Here is the new video to ‘Funeral Singers,’ the single from Califone’s critically acclaimed album All My Friends Are Funeral Singers (Dead Oceans). The album acts as a companion to Califone frontman Tim Rutili’s first feature film that he wrote and directed, also called All My Friends Are Funeral Singers. The highly anticipated film (starring cult indie actress Angela Bettis of Girl, Interrupted fame) is expected to screen at several film festivals early next year.
The music video for ‘Funeral Singers’ features footage from the film.
califone - funeral singers from Califone on Vimeo.
Critically-acclaimed indie-rock band Califone has confirmed additional tour dates that will take the band down the West Coast this December, including stops in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle, among others. Their latest release All My Friends Are Funeral Singers is receiving widespread praise since its October 6 release on Dead Oceans. The New York Times declares it “a song collection at once tuneful, evasive and bittersweet,” and The Sunday Times calls it “Califone’s most accessible yet.”
All My Friends Are Funeral Singers is the companion piece to a feature-length film of the same name written and directed by Califone frontman Tim Rutili. In select cities on the upcoming tour the band will incorporate a full-length presentation of the film into the shows, performing a live, interactive soundtrack to the movie. See below for details.
The Chicago-based band consists of multi-instrumentalists Tim Rutili, Jim Becker, Joe Adamik, and Ben Masseralla. On All My Friends Are Funeral Singers, the band employs a wide range of instrumentation and electronic effects to create a dense collage of sounds. Instruments range from the traditional (guitar, violin, banjo, percussion) to the unusual (optigan, stylophone, baritone ukulele, mbira, thumb piano). Longtime collaborator and producer Brian Deck (Iron & Wine, Gomez, Modest Mouse) says, “Califone have found a sound unlike anyone else, and are able to draw otherworldly sounds from very common instruments.”
Primary songwriter and vocalist Tim Rutili’s artistic endeavors stretch beyond music and include the creation of surreal short documentaries, music video and film scores. He makes his directorial debut with All My Friends Are Funeral Singers. The screenplay for the film, also written by Rutili, draws on the same themes and inspirations as the album, and many of the songs were written at the same time and contain the same images and characters. The movie centers around a fortune teller named Zel (played by respected cult actress Angela Bettis) who lives in an old house crowded with ghosts, including a priest, a bride, a mute child, some washed up vaudvillians and a noisy, sight-impaired group of musicians (Califone), among others. The film will be submitted to film festivals in early 2010.
Tour Dates:
December 3 Husky Union Seattle, WA*
December 4 Rickshaw Theater Vancouver, BC*
December 5 The Mission Theater Portland, OR*
December 7 Great American Music Hall San Francisco, CA*
December 9 Hammer Museum Los Angeles, CA*
* denotes a film performance
“…gorgeously art-damaged roots-rock.”—The New York Times
“…a staggering homage to starts and finishes, computers and cornfields, dirty feet and throbbing foreheads.”—Pitchfork
Califone’s forthcoming album All My Friends Are Funeral Singers is set for release October 6 by Dead Oceans. The album marks the highly anticipated follow-up to 2006’s Roots & Crowns, which The New York Times calls “enthralling,” and Paste praises as “Acoustic Delta blues, back-porch Appalachia, folk-pop and syncopated funk marinate in futuristic sounds, like Mississippi John Hurt, Neil Young and Curtis Mayfield transported through Four Tet’s chop shop.”
The Chicago-based band consists of multi-instrumentalists Tim Rutili, Jim Becker, Joe Adamik, and Ben Masseralla. On All My Friends Are Funeral Singers the band employs a wide range of instrumentation and electronic effects to create a dense collage of sounds. Instruments range from the traditional (guitar, violin, banjo, percussion) to the unusual (optigan, stylophone, baritone ukulele, mbira, thumb piano).
Longtime collaborator and producer Brian Deck (Iron & Wine, Gomez, Modest Mouse) says, “Tim’s songwriting on All My Friends Are Funeral Singers is my favorite yet. They have found a sound unlike anyone else, and are able to draw otherworldly sounds from very common instruments. It’s melodically inventive and economical and delivered with more detail and nuance than before.”
Primary songwriter and vocalist Tim Rutili, whose artistic endeavors stretch beyond music and include the creation of surreal short documentaries, music video and film scores, recently wrote and directed his first feature-length film. The screenplay for the film draws on the same themes and inspirations as the album, and many of the songs were written at the same time and contain the same images and characters. The film, also titled All My Friends Are Funeral Singers, will be submitted to film festivals early next year.
Califone will incorporate a full-length presentation of the film during their live performances, adding a new element to the band’s live show. Nationwide tour dates will be confirmed shortly.
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