Now that the release of Califone‘s new record is imminent, it’s time for Red Red Meat, the band’s recently-reunited precursor, to close up shop. This final Red Red Meat show should not be missed, but if you can’t make it, there are almost certainly more exciting things on the horizon. A nice writeup by Jim DeRogatis in yesterday’s Chicago Sun-Times covers everything.

The group is set to play a free show at Millennium Park on Monday [Aug. 24] for a potential crowd 10 times the size of the biggest it ever drew back in the day, when it peaked at selling out Metro. The times, it seems, have finally caught up with the musicians’ unique and otherworldly sounds.

DeRogatis also reveals some new information about the next Califone album, due October 2.

Califone is set to release its next album, “All My Friends Are Funeral Singers,” on Oct. 6, and Rutili brags that it’s the best the group has made. It’s certainly the most ambitious: Rutili wrote the songs at the same time as a feature-length screenplay of the same name, and he’s just finishing editing the film, which the band will screen as it performs the music live on a fall tour that includes prestigious theater and museum gigs such as the Museum of Contemporary Art.

The film is “about a woman who lives in the woods, and she’s a psychic,” Rutili says. “She lives in a house full of ghosts, and one day, the ghosts realize they’re trapped, and she has to find a way–even though she doesn’t want them to go–to get them out of the house. Then they start destroying her life.

“I’ve always goofed around with film and made videos, and it seemed like it was really, really time to do this. I just wanted to play a show that was a real show and to give people a story, instead of like, ‘Welcome to the bar; have some drinks while we play some songs.’ I think it’s going to be a really amazing experience for us, and for the audience as well.”

DeRogatis also leaves open the possibility that Red Red Meat could tour again (hence the quotes on the word ‘final’ in this post’s title), but only if they record again. Hmm. That seems like double good news.

As for Red Red Meat, the reunited members, who are now scattered across the country, have decided that the Millennium Park gig will be their last–at least until they record some new music.