Califone Go Back To Their Roots

Califone's new record is one of the only discs that you might spin this year that sounds like two completely different bands playing at once. At one end of Roots & Crowns is the band, whose sound is influenced by everything from Broken Social Scene to Can to Tom Waits. At the other are Tim Rutili's hushed vocals and the record's incredibly varied melodies. And while tension and elements of noise music dominate the affair, none of this was intentional. "We try not to think about it too much and we try not to talk about it too much," Rutili says of the recording. "It's a pretty great arrangement.

"I just wanted to make sure that at the bottom of everything was a good song. So the noise was a part of it, but I didn't want just noise. I wanted to make sure that there was good noise on every part of the record."

Roots & Crowns nearly didn't happen. Califone were stressed out after touring 2004's Heron King Blues and came pretty close to throwing in the towel. But the decision to record the new album has re-energized the alt.country outfit.

After returning to the studio, they churned out what could be their strongest record to date, and they're back on the road now in support of it.

"I think after the last record and working on some film stuff in the off time, we really wanted to try to make an album, try to write some songs again," Rutili recalls. "And the other intention was to go further in the direction that we had touched on in the past — the noise direction — and just go further with certain ideas that were part of our personal, uh, tricks."

Rutili seems fairly certain that another LP will be in the cards in the near future.

"We have a lot of things that we've started and didn't finish for Roots & Crowns, so we might start the next one by going back and completing some of the ideas that we started. I think that's how we're going to begin."

Califone are heading to Canada this weekend. Here are their dates with Flecton Bigsky:

Nov. 5 Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern
Nov. 6 Montreal, QC @ La Sala Rossa