(photo: BrubeN.com)

One day last week, as I sat down with my breakfast and coffee and The Globe & Mail, My eye was drawn to a short review for All My Friends Are Funeral Singers, the new LP from Chicago’s Califone.  The album has popped up in a lot of discussions and blogs lately, and not having been familiar with the band at all prior, I was curious to read what Brad Wheeler had to say.

Even though the review itself kind of falls apart at the end when “Top Ten Indie rock Discs of 2009″ calls Wheeler’s smartphone looking for the band  because it wants to chat (??WTF??), I have to say he’s done the disc (and the band) justice. All My Friends Are Funeral Singers is an organic mulch of alt-country and indie rock, providing fertile ground for some tuneful and at turns grungy songs to take root and grow.  In thinking about what I wanted to say in my review, the word “cinematic” kept popping up, by I sometimes worry that I use that descriptor far too often.  It turns out that in Califone’s case, it very apt:  the band have also finished work on a feature film of the same name, and will be performing the album as a live soundtrack to the film on tour.  The film is being submitted to festivals for next year, but the album is already available.

Though I may not have gone about it in the same way wheeler did, I do concur that Califone is a shoo-in for any number of year-end lists.  It ticks all the right boxes for critical success:  atmospheric quirk-rock that begs to be listened to twice, with just the right smattering of name-dropping hipster-cred to make any music geek sound like he or she is in the know.

MP3: Califone “Funeral Singers”
Myspace: Califone