I remember seeing Califone in Cleveland close to a decade ago and being struck by how a seated Tim Rutili and his fellow multi-instrumental bandmates mesmerized a young crowd who were most likely there to see the headliner, Modest Mouse. It was one of those performances you didn't want to end: Each player clearly had a deep sense of composition, collaboration and the subtleties that exists in all of that. 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'll 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. The idea:Continue reading New Califone - "Funeral Singers" (Stereogum Premiere)...