The latest installment of "Pitchfork Live" features an intimate performance by Bon Iver at Brooklyn's Glasslands Gallery. If you haven't seen them live yet, here's an opportunity to see why people have been going bonkers over these shows. Eerie, haunting, and lovely.

Today also saw the addition of Animal Collective's "Peacebone" to the archive, one of 2007's highlights in terms of music video. It's a creepy piece with very nice art direction that provides a useful entry into Animal Collective's world.

A hail of 50 police bullets killed Sean Bell on his wedding day. Last month's verdict acquitting the three New York City detectives charged with his death ran 1,164 words. According to The New York Times, only about 150 people marched in Harlem to protest the decision. Times columnist Frank Rich suggested over the weekend that the muted response to the verdict shows how far America has come in bridging the racial divide, and I certainly hope that's true. Rappers, however, have not been quiet about their outrage, and part of me wonders if the lack of old-fashioned violent outbursts is-- like the lack of organized anti-war protests or decent protest music compared to the Vietnam War era-- a symptom of a widespread feeling of powerlessness when it comes to making real change. "Why bother? It's gonna hurt me." By this logic, the surge of support over the last several months for presidential hopeful Barack Obama's candidacy is the exception, not the rule.

The Game isn't going to change the world with his Bell tribute, "911 Is a Joke", which originally showed up on the internet with the subtitle "Cop Killa" and is expected to appear on the West Coast rapper's forthcoming L.A.X. There's still a visceral power in hearing the usually boastful, always wildly name-checking Game offer up concentrated political rage over back-to-basics beats, gunshots, keyboards, and a foreboding bassline: "Payback's a bitch for that Rodney King shit." With guests Clyde Carson and the CMC, Game isn't covering Public Enemy or Ice-T on this song, but he gets points for attempting to revive their righteous fury with such intensity. Even if the video's scenes of rappers in whiteface skulking about in the night grow tired before the song's over. And even if Game still sounds more interested in likening himself to such rap royalty as NWA and 8Ball & MJG than in starting a revolution. Which nobody would televise, anyway.

[L.A.X. is due 07/08/08 on Interscope]

Oxford Collapse keep finding new reasons to celebrate, even if the hangover can be felt almost as soon as the reverb from their scrappy guitar riffs dies away. Last time we heard from the Brooklyn three-piece, they were singing about how "wonderful" it was to move back home with the parents, on latest single "Spike of Bensonhurst". Now there's this: "Congratulations," Michael Pace and Adam Rizer sing on the chorus of "Amongst Friends", from Oxford Collapse's forthcoming Hann-Byrd EP for Princeton, N.J. label Comedy Minus One. The occasion this time is a loved one's becoming "one of the family," with a warm welcome from jangling strums, shouted call-and-response vocals, and sprightly drum fills. "Through being cryptic and unclear," the group declare, and "Amongst Friends" manages the tricky feat of feeling intimate even though its specifics remain a bit muddy even by the time it's over. "Chiefly British," says the dictionary next to "amongst," but Oxford who-gives-a-fuck-about-commas Collapse make charming use of some good ol' American vernacular, too: "All's I want is you." Pop open a bottle of bubbly-- here's to another goddamn new song.

MP3:> Oxford Collapse: "Amongst Friends"
[from the Hann-Byrd EP; due 06/10/08 on Comedy Minus One]

When Cee-Lo Green isn't "Kung Fu Fighting" with Jack Black, the Gnarly Goodie Mobster is with Paul Oakenfold backing up Jason Bourne. And they tell us Gnarls Barkley are The Odd Couple. Cee-Lo and the trance mega-DJ have paired up for the original soundtrack to the video game "Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy", and as you could probably have guessed, their collaboration on "Falling" sets Cee-Lo's soulful vocals to Oakenfold's upbeat, bass-propelled electronic backing. Cee-Lo's voice is in fine form as usual, rough-edged and from the chest, even when he's singing stuff he (or Bryan Adams) could've come up with while watching movies for publicity-photo ideas-- from such fine turns of phrases as "There's a big black hole/ It's got my soul" to the finer still "It's so appealing/ But now I'm reeling." And like REO Speedwagon, I can't fight this feeling. Even when Cee-Lo soars on the chorus, there's a heavy-handed spoken-word repetition ("I'm falling") to bring him back down to (virtual) earth. The video pieces together scenes from the game with shots of a Bourne-related concert event featuring members of the Florida Classical Symphony; the game itself could still be pretty cool, but I'd rather watch a kung fu fighting baby.

[from the "Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy" OST]

The future may be perfect, but it sure does come slowly. Los Angeles space-rockers Autolux released debut Future Perfect back in 2004, and they've only recently posted the first selection from their follow-up, the forthcoming Transit Transit. The new song, "Audience No. 2", isn't exactly the sort of thing for MySpace's crappy audio streams-- sure, it's got a big, simple melody right up in front, but as on Transit Transit songs such as "Turnstile Blues", the tune is still attacked from all sides by screeching Sonic Youth guitar atmospherics, not to mention Carla Azar's forceful drumming. It's probably for the best that there's so much to draw attention away from the lyrics: "I am your vegetable," sings bassist Eugene Goreshte. Then the dynamics go up a notch for a crashing, falsetto-sung chorus, the song's Ponys-like haze a reminder that if, as some critics are saying, a 1990s revival is inevitable after the recent endless 80s binge, it's been here for a while. Kind of like Future Perfect.

Stream:> Autolux: "Audience No. 2"
[from Transit Transit; due 2008]

Like the Tenniscoats or Tujiko Noriko halfway across the world in Japan, Norway's Silje Nes makes fragile avant-pop on a miniature scale. As with a carefully constructed model railroad, this approach can bring out new details even though we're basically looking at the same old elements: acoustic guitar, drums, vocals, chiming percussion, some loops. In this performance of debut Ames Room's "Dizzy Street" live in studio for PRI's "Fair Game", Nes zooms in even further, laying out the components of the song's intricate yet naive folk one by one. Her wispy vocals, veiled by guitars and bass on the album version, come to the fore here, adding to the song's ability to conjure up tiny, imaginary worlds. "How can we leave our house at the end of the ocean?" she whispers, accompanied by a sighing male backing vocal. "We can't keep the mountains apart," she adds a moment later. So, make the mountains smaller-- every atom a universe. You can hear the full session over at Fair Game's site.

MP3:> Silje Nes:"Dizzy Street" (Live on Fair Game)
[from Ames Room; out now on FatCat]

"Hearts on Fire" has been the title of a country song by Eddie Rabbit, a bubblegum stadium-rocker by Bryan Adams, a B-side by Genesis, and a Rocky IV training-montage anthem by John Cafferty. Then there's Calvin Johnson singing about his "heart on fire" in Beat Happening's "Gravedigger Blues", sampled by Jens Lekman for Oh You're So Silent Jens' "Pocketful of Money". Cut Copy's 2007 single "Hearts on Fire", which recurs on the Australian group's Best New Music-bestowed In Ghost Colours, starts from the same lyrical idea and arena-sized reach as some of its namesake predecessors, but the French-house filter sweeps, New Order guitars, and thumping rhythms probably won't have you missing Adams. (OK, maybe just his "Heaven"). Melbourne compatriots Midnight Juggernauts shared Cut Copy's interest in both arena-rock hugeness and dance beats on last year's Dystopia, and their remix of Cut Copy's "Hearts on Fire" doesn't stray too far from the sound. Midnight Juggernauts drape the original in horror-movie organs, cranking the whole thing to the max and scrapping the saxophone solo. Unless Sylvester Stallone decides to follow in the footsteps of the Governator or something, this pummeling remix could greatly improve some montage sequence in Rocky Balboa II.

MP3:> Cut Copy: "Hearts on Fire (Midnight Juggernauts Remix)"
[original track from In Ghost Colours; out now on Modular/Interscope]

Spend some time with GZA and his son over at Pitchfork.tv as they tool around the city in the latest "Daytripping" segment. We start at Frank's Chop Shop, where GZA will often go for a cut, then watch him rock a few stages, talk-up the merits of Lombardi's Pizza, discuss chess, quote Slick Rick, and lots more.

This song is no great shakes, but the guests on this Kanye remix-- a few of whom are on his current tour-- are something. He posted it today to his blog, which is becoming quite the go-to spot for new media. The original, if you haven't heard it, is on Chad Hugo's blog. (via MTV Newsroom)

Stream:> N.E.R.D.: "Everybody Nose" (Kanye West Remix)

Photo by Kyle Gustafson

This single out tomorrow isn't "The Only One" the Cure will be releasing ahead of their yet-untitled new album-- the iconic UK outfit has three more planned for the next three months-- but it sounds like, well, a pop single by the Cure, rather than the band's longer, mopier material. After a bright, melodic guitar line similar to the one from "Just Like Heaven", Robert Smith sings in that high, wounded voice about what you do to his heart, his lips, his skin, his bones: "It's the best, oh yeah." While there's not much distinctive about the lyrics, and the arrangement falls into a sturdy college-rock framework that the Cure themselves helped set, Smith's faltering yodel could only be his, thickened here with some generous echoes. Being with you is "a scream" and "so extreme," but it's also a "dream," a word Smith stretches out and raises to an unearthly pitch. "The Only One" won't make anyone forget the great Cure singles that came before it, but a listen to B-side "NY Trip"-- another love song, but with looser, jammier guitars and vaguer lyrics-- is a reminder that lightweight pop songs aren't necessarily as effortless as they sound.

[from "The Only One" single; due 05/13/08 on Geffen]

The E.L.F. recently finished a tour with fellow Australian dance-pop solo act Muscles, and the two share a likable enthusiasm. Where Muscles shouts about the awesomeness of ice cream or just holding your hand, what has the E.L.F., aka Darren Cross of now-defunct Aussie band Gerling, so psyched is-- fittingly enough for a guy who lists ELO, the KLF, and NWA as influences-- pop music. The E.L.F.'s debut EP is called Stevie Nicks Hearts, after all. The eponymous homebody on EP highlight "Billie" may or may not be Cross's lover, but an androgynous, processed vocal asks Billie to "come out dancing" anyway. It's the perfect subject for an artist whose music is about the intersection between the bedroom and the club, treated with propulsive, Underworld-esque synths, basic drum programming, and looped female vocals that cast an ethereal glow over the whole thing.

Stream:> The E.L.F.: "Billie"

On the EP's title track, Hayes compares himself to Shaun Ryder ("I like to get fairly drunk"), shares visions of Shane MacGowan (speaking of drunk!), and mentions feeling "like a straight Elton John hanging out with Lou Reed," all backed by a kathumping house beat, sweeping synths, trancey keyboards, and vocoder-like effects. It's somewhere between Muscles and the stylish confidence of countrymen Cut Copy, with a referential mischievousness that makes it sound like he's been hanging out with Stephen Malkmus, too-- or at least early Pavement records. The video, like his previous clip for the Beck-reminiscent "Cockroaches", is a homemade affair. Supposedly done for $12, it layers images of hearts and lightning storms, among other effects, over the sight of Cross singing into the camera. As for whether the woman behind many of Fleetwood Mac's biggest hits truly "hearts" the E.L.F., I'm still awaiting confirmation.

[from Stevie Nicks Hearts; out now on Oaks]
 

There's a fine line between falling and flying. The video for "The Rip", one of the softer songs from Portishead's Best New Music-worthy reunion album Third, shows a pencil-animated cast of grotesque characters who sit on both sides of that line. As Beth Gibbons sings about white horses over gently plucked acoustic arpeggios, we see loggers, skull-like faces, and figures who are either floating or tumbling to their dooms. Shortly before drums and synths arrive for a shift in dynamics, the setting changes from one of free fall to one that's apparently underwater, where eyeball fishes swim beside fishes that look like clocks. Later, Gibbons sings of "the tenderness I feel", and hang-gliders steer themselves between skyscrapers. You can also see a higher-quality video at Portishead's site. (via Idolator)

[from Third; out now on Island]