Pitchfork

Another new Spencer Krug song? "I pushed off the pier," the Wolf Parade-ing Sunset Rubdown frontman begins over xylophone and spare electric-guitar stabs on the latter group's new "Pier", also known as "Burning Out Your Eyes"-- performed here at Indiana University student radio station WIUX's free Culture Shock outdoor festival. Soon Krug's bright, one-hand piano chords join in, shaking the reading lamp precariously perched atop his instrument. As the rest of the band also jostles into gear, Krug's lofty warble leads them through a suspiciously upbeat, rapidly transitioning song that builds to a vaguely Caribbean-inflected guitar solo. Yep, another new Krug song. Thanks for this to astute reader Ryan Meehan.

Wolf Parade co-frontman Dan Boeckner has been keeping busy lately, too. As Handsome Furs, Boeckner and fiancée Alexei Perry have debut Plague Park on the way May 22 via Sub Pop. On advance download "What We Had", darkly layered guitars and faraway keyboards rumble toward a high midnight shootout, as Boeckner howls, "What we had don't mean a thing." You think that's spooky, see the Canadian couple's "Dumb Animals" video. Possible spoiler: They should have stayed in bed.

MP3: > Handsome Furs: "What We Had"
[from Plague Park; due 05/22/07 on Sub Pop]