Pitchfork

Front page photo by Ryan Muir

Nothing will ever replace the gloriously perverse spectacle of a watching a live Les Savy Fav gig unfold in front of you, with frontman Tim Harrington threatening to show you parts of him you'd rather not see and/or spit chewed-up gumballs into your mouth just cuz, to say nothing of the free haircuts. But After the Balls Drop, the first-ever full-length document of the Les Savy Fav live experience, oughta remind you of that other thing LSF does on stage: kick some serious rock'n'roll ass.

On April 29, French Kiss will release the digital-only live disc, recorded at a 3:00 AM performance at New York's Bowery Ballroom on January 1, 2008. So, not only is it gonna be your standard LSF crazy, it's gonna be that kind of sleep-deprived, hallucinatory/drunken crazy. In other words, uh, Live at Leeds, watch your shit.

For After the Balls Drop, the guys jam out ten stone-cold LSF classics (including several from last year's excellent "comeback" album Let's Stay Friends) and one surely hilarious "Tim Speech". And once the hour went from awfully late to just stupidly late, they switched into cover band mode, tackling the Pixies, Nirvana, Love, the Misfits, and-- man oh man-- Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Les Savy Fav will be doing their thing live and in person a handful of times next month, from a few club dates with labelmates the Dodos and the Big Sleep to the big stage at Coachella. Check 'em out, then cop that play-at-home version.

They'll head across the water for a few festivals later in the late spring and early summer, including the ATP vs. Pitchfork Festival in Rye, England.

After the Balls Drop:

01 The Equestrian
02 Patty Lee
03 What Would Wolves Do?
04 Sweat Descends
05 Yawn Yawn Yawn
06 We'll Make a Lover of You
07 The Year Before the Year 2000
08 The Lowest Bitter
09 Who Rocks the Party
10 Tim Speech
11 Hey Tonight (Creedence Clearwater Revival cover)
12 Debaser (Pixies cover)
13 Astro Zombies (Misfits cover)
14 Sliver (Nirvana cover)
15 Everybody's Gotta Live (Love cover)

LSF:

04-04 Washington, DC - The Black Cat *^
04-05 Philadelphia, PA – TLA *^
04-25 Indio, CA - Coachella
04-27 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall *
05-08 Kingston upon Thames, England - The Works
05-09-11 Rye, England - Camber Sands Holiday Centre (ATP vs. Pitchfork) !
05-29-31 Barcelona, Spain - Primavera Sound Festival
06-23-27 Arendal, Norway - Hove Festival

* with the Dodos
^ with the Big Sleep
! with the Hold Steady, Jens Lekman, Black Lips, Hot Chip, Caribou, No Age, Of Montreal, Man Man, Los Campesinos!, Vampire Weekend, Glass Candy, Dirty Projectors, Meat Puppets, the Black Angels, Fuck Buttons, Times New Viking, Marissa Nadler, Wooden Shjips, Deerhunter, Jay Reatard. Shit and Shine, Sebadoh, Ween, Redd Kross, Pissed Jeans, Yeasayer, Apse, A Place to Bury Strangers, the Clientele, Black Mountain, Harmonia, Born Ruffians, Howlin Rain, Car Sick Cars, Even