The Last Shadow Puppets are Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys and Miles Kane of the Rascals. Marc Hogan called their recent debut The Age of Understatement, "Turner's most impressive album-length statement yet, one that strives, musically and lyrically, for the epic grandeur of an era before GarageBand or MySpace, and avoids lapsing into pretentiousness by dint of its own headlong enthusiasm. As Turner's granddad might say, 'You've overdoon it.' Again." So how do the songs sound bereft of those big arrangements? Turns out pretty great-- check out this Pitchfork.tv Special Presentation, which finds the duo sitting in a room together with guitars, running through tracks from the album at Avatar Studios in New York. And when you're in the mood again for high production values, we also added the over-the-top video for the album's title track to the archives.

The Last Shadow Puppets: "Age of Understatement"

Why isn't Mr. Kardinal running things as yet? He should have shot to fame way back in 2001 on the basis of "Ol' Time Killin" and "BaKardi Slang". Hopefully "Dangerous" is the first of many singles from the upcoming Not 4 Sale. The video is a typical showcase for a hot girl just as the track is a typical tale of a femme fatale, complete with smooth Akon hook. The twist is Kardi's perfect blend of dancehall and hip-hop-- it makes you wish he'd dropped the chorus as well.

Though Kardinal Offishall is a proficient producer himself (check "Let's Ride" for an example), having Akon appear on this track and take over executive production duties for the album might give Toronto's great hip-hop hope the necessary push. And heck, if that doesn't work, apart from "Dangerous", the new record's got pair-ups with J. Davey, T-Pain, Lil Wayne, Estelle, and, apparently, the Pussycat Dolls. Might as well try everything.

Underrated Swedish rockers First Floor Power don't seem to mind getting the Silent treatment. Lead singer Sara Wilson let her synth-pop side lead her forward on 2006's Love & Youth for the Knife's Rabid label, but her long-running main band gets back to the guitar-driven stuff (with a few synths still) on "The Jacket", the first single from their forthcoming Don't Back Down!. In this remix, Knife half Karin Dreijer Andersson takes the song back to the electronic sphere, which sounds like some kind of mythological underworld, or else maybe a planet-destroying space station. Atop a basic New Order-esque house beat and some other crackles of percussion, some synths plink rapidly, ominously, while others coo gently. The Knife's familiar (strange) vocal effects give Wilson's vocal an edge of menace: "If your jacket is getting too heavy for you/ Please, let me take it off." From there, Dreijer constructs a house of unusual sounds-- Wilson's frosty breathing, her wordless ululations-- and proceeds to haunt the shit out of it. Not all power currupts: Don't Back Down! is now streaming in its entirety on First Floor Power's MySpace page.

[from Don't Back Down!; due 05/05/08 in Sweden and 05/23/08 in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland on Crunchy Frog]

Dr. Dog's Scott McMicken was so taken with Pepi Ginsberg that he not only collaborated with the New York singer/songwriter on her third album, Red, but he also got her signed to Philly label Park the Van. It's easy to see the musical attraction. On "The Waterline" Ginsberg sounds thoroughly self-possessed both lyrically and vocally, fitting a breezy, folky arrangement to dark lyrics about trying to keep your head above water. Although it is specifically city-set, the song doesn't sound necessarily urban, but neither does it sound like the freaky folk music emanating from Philadelphia lately. There are jazzier elements pushing the song along: In the high range, a choir of Pepis sing a wordless warble-- the song's most distinctive feature. In the low range, a piano plays the left-hand part of an old boogie rhythm, filling in for a bass guitar and giving the song its ambling lope. In the middle is Pepi herself, singing about how "life is poetry you can't read twice." 

You know how the first time you heard that Andrew W.K. was going to be co-producing Lee "Scratch" Perry's next album you thought to yourself, my god, I would love to be a fly on the wall in that studio? Well, dream come true, basically. Watch as these two eccentrics, seemingly from separate musical universes, form a mutual admiration society and come together to make some auditory magic.

We also added to the archive sweet recent videos from Hot Chip, Clinic, and Parts & Labor.

Hot Chip: "One Pure Thought"

Clinic: "The Witch (Made to Measure)"

Parts & Labor: "The Gold We're Digging"

Another day, another video for Robyn's "Handle Me". This makes three for the single, count 'em, and the budgets seem to be slipping with each. Here she dances and sings in front of a mildly trippy video backdrop.

Jan St. Werner has been in the public eye in the last year or so for Von Südenfed, the collaboration he and his Mouse on Mars partner Andi Toma have with the Fall's Mark E. Smith. But St. Werner keeps busy and often has several projects going on simultaneously. Musically, the man never stays still; even when he's issuing a sequel, it still feels like the first time. Case in point is his new solo album under his Lithops guise. Though it shares the title Mound Magnet with its predecessor, (this is Part 2, subtitled Elevations Above Sea Level), the feel on the tracks I've heard is looser, sillier, comparatively melodic, and more focused on the driving 4/4. The epic "Rosa in a Light Speed Vessel" has a propulsive beat at its core and everything but the kitchen sink is swirling around it in a cyclone of sound-- stomping guitar chords, sea-sick synth moans, what might be a gradually pitch-shifted sample of a bi-plane's engine. It's a track that makes you feel like you're one step behind it for its entire duration, not quite able to figure out what's going on one moment as it has already moved on to the next.   

Hot Chip dropped by Radio 1's "Live Lounge" to chat about the ATP line-up (have fun and be safe, everybody) and they played "One Pure Thought" from the new one as well as a weird but relatively faithful cover of Wiley's rather awesome single "Wearing My Rolex". The BBC stream is super lo-fi, but what are you gonna do? (via I Am Fuel, You Are Friends, who have the mp3s).

Stream:> Hot Chip: Live on BBC Radio 1's "Live Lounge"