REVIEWS:

  • “What Ails You serves up heavy helpings of sunny melodies and ambitious songwriting; even some of California’s solid-gold writers creep into the picture, from Everybody Knows-era Neil to the Eagles—and Lebowski be damned, we mean that as a compliment. The vocals muss confessionals with metaphors, and instinctual playing drives through choruses awash in lush strings and guitorchestras as well as spacious, bare-bones verses. As the record fades in a squall of fuzz, it’s clear how far the Captain’s come.” - SF Weekly

  • “El Capitan’s strength lies in their ability to make warm, rustic music whose vintage is difficult to place, yet is almost universally satisfying. If you picked up What Ails You on dusty old vinyl at a swap meet in the middle of nowhere, you’d feel that you had happened upon a secret treasure.” - SF Bay Guardian

  • “Somewhere between the air and the one-inch analog tape, the sound of El Capitan got charged with something—perhaps infused with soul by a ghost of musical genius.” - Seattle Weekly

  • “El Capitan write joyous songs that use the warmth of their tube amps and positive attitudes to brighten your mood. Everything is delivered with sincerity and the obvious fact that these boys enjoy playing these songs (and they should, for they’re finely crafted).” - SLAP Magazine

  • “Backwoods savants El Capitan closed the show with a satisfying ramble through the bogs and briars of their musical versatility, meandering from hoarse, guitar-driven blues to delicate vocal harmonies, and dredging up plenty of fiddle, harmonica, banjo, and other pioneer instruments along the way.” - West Coast Performer

  • “I never knew what a cord of wood was until El Cap defined it so eloquently on the spacey, back porch-swinging dirge “The Woodcutter’s Hymnal.” Don’t pinch the measurements; keep an eye on the details.” - SCTAS Magazine

  • “Relaxed without ever tumbling into lethargy, the introspective Atwater KNEC works as both eclectic string symposium and pure pop.” - Indie Workshop

  • “These guys rock as hard as that hunk of granite they’re named after.” - Mission Creek Music Festival

  • “Spooky California mountain music--nice guitar work and harmonies from the New Folk generation.” - San Francisco Folk Festival

  • “El Capitan offer something fresh, making you smell pine and hear cicadas just beyond the reach of your speakers, rocking with a smiling abandon that you can’t help find infectious. Atwater’s joyous, even when it’s sad. El Capitan can write, and write well; there's undeniable authenticity in the creaky arrangements.” - Copper Press

  • “There’s something both earthy and spacey at the heart of El Capitan. Outwardly, they seem to fill a gap between pop savvy and indie-rock quirkiness—but at times you’d swear this were a quintet of hillbillies who’d stumbled across some rock instruments.” - Miles of Music