Home: Pitchfork

Fri: 05-16-08: 04:15 PM CDT
Pitchfork Music Festival Three-Day Passes Sold Out!

Fri: 05-16-08: 03:10 PM CDT
The Decemberists, Barack Obama Team for PDX Rally

Fri: 05-16-08: 02:50 PM CDT
Classic Butthole Surfers Lineup Reunites for Tour

Fri: 05-16-08: 01:36 PM CDT
Blitzen Trapper, Menomena/Gang of 4 Project on Comp

Fri: 05-16-08: 12:38 PM CDT
Futureheads Push Back U.S. Release, Prep New Single

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Also in the News

No Age:
Nouns

No Age follow their 2007 EP compilation, Weirdo Rippers, with a gorgeously thick Sub Pop debut-- a hazy, delirious expanse that's friendly and warm and, best of all, unpredictable. Like Times New Viking, No Age bury their addictive sing-alongs in layers of effects and fuzz: Nouns is so cacophonous, so fertile, and so ripe with sound that it's hard to comprehend how just two people manage to make so much noise while still sounding subdued and mysterious. [Amanda Petrusich]

Portishead:
Third

As radical reinventions go, Third-- the first Portishead studio album since 1997-- is surprisingly natural. Darker and bleaker lyrically than their previous work, Third is a sort of re-debut-- the band's sound after it has excised every possible remnant of trip-hop from it. Instead, Third is a psychedelic rock album, with an abrasive and jittery electro-industrial number, analog freakouts, free jazz horns, droning, rhythmically dense garage-kraut, and other sonic detours. [Nate Patrin]

Fri: 05-16-08:
Mates of State
Re-Arrange Us

Far from the runaway-mine-car frenzy that defined some of their early work, the husband-and-wife duo of Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel opt for slower tempos, multi-instrumental arrangements, and overdubbed harmonies on their fifth full-length. [Adam Moerder]

Fri: 05-16-08:
Nat Baldwin
Most Valuable Player

Former Dirty Projector and experimental music vet takes a set of his most battle-tested material and applies raw performances to his polished compositions. Former bandmate Dave Longstreth guests and Grizzly Bear's Chris Taylor produces. [Chris Dahlen]

Les Rallizes Denudes: Eve Night
Formed in 1967 at Kyoto University and playing shows up until 1996, this Japanese group mingled dirge-like rhythms with piercing guitar feedback, incorporating acid-washed takes on sunny San Francisco psych-rock. This well-recorded 1983 live set is a cut above the innumerable semi-official bootlegs available previously. [Mike Orme]

These Are Powers: Taro Tarot EP
Ex-Liars and n0 Things member Pat Noecker continues here to make blunt, visceral rock/punk tropes feel like a vague out-of-body experience. [Adam Moerder]

Hymns: Travel in Herds
Full of songs about displacement and loneliness, this Hymns album attempts to tap into the common vein of big city alienation. [Jessica Suarez]

Thu: 05-15-08

Wed: 05-14-08

Tue: 05-13-08

Mon: 05-12-08

Fri: 05-09-08

Fri: 05-16-08:
Column: Puritan Blister #37
Surely music writing isn't just music's pubic dandruff, or a redundant accessory, like a fannypack for a fannypack? With his students' help, Puritan Blister is going to find out. [William Bowers]

Thu: 05-15-08:
Guest List: HEALTH
All four members of HEALTH pitch in to tip us off to Denver's (erstwhile) undiscovered music scene, try to stoke a beef between Timbaland and Crystal Castles, and lament not getting tips from aliens on how to score a good Pitchfork review. [Interview: Tyler Grisham] [John Famiglietti, Jake Duzsik, Jupiter Keyes, and Benjamin Jared Miller]

Wed: 05-14-08:
The Month In: Reggae / Dancehall
Our latest round-up takes in hazy productions from London's the Heatwave, steely and propulsive riddims from boy wonder Stephen "Di Genius" McGregor, and gushing love songs from Etana [above]. [Dave Stelfox]

Tue: 05-13-08:
Interview: Microphones
We speak to Microphones/Mount Eerie's Phil Elvrum about the recent reissue of his seminal The Glow Pt. 2, trying to write the story of the universe, the geography that informs his music, and his affection for black metal act Xasthur. [Brian Howe]

Mon: 05-12-08:
Interview: Scarlett Johansson
In advance of Scarlett Johansson's debut LP-- a tribute to Tom Waits called Anywhere I Lay My Head-- we talk to the actress about road-tripping with TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek, being taken seriously as a singer, and her decision to tackle one of the most iconic vocalists of the past half-century. [Amanda Petrusich]

Fri: 05-09-08:
Column: Resonant Frequency #57
Perfect songs are hard to find; here are 12 to start with. [Mark Richardson]