All My Friends Are Funeral Singers

Narrative Feature, Special Events
D: Tim Rutili

The best thing about Funeral Singers, aka “That Califone Movie,” is that it works so well even when the band isn’t generating the score themselves, playing live (which they’re doing for the two SXSW screenings) slightly below and in front of the big screen glowing with director and writer (and Califone frontman) Rutili’s whimsicreepy story of a young psychic who lives with several generations of ghosts. You could watch the movie on DVD at a friend’s house and still get happily caught up in the story of Zel, solidly played by Angela Bettis, as she deals with a houseful of relentlessly musical haunts who want little more than to escape into the afterlife. Or you could buy the music and listen to it sans visuals, grooving to gorgeous tones and tunes that might suggest a Cajunified and klezmered-up version of the Deadwood theme with intermittent upheavals like Tom Waits getting pissed off at his percussion section. Either way, you’d come out with a win. Together, it’s like the best of both worlds: music and film, this life and the afterlife.

Friday, March 19, noon, Ritz 1

This article appears in March 19 • 2010.

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