Feast of Wire

This is really great, and a genuine find. A varied album with lots of different flavours and influences. I love the strings and brass, the Mexican-infused elements, the darker notes. There's a real atmosphere that sits across a lot of this album, and it's quite melancholic in places.

This is great. Like the soundtrack to some Western in my head. Love it. No particular standout tracks but the vibe is definitely there the whole way through

Pretty cool.

Pleasant

2.07

Strange. Not terrible, but just kind of weird vibe.

The initial blast of mariachi music struck me as a bit appropriative, but this is a long album and I tried to give it a few minutes. I think time is your friend with this one because it covers a lot of ground. In total, the mix of influences feels genuine for a band from the Southwest and might not be surprising from a few former members of Giant Sand.

The album feels like it has a few different acts, broken up by short instrumentals. The Mariachi gives way to some psychedelic country and Cake-adjacent indie rock with some reverberations of Fastball’s “The Way”. The sound will always peg this record as “of its era” in the late 90s or early 00s, but it’s not so trendy that you can nail it down further.

Except for the album art, this record makes a convincing case for a timeless list like this one. I’m convinced these guys are actual musicians, not just some kids looking for an exploitable niche.
I listened to this several to this several times in the few days after I got it. The live disc attached to the rerelease is a great listen too. Easy 4.5 for me

𝘍𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘞𝘪𝘳𝘦 delivers atmospheric desert rock with strong moods, but its ideas sometimes blur together. Beautiful in places, uneven as a whole.

Very interesting blend of Mexican music and Indie Rock. Does get a bit repetitive at times and there's quite a few instrumentals here. The album cover looks real cheap and ugly to me, so it was a pleasant surprise to figure out that the music inside is better. Still a bit of a forgettable listen.

The Good: We are in for a Feast!
The Bad: I am not that much into Wire…
The Ugly: The album cover… I mean, really?

Don’t believe I had ever heard of these chaps before, and now that I have, don’t really believe I have a great wish to know these chaps anymore.

I can understand that one would like to do a little fusion music, but I don’t understand how it is even attempted by blending the styles they are blending… it’s like watching a 7-year old having fun at the soda fountain, mixing all the drinks into one cup, proudly taking that first sip while keeping the positive look on his face while in reality the desire would’ve been for just a Coke… without all the other shit mixed into it.

Calexico is just an odd duck that makes no sense in my world…

2*

Inoffensive but non-exciting

2003 was a year I was consuming a lot of new music, but somehow this band escaped my notice until 2025. I'm not sure if I would have liked it then, but I definitely do now. I'll definitely be exploring their discography further. The "sounds like a Western movie soundtrack" songs are what I'd like to hear more of.

Favorites: anything with sounds from Mexican music

Could do without: breathy indie stuff

⭐⭐⭐ for the music
⭐ For the freshness

⭐⭐⭐⭐

I truly have no comment lmao

I was unfamiliar with Calexico, was pleasantly surprised with the album, enjoyed it very much.

There are parts where I thought I was listening to Neil Finn/Crowded House, (which I love). Great blend of melancholy for a fine an autumn day.

Well, this looks to be another intriguing discovery. For those who don't know, Calexico is a long-running indie rock band from Tucson, Arizona, founded by drummer John Convertino and multi-instrumentalist Joey Burns. Their musical style is often considered as "desert noir"; a blend of traditional Latin sounds, country, and post-rock. After listening to their breakthrough record, Feast of Wire, the band fit that description to a T.

There's a hypnotic feel to the group's ability to weave their influences with the elegant string and trumpet accompaniments, warm pedal steel, spacious guitar lines, the soft rhythm section, and Joey's cold, fried vocal delivery. Most of the songs offer rich, immediate compositions paired with lyrics that feel indebted to the Chicano culture and mysticism surrounding the desert iconography. From the gang life described in "Güero Canelo" to the decadent plaza on "Woven Birds", the imagery painted a striking scenery of hardship and toil for these lives, and I have to commend the group for the vividness in the songwriting.

The only thing that holds me back from fully enjoying this record is the multiple short instrumental interludes. Most of them sounded pleasant and well-composed, to the point where some tracks like "Pepita" and "The Book and the Canal" could have been expanded into their own fully fleshed-out tunes. Instead, I'm left with the odd sentiment that the runtime had to be padded out with these interludes.

Still, I overall enjoyed Feast of Wire, as Calexico managed to carve out their niche and deliver well on it.

This is a vibe, and a fun discovery.
Western vibes, indie, very enjoyable and entirely new to me (both the band and album). What a solid addition, very atmospheric. Feels like the best album you've never heard of. 5*
Highlights: pepita, the book and the canal (lovely instrumentals), across the wire (the mariachi influence)

A diverse southwestern delight marvelously executed and humanizing

Of all the 2000s indie bands....Calexico?! This is like the indie version of the Mars Volta, except I doubt they were on any* countdown ever (*I don't watch CMT so maybe they made it there, although this doesn't really seem that country to me). Might as well throw in another Beck album. This behemoth of an album isn't even all on Spotify. Hmph, harumph, etc.

Ah well, the sound is fine. Not enough to make me want to listen again, but fine. I like the instrumentals more than the non-instrumentals, I think. No surprise they later go on to record with Iron & Wine, because this is very Iron & Wine-y. Not whine-y, although I wish it were, because then maybe I'd feel something!! I do like the sweeping theatrical turns in parts of the album, but they don't really lead anywhere. Shout out Payne County, though.

Highlights: 'Close Behind', 'Attack el Robot! Attack!' (but not the name), 'Across the Wire' (approaching Bright Eyes territory with this one (positive?!))

No serious lowlights, so I guess it wasn't all that bad. Better than your average 3, OK?

As an aside, I feel like we've already slogged through so many ho-hum albums that surely the next 800 are gonna be solid gold!! Ha ha...but seriously.

primeiramente, vi a capa e torci pra que fosse pop punk. não era.
mas não foi ruim não. achei divertidim demais. não voltaria a escutar, mas também nunca escutaria se não tivesse aqui. foi legal!!

Wasn’t familiar with this band’s music. The first track was enjoyable, but things got a bit less rootsy and more cinematic towards the end, which I liked less.
Another album that I would happily give 3.5 stars but can’t quite justify four.