If I were to make some High Fidelity style “top 5 all time greatest bands” list there’s no way I’d put Calexico on there. At the same time, if you changed the wording in an ever-so-subtle fashion and asked me my “top 5 all time favorite bands” there’s no doubt Calexico will be standing proud in the winner’s circle. What does this mean? It means over time I have come to really fucking love Calexico. For whatever reason, Calexico has always just resonated with me. Perhaps it was being raised in inland southern California, which might as well be New Mexico. Perhaps I just like atmospheric and unabashedly culturally dichotomous jams. Perhaps Calexico’s sound just makes me want to a hop in an El Camino with no air condtioning and drive through the desert for no reason. [Visit the site to read the rest!]

Back in late 2004/ early 2005 a lucky Amoeba whim turned me on to an LA-based band called 1984. As word got out they would go on to be compared to “Low-era” Bowie, Air, and Morrissey. Perhaps, perhaps… but I’ll put more stock into a description involving the words “cinematic” and “intricate”. Most recently the band changed their name, released a 2nd EP, lost their guitarist, and changed their name again, now known as Low vs. Diamond. Recently, the drummer (Howie Diamond) and I decided that Vodka on a boat was the order of the day, so we rented a small vessel, threw ourselves into the Pacific, and conversed: [Check out the site to read the rest!]

This video has been floating around for a few weeks YouTube style, but we still figured you kids want some downloadable goodness. So check it out again, download it for the first time, or just wait until Videoteque rips us offDerek, Ben: Holla at ya’ boy!. Whatever.

Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s are absolutely obsessed with cats. In fact, a ghost holding a red pussy cat introduced me to the band in the first place, so I should have known right then. The chorus for the song Paper Kitten Nightmare is “meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow” which is promptly followed by French murmuring. I am not fucking joking. Even more crazy is that it’s a damn fine track. Overall the band is defined by a reserved energy, coming across as if they are at all times planning to assault you, but they change their mind at the last moment, sigh, and play some horns and violins. Some electric guitar swagger does seep out occasionally, as in the current track of video focus Quiet as a Mouse, but most of the time it’s shyness and foot shuffles. In the end, distinguished music critics agree: they sound chill.