What, do we have to tell you about everything? Actually, Pitchfork's Tim Finney already did tell you about Paris electro duo Justice's dark, distorted club banger "Phantom". But if you haven't heard the Vice/Ed Banger heroes' Jackson 5-cheery, Go! Team-gonzo follow-up, "D.A.N.C.E.", we're glad to help you wake up and smell the disco gym class (ew, sorry).

Make that disco spelling bee: A choir of peppy young ABCers shout crucial vocab ("D-A-N-C-E", "B-E-A-T", etc.) in the universal language of throwing your hands in the air and waving 'em like you just don't care you look très ridicule. Like Justice's massive club hit last summer, "We Are Your Friends" (a remix of Simian Mobile Disco's "Never Be Alone"), the track relies on a muscular funk bass line, relentlessly repeated vocal hooks, and an unbridled sense of fun, with sampled strings instead of the Simian remix's synths. What does that spell? More Daft Punk comparisons!

MP3: > Justice: "Phantom"
[both from †; due 07/10/07 on Ed Banger/Vice]

This song from the supergroup comprised of Mark E. Smith (the Fall) and Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma (Mouse on Mars) is the sweetest on their forthcoming record. Which isn't hard-- through most of the album Smith sounds sour and annoyed, like he's pissed that he has to do yet another vocal take. Or maybe he's just pissed. Or maybe he's just Mark E. Smith. He starts with the same tone here here, too as he grunts something unintelligible. But then he begins the tune proper and he's all chipper and tuneful, sounding like he's auditioning for a power pop band or something, even tossing in some groovy "bah bah bah"s. The beat is both simple and busy, with the electronics coated in a film of square-wave digital fuzz, and the structure is elusive as it moves from one section to another without real verses or choruses. It's the kind of strange but catchy pop one might hope for from this strange collaboration.

[from Tromatic Reflexxions; due 05/21/07 on Domino UK and 06/05/07 on Domino U.S.]

A couple of years ago, Kelly Clarkson caught everybody's attention (Pitchfork, Ted Leo, that clique at work that still thinks everything you listen to is "weird") with the bracing pop of "Since U Been Gone". Her new "Never Again" video sticks with that best-selling, critic-approved rock angle and amps up the sexy aspect, as Clarkson launches into a bitter breakup anthem sure to send radio listeners scurrying for their supermarket checkout aisle tabloids. "A trophy wife? Oh, how cute," Clarkson blasts, "Ignorance is bliss." I don't know, and I'm happy.

There's probably a handful of fans in Blitzen Trapper's native Portland, Ore., who know just what the band are capable of, but it seems like "Wild Mountain Nation" marks the first time the band has let everyone else know. Their previous two self-released records had perfectly listenable cases of rootsy tinkering and cross-genre playfulness, but sounded a bit tentative. This track, however, is country and proud, brimming with a new confidence and singing with verve. It's stuffed to the gills with guitar licks that don't bend notes so much as strut, layers of pedal steels and slides that glisten and chime, drums that hokey-pokey, and vocals that creak with empathy-- you can hear the singer smiling. It's a remarkably assured slice of off-kilter country-rock that doesn't play like a dalliance; lyrics about coming out from the wind to a wild mountain home couldn't sound more genuine. That's probably because it sounds so joyous, and exudes the quirky charm of their previous efforts without trying so hard and sullying some perfect summertime pop.

MP3: > Blitzen Trapper: "Wild Mountain Nation"
[from Wild Mountain Nation; due 06/12/07 on LidKerCow]

For a band seemingly uncomfortable with the requirements of 21st century record promotion, Junior Boys sure are good at it. In the wake of a considered remix EP called Dead Horse comes this gorgeous video about taking a piss. "Literally". Well, sort of.

In director Jaron Albertin's video for So This Is Goodbye single "In the Morning", a brightly burning meteor splits in three, while back here on earth three shit-faced hipsters stagger through the night, not far from a sign flashing "Striptease". Eventually, the Western-shirted dude urinates against a brick wall, the blond woman on a bench gazes uncomprehendingly into a pool of her own drool, and the hoodie wearer in the Clockwork Orange hat bleeds onto the sidewalk. Magically silver, the liquids spread out before the three wasted youths (ha) like a mirror. In Albertin's hands "In the Morning", like the Greek myth of Narcissus, depicts the fleeting vanity of the better-to-burn-out set.

"Too young" for what, exactly?

On the day the Rapture sat down to remix Williams' electro-house rave-up "Piccadilly Circuits", the band's gear must have been locked in the tour van: the mix has nothing to do with dance-punk, indie rock, or even nu-rave. It's straight-up, big-room electronic dance music. The Rapture sand off the acidic edges of Williams' 2005 anthem, sneak in some waxy handclaps and turn the original's cartoonish, minor-key vamps into something more genuinely spooky. If people don't dance no more, it's certainly not the fault of tracks like this.

[from 5 Years Get Physical; due 06/05/07 on Get Physical]

For the last time, there was indie pop before Tigermilk. As the impact of the NME's C86 compilation continues to reverberate, the bands touched by its ramshackle spirit are reaching back to the original artists for inspiration. Like UK dream-poppers Manhattan Love Suicides, Swedish quartet Liechtenstein seem to recall the girl-group percussion and melodic, three-chord wispiness of the Shop Assistants (who appeared on that influential 1986 cassette) and Talulah Gosh (who should have).

From Liechtenstein's debut 7" for Fraction Discs, "Stalking Skills" could've cruised by on oohing harmonies and detached lead vocals about, yep, stalking, but its clattering toms and Northern Soul snares are at least as fun. Less innocent than fellow Swedish songstress Hello Saferide's "Highschool Stalker", "Stalking Skills" soon turns from rapidly sung questions about favorite drinks to talk of calling the police. Yikes. Eventually, our girl might get the hint: "No more phone calls, no more letters." What about MySpace messages?

MP3: > Liechtenstein: "Stalking Skills"
[from the three-song "Stalking Skills" 7" out now on Fraction Discs]

At age 66, Mavis Staples still has it. She was recording for Stax with the Staple Singers during the Civil Rights struggle of the 1960s, and the performances on We'll Never Turn Back-- her latest album, containing songs from the era-- burn with the vehement fire that fueled the movement.

Staples' background in gospel leaps out of the speakers. "On My Way" has a quiet, confident intensity, her gravelly voice essentially dueting with Ry Cooder's dry, soulful acoustic guitar accompaniment. It's all in the way she says it: "I'm on my way/ And I won't turn back." It's the sound of someone who has taken the beating and kept on walking tall, and its power stems from its simplicity and its mantra-like repetition. You sing this enough and you'll begin to believe it.

"Eyes on the Prize"-- my God, what an arrangement. Cooder and the band make it funky in a dirt-road way. You can feel the sweat of marchers in that slide guitar, and Jim Keltner, the consummate studio pro, sounds like he's channeling something a lot deeper than a paycheck. The video is perhaps predictable, a stream of familiar footage from the era-- Dr. King on the Mall, lunch counter protests, flags and signs waving, mob brutality, Klan rallies, and those awful shots of the fire hoses turned on full bore. Still, it's a reminder of what this country went through simply in an effort to live up to its own founding principles in an era when complacency seems to be the leading American emotion.

Director Nima Nourizadeh was behind one of last year's best videos, Hot Chip's "Over and Over". He's also helmed clips for Lady Sovereign, Maxïmo Park, and Lily Allen. Here Nima takes charge of a video for leggy British pop star Sophie Ellis-Bextor. Less serious than her video for "Catch You", there are still some similarities, mostly in the way the director stays focused on Ellis-Bextor's milky skin and long limbs. The song is about not revealing too much of yourself early in a relationship ("where magic stays and myth remains"), and that seems to fix the singer, who puts in a coy, reserved performance as banal street scenes turn into neon outlines, which then come to life for several dance sequences.

While there's probably no shortage of folks who'd be content to listen to Environ's Kelley Polar recreate the icy disco of his 2005 debut Love Songs of the Hanging Gardens over and over again, new single "Chrysanthemum" finds him going in a slightly different direction. As evidenced by its frosty breathy samples, brittle drums, and spongy synths, Polar's predilection for marrying crisp percussions with gushing melody lines is still very much intact. What's slightly out of character is the chorus, on which Polar serves up a gentle bed of refracted vocals the likes of which wouldn't exactly be out of place on a Free Design record. Not sure how we feel about Kelley mixing his genius up with 60s sunshine pop, but it's nice to have him back all the same.

Happily, the accompanying video doesn't arouse the same ambivalence. Directed by Toronto outfit Nove Studio, it's a 3D motion graphics piece that builds a lovely generative collage out of strange visuals from Polar's wonky lyric. A parade of children's faces, periodic elements, scientists, nuclear missiles and (duh) flowers, "Chrysanthemum"'s grey/yellow palette and combination of simple geometric shapes and hand drawn images reinforce the track's warm, nostalgic feel.

Video: > Kelley Polar: "Chrysanthemum"
[from the Chrysanthemum EP; out 05/01/07 on Environ]

Another new Spencer Krug song? "I pushed off the pier," the Wolf Parade-ing Sunset Rubdown frontman begins over xylophone and spare electric-guitar stabs on the latter group's new "Pier", also known as "Burning Out Your Eyes"-- performed here at Indiana University student radio station WIUX's free Culture Shock outdoor festival. Soon Krug's bright, one-hand piano chords join in, shaking the reading lamp precariously perched atop his instrument. As the rest of the band also jostles into gear, Krug's lofty warble leads them through a suspiciously upbeat, rapidly transitioning song that builds to a vaguely Caribbean-inflected guitar solo. Yep, another new Krug song. Thanks for this to astute reader Ryan Meehan.

Wolf Parade co-frontman Dan Boeckner has been keeping busy lately, too. As Handsome Furs, Boeckner and fiancée Alexei Perry have debut Plague Park on the way May 22 via Sub Pop. On advance download "What We Had", darkly layered guitars and faraway keyboards rumble toward a high midnight shootout, as Boeckner howls, "What we had don't mean a thing." You think that's spooky, see the Canadian couple's "Dumb Animals" video. Possible spoiler: They should have stayed in bed.

MP3: > Handsome Furs: "What We Had"
[from Plague Park; due 05/22/07 on Sub Pop]

The three-day 2007 Coachella Festival is all over, except for 180,000 peeling sunburns and as many blurry YouTube clips as there are grains of sand in the Mojave desert. We've taken the liberty of sorting out some of the better ones, mostly because we care, but also because we have extra free time: Alas, the only JAMC/Scarlett Johansson "Just Like Honey" clip we found is just 37 seconds and unlistenably distorted. (You were warned.)

With Arcade Fire's Neon Bible getting nearly universal praise, it's still hard to beat the catharsis of Funeral's "Rebellion (Lies"), especially in concert. Still sporting the Sling Blade haircut he showed off on "Saturday Night Live", frontman Win Butler plunges into a rapt, clapping crowd, and the rest of the band turns in a typically inspired performance. Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton were reportedly on hand, but we don't think you'll see them in this video clip.

Björk performed some new songs from her forthcoming album, Volta, including this rendition of anti-colonialism choon "Declare Independence". Although we've been fascinated by reports of her snazzy high-tech gear, this video is all Bjork, dancing around in full space-alien/earth-mother mode backed by halftime-show flagbearers. Backed by distorted bass synths, she repeats, "Raise your flag!" Two days later, Rage Against the Machine fans were photographed burning one. (Cue the D.C. posturing.)

The always polite Arctic Monkeys closed out a Friday afternoon set with the Specials-tinged rhythm of their debut album's "A Certain Romance", an immaculately detailed song about small-town English life. The band don't add much to their familiar original, but for those still wondering what the hype was about, this song is it. "There's only music so that there's new ringtones," lead singer Alex Turner quips, and the line feels as cheekily apt as ever.

YouTube clips of former Pulp frontman and Pitchfork fave Jarvis Cocker were more difficult to find, but you can at least catch a minute or so of goofy stage patter. Comparing English festivals to the American variety, Cocker kills again. "I make it worse by talking," he explains, all self-deprecating charisma and elegant attire.