Califone Members

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. Roots & Crowns review AllMusic

Califone has 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 toured as 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."

In 2011, a feature-length tour documentary about Califone, called "Made a Machine by Describing the Landscape", was released by IndiePix. The film was directed by Solan Jensen and Joshua Marie Wilkinson, and presents an intimate portrait of the band on tour in Europe and the US after the release of " Heron King Blues".

History

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."Interview: Califone
Cokemachineglow.com, 6 October 2006

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.

Their single "Funeral Singers" appears on the soundtrack of the video game '' Watch Dogs''.

In 2019, Califone undertook a tour of house concerts and other small venues. The lineup consisted of Rutili, Massarella, and second percussionist Rachel Blumberg.

Concepts

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''

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''

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.Review - Heron King Blues
Splendidezine.com, 15 March 2004

''Deceleration'' series

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

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