Pitchfork

Soundwalk is a company that creates walking tours of neighborhoods in New York and Paris, presenting listeners with new perspectives on everyday places. For their "Take Away Show" for La Blogotheque, which commissions live performances in unlikely places, Department of Eagles chose to perform a trio of songs while walking the route of Soundwalk's Chinatown tour. Why? Who but Daniel Rossen and Fred Nicolaus know? But the bustle of the neighborhood-- buses zooming by, children playing, men unloading trucks, a police van idling ominously-- makes a wonderful visual and musical accompaniment to their stripped-down acoustic renderings of new songs as well as tracks from their recently reissued Cold Nose LP.

On Part One, opener "No One Does It Like You" simply follows Rossen and Nicolaus as they walk down a busy sidewalk, "Bittersweet Symphony"-style, as the camera paces alongside and behind them. Rossen-- who is also a member of Grizzly Bear-- performs the next two songs alone, wandering around a playground during "Deep Blue Sea" and along shop windows for "You Move Too Fast". Serendipity plays a crucial role in these clips: Rossen couldn't have playfully kicked away that soccer ball if it hadn't rolled toward him, and "Deep Blue Sea" wouldn't have its finale if that girl hadn't jumped from that low railing at just that moment, giggling with a joy at odds with the song's dark lyrics.

Part Two features more mobile busking in and around Chinatown, with performances of "Sailing by Night", "What Can Be Done", and "Balmy Nights" that offering the duo's own personal consideration of the neighborhood.