now before it’s too late. If you didn’t have a hard on for Canada already, here is one more band to sustain your metaphoric erection.
"In a few years, other folks will still remember where they were when they first heard Apologies to the Queen Mary." Sorry PFM but not even a writer for the soap opera Days of Our Lives would dare script out something so melodramatic and painfully sentimental. Wolf Parade's newest record is Tony the Tiger GRRRRREAT so lets Leave it to Beaver it at that.
Three pop culture references in one paragraph, ouch.
