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.
  

A simple Google search reveals that Edith Funker may possibly drop an album in the fourth quarter of 2008 through a deal with Starbucks (like last year’s Memory Almost Full from Sir Paul McCartney, I imagine). Also, Erykah Badu has been performing the Edith Funker song “Annie” (as in, “Annie/ Don’t wear no panties”) all over the place lately, a song that may end up on Lowdown Loretta Brown, part 3 to her New Amerykah trilogy this year. Here’s the analog girl doin’ “Annie” on VH1’s SoulStage. (And the viewer won’t let me watch from outside the US…) They’ve already supposedly recorded two albums in two weeks!

video.vh1.com

So why don’t more people know about this? I just wrapped up a review of the excellent new Gnarls Barkley album, The Odd Couple, for Salon.com and was in the mood for a quickie post. I certainly wouldn’t hold my breath for an album from these guys anytime soon (if ever), but why is it that nobody’s heard of Edith Funker? Erykah Badu, Nikka Costa, ?uestlove, James Poyser, Wendy & Lisa, Susannah Melvoin and the lesser-known (no disrespect) Ephraim Owens, Alex Budman, Doyle Bramhall II and Mike Elizondo make up Edith Funker: the greatest supergroup that nobody’s up on. I speak to ?uestlove tomorrow afternoon, I’ma get the full scoop on this one. Meanwhile, maybe skip by their MySpace page and give a listen to “Bring Out the Woman in Me.”