Pitchfork Forkcast: New Music: Neon Neon [Super Furry Animals' Gruff Rhys and Boom Bip]: "Raquel" [Stream]

New Music: Neon Neon [Super Furry Animals' Gruff Rhys and Boom Bip]: "Raquel" [Stream]

John DeLorean did a helluva lot more than invent the time machine. A rebel multimillionaire by the early 1980s, the DeLorean Motor Cars founder became known as a playboy, living the fast life and dating glamorous celebrities like Raquel Welch. (By 1983, his company was bankrupt, and DeLorean went on to be investigated for an alleged coke-dealing scheme and eventually get convicted of tax evasion.) Neon Neon, an unusual project featuring Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys and Los Angeles-based electronic musician Boom Bip, aims to tell the story of DeLorean's "wives and lives," according to Rhys.

"Raquel", then, is a fairly straightforward biographical song about the actress Welch. "I saw you as a movie star, but now you're riding in my car," Rhys deadpans, harmonizing with himself in falsetto. Faster and more percussive than the previously posted "Trick for Treat", this track puts Boom Bip's multi-layered beats amid rubbery synths DeLorean might've enjoyed partying to. Welch's father came from Bolivia, and her mother was Irish, we're told; Welch was born in "north Chicago," but educated (formally and informally) in California. Maybe somebody with one of those time machines can go back and play "Raquel" for DeLorean.

Stream:> Neon Neon: "Raquel"
[from a forthcoming album; due 2008 on Lex]