a rarity nowadays

With the possible exception of the title track, this is an album you can thrill to from beginning to end - a rarity in this present quagmire of CD filler. Provided you're into an ambient rock/almost jazz sort of groove, highlights (in order for me) are 'Lion and Bee' 'Drunk Sisters ...' 'Trick Bird' and 'Apple'. Easy recommendation.

Pass meh some of that wingbone

This band is absolutely amazing, taking pages from the alt-country playbook and mixing in psychedelic bluesy noise, and calling the occasional funky groove audible. Take "2 Sisters Drunk on Each Other"; its like a P Funk cover band is laying it down in the back room with the throaty Layne Staley singing. Man, does it ever sound sweet. The panoramic title track is an album highlight and one of the best songs. It twists you up, pushes you down and around, and springs you like a jack in the box over the course of its fifteen minute expanse. Please pass some of that alt-country feelin' stuff? Here you go, try "Wingbone", what might have been had we somehow managed to splice together some Sam Beam and Beck's great underground K release "One Foot in the Grave". And, oh, the sweet psychedelic outro, drizzling screeching guitar break offs over some sort of weird sound that might have once been a seventies sit com but reversed and reverb'd.

On Heron King Blues, Califone continues to sharpen the attack they mounted on Quicksand/Cradlesnakes: a very natural-sounding blend of folk and blues, experimental rock, and electronic textures. “Wingbone” starts things out as an all-acoustic affair, with an understated (and somewhat cryptic) melodic vocal and pretty, complementary acoustic guitars. “Trick Bird” is next, and despite the appearance of loops and feedback, slides and scraping, the tune remains organic and folky even as it approaches the avant-garde. Therein lies the magic of Califone: their ability to create what are essentially laid-back, pretty acoustic songs, and still have the songs emerge after generous amounts of noise and texture have been added. “Sawtooth Sung a Cheater’s Song” features some great junk-pile percussion at the end, while “Apple” floats on top of a murky synthesized rhythm. “Lion & Bee” is a return to the unadorned acoustic sound of “Wingbone,” while “2 Sisters Drunk on Each Other” is a bit of a departure, finding Califone actually getting somewhere close to funky. The album’s centerpiece has to be the title cut though: a nearly 15-minute-long delicious slab of detuned avant skronk blues that strongly echoes Captain Beefheart’s Mirror Man album. Califone takes familiar elements and often combines them in unfamiliar ways without sounding unfamiliar or ever losing sight of the song. That’s a difficult balancing act, and one that they pull off completely on Heron King Blues. – Sean Westergaard