Pitchfork Forkcast: New Music: No Age: "Neck Escaper" [MP3]

New Music: No Age: "Neck Escaper" [MP3]

I swear this isn't going to be another Deerhunter post, but we do like the Atlanta space-rock foursome enough to take notice of their listening recommendations, and in a recent "Guest List" feature, Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox named No Age his favorite new band.

The undulating psych-rock of the Los Angeles duo's "Neck Escaper" definitely has our ears perked, too. It's a track culled from the former Wives members' forthcoming six-song 12", Get Hurt. Opening with Randy Randall's brittle webs of electric guitar, the song becomes a paradoxically gorgeous vision of ugliness. "Smells like someone's died," Dean Spunt announces, his cymbals crashing into a knotty, bass-thick refrain of antic shouts.

Just like Deerhunter's "Like New"-- whoops, those guys again-- "Neck Escaper" ends almost before it's really begun. A fragrance of elegant decay lingers on, getting our hopes up for the 12" (due next month on Upset the Rhythm). If the No-Neck Blues Band ever cover this song, the universe will explode.

MP3: > No Age: "Neck Escaper"
[from Get Hurt 12"; due 03/12/07 on Upset the Rhythm]