Pitchfork

As Atlas Sound, Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox beats us mp3 bloggers at our own game-- posting impeccable mixes, taking requests, interviewing the greats, and even penning the occasional insightful tribute to his favorite songs. It's impossible to keep up with his near-daily blog output. Every so often, though, Atlanta's self-proclaimed "true queer art punk" posts a track we're too excited about to let go by. In the past couple of weeks, he's posted two such tracks, finding the time between Deerhunter tour trips to Europe and an Atlas Sound publicity stop in New York.

Atlas Sound's "I'll Be Your Mirror" cover is straightforward and reverent. It's remarkable for how easily the lanky singer steps into the roles of both VU and Nico, with the track's tambourine, androgynous vocal, and light-fingered guitar. The druggy echoes of the production help to blur a few first-take flubs. "Cobwebs" is an Atlas Sound original, recorded with help from Grizzly Bear's Chris Taylor at the band's Brooklyn practice space (an old church balcony). Packed with multiple percussion tracks and squealing guitar noise, the track also evidences Cox's professed recent fixation on Loveless' inscrutably gorgeous "Sometimes". His boyish tenor rises to Beach Boys falsettos, sweeping out whatever spiders and haints lurk in that church's musty heights. Both his feet are still on "orange linoleum." With Atlas Sound debut Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel still more than two months away, it'd be premature to look forward to what Cox will do next-- if he weren't constantly providing hints.

MP3:> Atlas Sound: "I'll Be Your Mirror" (Velvet Underground cover)

MP3:> Atlas Sound: "Cobwebs"
[Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel is due 02/19/08 on Kranky]