Pitchfork

Atlanta's own Deerhunter practiced Friday night out on the Marietta Square, right near Hazel Street in suburban Marietta, Ga., with new guitarist Whitney Petty fully present and accounted for. In between chatting with police officers and covering Tom Petty, the band recorded this acoustic version of a new song called "Winter Never Stops". And... man, it's a promising, bittersweet tune, closer to the wistful melodicism of Cryptograms tracks like "Strange Lights" and, yup, "Hazel St." than the cathartic din of that album's first half or the Fluorescent Grey EP's explosive "Wash Off". Of course, that could just be 'cause it's unplugged, with muted guitar arpeggios on the verses turning into big, heart-tugging strums by way of winding, vaguely psychedelic dissonance. "I had dreamed," singer Bradford Cox begins, which suggests the forthcoming Microcastle may be similar thematically to not just the recent Deerhunter records but also Cox's Atlas Sound debut LP (no word on whether this song will wind up on the album). The video has Cox and another guitarist, probably Lockett Pundt, hidden in shadow, but you can see Petty (Whitney, not Tom) clearly in center screen.

BONUS: Meanwhile, the ever-prolific Cox has also posted a new Atlas Sound EP, Things I'll Miss, to his bands' blog. The song titles-- "My Car", "My Room", "My Bed", "Marietta"-- relate to the things Cox must, contra U2, leave behind when he goes on tour. But you can take them with you after you download them here.

[previously unreleased; Microcastle is forthcoming on Kranky]