I always talk about how much I love Califone. They really are one of my all-time favorites but I have never shared music of theirs on here nor have I expressed my love for them. So here I am today, listening to some old music and some new music. My heartstrings always choose Califone.
What a week. It's been rough, I tell you what. I've been very excited to write but it has been difficult finding time to do so. Between meetings, keeping up with getting things together, keeping things in order, lack of sleep and recent news of me losing my job in two weeks, things have been a little hectic. But we're okay.
Ah Califone. What a tremendous band. They have been around since the 90's but it wasn't until maybe 2006 that I started listening. They are considered an experimental rock band, much like Flaming Lips is labeled in that they use abstract sounds and a non-conventional rhythm that distinguishes them from other rock bands. They also do creative projects along with their music that sets them apart artistically, such as creating films to go with their music, their latest project released in 2009 was All My Friends Are Funeral Singers which is what you see a clip of in the video posted above.
This album is a followup from their 2006 album Roots & Crowns which is a wonderful album and was the first album I had heard the year my baby was born. The band is named after Califone International, which is a sound equipment manufacturer. The band is made up of former band member front man for Red, Red Meat Tim Rutili and he created Califone just as a solo side project. He loved the idea of rotating contributors from members from his former band and just other Chicago bands, where Califone was founded. Band members include the founding forefather Tim Rutili (vocals, guitar, and keyboards), Joe Adamik (drums), Jim Becker (banjo and violin), and Ben Massarella (percussion). Fun fact: Each band member is a multi-instrumentalist. I don't lie when I say I know good music.
Rutili claims that Califone's general purpose for sound is to tell a story that is inspired by tales, silent films, elaborate stories that take you places. They are eccentric and dreamy, non-synthesized and pure. And it's true that when you hear an album from start to finish, it's like reading an epic novel that just flows continuously from song to song giving purpose and intent to each strum. Every chord has a role. Every musician is a player on the stage in your mind.
Collaborative projects include working with some fantastic musicians and under unique and beautiful circumstances, most of which people do not know about. For example, in 2002, Tim Rutili and Ben Massarella collaborated with Modest Mouse front man Isaac Brock and others to release the album Sharpen Your Teeth under the band name Ugly Casanova. Members of Califone also made significant contributions to also another beloved band of mine, 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. I also love that Califone helped record Iron and Wine's 2011 album, Kiss Each Other Clean. The list goes on and on. Besides these amazing contributions to other musician's star-studded careers and high-selling records and well-known albums, they have created some unique and creative and awesome films including documentaries about bullriding and directed films telling stories of their music (I guess that's art imitating life or life imitating art, something like that). They are just so interesting and insanely talented. It's brilliant stuff. You can read all about their contributions online and check out their work and what it means. Little do the rest of us know...
I love them.
Speaking of love, I mentioned mascarpone in the title because I honestly feel Italian these days. I have replaced my habitual drinking of their wine to eating their sweets. I thought I would be model thin by now but it's not true. I am not. I am loving every bit of this new love for sweet, rich, and creamy things, most of which happens to be Italian. It does not help that there is a gelato cafe right next to the sober house and it does not help that there is a gaggle of Italian men sitting out front, desperate to tell me about how amazing their country is. I have learned about tons of Italian cooking and I now even tune in to watch "Lydia's Italy" where I watch chubby Lidia Bastianich in her kitchen cooking with none other than real ingredients and fattening ones - the stuff I cook with. She uses so much better and cream and more butter and the one thing I have learned about that is the new love in my life - mascarpone. What's funny is that when I was typing Califone in the title of this post, I giggled inside thinking about how much it looks like mascarpone (really pronounced mars-cu-pon-y) but with a subtle lift on the end like you're a real Italian. It is an incredible ingredient. My goal is to get fat and happy. She looks the part. She's not huge, she's just frumpy and I know that the man in her life is happy as is she. I think I might be jumping off of an unnecessary cliff with this little description of my guilty pleasures and recent newfound weaknesses. Ha.
IN OTHER NEWS: As of Tuesday, miss Punk Rock Poet Hero Patti Smith released her new album Outside Society. How excited am I? Very. Also I plan on buying her book, Just Kids, which won the National Fiction award for 2010, when I graduate from my program as a gift to myself. I plan on flying to a secluded beach and reading it cover to cover in one sitting. Anyone want to help me reach my goal? ;-) Man I love her. She really is the embodiment of cool for me.
Other things happening - one is that The Decemberists are performing a concert as I type this (well, it's probably over now) at Edgefield. Some friends were headed to see them. I'm sure it was a lovely show on a perfect summer evening. Can't wait to hear all about it.
I believe this weekend Uh Huh Her is playing at the Wonder ballroom. They just came out with an album I believe. They're a geeky girl duo who plays electronica-ish, duo pop, Client rip-off, bubble gum punk which is dancy, lively, and sexy. It's fun.
Oh the weekend! How I cannot wait! I will not have Scarlett with me which is a travesty but I will make the most of my time. I have not had a solo weekend in so very long and I am looking forward to serious productivity and time to just grasp the fact that I have been recently notified that I am soon to be unemployed. Yes it's happening and I have no idea what steps to take first and I just need a minute to think. Until then, ironically enough, I will be working harder than ever these next couple of weeks because of losing my job soon and so with that, I need some time. Some real time. The weekend will go by quickly but it will be quickly replaced by a photo shoot next Wednesday with one of my great loves, Miss Sadie Rose who will be in town from California to shoot for her vintage clothing site. I get to be a model and a makeup artist! I will feel so fancy and important. Something fun to look forward to for sure. And also, first Thursday will be next week and I could use a day of running around with some friends for that, so hopefully we can organize. I have some wonderful things coming up and the coolest part? I'm not self-destructing or even feeling insanely stressed because of this. In fact, I see it as a blessing in disguise, even if it means I am homeless for a while. I have been through much worse.
But on a more serious note, besides Califone and the love for new music, I have learned an awful lot about real love lately. I have been raving about a commencement ceremony speech delivered by Jonathan Franzen, the brilliant fictional writer who carried the unconventional wisdom of awesomeness this last summer to graduates of Kenyon college. I have been thinking about what it means to really love another, how spectacular and amazing and awesome it is and how to really find your center, your integrity, your self-worth in an age full of narcisistic consumers and superstars in our own reality television drama pasted across networking sights such as Facebook and the like.
Favorite quote of the week: "Love is really about a bottomless empathy born out of the heart's revelation that another person is every bit as real as you are...To love a specific person, to experience their troubles and joys as if they are your own, you have to surrender some of yourself."
Goodnight.
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