Insect Courage

Decayed Americana. Tim Rutili's first release as Califone in over three years is a mini-album, recorded at home with Michael Krassner (Boxhead Ensemble) and Joe Westerlund (Megafaun, Grandma Sparrow). This is the sound of American musical traditions—blues, folk, country, rock, and then some—thrown into a garbage compactor and reconstituted in mysterious, elliptical, bewitching forms. Rutili, who's been making music as Califone for nearly 20 years (and led Red Red Meat before that) is an American master of the junkyard and the oblique. He could sing his grocery list and it would sound like the coolest thing anyone had ever uttered. And his music seems to be getting prettier with time. Favorites: 1, 4, 5. No FCCs.

1. *(5:06)—Slow. Sin Ropas cover. Bluesy, twangy, laid-back, with very nice gang choruses. Fades into the next track.
2. (2:21)—Mid-tempo. Noisy, rocking, jagged.
3. (2:00)—Instrumental. Slow fingerpicked guitar, piano, crickets.
4. *(5:34)—Slow, pretty, melancholy. Peter Gabriel cover. Plucked banjo. Ambient outro with firework sounds.
5. *(3:22)—Mid-tempo country blues. Nice ambient sounds. “The moon's an empty cradle tonight / Just a thought about it shakes the trees.”
6. (3:12)—Instrumental. Trippy, droning, almost jazzy, with muffled drums.