Sarah Records may be long gone, but even as the beloved indie-pop label's influence persists in groups from the Honeydrips to Voxtrot, members of a couple of the better-known Sarah bands have formed a sort of modest supergroup. Bobby Wratten of the Field Mice and Trembling Blue Stars joins Carolyn Allen and Gerard "Caesar" McInulty of the Wake (who also recorded for iconic post-punk label Factory Records) in the Occasional Keepers, recently releasing second album True North on British imprint LTM. Opening track "If the Ravens Leave" curls up in the hearth-warmed electronics and bedsit earnestness that have been the hallmarks of Wratten's groups, overseen here by Saint Etienne producer/multi-instrumentalist Ian Catt. Wratten murmuringly describes the birds' departure "beneath the moon's glow," as minimal guitar stabs, sustained synth chords, and programmed beats-- accompanied eventually by chiming guitars and, later, a skeletal bass line-- evoke a cozy intimacy. It's the middle of a long night, the middle of a long day, and the radio weather report butts up against the stereo's "Stardust" as Wratten envisions kingdoms falling. Twee is a humble kingdom, for sure, but one that has managed to quietly piss off hostile attackers for multiple generations of bands now.

Stream:> The Occasional Keepers: "If the Ravens Leave"
[from True North; out now on LTM]

"I know all about fear and desire/ I know all about lust, et cetera," the Long Blondes' Kate Jackson memorably asserts on one of several highlights from the Sheffield, UK band's 2006 Someone to Drive You Home. The serious bit: The Long Blondes know a thing or two about "Guilt", as well. This song is one of the better ones from the group's disappointingly uptight new offering, "Couples", sounding a bit like its predecessor's surging "You Could Have Both" after a slinky electro makeover and enough time to get resigned to Jackson's "contingency plan." Remixer Pantha du Prince doesn't keep much more of the original than the textured sighing of Jackson's wordless opening vocals, plus this warning: "You know what it's like/ This happens to everyone". In reimagining the track after his own style, Prince (aka Hendrik Weber) fits it with house beats, bell-like chimes, and low-key melodies, for the kind of dreamy ambient listen Aphex Twin might've considered including on 1995's I Care Because You Do. Which, come to think of it, would've been a great Long Blondes song title.

Bonus: And here's the dog-filled video for the Long Blondes' original "Guilt".

[from "Couples"; out now in the UK and due 05/06/08 in the U.S. from Rough Trade]

Don't look for big-budget special effects in the scrappy indie rock of Blood on the Wall, or in this video, either. The first clip from Liferz, this year's follow-up to 2005's well-named Awesomer, splices together footage from three SXSW performances as the Brooklyn trio romp through album opener "Hibernation". The humble visual aesthetic makes sense from a group seemingly fixated (and why the hell not?) on the college-rock of the Pixies and Sebadoh. "Hibernation" introduces Blood on the Wall sounding ragged, muscular, and more in love with the 1990s than VH1, though we're hardly talking about the same 90s here. It's not all just shots of the band rocking out on Austin's various daytime and nighttime stages, either. OMG, a kitty!

[from Liferz; out now on The Social Registry]

It's tough not to use the word "beautiful" when speaking of Adem Ilhan's music, because it is just that: beautiful. Here, the carnivalesque and glitchy intensity of Aphex Twin is transformed into Scarborough Fair when he reinterprets "To Cure A Weakling Child" and "Girl/Boy Song" (inverting the title of the latter, apparently with Richard James' permission) as a medley. The result is that it's actually difficult, nay, impossible to imagine James' unnerving smirk while listening to this version (though James is obviously great in his own uniquely pretty yet oddly jarring way). Adem, who is a bandmate of Kieran Hebden in Fridge, maintains the wonderful, dreamy lilt of the original melodies while smoothing over the edges.

MP3:> Adem: "To Cure a Weakling Child / Boy/Girl Song"
[original track from Takes; due 05/12/08 on Domino]

Five years since Spiritualized's last record, tepidly received garage-rocker Amazing Grace, versatile psychedelic traveler Jason Pierce goes back to the orchestra-aided earnestness and redemption of landmark Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space with "Soul on Fire". The video for the track, from the forthcoming Songs in A&E, is more ice than fire, alternating between leisurely shots of Pierce lying prostrate against a bleak, snow-swept landscape and scenes where he's in a hospital, the drugs not working, apparently. "Freedom's just another word/ When you've no one left to hurt," Pierce sings in his high, weary voice, against the kind of quietly soulful, folk-flecked arrangement Blur used to great success on 13 singles "Tender" and "No Distance Left to Run". Good enough for me; now ask Kris Kristofferson.

[from Songs in A&E; due 05/19/08 in the UK and Europe on Universal/Spaceman and due 06/03/08 in the U.S. on Fontana International/Spaceman Records]

Alexandre Kassin was the last to take the headlining role in the trio he shares with Moreno Veloso and Domênico Lancelotti. The structure they've chosen for the group is to release each record with a different member's name up front, +2. This song shares the breezy subtropical vibe of the trio's other work, and Kassin has a perfect, sweet Brazilian falsetto that ably carries the melody as electronic buzzing and tweaked-out guitars gradually creep their way into the post-bossa nova arrangement. The simple, monosyllabic chorus bridges language barriers with ease, though the Portuguese verses are hardly any less accessible to non-speakers.

Lots of music from the Fiery Furnaces up at Pitchfork.tv today, including the latest installment of "Pitchfork Live". We caught the band last fall at the Mercury Lounge on the eve of the release of their album Widow City; some of these videos might look familiar because we Forkcasted a couple in the weeks leading up to the album. Naturally the 10-song setlist is heavy on Widow City tracks, which the band bring off live in an interesting way, but there's also a hugely charming version of the "Evergreen" from EP. We also put the odd and pretty awesome clip for Widow City's "Ex-Guru" into the archive.

The Fiery Furnaces: "Pitchfork Live"

The Fiery Furnaces: "Ex-Guru"

Something a bit Coen Brothers about this video for the lead single from Tapes 'n Tapes Walk It Off, as a man with a cardboard rifle goes on a crime spree.

[from Walk It Off; out now on XL]

It's not easy getting everyone from Dark Meat in that 250 x 150 pixel photo to the left of this text; I'm pretty sure that's like one pixel per member. Seriously, they're a 17-piece band or something ridiculous, from Athens, Ga., and they play a correspondingly epic brand of Southern rock'n'roll. "Dead Man" comes from Universal Indians, which we reviewed early last year; the album has just been issued in expanded form by Vice. The track begins with some simple guitar chords and tambourine but builds to a horn-drenched finale with every inch of master tape saturated with sound. You can almost see them swaying in unison-- beer bottles are getting smashed, and somewhere a truck is about to get driven into tree. "Dead Man" is a reckless kind of noise.

MP3:> Dark Meat: "Dead Man"
[from the expanded edition of Universal Indians; out now on Vice]

London sophisti-poppers the Chap actually comprise three chaps and one chapette. None of their names are Carlos, Walter, Wendy, or Stanley. From the band's Ghostly International debut and third album overall, Mega Breakfast (and also featured on the free Ghostly Swim comp), "Carlos Walter Wendy Stanley" makes fidgety, minimalist post-punk ala Prinzhorn Dance School into something even more tumultuous and absurd, which may or may not have anything to do with electronic music innovator Wendy (formerly Walter) Carlos and director Stanley Kubrick. After male and female vocalists introduce the title characters-- "Walter/ Never graduated/ Ever"-- above synth pulses, guitar stabs, pitter-pattering percussion, and, well, some kind of boinging instrument, the vocals leap into double-time amid jagged guitars on a riotous chorus. "The chair was a disaster/ It was heavy, heavy, heavy," the Chap declare. Then creaky, Blur-esque guitar leads and exotic hey-hoo-ha chants befitting Jackie Treehorn's Malibu beach house arrive in time for the next verse. It's an eccentric tale set to music that's an interesting fit for the often electronic-oriented Ghostly. Pleasure to meet the old Chap-- "Carlos Walter Wendy Stanley", too.

MP3:> The Chap: "Carlos Walter Wendy Stanley"
[from Mega Breakfast; due 07/01/08 on Ghostly International]

"Umbrella" fans can still hope for a couple more April showers before the competition starts up for a song of this summer. The-Dream, who wrote Rihanna's enjoyably lightweight hit and has sung a couple of his own-- including "Falsetto" and "Shawty Is a Ten" (also, "Da Shit")-- returns in fine form with the third video from his widely overlooked December release, Love/Hate. After an intro from Young Jeezy that calls out Hillary, Barack, DJ Drama, and Osama in a matter of seconds, "I Luv Your Girl" settles into an easygoing keyboard groove, leaving plenty of space for The-Dream's smoothly R. Kelly-esque vocals about a love triangle. Not sure how this will sound on radio, because a high-pitched f-bomb/n-bomb one-two punch is this song's equivalent of the "Umbrella" ella-ella and "Falsetto" ooh-ooh. However, the video is the usual in-da-club fare, with Jeezy and The-Dream sporting a variety of baseball caps and partying while scantily clad dancers do their thing in front of multi-colored lights. "I pray that y'all ain't serious, 'cause seriously she's on my dick," The-Dream explains. Try using that line at a bar and then, as The-Dream does here, draping yourself in the American flag. Ahh, spring.

[from Love/Hate; out now on Def Jam]

Leave it to Robyn-collaborating Swede Lykke Li to help give Andreas Kleerup his most bewitching track since the producer's own collaboration with Robyn, 2006's "With Every Heartbeat". "Until We Bleed", from Kleerup's forthcoming self-titled debut album, turns fragile and introspective after the heart-on-sleeve openness of "With Every Heartbeat" or the guitar-tinged club stomp of Kleerup's most recent single, Titiyo-guesting "Longing for Lullabies". Synths still chime and fizzle atop equally emphasized beats, but they're generally sparer here than on those songs, with sloping strings adding to the melancholy atmosphere. The biggest difference is Li, whose brand of heartbreak sounds blank and introverted where Robyn's can be so vivid and communicative-- Cat Power or PJ Harvey to Robyn's Madonna. Either way, it's pretty damn effective. "I'm naked, I'm numb/ I'm stupid, I'm staying," Li begins. "You're drunk, you need it/ Real love, I give it." (You'll have to skip ahead a couple of times on the label's audio player to hear this song; while you're there, also check out "3 AM", Kleerup's track with Marit Bergman.)

Stream:> Kleerup [ft. Lykke Li]: "Until We Bleed"

Bonus: Here's Li performing a snippet of "Until We Bleed" live with Kleerup earlier this year at Swedish radio station P3's annual awards show.

[from Kleerup; due in Sweden 05/21/08 on EMI]