ICON NOVEMBER 2008
Imagine for a moment a post-apocalyptic future where electricity is in short supply. We might only be able to hear music that's performed by real live human beans right in front of us. With (mostly) acoustic combos like Dime Box, some of us'd scrape by OK. These five ladies from the Los Angeles area play a healthy, hearty mixture of traditional country music, folk, bluegrass, and old-timey string band, plus smidgens of rock 'n' roll and jazz, with cool-breeze (though not breezy) harmonies (sometimes recalling Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks). The lead vocals by Kristi Callan (formerly of the fab melancholic .LA power-poppers Wednesday Week) are alternately wistful and genially contemptuous ("I want you up and gone/ by the end of this song"). Imagine Alison Krauss and Union Station with a judicious jolt of rockin' energy and you'll have an idea of the delights of Dime Box awaiting you. – Mark Keresman, ICON Monthly