Califone

All Music Guide:

After the disintegration of Chicago's blues-rock innovators Red Red Meat, the band's four remaining members struck out on their own, initiating several varied endeavors but never straying too far from their home base, or each other. Ben Massarella and Tim Rutili revived their Perishable Records imprint, Brian Deck opened the Clava recording studios, adjacent to the Perishable offices, and Tim Hurley recorded and released his own Sin Ropas project on the resurrected label. Amid the flurry of activity, all four also found the time to contribute to the ill-fated, A&M-commissioned Loftus LP. While enduring the fluctuation between crisis and monotony inherent in the daily operation of a small, independent record label, Rutili began work on his next musical project, Califone.

Named after the pedant audio supply manufacturer, Califone was initially just Rutili banging out songs with a computer. Eventually, he began to enlist the help of some familiar cohorts and cycled through several transient contributors; ultimately, the revolving cast spawned 1998's self-titled debut EP. A joint Flydaddy/Perishable release, the record was distinctly more focused and confident than Red Red Meat's swan song, There's a Star Above the Manger Tonight. While still incorporating the bizarre sounds and sequenced beats of that record, this time the band didn't allow its in-studio experimentation to overwhelm the songs. Interestingly, at the end of the nascent recording sessions for Califone, someone in Rutili's new conglomerate noticed that the band was, in effect, a reincarnation of Red Red Meat; the principal members of the supposedly defunct quartet were the only remaining people in the studio.

A second self-titled EP followed in 2000 on Portland's Road Cone label, which soon after was paired with the first on the Sometimes Good Weather Follows Bad People compilation. With Califone's fundamental studio lineup at least temporarily solidified as Massarella, Rutili, and Deck, the band recorded its debut LP, Roomsound, with an open-door policy; members of Eleventh Dream Day, Tortoise, and Fruit Bats all performed on the album. Released in the spring of 2001, Roomsound fused the disparate elements the band had been struggling to unite since There's a Star Above the Manger Tonight, creating a cohesive, affecting album.

The limited-edition Deceleration One appeared in February 2002, showcasing some of Califone's stunning live-recorded instrumentals. It was a combination of film loop mixing by Jeff Economy and Carolyn Faber and a puppetry sketch interpreted by Califone. A month later, Sometimes Good Weather Follows Bad People was released, capturing the two new tracks as well as material from the band's two previously out of print EPs initially available on Flydaddy and Roadcone. Rutili and Massarella were on a roll. They collected additional musicians during the summer of 2002 for the recording of the Quicksand/Cradlesnakes EP. It's a rough-edged, dark effort, but Califone's ever-changing musical cinema remained at its best. Released in 2004, Heron King Blues further refined their blending of melodic acoustic compositions and experimental tendencies before the band went on hiatus for most of 2005 while Rutili focused on soundtrack work. The band reconvened in late 2005 to begin work on Roots & Crowns, released in October 2006. All My Friends Are Funeral Singers followed in 2009.

Wikipedia:

Califone is an experimental rock band from Chicago. The band is named after Califone International, an audio equipment manufacturer. Their work has been critically acclaimed.

Califone has recently released an album and feature film, both of which are titled All My Friends Are Funeral Singers. The album was released October 6, 2009 on Dead Oceans. The feature film was made available in 2010, and the band's current tour features a live soundtrack to the film.

All My Friends Are Funeral Singers is the follow-up album to 2006's Roots & Crowns, which The New York Times called "enthralling."

History [edit]

After the breakup of his former band Red Red Meat, frontman Tim Rutili formed Califone as a solo project. Rutili's solo effort soon became a full-fledged musical project with a regular and rotating list of contributors, including many former members of Red Red Meat and some members of other Chicago bands.

According to Rutili, Califone started as a home project: "The statement of intent would have been 'easy listening' compared to what we were doing with Red Red Meat. This was supposed to be making little pop songs out of found pieces. It was supposed to be just a little home project, and it slowly grew from there. Now it seems like just about anything goes."

Califone's sound is a combination of Red Red Meat's blues-rock and experimental music, with inspiration drawn from early American folk music, pop, as well as electronic and groups like Psychic TV. Listeners familiar with Red Red Meat can quickly tell that Califone is not an attempt to revive the old band; elements from a number of musical styles contribute to their distinctive sound.

Califone's current lineup includes Joe Adamik (drums), Jim Becker (banjo, violin), Ben Massarella (percussion), and Tim Rutili (vocals, guitar, keyboards). Each member is a multi-instrumentalist.

Concepts [edit]

Many of Califone's albums are individually thematic, sometimes inspired by stories (All My Friends Are Funeral Singers), dreams (Heron King Blues), and silent era films (Deceleration albums).

All My Friends Are Funeral Singers [edit]

The album's companion film is about a psychic woman who lives alone in the woods. According to Rutili, who wrote the screenplay and directed the film,

She lives in a house full of ghosts, and one day, the ghosts realize they’re trapped, and she has to find a way–even though she doesn’t want them to go–to get them out of the house. Then they start destroying her life.

Heron King Blues [edit]

Califone's 2004 release Heron King Blues is a concept album involving a recurring dream:

Rutili has had a recurring dream since his youth, involving a giant man-bird creature, and then he discovered that the creature was actually a representation of an ancient Druid god called the heron king, which the British feared so deeply that they fled the battlefield when an effigy of the heron king was hoisted above the heads of the opposing army, and that Rutili realized that he had somehow been manifesting an image of this long-dead god figure in his head since he was a child.

Deceleration series [edit]

Califone has released instrumental albums that were recorded while the band played live soundtracks for films recorded in the 2000s. Deceleration 1 and Deceleration 2 were released in 2002 and 2003, respectively. Decelerations 3 and 4 are rumored to be released sometime in the future.

Collaborations [edit]

In 1997, members of Red Red Meat collaborated with members of oRSo and Rex to record Loftus for Perishable Records.

In 2002, Tim Rutili and Ben Massarella collaborated with Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock and others to release the album Sharpen Your Teeth under the band name Ugly Casanova.

In 2003, Tim Rutili, Ben Massarella and Jim Becker collaborated with Ottawa musician Miche Jetté, to record five of his songs for an independent mini-disc. This recording would later be released properly in 2005 as the first side of Jette's debut solo album (under his stage name Flecton), for the Canadian label, Kelp Records. The latter half Flecton's Never Took a Wife was recorded with Memphis indie rockers, the Grifters.

In 2005, Califone collaborated with Freakwater as a backing band to record the album Thinking of You.

In 2006, Tim Rutili teamed up with Wil Hendricks and Michael Krassner under the name The Unseen Hand to record the soundtrack for Rank, a documentary about bullriding.

In 2006, Califone teamed up with animator/musician Brent Green on a series of performance art pieces featuring animation, live music, and spoken word. That same year, they were featured on the soundtrack for the movie Stranger than Fiction.

In December 2008, the Canadian band Flecton released The Bright Side of Dying, with Califone as the backing band. The album was recorded in Chicago and features Ben Massarella, Tim Rutili, Joe Adamik, and Jim Becker). The eight song vinyl LP (including a cover of Merle Haggard's "Workin' Man Blues") was released on Ottawa's Kelp Records.

Members of Califone made significant contributions to The Fruit Bats' 2009 album, The Ruminant Band: Tim Rutili contributed vocals to the title song on the album, and Jim Becker provided vocals on the songs "Feather Bed" and "Flamingo", and guitar and fiddle on the songs "Tegucigalpa" and "Feather Bed". Members of Califone have also contributed to past Fruit Bats albums.

Members of Califone helped record Iron and Wine's 2011 album, Kiss Each Other Clean.