Pitchfork

The run-up to the 2008 Pitchfork Music Festival continues with a look back at this performance of Menomena's Friend or Foe highlight "The Pelican" from last year's shindig.

[original version from Friend and Foe; out now on Barsuk]

"You made a believer out of me," Can's Malcolm Mooney sings on one of the band's oft-imitated krautrock classics, Monster Movie's 20-minute love mantra "Yoo Doo Right". But falling in love, Man Man detail on Rabbit Habits' "Doo Right", can also have the opposite effect, in this case robbing singer Honus Honus' narrator of his previous abilities-- like, you know, breathing underwater. If these zany Philadelphians haven't made a believer outta you yet, their appearance on "Black Cab Sessions" ought to be enough to win you over. Clambering into the backseat with keyboard and horn section, Man Man treat the show as a dare rather than yet another venue for stripped-down acoustic sessions. "My collective memories are in shambles/ And so are my scruples," Honus howls. Not only does the band need to come up for air now and then, but they also occasionally have to rely on electricity, so the performance stops short when the power goes out. The point, however, has been made.

[original track from Rabbit Habits; out now on Anti-]

Thank fucking Christ, indie-rock band names have finally evolved out of the animal kingdom (Wolf Parade, Animal Collective, Deerhoof, Deerhunter) and into the expletive empire. Here's a handy primer. Fuck Buttons: Bristol, England-based blissed-out noiseniks behind Best New Music-worthy LP Street Horsssing, probably won't make you say "Fuck buttons!", because what the fuck? Holy Fuck: Toronto instrumental band, may or may not make you say "Holy fuck!", depending on taste. Fucked Up: Toronto post-hardcore sextet, former Pissed Jeans tourmates, just might actually have you saying, "Aw, dude, fucked up!"

On "No Epiphany", the first available mp3 from forthcoming Matador full-length The Chemistry of Common Life, Fucked Up are still, yup, fucked the fuck up, motherfuckers. Distorted guitars and richocheting drums change gears like a semi around singer Pink Eyes' colon-cleansing belches, but the whole thing is also bathed in shoegazing guitar textures and Cocteau Twins-esque backing vocals. What is this, a weekend at a beer spa? Per Pink Eyes, there's something about how the Son of God is a "great fucking eternal façade," though it's certainly not easy to decipher dude's growls. So you'll want to crank that shit up even louder. Any questions?

MP3:> Fucked Up: "No Epiphany"
[from The Chemistry of Common Life; due in the UK 10/06/08 and in the U.S. 10/07/08 on Matador]

As if Lil Wayne's endless parade of guest verses wasn't enough, recently the New Orleans rapper has been showing up on other artists' tracks without even having to come up with fresh lean-assisted verbiage. In the tradition of David Banner's newish "Shawty Say", Los Angeles' Flying Lotus, aka Steven Ellison, samples Wayne's voice on "Robo Tussin", another surreal, exotica-flavored track from the Warp-signed hip-hop producer. The Wayne sample in question is basically the entirety of his verses from free-flowing Tha Carter III single "A Milli". The concept puts a clever twist on what has become something of a hip-hop rite lately; everyone from Jay-Z to your grandma has rapped over the Bangladesh-produced "A Milli" instrumental, so why shouldn't Ellison, who trades in instrumentals, redo "A Milli" as part of a different soundscape? Recognizing that the grain of Wayne's voice can be as distinctive and enjoyable as his highly allusive lyrics, Ellison plays with the pitch, rendering Weezy F. Baby less goon-- or goblin-- than gremlin. Pulsating tones and hallucinogenic squiggles drift over languid organic beats. "Robo Tussin" has a sense of humor, too, letting Wayne's "you ain't got shit" float on repeat to complete his simile about how "you're like a bitch with no ass." Walking and sitting would probably be as difficult as shitting, but "Robo Tussin" may be best heard lying down, super-supine.

MP3:> Flying Lotus: "Robo Tussin"
[from MySpace; original track from Tha Carter III, out now on Cash Money/Universal/Young Money]

Marriage may be "what brings us together," as the clergyman in The Princess Bride (the movie and the Cloud Cult song both) so memorably phrased it. But as anybody who knows anything about the human condition will tell you, that ain't always the case. I've already called nuptials-related bummer "Cath" the best song on Death Cab for Cutie's latest LP, Narrow Stairs, and this is the straightforward yet affecting video the track deserves. Ben Gibbard and his bandmates all sit mouthing the lyrics, but the focus is, rightly, on a church scene like the one so vividly depicted in the song. For me, the visuals complement the ones the lyrics had already put in my head. The clip also fleshes out the narrator's role by showing a nervous-looking young man looking on as the not-so-happy bride does the wrong thing, the same thing he'd have done. Elaine! Elaine! Son of a bitch.

[from Narrow Stairs; out now on Atlantic]

Broken Social Scene's Brendan Canning, soon embarking on a solo excursion, awakens from uneasy dreams to find himself lying on a bed in the middle of the woods. He's got all of his clothes on, so things could certainly be worse, but the things he sees in the forest are definitely the stuff of Donnie Darko-style nightmares. Eventually, he'll be very glad he's wearing a tracksuit.

[from Something for All of Us...; due 07/22/08 on Arts&Crafts.

Wale took "Seinfeld" as inspiration on his recent Mixtape About Nothing, and on "The Kramer", the D.C. rapper bookends a discussion of racism and the use of "n-word" with both Michael Richards' infamous nightclub rant and his subsequent apology on the "Late Show With David Letterman". "The Kramer" could be a sequel to A Tribe Called Quest's "Sucka Nigga", not just in content but in tone because, like Q-Tip, Wale avoids black-and-white terms in his dissection of race and language. Most Wale tracks are funnier than this one, but few are as moving.

MP3:> Wale: "The Kramer"
[from The Mixtape About Nothing; out now]

Here are three proven ways to make any song sound more exciting: 1. During the intro, breathe rhythmically into the microphone. 2. While singing, yell whoo! anywhere you might use a comma, the more staccato the better. 3. Be sure to include a barely discernible shout-out near the bridge.

The Sammies not only check off all three on this compact rave-up from their upcoming sophomore album, Sandwich (out in September on MoRisen, and who vetoed Samwich?), but they sound like they wrote the song around these elements. Bobby Freedom's ecstatically snappy riffing sounds like he's trying to make up for that last Strokes album, and Frank Backgammon's excitable vocals make "pissed off and broke as hell" seem like an attractive lifestyle choice. Coming across these days like a more nuanced Whigs rather than a bar-band Futureheads, the Sammies have managed to refine their sound without losing any of its loser glory. Whoo!

MP3:> The Sammies: "Glisten"
[from Sandwich; due 09/23/08 on MoRisen]

We continue our march toward the 2008 Pitchfork Music Festival with more visual recaps of last year's big bash. Starting us off is GZA, who brought a sizable crew that included later Wu inductee Cappadonna to rip through Liquid Swords. Here, they perform "Duel of the Iron Mic", some of them clad in special t-shirts made for the event. I said it then, and I'll say it again: I want one of those shirts.



Next up is a smooth little mid-afternoon run through the Junior Boys’ groovy “Under the Sun”. An appropriate tune for the balmy (but breezy!) summer setting; the band’s onstage getups, perhaps less so.

The New Pornographers closed their set out with a performance of "The Bleeding Heart Show", from 2005's Twin Cinema. Frontman Carl Newman starts the video by dedicating the song to "the yelling girl from the front row."

Next up is a group who'll be making their way toward this year's Pitchfork Music Festival, Fleet Foxes. The Seattle based country folkers turn in a claymation clip from their self-titled debut's "White Winter Hymnal" directed by Sean Pecknold, brother of the Foxes' own Robin Pecknold.

Finally, UK hip hopper Roots Manuva turns in a hyperkinetic, hypercolor clip for "Buff Nuff" from his forthcoming Slime and Reason LP. Everybody involved gets hopped up on sweet cream, and everybody winds up good and messy. Sounds like summer to us.

We heard from Brooklyn duo Department of Eagles a little over a year ago, but now they've done signed themselves a new record deal, and the follow-up to their 2003 debut The Cold Nose finally has a name and release date: In Ear Park will hit the streets October 8 on 4AD. In case you've forgotten, the Department is a collaboration between Grizzly Bear's Daniel Rossen and Fred Nicolaus; for their second album two other Grizzlies, Chris Bear and Chris Taylor (a former neighbor to Rossen and Nicolaus) have been brought on for various production duties and instrumentation. The title track here sounds like something you'd expect from three-fourths of Grizzly Bear: atmospheric production quality that conjures images of antiqued wood, gently strummed acoustic guitars swirling around an empty room, and a psychedelic waltz-time piano breakdown with breathy harmonies that could have come out of a Fleet Foxes tune.




MP3:> Department of Eagles: "In Ear Park"
[from In Ear Park; due 10/08/08 on 4AD]