Big Star Singer Alex Chilton Dies at 59
What can I say? Alex Chilton is dead. As part of Big Star, he wrote some of the best music of the 1970s, and his work has influenced so many — Jeff Tweedy, Califone, Elliott Smith, The Replacements. The list goes on.
I’m just sitting here playing this YouTube video for this old song over and over again. Those harmonies get me every time. Goodbye, Alex.
Owl and Bear’s Best Albums of 2009
Owl and Bear writers’ favorite albums of 2009. (more…)
Get Three Avett Brothers Albums for Five Bucks Each
Okay, so this is the part where I talk about how much we at Owl&Bear love the Avett Brothers and you, unimpressed by the witty and/or articulate manner in which we’ve elected to express our ardor this time around, roll your eyes and think something like, “Oh come on, you guys always write about how much you love the Avett Brothers and not only is it getting old but, quite frankly, I’m starting to question your sexuality.” So, rather than beat you over the proverbial head with declarations about how great the Avetts are, we’ll just cut to the chase. This time.
Starting today, you can download three Avett Brothers albums—Emotionalism, Four Thieves Gone, and Mignonette—on Amazon for the trifling pittance of five dollars apiece. While Four Thieves Gone and Mignonette are no slouches, the crown jewel of the bunch is surely 2007’s Emotionalism, which shines as a terrific introduction to the band and their greatest achievement to date.
The albums are on sale until Friday as part of Amazon’s Black Friday Deals Week, as are works by artists like Andrew Bird, Bon Iver, Matt & Kim, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Radiohead, Califone, Built to Spill, Okkervil River, the Decemberists, Islands, and Neko Case. And if you already own all those albums, then congratulations: you’re almost as cool as us, but still only half as cool as the Avett Brothers.
Califone – ‘Funeral Singers’ (Video)
O&B favorites Califone just released a video for their excellent song “Funeral Singers” (MP3), the first single off their new album of a similar title. The video features the white-clad ghost band from Califone’s new film of a similar title, and even features actress Angela Bettis, who stars in the film.
The ‘Fone will tour the west coast in early December. Be sure to check them out. All of the dates listed below include All My Friends Are Funeral Singers film performances.
Tour Dates
12-03 Seattle, WA – Husky Union
12-04 Vancouver, British Columbia – Rickshaw Theater
12-05 Portland, OR – The Mission Theater
12-07 San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall
12-09 Los Angeles, CA – Hammer Museum
Poetic Memory: Fruit Bats (List)
Fruit Bats at The Casbah, San Diego - February 3, 2009
The Ruminant Band, Fruit Bats‘ first release in four years, is undoubtedly one of the best releases of 2009. We recently sat down with Eric to talk Poetic Memory, and he listed the records most influential to him from the 1990s. Check it out below. (more…)
Review: Califone; October 10 & 11, 2009; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
An album and a film, ghostly and eternally tied together: this was the premiere of Califone’s All My Friends Are Funeral Singers.
After a month of listening to Funeral Singers and being totally, completely geared up for their two performances at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, I was ready for anything—and everything. Both were delivered in a weekend I will always remember. (more…)
Tom Waits is the Devil (Links)
Owl and Bear contributor Marty responds to our post highlighting Califone’s Pitchfork review “While I like much of what Mr. Tangari says, I respectfully disagree that Califone has but one song to sing…[Funeral Singers] perfects the Califone project with more than subtle variations on the whole Califone/Red Red Meat oeuvre.” Flavorwire interviews Califone Hear what band leader (and filmmaker) Tim Rutili has to say about pairing visuals to songs, working with cult film star Angela Bettis, and more. Tom Waits is the devil At 59, Tom Waits has finally landed the role he was born to play: the devil. Former Beulah frontman Miles Kurosky plans solo disc After releasing beloved albums like 1999’s When Your Heartstrings Break and 2001’s The Coast Is Never Clear, Beulah broke up, and we haven’t heard from them since. Noah and the Whale’s gear stolen “I used that guitar for everything. I used that guitar to record the album…that’s my guitar. I feel like a part of my personality has been removed. It defines so much about the stuff we do, the way that stuff sounds.” Music video for “The Ruminant Band” by the Fruit Bats The Ruminant Band is out now on Sub Pop Records. The psychosocial complexities of ‘Mr. Ed’ When you blaze through an entire season’s worth of TV episodes all at once, some things stick out a little more plainly than they otherwise might. With Mister Ed’s first season, released on DVD today, this truth emerges: that horse is obnoxious. The different kinds of strangers (video) Featuring fake Philip Seymour Hoffman. Daniel Martin Moore: “Flyrock Blues” (Daytrotter MP3) I can’t get enough of “Flyrock Blues”, a coal mining song by the SubPop folkster Daniel Martin Moore.
No ‘Funeral’ for Califone: New Record Gets an 8.1 on Pitchfork
Pitchfork is known for swinging wide. It’s not uncommon for the taste-making website to build up a band’s reputation with a glowing review of one record, only to single-handedly destroy the group on their follow-up. (more…)
Win Califone’s ‘Funeral Singers’ on Vinyl (Contest)
Yesterday, Dead Oceans released “Funeral Singers” (MP3), the first single from Califone’s new record, All My Friends Are Funeral Singers. Stereogum broke the news, saying:
I remember seeing Califone…and being struck by how a seated Tim Rutili and his fellow multi-instrumental bandmates mesmerized a young crowd who was most likely there to see the headliner, Modest Mouse. It was one of those performances you didn’t want to end…There’s been something impressively laidback and natural and also rigorously smart about Rutili’s work since his days in the truly great Red Red Meat. You can hear what I’m talking about in “Funeral Singers,” the lead track from the Chicago quartet’s forthcoming All My Friends Are Funeral Singers, a collection that overlaps banjo, guitar, violin, baritone uke, thumb piano, mbira, old keyboards, and beds of electronics. Upping that complexity thing, the album—which follows 2006’s Roots & Crowns—works as a companion piece to a film of the same name, written and directed by Rutili.
We at O&B can say with certainty that All My Friends Are Funeral Singers is well worth the purchase. It is probably the best record that Califone has ever made, and they’ve made some good ones. Try to imagine the best elements of Califone and Red Red Meat, combine them, and you get All My Friends Are Funeral Singers.
Pre-order, tourdates, and contest info after the jump. (more…)
Califone Release Feature Film Trailer, Announce Tour (Video)
Here is the long-awaited trailer for Califone’s new film/album All My Friends Are Funeral Singers. The band also just announced the first leg of their upcoming tour, which will feature rock concerts and live soundtrack film performances showcasing the feature length movie. Tourdates are after the jump. (more…)
Red Red Meat to Play ‘Final’ Show August 24 at Chicago’s Millennium Park
Now that the release of Califone’s new record is imminent, it’s time for Red Red Meat, the band’s recently-reunited precursor, to close up shop. This final Red Red Meat show should not be missed, but if you can’t make it, there are almost certainly more exciting things on the horizon. A nice writeup by Jim DeRogatis in yesterday’s Chicago Sun-Times covers everything.
The group is set to play a free show at Millennium Park on Monday [Aug. 24] for a potential crowd 10 times the size of the biggest it ever drew back in the day, when it peaked at selling out Metro. The times, it seems, have finally caught up with the musicians’ unique and otherworldly sounds.
DeRogatis also reveals some new information about the next Califone album, due October 2. (more…)
Download: Califone – November 9, 2008 (FLACs)
Califone’s next release, All My Friends Are Funeral Singers, comes out October 6. In conjunction with the album, they’ll release a feature-length film of the same name. When they tour, they’ll will provide a live soundtrack to the film, silent movie-style.
Califone’s Tim Rutili has entertained this concept for some time (the band’s Deceleration series documented their improvised accompaniment to obscure silent-era films). However, because the album and film are both Rutili originals, this will almost certainly be considered his artistic masterpiece. This show includes a new track from the band—currently the only evidence of what’s to come in October.
If you like the downloads, let us know in the comments. Also, requests (for your favorite bands, not specific shows) are always welcome.
Califone To Release ‘Funeral Singers’ Oct. 6; Film, Tour TBA (MP3)
Chicago/LA’s Califone (aka Red Red Meat’s delicious table scraps) will release their new album, All My Friends Are Funeral Singers, October 6 on their new label Dead Oceans. The release of Funeral Singers marks their first release of new material in three years (to the month). As can be expected, the band members will extract sound from a variety of devices, including guitar, violin, banjo, percussion, optigan, stylophone, baritone ukulele, mbira, and thumb piano.
In conjunction with All My Friends Are Funeral Singers, Califone are also releasing a feature film of the same name, which will be submitted to festivals in 2010. During their soon-to-be announced tour, the band will provide a live soundtrack to the film, silent movie-style. (more…)
Bunny Gets 8.9 (MP3)
Red Red Meat’s Bunny Gets Paid, easily one of my favorite albums ever, has been remastered and re-released by SubPop as a two-disc deluxe edition. Pitchfork recently reviewed the re-release and gave it a glorious 8.9. The deluxe edition contains a number of rarities, including a dub version of the song “Mouse,” as well as an early cover of Low’s “Words,” which some have said predicates the sound that Low would later adopt.
In other good news, Red Red Meat successor Califone is set to release a mysterious new album. With the release date, title, tracklist, and just about everything else still unknown, you should go buy Bunny. You won’t regret it.
With Bunny, all of a sudden Red Red Meat seemed artier, more hidden and inscrutable. Rutili has always spoken in riddles, content to braid together phrases or even single words that sound pleasing to the ear, but here the fragmentation became more extreme. Somehow, when the syllables pile up and the flow of vowels and consonants rides the arc of the music, the effect could be sublime. “Mink-eyed, marble-eyed/ In the gauze, in the weeds/ By the drain, red on pale/ There’s a nail by the vent,” goes the chorus of “Gauze”, Bunny Gets Paid’s stone classic and a contender for the best song Rutili has written. Who knows what it means. But if you can picture a scrubby patch of weeds and in it a clump of gauze, possibly soiled, twitching in the breeze, and the disconnected image of decay stirs something in you, you’re on your way to falling in love with Red Red Meat.
Here’s an MP3 of “Gauze”, courtesy of SubPop.
Joan of Arc to Release New Album
On June 9th, Polyvinyl will release Flowers, a new full length album by Chicago’s prolific Joan of Arc.
“I think it’s harder for a band to make a tenth record than it is to make a first record,” says Tim Kinsella, who remains the one permanent member of the Joan of Arc lineup. “There is more freedom to be daring, but there is also your own standard to live up to and surpass.”
Over the course of a year, Flowers was recorded in four different sessions, with four different lineups, and mixed by Graeme Gibson (the current touring drummer for Fruit Bats, and a regular collaborator with Califone) at Chicago’s Clava Studios.
In late 2008, Kinsella and the latest incarnation of his live band entered the studio to complete the last batch of songs that would round out the album. With no instruments–and hardly any completed songs–the group simply did what felt right: they used what was available to all the musicians who had recorded there previously–pianos, acoustics, and synthesizers – to create a new batch of music after only two days.
Califone, Robbie Fulks to Give “A Big Brain Benefit” For Stricken Singer Diane Izzo
Chicago music luminaries Robbie Fulks, Califone, Sally Timms, the Waco Brothers and others are playing “A Big Brain Benefit” at 7 p.m. Sunday, November 9 at the School of the Art Institute Ballroom, 112 S. Michigan. The concert will benefit Diane Izzo, a singer-songwriter who recently had a $100,000 operation to remove a crippling brain tumor. Tickets are $20.
You can buy tickets through TicketWeb. If you want to donate, go to www.dianeizzo.com and use the PayPal link to donate funds directly to Diane and Marco. More info after the jump.
Why Califone’s Tim Rutili is Awesome
Click the above link for a strange and awesome video.
Review: Red Red Meat; July 10, 2008; Hideout, Chicago
The Hideout is a great place to see a show. I arrived about 7:30, just as a major storm was moving into the Chicago. Luckily, the Hideout is in an industrial part of the city and there were some good spaces right outside, which I found to be a good sign of things to come.
Review: Iron & Wine with Califone; Tuesday, November 27, 2007; 4th & B, San Diego
After a hassle with misappropriated tickets and a trip back to the car to return what is apparently my “professional rig” camera, we got into 4th and B, got drinks, and found seats. A friend’s description of the venue pretty much proved true: outside, it looks like a skyscraper; when you first walk inside, it looks like someone’s dilapidated barn; when you get into the actual venue, it looks like a pretty decent place.
Pitchfork Music Festival 2007 (II)
Note: Photos in this essay depict re-enactments of actual events, not the events themselves.
Thursday, July 12
McCaskill picked me up at my folks’ house at 9PM. We weren’t planning to leave Jackson until about 1 or 2AM, but we’d decided to hang out a while and say goodbyes because, naturally, we may never come back.
Instead of going to the bar, for obvious reasons, we opted for dinner. Regardless, as with alcohol, we are both bottomless pits for food. The meal was uneventful, save for the fact that our waitress had apparently served McCaskill once before, and had taken offense to a conversation about foreskins. Despite this, the food was palatable and (hopefully) spit-free.
Pitchfork Music Festival 2007 (I)
Let’s get this out of the way: fuck the Chicago Tribune. They messed up a lot of indie fans this past weekend by printing completely wrong directions to the Pitchfork Music Festival. Despite having lived in the Chicago area for nearly eight years and being with two people who attended the festival last year, I still managed to take the Green Line L train all the way to the end of the line (as per the directions), nearly five miles south of Union Park. A long string of expletives and one forty minute bus ride later, we had missed nearly all of Slint, the first act of the first night. It’s a shame, too, as they sounded pretty damn good.
Review: Califone; June 9, 2007 at Rock & Roll Hotel; DC
We drove to D.C. on a whim, twelve hours each way on 95, for Califone’s show at the Rock and Roll Hotel. Highway barbecue, coffee, a night in South Carolina where “Deluxe” still describes cheap motels. Slither on HBO. North to President Inn (’s not included) on New York Avenue near the arboretum. Capital Dome: I bare my ass to it in the window, more than they deserve, and Amy and I head out. The neighborhood is depressed, restaurants all closed or takeout Chinese or ff chain. We eat shrimp lo mein and fried rice and walk to the club.
Spoon w/ Various Artists – Stranger Than Fiction Soundtrack
2006, Sony
Califone, The Jam, and The Upsetters saved this one from an F.
Califone – Roots & Crowns
2006, Thrill Jockey
Critics are calling Roots & Crowns Califone’s best, and there is a reason.
