Califone, the experimental Chicago roots-rock band, haven’t released an album since 2009′s All My Friends Are Funeral Singers, but they’re back this fall with a new one called Stitches. For the first time, the band left Chicago to record the LP, hitting various studios around the American southwest instead. (They ev...

Califone has confirmed additional tour dates that will take the band down the West Coast this December

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,...

In a loving re-evaluation penned last year, our own Mark Richardson called Red Red Meat's third album, 1995's Bunny Gets Paid, "one of the best pure rock albums of the 1990s, though it's not exactly pure." Listening to the album now, its nervy multitudes pour forth; it's grunge, it's folk, it's country, it's blues, it's hushed, it's blaring, it'...

On this 3xCD anthology Christian Kiefer, Jefferson Pitcher, and J. Matthew Gerken write songs for each of the 43 U.S. presidents. Among the many guests are Bill Callahan, Califone, and Xiu Xiu's Jamie Stewart.read more