Califone

If Tim Rutili and Ben Massarella’s first band, Chicago’s Red Red Meat, fell into the Rolling Stones-gone-small-stage-gibbon-whoop-crazy category, Califone is an extended foray into “Angie” territory. For ex-elementary students of a certain era, the name “Califone” should ring bells; it’s the brand of those cranky record-player sound systems that teachers used to have to carefully synchronize with filmstrips, a level of technology Califone the band gleefully embraces. Califone never hits the same vein twice, mingling pop, blues and folky melodies with all kinds of loops, distressed tape effects and generally noisy havoc.