Edith Funker Fun Facts

Spoke to Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson last Thursday via cellphone, and asked him all about Rising Down, the next record from the almighty Roots crew. And but so before we got into that, I made sure to bleed dry all info on the Edith Funker project first. (For the one person out there who’s never seen the trailblazing All in the Family sitcom from the 70s (when sitcoms were sitcoms), the matriarch of the family was named Edith Bunker). I didn’t get much, but here’s what I got:

• The name Edith Funker comes, obviously, from Edith Bunker (like Gnarls Barkley/Charles Barkley), but it was coined by actress Rashida Jones, daughter of Quincy and Peggy Lipton. The group was originally named Funk Sway. (As in feng shui.)
• The Roots’ live shows are booked all the way up till November, so an Edith Funker album coming in the fourth quarter is unlikely/ impossible.
• Erykah Badu has been talking to Starbucks about the possibility of a couple of things, one of which might could be releasing an Edith Funker album.
• The band performed just last month at the SXSW festival in Austin, and according to Ahmir, that live show could stand as an album as far as he’s concerned.