Pitchfork

Sort of like a dream? No, walking on one. Australia's Empire of the Sun are dance music duo Pnau and Luke Steele of schizophrenic indie-poppers the Sleepy Jackson. In their first effort floating around online, they're remixed by Sam La More, programmer for Gwen Stefani's "What You Waiting For?", among other production and remixing credits. The result, "Walking on a Dream (Sam La More 12" Remix)", is an eight-minute dance-pop single that's as exuberantly catchy as it is lush and hypnotic, like the shouty, blissed-out pop of the Tough Alliance set somewhere above the clouds of cosmic disco.

Empire of the Sun's vocal hooks build from half-spoken chant-alongs ("We are always running for the thrill of it") to the sweetly euphoric, largely indecipherable falsetto of the chorus. Their spacey electro-pop backdrop starts with a crisp house rhythm and reverby, Italo-informed synth sounds similar to those on Simian Mobile Disco's "I Believe". It's when the beats cut out, though, encircling those laddish voices in swirling programmed textures, then return with a fanfare of synthesized handclaps, that the pacing and structure of the track make its spellbound ecstasy most palpable. Unfortunately, there's no original version of "Walking on a Dream" available for comparison just yet, but it's hard to how imagine how they could improve upon this remix.

MP3/Stream:> Empire of the Sun: "Walking on a Dream (Sam La More 12" Remix)" (you'll be asked to give an e-mail address to download the mp3 but you can stream it here.)

[from WalkingonaDream.com]

OK, this video is pretty old-- but so is Thurston Moore! I joke, see, because he turns 50 years old today, so we just wanted to wish him a quick happy birthday. Happy birthday, Thurston! You are indeed a radical adult. Hopefully someone gave you a few cool records and you enjoyed a nice cake. And you, Forkcast readers, enjoy this video from the 2002 Hultsfred Festival.

[original version from Murray Street; out now on DGC]

It's been three years since a song about lollipops kept The Game's highest-charting single to date, The Documentary's "Hate It or Love It", out of the No. 1 spot. Another rapper with a chart-topping "Lollipop" track guests on Game's latest, expected to appear on the West Coast MC's oft-delayed L.A.X., only now he's not here to "run rings around rap's MVP," as Pitchfork's Mark Pytlik once put it, and inevitably, this isn't another Documentary-level artistic triumph. Lil Wayne's Auto-Tune job here basically positions him as another T-Pain or Akon, a hook-singer-for-hire, and it follows other recent singing guest spots (Drake's "Brand New (Remix)", Gorilla Zoe's "Lost") amid Weezy's usual glut of new verses. Elsewhere, Kanye West croons the hook on Fonzworth Bentley's "Everybody" and does the Auto-Tune thing on Young Jeezy's "Put On". As Nas complains on his album-trumping mixtape with DJ Green Lantern, "Used to rap, now they all wanna sing."

Back to "My Life". Barking dogs, cinematic string swells, and angry gunshots lead into slow, melodramatic keyboards, giving Wayne a chance to combine his usual megalomania with a weird sort of social consciousness: "Hey Lord, you done take so many of my people/ I'm just wondering why you haven't taken my life." Wayne's people, alas, appear first and foremost to be other rappers-- not exactly a beleaguered group, unless you count years of declining CD sales. Game, name-dropping as always, invokes Kurt Cobain, condones Kanye's Jesus stance, calls Biggy's death a "crucifixion," praises Beanie Sigel, and makes a puzzling John Lennon reference, all in the first verse. Horns join, then Game quotes Wayne and gets a good dig in against Eminem (since clarified and recanted) before big-upping Yeezy again (and Common, and Compton, and 2Pac). To make it in L.A., after all, you gotta know how to network. (via Nah Right)

MP3:> The Game [ft. Lil Wayne]: "My Life"
[apparently from L.A.X.; due 08/26/08 on Interscope]

Slide guitar brought a touch of the blues to many of the rock songs it graced in the 1960s, but Beach House more often use the technique to add silvery textures to their languorous dream-pop torch songs. Covering "Master of None", arguably the defining track from the Baltimore duo's excellent 2006 self-titled debut, Canadian quartet Young Rival bring back some of the Southern twang that will probably be forever associated with slide guitar ever since Duane Allman ate peaches with the Allman Brothers. Hamilton, Ontario-based Young Rival turn Beach House's gorgeously conflicted lament into a down-home rock'n'roll rave-up, with chugging downstrums and loose, frolicsome slide licks. Lead singer and lead guitarist Aron D'Alesio's vocals, however, stay deep in a 1960s psych-pop-informed reverb haze, recalling post-Oscars Elliott Smith. It's all a contrast to Tory y Moi's "Master of None" cover last year, and it further demonstrates this song's staying power.

MP3:> Young Rival: "Master of None"
[original track from Beach House; out now on Carpark]

More videos from this past weekend's Pitchfork Music Festival are up over at Pitchfork.tv. The first performance is from Les Savy Fav. You know you're in for a good time when Tim Harrington has a Sherlock Holmes cap on and is crowd-surfing in a trashcan. This version of "We'll Make a Lover Out of You" does not disappoint.

Fleet Foxes will probably never perform half-naked or spit beer into their fans' mouths, but damn, they sure do sound nice live. Those harmonies! "English House" comes alive in Union Park.

Dizzee Rascal performed directly after FF and made clear off the bat that he was going to be delivering a different kind of live experience. Here he is wailing away on "Sirens".

It ain't easy being a band of just two people all alone on the big stage, but San Francisco-based acoustic rockers the Dodos rose to the occasion. At least Meric Long had two microphones to choose from for "Fools".

And finally, it was mid-afternoon, we were in the mood for a melody, and Dan Snaith's Caribou gave us "Melody Day".

Pitchfork.tv spent a fun-filled evening with GZA and his son a short while ago, but now it's back to business for the Wu-Tang's resident Genius. Pro Tools, his forthcoming album, features some production assistance from the RZA, but "Alphabets", the record's first official single, owes its murky mood and bell-like guitar/piano loop to producer True Master. The music is raw, straightforward, and simple, a functional backdrop for dense rhymes that touch on hip-hop, spirituality, and the creative process.

MP3:> GZA: "Alphabets"
[from Pro Tools; due 08/19/08 on Babygrande]

As Pitchfork news reported, Damon Albarn and animator Jamie Hewlett of Gorillaz have collaborated on promo spot for the upcoming Olympic games in Beijing. The lush-looking two-minute video is up online now at the BBC Sport website.

Video:> Gorillaz: 2008 Oympic Games Promo

Grizzly Bear's Ed Droste has been hinting at a poppier mood for the Brooklyn experimental combo's forthcoming follow-up to the masterful Yellow House and Friend EP releases. As performed last night on "Late Show With David Letterman", new song "Two Weeks" is indeed "sunnier," as Droste had suggested, but it's also full of the soaring harmonies and sylvan intricacies that have made Grizzly Bear's previous works smarter (and awesomer) than the average. Accompanied by Thomas "Doveman" Bartlett, Droste & co. put bouncy Zombies keyboards over atmospheric guitars and clickety-clack drumming. "A routine malaise," Droste croons, a sentiment that's sunny only for a city where the building next door blocks out all your bedroom's natural light. Big thanks to ryann7739 and ratsnratsnrats! of atease web for the tip. (Note: the mp3 of this track has been removed at the request of the band's management.)

Video:> Grizzly Bear: "Two Weeks"

Nothing, and I mean nothing, warms the cockles of my heart like ominous, tribal, droning, post-punk abstraction. OK, a video illustrating the joyous energy all the tom-tom pounding and shrill noise-making can generate in a live setting actually does enhance the experience. The clip for These Are Powers' "Cockles", from the Brooklyn band's soon-to-be-reissued 2008 Taro Tarot EP, starts casually, with some live pre-song chatter and footage of fans with glow sticks. From there it's a rapidly edited compilation of shots from several of the band's raw-and-ready small-venue shows. Lead vocalist Anna Barie grins beatifically, closing her eyes as she bangs on a tambourine or sings, "It's all in your heart." Thus warming the cockles of said organ, regardless of your tolerance for "ghost-punk" or other made-up genres.

[from the Taro Tarot EP; out now on Hoss and due as a reissue 10/07/08 on Dead Oceans]

Photo by Jimmy Edgar

Remember the title of Metro Area man Morgan Geist's years-in-the-making solo jaunt when listening to the Italo-techno-r&b of advance mp3 "The Shore". From the Brooklyn producer's forthcoming Double Night Time on Environ, this phosphorescent track conjures moonlit desolation rather than tropical idyll, with Junior Boys' Jeremy Greenspan contributing limpid, mannered vocals (as he does elsewhere on the album). There can be a humbling beauty in walking alone by the water at night, but it's no day at the beach.

Unlike Geist's 2006 single with Greenspan, "Most of All", which had dreamy electric guitar, "The Shore" is almost exclusively electronic. A bassline of jittery funk trades off with flashing organ sounds on the verses, programmed percussion hissing like the waves down on the beach. The choruses find some release in ascending synth runs. "It's OK to let it out," Greenspan coolly repeats. Sustained keyboard chords recalling Hot Chip's "Made in the Dark" spread out toward the conclusion, made more disorienting by stereo-panned bleeps. Despite some clunky lyrical phrasing, it's here that Greenspan's narrator finds a way to forget-- at last!-- the person whose memory he's been drowning in these waters all along.

[from Double Night Time; due in September on Environ]