Califone
Quicksand / Cradlesnakes
Thrill Jockey thrill 122
By Maranne Ebertowski
 Quicksand
/ Cradlesnakes is Califone's second full-length album and
the first for their hometown's label Thrill Jockey. The band
from the Windy City rose from the ruins of Red Red Meat and is
led by songwriter and frontman Tim Rutili. The two other key
musicians on this project are percussionist Ben Massarella (also
ex-Red Red Meat) and multi-instrumentalist Jim Becker. Rutili
is a self-confessed believer in Harry Smith's Anthology of
American Folk Music and likes to mix old timey tunes and
folk instruments with electronic and ambient noises. If that
sounds boring and pretentious, it might easily be, but not so
with Califone who with Quicksand / Cradlesnakes delivered
an almost perfect attempt of molding the past and the future
of (American) music into a contemporary, accessible shape.
There are many reasons for the fact that Califone succeed
in an area where minor musical gods fail. First of all, Rutili
appreciates good melodies and knows how to write one. He has
a smooth, laid-back, almost hypnotic voice with which he can
feed you bizarre lines like "Texas looks like Galilee/cripple
trees mean little seed" as if they actually make sense.
Rutili also knows how to lay down a musical texture where all
the right notes and noises fall into the right places: his songs
can breathe. And, finally, Rutili has picked the right musicians
for the job. Ben Massarella lays the foundation with his inventive
and solid percussion work. Jim Becker is able to play any instrument
and gadget he can lay his hands on. And there are talented "extra's"
like Fred Lonberg-Holm on cello and Joe Adamik, drummer and one-man-hornsection.
They all are perfectly fitting pieces of this intriguing, colorful
puzzle called Quicksand / Cradlesnakes.
Do yourself a favor and pick up a set of headphones to listen
to this album and you know what I mean: the production (by Graeme
Gibson) is truely extraordinary - you will hear new things at
every listening!
The album starts with the atmospheric sounds of "One"
leaking into the first song, the weird and wonderful "Horoscopic.Amputation.Honey."
Rutili introduces it on piano and guides us through it on acoustic
guitar. "Silver harm sugar hands drunken hive/ amputated
years are growing back a new shade," he sings before the
song disappears into space escorted by gentle ambient noises.
Your guess is as good as mine as far as the meaning of the lyrics
is concerned, the best approach is probabIy to see them as the
colors and shapes of an abstract painting: they are part of the
music, give it a meaning and vice versa, rather than exist seperately
in a conventional way.
The first highlight of the album is undoubtedly "Michigan
Girls," a beautifully crafted popsong with Rutili playing
acoustic guitar against a backdrop of percussion, piano, thumb
piano, mandolin and cello. Gorgeous guitar melodies blend delicately
with electronic noises. Above all there's Rutili singing Beatles
harmonies with himself. "God's eyes are crossed maybe just
like yours," Rutili concludes and maybe he's right.
"Cat Eats Coyote," the only track on the album not
written by Rutuli is a layer of unidentifiable noises, with Adamik
honking his horn into outer space, leads up to "Your Golden
Ass," a heavy rocking song featuring the same frantic guitar
playing and drumming as the Velvet Underground's "White
Light/White Heat." The Velvets connection also shines through
in "When Leon Spinx Moved Into Town" that - with its
undercurrent of violent sex ("our sex became a boxer who
moved in next door retired") and the hypnotizing guitar/
drum crescendo with Lomberg-Holm's cello replacing Cale's violin,
sounds like a deconstructed "Venus In Furs."
In other songs, Rutili has chosen for a sparse acoustic approach.
There is the beautiful old-timey ""Million Dollar
Funeral" with Becker on fiddle and Rutili on guitar singing
a tune which might as well have been found by A.P. Carter in
a deserted log cabin eighty years ago. "Mean Little Seed"
is another example for Rutili's folk roots. This time Becker
plays fiddle and banjo, whereas Rutili also toys with an electric
piano. In the end all instruments run mad as in "psychedellappalachian."
When electric piano and fiddle/banjo seems to be an odd combination,
listen to "(Red)" where the banjo takes on a horn,
and slit gong and cajun accordeon accompany Rutili's voice floating
through cryptical lines like "how long will you how long/
weightless repetition."
After that trip through orchestrational wonderland, the rest
of Califone's songs sounds almost conventional. "Vampiring
Again" is a seductive, melancholy popsong with a slight
Velvet touch and its follow-up "Slower Twin" which
provides the title of the album("quicksand and cradlesnakes
/ everything you think you know is wrong") blasts away
like a faster twin of St. Pepper.
With "Stepdaughter" this album has the closer it
deserves. Massarella on hand drum guides Rutili, this time accompanying
himself on acoustic guitar and piano, though another weird piece
of psychedelappalachia: " the stepdaughter dissolves
into the dark woods soundless/ the cutter delivers an elk heart
for false proof." What does it all mean, you ask yourself.
But, then again, what do all those old songs "about roses
growing out of peple's brains" mean?
With Quicksand / Cradlesnakes Califone have strayed
away from the mainstream as far as possible without getting pompous
and unlistenable. Rutili and his mates have tiptoed unto a path
where lesser angels fear to tread. I am curious where it will
lead them.
Click
here for more info on Califone.
Contact Marianne Ebertowski at ebertowski-at-rockzilla.net
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