"Alice Texas is Alice Schneider, a native New Yorker who rides through the oppressively small towns and dry prairies of her imagination searching for love and redemption."
- The New Yorker

Reviews of Sad Days

Interviews and Other Stuff

Reviews of Gold

Live Review of Living Room Show, 1/18/05, Skope Magazine

Here's what the media has to say about Alice Texas, Sad Days:

Magnet Magazine  
August 2005
"Alice, Texas, is a town east of Corpus Christi in the southern tip of the state. Alice Texas, however, is the musical vehicle of Alice Schneider, a dark haired New York beauty who, on her second album, is clearly in the Southern state of mind. "I miss my honey baby/Down in North Caroline," she croons on the epic "Where I'd Become," a Gun Club-styled slice of slide-guitar blues with a noir story line about two kids on the lam from the law, perhaps, from each other-the opiated, country/jazz "Run To You", the sweet, Calexico-esque "Lonely One," the twangy, droney "Trampis Haire" (a compelling yarn of of Texas passion and murder)- Schneider traces a road map through the same semi-mythic heartland that's inspired scores of authors and songwriters. She holds up her end of the literary bargain; the lovers and losers who populate her songs seem tragically, terrifyingly real. Abetted by longtime guitarist Peter Mavrogeorgis and drummer David Berger (who joined not long after 200 debut Gold), Schneider is equal parts Patti Smith, Polly Harvey, Hope Sandoval and Loretta Lynn and as artistically combustible as that collision of personalities might suggest." - Fred Mills

Aquarian Weekly
July 22nd, 2005
"Beginning with the dirge 'South of Heaven,' Alice Texas immediately set a desperate, runaway sound on Sad Days balancing a soulful country-western tone with an arty, personal focus.  This is a very personal record which avoids conventional song structure in favor of emotional climaxes.

The three-piece is likely named after their front woman Alice Schneider who croons over the languid material in a style reminiscent of Maria McKee - robust and soulful, yet decidedly twangy. Overall, the tone of the album is sun-bleached, as is it's telling cover art.

 'Coney Island' may be the most conventional song on the album, but the too short 'Where I'd Become' and the title track reveal unexpected hooks.  Spacey guitar work and slow tempos create sonic palettes for Schneider to lie atop.

Sad Days is a bit too arty at times to be purely country But the reverse applies as well. For those looking for emotionally rich songs in a convention defying country format, here's your niche.
In a word: Weathered
Grade: A- "
-Patrick Slevin

Village Voice
"Go to Alice, Texas; better still go see and hear the band Alice Texas, a nifty, unappreciated local alt-country outfit filled with paradoxes. Small of stature vocalist Alice Schneider belts with a Neko Case fervor, stacked atop dreamy reverb twang that would do justice to the likes of acts like Big Lazy and Mazzy Star. They're touting the release of their second CD, Sad Days, that you'd be foolish not to take home.

NY Press
"Forlorn and beautiful as a desert highway"

Venus
February 2004

"Somber, rich, and foreboding, Sad Days, Alice Texas' second release is populated with dead dogs, eerie dusty roads, and wayward lovers.

Alice Texas is the creation of native New Yorker Alice Schneider, who culled the band¹s name from the real-life Texas town. Her honey-and-whiskey-twanged voice belies her Northern roots. Schneider, along with Peter Mavrogeorgis (lead guitars) and David Berger (drums and percussion), have far surpassed Alice Texas' debut, Gold, with Sad Days¹ hypnotic cohesion and haunting mood. There are no rave-ups like "Big Black Motorcycle" from Gold on here. Instead, the weight of the music comes from intricate narrative and the smoky noir-ish use of instruments like upright bass, trumpet, and organ.

Schneider wraps her smooth earthy voice around such lines as: "I got a man meant for me/bound by fury. I got a little baby cryin'/where's my daddy? Oh God/Oh God/What have I done." While the arrangements may be deceptively simple, they only grow in depth with each listen.

What culminates is a perfect traveling companion for your own trip down a dusty winding road." --Chad Merritt

No Depression
September 2003
"Wanna tell ya about Alice Texas and the big beat. Specifically, how they slunk outta the rock swamps of New York and went off in search of an Americana that might've never been. If 2001 debut Gold's northeastern urban gothic blues suggested P.J. Harvey down at the crossroads clutching the Nick
Cave songbook, Sad Days is the sound of A.T. -- vocalist Alice Schneider, guitarist Peter Mavrogeorgis, drummer David Berger and assorted friends on upright bass, accordion and horns -- venturing even deeper into the mythic heartland.

The journey's about excavations and exhumations, from the literal (on the lam in Kansas with a cowboy lover, in the Gun Clubesque slide-guit blooze of "Where I've Become") to the metaphysical ("I crawled out of the sea, onto land/ My belly slick, my head burnin' I'm a comin', drawn to you like black on the water," sings Schneider, part Loretta Lynn brassy drawl and part Hope Sandoval opiated slur, in the jagged country-jazz noir of "Run To You"). Throughout, the vocals and sonics carry a harrowing emotional heft -- you???ve
never really felt whisper-to-scream dynamics until you encounter the apocalyptic climax of slow-burner "New Leaves" but thankfully devoid of the histrionics and pull-a-rabbit-out-of-a-twat tricks rendering so many of today's intense young divas cartoonish. Schneider doesn't need gimmickry. With her raven-tressed, smoldering good looks, lyric sensuality and charismatic delivery, she's a force of nature."
--Fred Mills

Bucket Full of Brains
"She's one to keep a watch on"

MOJO
June 2003
"I've got a man waiting for me south of heaven...I've got dead dogs scratching at my door," sings Alice Schneider in the gripping opening song of her New York based trio's debut album. A voice somewhere between P.J. Harvey and (on the high noted) Sinead O'Connor and a band that sound like serious Calexico and David Lynch Fans - there are lots of desert moments and dramatic Wild At Heart guitars; lots of dramatic everything in fact. Dark, atmospheric insurgent country with the odd gentle ballad.

LOGO
April 2003
The artistic vision of Alice Schneider is disturbing indeed, and singular enough to require the invention of a new pigeonhole: the best we could come up with was "Torch Songs," where the torch in question is the flaming variety, just before being used to immolate the body of her freshly dead, no-good boyfriend. Itıs not that Alice Texas write murder ballads per se, more that Schneider's songs can't help but summon an image of The Walking Dude striding across a post-apocalyptic landscape, while Kim Deal swaps vocal lines with PJ Harvey and The Bad Seeds play "Dancehall At Louse Point" in a Calexico style. Itıs an intense, slow-burning experience that is simultaneously stark and sensual, a brand of high emotion Southern Gothic that is just crying out for the cinema treatment. -- Gillian Nash

NME
April 2003
Glorious and melancholic Texan magic

Grizzled alt.country pioneer Neil Young once quipped, "Only love can break your heart". On this, the debut release from Alice Texas- led by the charismatic Alice Schneider, from , you guessed it, Texas - it seems love is capable of far greater physical pain. It can maim the soul. The romantically driven viewpoints of these fine desert soundscapes suggests that Schneider is a woman who knows the hurt of a broken heart. The beautiful, hypnotic "South of Heaven" is like Mazzy Star undegoing relationship counseling, while "Lonely One" is P.J. Harvey if she'd been raised in the Deep South rather than Yeovil. Schneider's soulful brooding makes for glorious listening. Cruelly, one hopes she never finds the true love she'd striving for." - James Jam

UNCUT
June 2003
Simmering sophomore outing from New York alt.country trio
Having taken their name from the Lone Star outpost nestled between Laredo and Corpus Christi, the band's earliest incarnation featured ex-Go-Between Robert Vickers and Bad Seed's Jim Sclavunos. Since 2001's 'Gold', both have moved on, but the scaffolding remains fixed on an unforgiving landscape haunted by dustdevils and black vultures. Schnedier's delivery is part-P.J. Harvey, part- Patti Smith with Hayseeds, while the music is all slide guitar, reverbed Gretsch and moody strings. When she's not straining too hard - as on the Townes Van Zandt-like title track - the voice is at it's most affecting. -- Rob Hughes

BestfemaleMusicans.com
December 2003
For their second release, "Sad Days," Alice Texas shift gears from their 2001, self-released debut, "Gold." What doesn't change is the intensity and pain apparent, not only in Alice Schneider's voice, but in the instrumentation of guitarist Peter Mavrogeorgis, and drummer David Berger. This release is much more subdued than the hard hitting "Gold."

The writing and arrangement show a maturity that wasn't quite there yet when "Gold" was released. This is not to say that "Gold"is not a great album, it is, but here the band shows what they have learned over the past two years. Blending elements of Alt-Country and Rock Alice Texas show the depths that despair and sadness can reach, while maintaining an obvious hopefulness.
Click here for full review.

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Interview from Roadtracks Magazine

March 2004 Stylus Magazine "The Challenge"

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Here's what the media has to say about Alice Texas' Gold:

Alternative Press "Who: New York chanteuse and her backing group featuring guitarist Peter Mavrogeorgis, Byron Issac (bass), and David Berger (drums). Her debut album features performances from Robert Vickers (Go Betweens) and Jim Sclavunos (Nick Cave, Sonic Youth). Sounds Like: Sitting in a honky tonk bar while out of your head on morphine. Haunting tunes that tell tales of lonliness, heartaches and hope for the future. Bluesy, passionate, and shadowy, with Schneider's aching voice hovering over expertly crafted textures. What's Next: Schneider will be going into the studio soon to lay down some demos for a new album." -- Todd Hutlock.