Pitchfork

Welcome to the latest edition of Pitchfork's Guest List. Each week, we ask one of our favorite artists to fill us in on what they've been up to lately: which tracks they can't stop spinning, what books they can't put down, and what new bands they've caught on tour. This week it's Jace Lasek and Steve Raegele of the Besnard Lakes, who tell us about their favorite metal station on satellite radio, put out a challenge for anyone to read Gödel, Escher, Bach in its entirety, and give us a preview of Sunset Rubdown's new album, which Lasek is producing.

>> Favorite New Songs of the Past Year

Steve: No, nothing. I'm just too old and curmudgeon-y to listen to new music. I'm sure there's good stuff out there...

Jace: There's just too much stuff out there.

Steve: Yeah, I'm just a little overwhelmed. I'm too busy making music to worry about whatever's out there. But that's just me. Jace keeps up on stuff because of his schedule in the studio. He's a little more open than I am.

Jace: But I don't have the time to buy records. I used to buy records all the time; I used to keep up, but I don' t have the time. So I've just been listening to what I've been making in the studio. I just made the new Sunset Rubdown record and that's amazing. I love it. The new one, I just made it a month ago. It's awesome. It's like a prog-rock record. He's going to hate me for saying-- well, maybe he won't hate me, but...it's like a continuous album, from start to finish, one song runs into the other. It's really, really good.

>> Favorite Older Songs at the Moment

Marty Balin: "Hearts"

Jace: He was loosely associated with Jefferson Starship. Everyone's really into yacht rock now, but this is one of those songs that, when I heard it I was somewhere in the Netherlands, listening to satellite radio [laughs] and it was all smooth. It was so smooth. I was listening to this tune and I was like, "I remember that from 1982," but it was the first time I'd heard it since then. I immediately downloaded it, and then I listened to it 10 times in a row. Check it out; it will haunt your dreams.

We have this XM Radio thing as a band, so we've been listening to a lot of "The Boneyard", which is their 80s hair metal station...just basically 80s metal. It keeps Nicky happy.

Ratt: "Round and Round"

Def Leppard: "Photograph"

>> Favorite Record Shop

Scratch, Vancouver

Jace: I lived there and then we got to know Keith who owns the store. Then when Olga and I moved, there was a record store there, but they were ordering from Scratch. So we started just sending our orders to Keith: We'd get the e-mail list, and we could pick our things and then just put in a $300 or $400 order. And we did that for years and years, and then when we moved to Montreal we sold them all for food [laughs]. So what we had in our record collection dwindled. We built it back up; most of it is from the 70s, but most of the new stuff I bought that was still worth something, we sold.

>> Favorite Venue

Steve: We played a lot of music at our favorite record store. We played Bloomington, at this great record store called Landlocked Music. It's a big record store. They're really great. We just played in the back of the store. But it felt good.

>> Last Great Book I Read

Roger Penrose: The Emperor's New Mind
Steve: I've been reading it for, like, 10 years. It's so hard to get through.

Douglas R. Hofstadter: Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
Jace: I've been trying to read that for, like, 15 years. It's just all about Escher, Bach and Gödel, and the symmetry of their art. It's told like an epic. I still haven't finished it! It's 15 years of work! [laughs] It's difficult, try it!

Steve: I could barely start it, cause I'd get halfway though, then I couldn't just pick it up again. I'd have to restart it. Then I realized how dumb I am.

>> Last Great Film I Saw

Jace: Rich has seen 300, he says it's all right. I don't really see movies. They're too long; I don't have the attention span.

Steve: Yeah, I feel like I'm wasting precious hours of my life. But I can turn channels for like two hours at a time...

Jace: Maybe five [laughs].

>> Favorite TV Show at the Moment

Steve: I've gotten really sucked into that show "House." He's such a dick! But he's so lovable.

Jace: "Much More Retro" is this Canadian retro music-video program that I always turn to.

Steve: I like science programs, like "NOVA" and "National Geographic: Explorer". The Documentary Channel is my favorite channel; I love Errol Morris. Things that are actually real.

>> My Ringtone

Jace: "The Frog." It's not interesting at all. It's just the standard thing.

Steve: I never figured out how to download ringtones, so I don't have anything.