Haven't heard all of Jay Reatard's upcoming series of 7" singles yet, but it should be steady going for the Memphis punk rocker by the sounds of "Always Wanting More". The blazing two-minute song is actually set to be on the series' third installment, but Matador has already put the track online as part of the venerable indie label's annual Intended Play sampler, now in convenient digital form. As with Reatard's songs from 2006's shoulda-been Best New Music contender Blood Visions, there's not much going on here that couldn't have been done in 1976, with the pinched vocals and relationship-oriented anguish of bands like the Buzzcocks just one too-easy point of comparison. But that doesn't mean the song can't course with a punk-pop jolt of its own. The secret is in the structure: A section with melodic lead guitar fills and tambourines leads to the brittle, trebly chords of the verses, a distorted chug on the prechorus ("You could never see"), and then explodes into a shout-along chorus: "You're such a useless bore/ And you're always wanting more." No filler. The tinny lo-fi sound had me leaning forward, but it's the songcraft that leaves me wanting, well ... surely just one more listen wouldn't hurt.

MP3:> Jay Reatard: "Always Wanting More"
[from the "Always Wanting More" 7"; due 06/17/08 on Matador]

Norwegian singer Ida Maria has an abiding interest in the Big Guy Upstairs. She shouted him down on the rapturously frenetic "Oh My God", and now she's followed it up with "Stella", a surprisingly tender tale about god giving the entire world to "a forty-three-year-old hooker from downtown" in exchange for a night in her arms. The video, which features the exceptionally charismatic Ida Maria relegated to the supporting role of a waitress, is very, very literal.

Nothing goes with weighty, genre-curious corpse songs quite like cartoons, right? Directed by animator Mike L. Mayfield ("Family Guy", "American Dad"), the video for Why?'s "Song of the Sad Assassin", from the indie hip-hop group's Pitchfork-recommended Alopecia, isn't exactly Saturday morning fare, although I guess you could still scarf down your Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs in front of it. "We lifted the body from the water like a gown/ You took off your bra to wrap the wound," Yoni Wolf sings to an accompaniment of a couple of repeated piano notes and a clunking beat. When his melody rises with guitar and (synth?) strings to close the verse, it could almost be a Cloud Cult song, except Wolf is singing about sucking the marrow out and raping the hollow bones. Mayfield's images of musical skeletons, pieces of clothing rising up from the water, and a bearded Wolf himself add a nicely apropos video element. The animated clip for Aesop Rock's "None Shall Pass" achieved a similar effect for me, but the visuals here are less busy, both graphically and in terms of metaphorical possibilities, so it's easier to focus on the song. "Billy the Kid did what he did and he died," Wolf repeats at the end, at a martial clip emphasized by the drums. Billy, you're so far away from home.

[from Alopecia; out now on Anticon]

For once, I think it's fair to call it a comeback. Lionel Richie keyboard ballad "Hello" hit #1 in the U.S. in 1984 on the strength of its creepy romantic longing and a video I could practically recreate just by feel. Then came the Starburst commercial, the spot on VH1's "Awesomely Bad" list, and way out of left field (or, more specifically, Sweden), "A Paw in My Face" by the Field, which forced snobs of all stripes to deal with the fact that they had just enjoyed a track built around a snippet from a goddamn Lionel Richie song. All that was left was the post-grunge "American Idol" cover inspired by Incubus. Richie must be dancing on the ceiling right about now.

Illinois-based husband-wife duo Oh Astro showed up in Forkcast last year for their slightly Field-like "Journey to the Center", so it shouldn't be a surprise that these Girl Talk labelmates share an inspiration. "Hello Fuji Boy", as its title hints, is built around nothing more than Richie's "Hello", Fujiya & Miyagi's "Ankle Injuries", and Hot Chip's "Boy From School". Sometimes it's easier to turn crap into gold than to improve upon near-perfection, so "Hello Fuji Boy" doesn't quite live up to two-thirds of its material (or "A Paw in My Face"), but anything built from those basic elements couldn't possibly suck. The video is a creative bit of re-appropriation as well, as clips from the first episode of 1970s children's TV show "The Lost Saucer" are put through a stuttering visual effect. Lionel, looks like you've made it! Oh wait, that was Barry Manilow.

[from Champions of Wonder; out now on Illegal Art]

"Charlie Brown" isn't a new Ghostface Killah song (it was included on promos for 2006's Fishscale, though it didn't wind up on the album because of clearance issues) nor an especially good one, but it's still fun to hear the a cappella mangled by the L.A.-based duo Guns N Bombs, whose remixes we've heard before here on Forkcast. The collaboration is another entry in the Scion 12" series, which means that this track is brought to you by an automobile manufacturer. Crazy world we're living in.

MP3:> Ghostface Killah: "Charlie Brown" (Guns N Bombs Remix)
[from the Scion A/V Remix: Ghostface Killah; available from Scion]

Everyone including yours truly went nuts over Fleet Foxes last week at SXSW, marveling at just how well the Seattle band was able to bring the reverb-drenched harmonies of their records to life onstage. We see another side of the group on these three videos from Nashville's Hard to Find a Friend blog, which were shot as part of the site's "Backstage Sessions" series (in which-- yup-- they record bands singing in an intimate setting backstage); lead singer Robin Pecknold offers a solo take on the standard "Katie Cruel" as well as versions of stripped-down songs from the Sun Giant EP ("Innocent Son") and their forthcoming debut full-length ("Oliver James").

[the Sun Giant EP is out now; Fleet Foxes is due 06/03/08; both from Sub Pop]

For decades, space was the place. As humanity's knowledge of the cosmos expanded, so did what we could imagine about it. The 19th century's breathless speculation about non-existent Martian canals and the early 20th century's panic-inducing The War of the Worlds radio broadcast eventually gave way to Isaac Asimov, the late Arthur C. Clarke, Star Trek, and, of course, the U.S. space program. For now, however, despite President Bush's quickly forgotten attempt to revive it, manned space exploration has become a dead end. Within a year after the Viking probes found no evidence of life on Mars in 1975, both Apple Computers and Microsoft were founded. Since then, some of the biggest technological leaps have had to do with better connecting the people right here on Earth. I know, crazy!

After conquering a hip-hop scene divided between East Coast and West Coast by taking things down South on Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, Outkast followed Andre 3000's weird muse (and the likes of Parliament-Funkadelic) to outer space and beyond on their subsequent run of classic albums. Maybe I'm making too much of this-- after all, Andre 3000 already brought us to "the center of the Earth" on Stankonia-- but "Royal Flush", a track thought to be the first single from Big Boi's upcoming Sir Luscious Left Foot solo album, splashes down with a sample from the Isley Brothers' "Voyage to Atlantis" and witty social commentary that topples contemporary rap's too-common divide between gangster clichés and "conscious" ones. Of course, these two have been doing that for years, but after the Cab Calloway-invoking mixed bag of Idlewild, the sophisticated funk and soulful sampled vocals of "Royal Flush" are a thrilling return to the here and now.

And that's a space Big Boi, Raekwon, and Andre explore brilliantly on three quick verses punctuated by the Isleys. Over a slightly jazzy bass line and rattling mid-1990s-style beats, Big Boi leads off first by speaking truth to power with an intelligence rare in politically-minded pop. Raekwon brings the conflict to the streets, battling with the "po-po" in a voice he knows damn well is "raspy." Andre, continuing a recent streak of sublime guest appearances that includes last year's "Int'l Player's Anthem", demolishes them all in a verse that turns its sights on rap itself, specifically the notion that a career dealing drugs is the #1 qualification for an MC. "Crack and I have a lot in common/ We both came up in the 80s and we keep the bass pumping," he explains. Just consider this online poker-- we've come a long way, baby.

[apparently from the forthcoming Sir Luscious Left Foot]

Writing about this song when it hit MySpace, Stephen M. Deusner said that the Danger Mouse-produced track "has the same blues-rock foundation as the Keys' past work; they've just constructed a more ornate building on top." The video, directed by Lance Bangs, uses the tune to soundtrack a game of Laser Tag. Even better, the Keys' website has a sweet video game with retro vector graphics so you can live inside your own version of the video. Looking forward to that Tron remake. (via Subterranean)

[from Attack & Release; due 04/01/08 on Nonesuch]

Like you knew that he would, Jamie Lidell feels a little a bit of good. And the IDMer gone funky soul boy is breaking out the scented oils and hand cymbals in an attempt to woo the unicorn woman of his dreams in the video for "A Little Bit of Feel Good", the single from his forthcoming Jim. We originally posted a version of this song from Lidell's new album before we knew the title, and back then it sounded more like "loose, vamping funk," as Mark Richardson put it. Now, just like Archie Bell & the Drells, Lidell's tightened things up a bit on the horn-fronted album version, although the funky guitar groove remains. The song sounds like a feel-good update of the tracks I loved from 2005's Multiply, and makes me wonder why those Gnarls Barkley guys didn't come up with something like this for their latest go round. The video, directed by Crackerfarm and Lidell, takes a deliciously dark turn. Unicorns are extinct, remember? That is, unless your hometown is in Wales.

[from Jim; due 04/28/08 in the UK and 04/29/09 in the U.S. on Warp] 

Writing about this song a short while back, Marc Hogan noted that it's "a drug song, and even for a moment a booze song, only it's about, like, details and emotions and stuff, not hyper-intertextual allusion-weaving or raspy humor. (Those two things are awesome, I know.) Backed by a boom-bap beat and laser-guided synth bass, plus some solitary keyboard plinks, Atmosphere's storytelling moves nicely from the bath water dripping 'like a painkiller to the 'goth nail polish' to the pupils like marbles hide behind eyelids.'" Director Zia Sunseri brings the song's story to life in the video by focusing on a hipster lesbian couple who appear to be in serious trouble. (via Subterranean)

[from When Life Gives You Lemons, Paint That Shit Gold; due 04/22/08 on Rhymesayers Entertainment]

In theory, there's nothing wrong with playing the influence game, except that it seems to lend itself to short-sightedness. Is the Strugglers' Randy Bickford really a big Will Oldham fan? Well, maybe, but it's just as likely that they're both Southern folkies with heads full of Skip James, as the venerable bluesman's hovering, cracked voice seems a starting point for both musicians. "The Latest Rights", the title track from the Strugglers forthcoming new LP, is a languid folk-rock tune with the sort of weary, slightly dragging rhythm Levon Helm taps out, lapsing and surging, flickering with piano. Its meanderings are paralleled in the lyrics, where Bickford interprets time as a winding trail where past and future vanish around bends. He has a soft touch with mysterious lyrics, and when he makes "the first long, straight way," and discovers that all he can see is "what [his] latest rights would be," there's plenty of room for interpretative play. The "problem" is stated more clearly earlier on: "I could never get back," goes the refrain, as Bickford treads the trail that only goes one way.

MP3:> The Strugglers: "Latest Rights"
[from Latest Rights; available now as a free download]