(3205) Sufjan Stevens / Calexico

From the ACL Taping Program on September 17, 2006:

Detroit native Sufjan Stevens experiments with music and words to create multi-layered songs that put him at the forefront of the folk indie pop revival.

Stevens often takes a thematic approach to his work. 2001’s Enjoy Your Rabbit featured electronic music about the animals of the Chinese Zodiac. 2004’s Seven Swans, which Billboard called “a consistently moving, subtly beautiful experience,” primarily focuses on religious themes.

He is currently two states into his project to make an album about each of the 50 states. It began with 2003’s Michigan, an ode to his home state that features ornate tunes on poverty, suburbia and the backwoods of The Great Lake State. Pitchfork called it “a frost-bound tone poem in which average people live out their victories and defeats with a shadowy, dignified grace.”

Illinois, named one of 2005’s best CDs by dozens of critics, “cements Stevens as one of the most vital voices in music today” (Slant). The Austin Chronicle wrote “the 22-song epic marries Stevens' personal history to that of the state, as well as knitting spare emotional lyrics with lush orchestral and choral arrangements, upping the ante for singer-songwriters everywhere.”

Earlier this year he released The Avalanche: Outtakes & Extras from the Illinois Album which critics say further solidifies his standing as a modern folk legend. Entertainment Weekly wrote “These wistful folk-pop leftovers are better than most acts' A game.”

Link to Sufjan Stevens' artist page.

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From the ACL Taping Program on September 13, 2006:

For nearly a decade, Arizona-based Calexico has been the voice of the American Southwest. With an eclectic sound evoking images of the sun-scorched rocks and windswept deserts of the border country, the collective has drawn inspiration from musical styles as diverse as the multinational origins of the band’s members.

However with their latest album, Garden Ruin, the group has taken a different tack. With lead singer and guitarist Joey Burns’ switch from nylon to steel strings, and a healthy dose of major keys and more pop elements, the feel of the album is considerably different than their previous endeavors.  “We’ve always been perceived as a Southwestern band, and sometimes it’s good to look at those perceptions and challenge them,” said Burns.  Calexico co-founder John Convertino  agrees. “A band has got to keep changing and moving or it will get boring and break up,” said Convertino, who alternates between percussion and piano on the new album.

While a departure from the atmospheric ambience of their previous releases, Garden Ruin retains the energy and afflicted sincerity for which Calexico are so well known.  “Their trademark Southwestern woe still permeates, but that melancholy is held to the fire until it burns white hot” (Details).  With a more concerted focus on a song-oriented approach, Calexico highlights facets of its musical ability that have been left untapped, allowing them to fill out the sound they have been creating for the past decade.  Put succinctly, Garden Ruin is where Calexico fill those dusty, empty landscapes they documented, with a big, big sound.

Link to Calexico's artist page.

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