Califone's Quicksand/Cradlesnakes
"No alt-country band in the world is as utterly bizarre or as dazzlingly eclectic as Chicago’s Califone. Their high-octane rockers sound as if they were unearthed from a deep, dank swamp. Their folk ballads seem to have crashed upon the earth from another planet. And their psychedelic dirges are positively supernatural. There’s a deep, palpable groove to everything they do, but with the sole exception of Tom Waits, the band has few direct ancestors. Quicksand/Cradlesnakes, their final hour-plus, is the strongest example of every brilliantly strange thing of which Califone is capable. “Your Golden Ass” grunts and throbs, “Mean Little Seed” buzzes and clangs, and “Vampiring Again” is the perfect pop song that they also happen to excel at, when they feel like it. Think of Quicksand/Cradlesnakes as the seedier, more intoxicated counterpart to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and you’re just about there."