Pitchfork

We all knew that Arcade Fire string-plucker Owen Pallett had a bit of a gaming fetish-- his nom de rock is Final Fantasy, after all. But just as Squall Leonhart can impart 249,975 damage points by the end of FFVIII, Pallett is upping the fanboy ante on his new album, He Poos Clouds, due out May 9 in Canada on Blocks Recording Club and June 13 in America via Tomlab.

According to Pallett, the follow-up to last year's Has a Good Home is a set of songs for string quartet and voice based on each of the eight Dungeons & Dragons schools of magic. (What's next, a baroque tribute to Dig Dug?) "I used the eight schools of magic as a lens to examine the typical tropes of songwriting," he told Pitchfork recently. "For example, the song 'Do You Love' examines the disparate acts of cooking, working out, and plastic surgery as being all one this-- the magical art of transmutation."

Written in Barcelona, He Poos Clouds was recorded with multi-instrumentalist and Blocks Recording Club MVP Leon Taheny and the St. Kitts String Quartet. "The entire record has no looping on it," Pallett explained. "I wrote and recorded the entire album for string quartet. I can play most of the songs on the looping pedal, though."

Oh, and that title? "It is a preposterous statement of devotion, like 'your farts don't stink'." However, if the album was a person, he probably wouldn't tell it that its farts stink: "I've never recorded anything I've felt totally, unconditionally happy with. I feel like I just got married."

Shieldth up!:

01 Arctic Circle
02 He Poos Clouds
03 This Lamb Sells Condos
04 If I Were a Carp
05 ->
06 I'm Afraid of Japan
07 Song Song Song
08 Many Lives -> 49 MP
09 Do You Love?
10 The Pooka Sings

"Many Lives -> 49 MP" is the album's first single; it comes with a new version of the Has a Good Home track "The CN Tower Belongs to the Dead". Tracklist:

01 Many Lives -> 49 MP
02 The CN Tower (new version)
03 The Miner Becomes Forgetful
04 Jars of Lars

The Canadian label Escape Goat Records released the Final Fantasy "Young Canadian Mothers" 7" earlier this year; although printed in an extremely limited amount, there are still a copies left, according to the label. It included two re-workings of Has a Good Home songs, as well as a Joanna Newsom cover:

01 This Is the Dream of Emma & Cam
02 The Sea
03 Spell for a Weak Heart
04 Peach, Plum, Pear

A companion single, "The George Cedric Metcalf Foundation", is due out this summer on the Toronto label It's A Disaster.

Pallett is currently on tour in Europe; this summer, he'll hit the States. Several June/July dates have been scheduled, but more will be announced soon for August.

Roll that d20:

05-01 Lille, France - Le Grand Mix
05-02 Rennes, France - Antipode
05-03 Paris, France - Main D'Euvre
05-04 Le Havre, France - Agora
05-05 Brussels, Belgium - Nuits De Botanique
05-06 Cologne, Germany - Haldern Spiegelzelt Tour
05-07 Tilberg, Netherlands - 013
05-09 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Paradiso
05-10 London, England - The Luminaire *
05-11 Nottingham, England - The Social/Liars Club
05-12 Glasgow, Scotland - Nice & Sleazy
05-13 Manchester, England - The Circle Club
05-14 Dublin, Ireland - Whelan's
05-16 Utrecht, Netherlands - Ekko
05-17 Frankfurt, Germany - Mousonturm/Studio
05-18 Munich, Germany - Rote Sonne
05-19 Vienna, Austria - Szene
05-20 Dortmund, Germany - Pauluskirche
05-22 Hamburg, Germany - Ubel und Gefahrlich +
05-23 Berlin, Germany - Volksbuhne +
05-24 Gothenburg, Sweden - Pusterviksbaren
05-25 Stockholm, Sweden - Propaganda Festival
05-26 Oslo, Norway - Bla
05-28 Dresden, Germany - Sunset Mission
05-30 Stuttgart, Germany - Schocken
05-31 Basel, Switzerland - Das Schiff
06-02 Barcelona, Spain - Primavera Sound
06-03 Dodingen, Switzerland - Kilbi Festival
06-04 London, England - Homefire Festival
06-23 Cambridge, MA - T.T. The Bear's Place #
06-24 New York, NY - Tonic #
06-25 Philadelphia, PA - North Star Bar #
06-27 Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom #
06-28 Columbus, OH - Little Brothers #
06-29 Cincinnati, OH - Alchemize #
06-30 North Manchester, IN - The Firehouse #
07-01 Chicago, IL - Lakeshore Theater #

* with Grizzly Bear
+ with Xiu Xiu
# with Alex Lukashevsky

Finally, Pallett leaves us with these thoughts: "Arcade Fire have recorded at least three minutes of new material, last I heard from Jeremy [Gara, drummer]...At any rate, I'm donating my harpsichord to their new studio, and I think they're buying a pipe organ off my dad."

"And there's a funny joke going around since Morrissey decided to protest the seal clubbing and ignore Canada on his latest world tour. The prevailing Canadian response: 'That's supposed to be a deterrant?' Har har har."

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