James Franco and Kalup Linzy—the majorly endearing Brooklyn performance artist whose MoMA and Whitney-featured, soap opera-inspired video series landed him a bizarre cameo alongside Franco on General Hospital—just signed to Dutty Artz. Their group, Kalup & Franco, who we've proudly featured before, has a three track 7-inch coming out July 12th produced by DJ Rupture, Brent Arnold, Matt Shatadek and Linzy. There's a preview clip of the first track "Rising (Both Sides Now)" on YouTube, which sees the duo sloppily reinterpret Joni Mitchell like a hydra James Blake in drag. Linzy's the real star on record, a naturally confident and compelling voice, a longtime master of lo-fi, the perfect bizarro compliment to what makes Franco always seem so uncomfortable: that deep down he's normal. Nothing about this development is hugely surprising, another spacey touchstone on Franco's quest for the conceptual EGOT, but if the music videos at all resemble Linzy's best work, this project might actually be great.
