Stream/Video: Black Affair (Steve Mason, ex-Beta Band)

When it's not King Biscuit Time for former Beta Band frontman Steve Mason, it's apparently Black Affair time. "Possibly the best known and most discussed modern songwriters and thinkers," according to the act's MySpace (golly, seems we're behind the times here), Black Affair dish out retro beatbox electro and synth pop, slightly spacey, slightly disco, sometimes seedy, generally fun.

Because Black Affair prefer to shroud themselves (himself?) in secrecy, it's unclear whether it's just Mason making the racket or whether he's grooving in cahoots with some cohorts (presumably the former). Band members, according to that nutty MySpace page? "??????????????????"

Anyhow, what we do know: Black Affair has four tracks streaming from his/its/their/thurr MySpace right now, a video, and a podcast on the Olo Radio website linked via Poptones (home to Mason's King Biscuit Time).

The new tunes include seedy come-on cut "It Goes Like This", the spacey, clip-cloppy "You and Me", synth call-and-response ditty "Japanese Happening", and breezy, cheesy love jam "Will She Come". [MORE...]

Stream: Pharoahe Monch: "Desire"

Finally, a new Pharoahe Monch song where he raps for more than 30 seconds. The Alchemist-produced title track from Desire, still with a record label (SRC) but without a release date, finds him nasty as ever, spouting lines like, "I protect my name like your anus/ in prison," and, "My book is a ovary."

He's been listening to the best rap album of the year, too: "Make you feel the clips like Pharrell." Hopefully Desire's release will come smoother than Hell Hath No Fury's.

T.V. Eye: December 11-18, 2006

Pitchfork's T.V. Picks for This Week:

Monday, December 11:

CBS: "Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson": Akon

Tuesday, December 12:

CBS: "Late Show With David Letterman": Gwen Stefani

Wednesday, December 13:

NBC: "Last Call With Carson Daly": Young Jeezy
NBC: "Late Night With Conan O'Brien": Aimee Mann

Thursday, December 14:

ABC: "Jimmy Kimmel Live": Beck
Syndicated: "Live With Regis and Kelly": 50 Cent

Friday, December 15:

ABC: "Jimmy Kimmel Live": Nas
Fuel TV: "The Daily Habit": ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead
IFC: "The Henry Rollins Show" Thom Yorke (rerun)
NBC: "Last Call With Carson Daly": OK Go

MP3: Thom Yorke Remixes
Various remix "Analyse", Surgeon remixes "The Clock"

Happy holidays from Thom Yorke! His gift to us? Not something bought at an evil capitalist chain store, oh no. It's remixes of tracks from his solo debut, The Eraser, available for free download from the album's site. (There are no plans to release the remixes in any other format at the moment.)

Today on Radiohead's blog Dead Air Space, Yorke wrote:

"For anyone who has heard The Eraser, there are some remixes coming.

Yes.

I got excited. I've been listening through. I mean. There's some freaky shit.

They may start appearing soon. Gradually. Briefly.

Just a taste. And then gone."

Right now, only two have been posted, but it looks like there are more to come (four more, if the squiggly drawings of buildings you have to click on to access the remixes are to be believed). We hope that the Four Tet remix of "Atoms for Peace" finally sees the light of day this way.

Yorke's XL Recordings labelmates Various take on "Analyse", outfitting the skeletal track with stutters, bleeps and video game gunshots. Yes, it's another one of the mysterious duo's trademark dystopian creations.

On Dead Air Space, Yorke calls it "a deranged twist of 'Analyse' by Various Productions", adding, "i got into them after hearing Hater off their Lp The World is Gone."

English DJ/producer Surgeon crafts an unsettling club banger out of "The Clock", building on the original's broken garage undercurrent and amping up the throb.

"He has turned it into something really hard," Yorke writes. "And disco.

Well what i call disco anyhow.

It made me very proud.

I hope it gets played in a club somewhere.

Not that i get out much nowadays." [MORE...]

Exclusive: Peaches, Arcade Fire Guy Judge Rafter Vids

Haven't wrapped up your submission for Rafter's video contest yet? Well what on earth are you waiting for, chickens? As previously reported, Asthmatic Kitty recording artist/chicken suit guy Rafter-- aka Rafter Roberts, one half of San Diego popsters Bunky-- has invited folks to create a video for a track from his new record, Music for Total Chickens, which crosses the road January 23.

Aspiring directors have four Total Chickens eggs to choose from-- "Encouragement", "Gentle Men", "Hope", and "Monsters" (all available for download below)-- and two winners will each receive a $500 prize.

The first of the two prizes, the "Quantity Award", goes to the creator of the video with the most YouTube views, while the "Quality Award" gets handed down by a panel of celebrity judges. We're quite pleased to now announce those judges, along with Asthmatic Kitty's reasons from choosing them:

-- Peaches ("chosen for her keen eye for costuming")
-- Tim Kingsbury, Arcade Fire bassist ("chosen for his love of looking at various things")
-- Arto Lindsay ("Because [he] was one of Rafter's inspirations to enter the musical world")
-- Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris, directors ("for their collection of MTV Music Video Awards...and their writing and directing of...Little Miss Sunshine")
-- Kristin Hersh of 50 Foot Wave, ex-Throwing Muses ("Hersh's visual lyricism made her an obvious choice for the panel")
-- Jim Munroe, DVDZine editor/science fiction writer ("for his D.I.Y. spirit, corporate combatting, and complicated relationship with the future")

So there you have it-- these are the people you need to impress, youngins. And several of them are Canadian, so we suggest incorporating hockey, moose, and public health care into your clips. [MORE...]

Yo La Tengo to Beat More U.S. Ass on Tour

While they may have knocked our dreidels flat this year by forgoing their annual "Hanukkahriffic" holiday bonanza at Maxwell's in Hoboken, New Jersey, Yo La Tengo are still poised to whet Americans' ass-beating appetites.

The veteran trio just announced a brief spate of U.S. dates that will see them scurrying up the Atlantic Seaboard in further support of 2006 Best New Music inductee I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass (Matador). Folks fortunate enough to have a Beat Your Ass Season Pass can score tickets right now for these gigs. The rest of us will have to wait a spell.

As previously reported, Yo La Tengo have a live iTunes Session EP set to land digitally on January 9.

Ass jokes, they never get old, I tell you! [MORE...]

Videos: Bonnie, Devendra, Corin on “Wonder Showzen”
Also: Bill Callahan, Rick Springfield, John Oates (what a supergroup!)

When Will Oldham announced his first gig as a stand-up comic, those of us who weren't surprised were familiar with his stint on "the Chernobyl of TV shows," "Wonder Showzen". We posted a small clip of one of his cameos recently, but who needs small clips when you can have full episodes? And who needs just Will Oldham when you can also have Devendra Banhart, Corin Tucker, Bill Callahan, and, why not, Rick Springfield and John Oates? (Yes, that Rick Springfield and John Oates.)

Thanks not to YouTube but its parent company's still-in-business video sharing site, Google Video, we bring you the entire "Horse Apples" episode of the show, which also features David Cross, Todd Barry, and Zach Galifianakis. Oldham plays a pervy preacher who spends most of his time in prison telling jokes to God.

And for an interesting take on the Almighty, we found the "Justice" episode as well, in which Oldham's Drag City labelmate Bill Callahan (formerly known as Smog) provides the voice of the "God banana" at the end.

Finally, we hit online video paydirt with the "Cooperation" episode of the show, which features short clips of a melismatic Banhart, Tucker, Springfield, and Oates superimposed over a choir of kids singing "War doesn't solve anything." All we need now is a Joanna Newsom cameo. Perhaps a role as a strung out Mary Magdalene?

Exclusive Videos: Cat Power and the Raconteurs on "Austin City Limits"

Public television rules! In September, Cat Power and the Memphis Rhythm Band performed at a taping for PBS' "Austin City Limits" show. The episode, which also features the Raconteurs, is scheduled to air on December 30, as previously reported.

But we can't wait that long. Thankfully, the good people behind the program have made a clip from each band's performance available early, exclusively through Pitchfork. Both videos can be streamed by clicking on the links below.

In the first clip, Cat Power and her band take on The Greatest's "Could We", highlighting the track's Southern, bluesy vibe (which blends right in with the fake skyline backdrop).

Next up, the Raconteurs take a stab at the Broken Boy Soldiers cut "Level", and for some reason, Jack White seems overcome with onstage jitters up until his first solo. (Aww, celebrities get nervous too!) But once he loosens up and drops the shaky vocals, "Level" is spacey fun.

And by the way, White had better get that stage anxiety thing in check, because he might end up making a speech at the Grammys in February. The Raconteurs have been nominated for two awards: Best Rock Album (Broken Boy Soldiers) and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group ("Steady, As She Goes").

Clinic Show Canceled by Studious College Kids
Revenge of the nerds

We can safely say that we've never heard of a group of college students as devoted to their research as those at Central St. Martin's College in London, England. And it's an art school!

As previously reported, the university was scheduled to host a sold-out Clinic gig on December 14, but due to "pressure from a small minority of students, who saw the show as a perceived disruption to their studies and were threatening to stage a sit-in protest" (according to the band's website), the concert was canceled.

A sit-in protesting a rock show?! What decade is this again? The fifties?

Tickets for the canceled show will be honored at the band's next London show, tentatively scheduled for somet time in February 2007. Tickets can also be refunded from point of purchase.

Clinic's fourth album, Visitations, will be released in the U.S. on January 23 via Domino. The band will tour here in support of it in March. [MORE...]

James Murphy Talks Exercise, New LP, Future Plans
"People were like, 'What the fuck is this? Why would I buy this? This is retarded people music!'"

DFA co-captain James Murphy is set to have a big 2007. His 2006 (and many of ours) was dominated by the release of a 45-minute, single-track exercise mix, 45:33, a collaboration with Nike that showed creativity and corporate sponsorship can happily co-exist in the pursuit of telling runners, "shame on you."

On March 20, he'll release the second LCD Soundsystem full-length, Sound of Silver. A European tour is also scheduled for March. And when he's not touring, he hopes to spend his free time recording new material. Murphy discussed his plans for the busy year with Pitchfork-- but not without also telling us about his approach to taste and how it affects his recording process, reading exercise blogs, and the commonalities between Prince and himself.

Pitchfork: How are you doing?

James Murphy: I'm doing okay. I've been having record company meetings. It's been really interesting being on a major label because you have a Machiavellian idea of what goes on, and then you get involved in it and it's more like M*A*S*H.

Pitchfork: In what way?

JM: It's a little more slapstick. If they were as Machiavellian as one would imagine, the music industry would be doing a lot better.

Pitchfork: So when you say "Machiavellian," you mean that you thought they would be the Machiavellians, not that it would be you planning to take over the world?

JM: Exactly. I prefer to be the Machiavellian in the room. I don't like other Machiavellis in the rooms. There's only room for one.

Pitchfork: So M*A*S*H was a nice surprise, then?

JM: It was good. It's really funny because it's just really banal and weird. It's very surreal, because I'm kind of a forward-moving person and they live in an actual industry reality. Every time we talk to people that work in the industry [or] in radio, they like my record. And I'm like, "Can we get them to play it?" And they remind me that, yes, the programmer likes it, but they won't play it. Radio here is a weird industry. They just play 11 songs, half of which are from the same band.

I was mulling over the concept of coming up with a campaign: wouldn'titbefunnyifwecharted-dot-com. It would be so funny to chart. I want to ask people that are going to buy the record, "If you are thinking about buying it, buy it this week." [I can] sell the exact same amount of records. I just want to do it in a week. I think it would be so awesome and so weird and unsettling, instead of being like, "This is how it works, and we know it sucks," actually doing something and making it work organically and not just be a mystery. Not like, "Oh, this is luck!" "No, this is not luck. We asked people who cared about music to go buy the record: 'If you're not going to buy it, fine. I don't care. But if you are, go buy it that week, and see what happens.'"

Pitchfork: It's much less cynical that way.

JM: Exactly. I happen to be a very optimistic guy. [If I weren't] then I would be making horrendous big records with horrendous big people and buying houses. But I can do that later.

Pitchfork: That's for the third record.

JM: Exactly, when I have no soul left and get a funny thin haircut with highlights and tell people how awesome I think they are.

Pitchfork: You could get a reality show, like "LCD: Supernova".

JM: Dude, I'm so there. It's called "Bummer Road".

Pitchfork: Whoa!

JM: It's just going to be a videotape in the bus, and everyone is going to be bummed out. And then there's "Bummer Alley". I like the idea of needing hair and makeup to actually look like myself. [MORE...]

Colbert Accepts Decemberists' Counter-challenge!
Guitar solo duel set for December 20

LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE!!! December 20, people. It's goin' down.

Last night on "The Colbert Report", history was made as Stephen Colbert accepted the Decemberists' challenge to a guitar solo duel.

(For those not keeping score at home, it was actually a counterchallenge to Colbert's original challenge for viewers to insert Colbert's "Green Screen Challenge" into the band's "Re-Animate the Decemberists" contest. If that makes any sense.)

"The Decemberists may be thieves, but they're not cowards," Colbert said, going on to quote the message the band relayed via this very website.

He continued, "Decemberists, you walked right into my trap. Or didn't you know that I was lead singer and guitarist for the 1980s new wave sensation Stephen and the Colberts?"

(Cue amazingly realistic faux 80s new wave video featuring Colbert squeezing out a rudimentary solo.)

"It's called a whammy bar, deal with it! And if you think that's nasty, wait 'til you hear some of the stuff from my hit metal album Symphonies of the Infernal. I am going to jam out a solo with so many dominant sevenths and ascending pentatonic patterns it'll make Yngwie Malmsteen sound like Raffi."

He even pronounced "Yngwie Malmsteen" correctly! (Maybe he knows the right way to say "tain".) Colbert invited the band onto his show on December 20. ("I'm even giving you home-field advantage by having the contest in December.")

"At last we will see who reigns supreme."

Then he did this: \m/

Pitchfork received confirmation that the Decemberists have indeed taken Colbert up on his invitation. Colbert will duel it out with multi-instrumentalist Chris Funk, who offered Pitchfork his "strategy for total guitar solo challenge domination:

"I'm going to dust off my white high-top Reeboks, slide on my stirrup pants and chug a two-liter of Mountain Dew."

Videos: Cornelius: "Music", "Gum", and "Fit Song"

Keigo Oyamada, aka Japanese pop wizard Cornelius, delivers videos for "Gum", "Music", and "Fit Song", each culled from his album Sensuous, which landed last month in his home country, but has yet to be released elsewhere.

The almost entirely black-and-white clip for "Gum" displays a kaleidoscope of repeated Japanese characters. Despite its impressive animation, the video is a little uneventful up until the explosive grand finale, which rivals a fireworks show.

In "Music", we're presented with a band of disembodied children, which, we promise you, isn't as gruesome (or interesting) as it sounds.

But we saved the best for last. "Fit Song" is a whirlwind of mid-air motion; it's fucking incredible, to say the least. Who knew everyday items such as sugarcubes, slippers, clay, toothpaste, and light bulbs could have such flair?

"Gum":

"Music":

"Fit Song":

[MORE...]

Do you have a news tip for us? Anything crazy happen at a show you attended recently? Do you have inside info on the bands we cover? Is one of your favorite artists (that's not somebody you know personally) releasing a new record you'd like to see covered? You will remain completely anonymous, unless we are given your express permission to reveal your identity. (Please note that publicists, managers, booking agents, and other artist representatives are generally exempt from this rule, but will also be granted anonymity if requested.)