Pitchfork.tv: Liz Phair: Guyville Redux (One Week Only)
We're taking the holiday off (be safe with the fireworks, kids), but we'll leave you with another feature film on Pitchfork.tv. If you've been paying any attention lately, you may have noticed that Chicago singer-songwriter Liz Phair just reissued her classic 1993 album, Exile in Guyville. To coincide with the release, Phair has created the documentary Guyville Redux, in which she revisits some of the people and places that brought her record to life. The film features interviews with Matador Records' Gerard Cosloy and Chris Lombardi, Steve Albini, NPR's Ira Glass, and even Chicago's favorite son John Cusack-- with an introduction by ATO Records' founder Dave Matthews. Catch it while you can, over the holiday weekend and through next week, on Pitchfork.tv's "One Week Only."
Pitchfork.tv:> Guyville Redux (One Week Only)
Pitchfork.tv: July 3: Stephen Malkmus / Xiu Xiu / Asobi Seksu / Free Blood
In one fortnight, we here at Pitchfork (and hopefully you, too, dear reader) will congregate in Chicago's Union Park for the annual Pitchfork Music Festival. To get your appetite whetted for what promises to be the most mind-blowingly awesome festival of the summer, we're taking a peek back at last year's event, when Pavement mastermind Stephen Malkmus wowed the crowd with the opening track from their classic album, Wowee Zowee.
We've also added a few more videos to our ever-expanding archive, and today Pitchfork.tv premiered the newest video from Portland art-rockers Xiu Xiu. This black and white clip for "Master of the Bump (Kurt Stumbaugh, I Can Feel the Soil Falling Over My Head)" features some gender-skewing roles, a little S&M, and a couple of uncomfortable scenes of violent lovemaking. A perfect way to start your holiday weekend.
Next up is the colorful video for Asobi Seksu's "Goodbye", which melds the irresistable strains of the Brooklyn trio's shoegaze with kaleidoscopic images of origami papers, and sends singer Yuki Chikudate on a bizarre voyage through a world built of paper flowers.
Finally we have the melodramatic clip for "Royal Family" from ex-!!! member John Pugh's Free Blood project. Some apocalyptic percussion-- heavy drums, clanging metal, sparse piano, and handclaps-- form the basis of this track, while the video marries surrealist images of a woman in a Victorian armory-cum-recording studio with shots of Pugh in the middle of a desert. But keep watching and you realize that maybe these two locations aren't so far apart after all.
Video Premiere: Xiu Xiu: "Master of the Bump (Kurt Stumbaugh, I Can Feel the Soil Falling Over My Head)"
Well here's a creepy new video from Xiu Xiu's Women as Lovers, a high-contrast black and white clip, directed by documentarian Courtney Fathom Sell. The cut follows two young dudes-- one a Cobain lookalike who has arranged a gay tryst in a dank cellar, and then a rather mod fellow who meets another boy on his own strange trip to an empty field near the woods. The film soon becomes a haunting series of clips involving bondage, male kissing, and even a little water sport. So, like, it's probably not safe for work.
[from Women as Lovers, out now on Kill Rock Stars]
New Music: Mogwai: "The Sun Smells Too Loud"
Hey, it's a track from Mogwai's new album-- you remember, that one called The Hawk is Howling that features this lovely picture of an animal that is neither a hawk nor howling? Well this track, which bears an equally puzzling name, begins typically enough for a Mogwai tune-- some slightly distorted guitars chiming, a nice simple post-rock drum beat. But soon enough, like clouds parting to reveal a sunny sky, chiming synths and pulsing electronic tones open up a heavier side to the song, the drums eventually getting outright tribal and all the elements building up to a wash of noise before devolving into a few blinking synth patterns and delicately strummed guitars.
MP3:> Mogwai: "The Sun Smells Too Loud"
[from The Hawk is Howling; due 09/22/08 on Matador]
Video: Lil Wayne: "A Milli"
It must be pretty time consuming to be Lil Wayne. Between creating hundreds of mixtape tracks, selling a million copies of his long-awaited Tha Carter III in its first week, penning this song about why he's great enough to sell a million copies of the record, and running around making videos for the album's multiple singles, Dwayne Carter must have about...a million things on his mind. This video for Carter III single "A Milli" finds Lil Wayne seeing to his various duties: sitting in his makeup chair, posing for a shot with a young fan, selecting his wardrobe-- all in preparation for...the next video from Tha Carter III. A steadycam follows Wayne as he walks a couple blocks from his trailer into what appears to be a big bank housing another film crew. Hmm, looks like a nice set up for a "Got Money" clip.
[from Tha Carter III, out now on Cash Money/Universal/Young Money]
New Music: Nas: "Queens Get the Money" [Stream]
On his last LP, Nas killed hip-hop to clear ground for a glorious resurrection, starring himself as mortician-turned-messiah. "Hip-hop was aborted," he raps on this new track from his forthcoming album, "so Nas breathes life back into the embryo." Fittingly, "Queens Get the Money" is elementary, omitting the drums and bass that have been hip-hop's lifeblood. Up-and-comer Jay Electronica's track is just skating piano phrases, of a piece with Child Rebel Soldiers' glassy, Thom Yorke-sampling mixtape cut "Us Placers".
Lyrically, Nas offers up a digest of his own tics: We get a couple brain-melting similes ("I'm over they heads like a bulimic on a seesaw"), some sociopolitical laments ("Pregnant teens give birth to intelligent gangsters, they daddies faceless"), hood-status touchiness ("Talking that Nas done fell off with rhyming/ He'd rather floss with diamonds"), and megalomaniacal fantasy (uh, remember when Nas "punched down devils that brought down the towers"?).
He really does have something deep and trenchant to say about the state of hip-hop, if you can ferret it out from the free-associative boilerplate: Consider the conflation of "Huey P. and Louis V.," alongside Nas' new moniker, "Nasty NASDAQ." Revolution blurs into fashion, outlaw rappers become legitimate businessmen, and a music born of the revolutionary spirit reckons with its assimilation into what it rails against.
[from Untitled; due 07/15/08 on Jones Experience/Def Jam]
Video: Times New Viking: "My Head" (Live at WFMU Studios)
An appropriately lo-fi WFMU in-studio video for this lo-fi monster jam off one of 2008's first Best New Music inductees, Times New Viking's Rip It Off. Bonus: you can actually see their faces! Ten whole imaginary dollars go to whomever can make out what the heck drummer Adam Elliott blathers at the end of this clip [via Matablog].
Double bonus: WFMU's Beware of the Blog has MP3s of TNV's entire nine-song in-studio set.
[original from Rip It Off; out now on Matador]
Pitchfork.tv: July 2: Clipse / CSS / The Go! Team / The Besnard Lakes
With the 2008 Pitchfork Music Festival just over two weeks away, Pitchfork.tv today served up another one of last year's highlights: Clipse and their Re-Up Gang associates Ab-Liva and Sandman steamrolling through Hell Hath No Fury standout "Ride Around Shining" before 17,000+ fist-pumping festivalgoers. Look closely and you'll see Thurston Moore soaking it all in upstage.
We also added a trio of high-energy videos, beginning with this Forkcast-featured clip for CSS' new single "Rat Is Dead (Rage)", a delirious glam-up marked by relentless camera movement and attitude in spades.
Next up, a classic from a couple years back from the Go! Team, matching their gleeful cut-ups with some of the snazziest arts and crafts concoctions this side of kindergarten.
And finally, the Besnard Lakes' Dark Horse comes to life in this apocalyptic animated offering from director Kara Blake.
Video: CSS: "Rat Is Dead (Rage)"
When it comes to CSS, the live setting is where it's at. Wisely, this staged performance clip for Donkey's previously Forkcasted first offering "Rat Is Dead (Rage)" gives the rambunctious combo and their instruments plenty of room to roam. In lieu of a stoked-to-bits crowd we get frenetic lighting effects and a relentless camera that swoops in and out, assaulting the band from every angle. True to form, the members of CSS never shrink from meeting the aggressive thing eye-to-lens.
[from Donkey; due 07/21/08 in the UK on Warner and 07/22/08 in the U.S. on Sub Pop]
Video: Radiohead: "Bodysnatchers" (Live at the Daydream Festival)
Photo by Daniel Cantó
Some fan reports suggest sound problems soured Radiohead's headline appearance at the inaugural Daydream Festival in Barcelona on June 12, and those problems are certainly visible and audible here. Ed O'Brien can be seen motioning to have his guitar turned up, Thom Yorke appears preoccupied and at one point drops his pick, and things generally sound out of sync and muddled. A static camera placed way back and left to zoom in and out hesitantly doesn't help matters any. But hey, all nitpicking aside, Radiohead on a bum day still top most bands at their best.
[original from In Rainbows; ATO/TBD / XL]
Forkcast Playlist
Other Recent Downloads
Thu: 07-03-08
- Pitchfork.tv: July 3: Stephen Malkmus / Xiu Xiu / Asobi Seksu / Free Blood
- Video Premiere: Xiu Xiu: "Master of the Bump (Kurt Stumbaugh, I Can Feel the Soil Falling Over My Head)"
- New Music: Mogwai: "The Sun Smells Too Loud"
- Video: Lil Wayne: "A Milli"
- New Music: Nas: "Queens Get the Money" [Stream]
- Video: Times New Viking: "My Head" (Live at WFMU Studios)
Wed: 07-02-08
- Pitchfork.tv: July 2: Clipse / CSS / The Go! Team / The Besnard Lakes
- Video: CSS: "Rat Is Dead (Rage)"
- Video: Radiohead: "Bodysnatchers" (Live at the Daydream Festival)
- New Music: Weezer: "Life's What You Make It" (Talk Talk cover) [Stream]
- New Music: UNKLE [ft. Josh Homme]: "Chemical" [MP3/Stream]
- New Music: Death Vessel: "Bruno's Torso" [MP3/Stream]
- Video: T.I.: "No Matter What"
- New Music: Babe, Terror: "Nasa Goodbye" [MP3/Stream]
Sun: 06-29-08
Sat: 06-28-08
Fri: 06-27-08
- Pitchfork.tv: June 27: One Week Only: Screaming Masterpiece [ft. Björk, Sigur Rós, and Múm] / Califone / Sybris
- Premiere: Saul Williams [prod. by Trent Reznor]: "World on Wheels" [MP3/Stream]
- New Music: A-Trak [ft. Lupe Fiasco]: "Mastered" [Stream]
- Video: Band of Horses: New Song (Live at the Accelerator Festival)
- Pitchfork.tv: The Death Set: "Around the World" [Video Premiere]
- Premiere: Fujiya & Miyagi: "Knickerbocker" [Stream]
- New Music: Juvelen: "Hanna" [MP3/Stream]
Thu: 06-26-08
- Pitchfork.tv: June 26: Grinderman / The Fiery Furnaces / The Postal Service
- New Music: Annie: "Loco" [MP3]
- New Music : The Wrens: "Sleep" [Stream]
- Video: Stars: "Bitches in Tokyo"
- New Music: A-Trak: "Say Woah" [MP3]
- New Music: Oxford Collapse: "The Birthday Wars" [MP3]
- Video: Coldplay: "Lost" / "42" (Live on "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart")
- New Music: GOA: "Au Dessus des Nuages" [MP3/Stream]
Wed: 06-25-08
- Pitchfork.tv: June 25: The Hold Steady / Madlib / MSTRKRFT
- Video: Weezer: Various Songs (Live on AOL's "Sessions")
- New Music: R. Kelly: "Playas Get Lonely" [Stream]
- Pitchfork.tv: Nine Inch Nails: Special Presentation: Live From Rehearsals Part 3: "Echoplex"
- New Music: Weezer: "Turnin' Turnin" (new song written with fans) [Stream]
- Video: Liz Phair: "Fuck and Run" (Live in Chicago)
- Video: Lil Wayne [ft. T-Pain]: "Got Money" / "Lollipop" / "A Milli" (Live at the BET Awards)
- New Music: Duchess Says: "Ccut Up" [MP3/Stream]
Tue: 06-24-08
- Pitchfork.tv: June 25: Cocorosie / Broken Social Scene / Heartless Bastards
- New Music: Brightblack Morning Light: "Hologram Buffalo" [Stream]
- New Music: Beck [ft. Chan Marshall]: "Orphans" [Stream]
- New Music: The Mae Shi: "See You Again" (Miley Cyrus cover) [MP3/Stream]
- Pitchfork.tv: Nine Inch Nails: Special Presentation: Live From Rehearsals Part 2: "Letting You"
- Video: Lykke Li: "Can I Kick It" (A Tribe Called Quest cover; live in London)
- New Music: The Faint: "The Geeks Were Right" [Stream]
- New Music: Team Ghost [ex-M83]: "Space Bounce" [Stream]
Mon: 06-23-08
- Pitchfork.tv: June 23: Interview With Liz Phair / Sigur Rós
- New Music: The Verve: "Love Is Noise" [Stream]
- Pitchfork.tv: The Chap: "Fun and Interesting" [Video]
- Video: Lil Wayne: "Lollipop" (Live on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!")
- On Repeat: Apse: "Shade of the Moor" [MP3/Stream]
- Pitchfork.tv: Nine Inch Nails: Special Presentation: Live From Rehearsals Part 1: "1,000,000"
- Video: Weezer: "Creep" (Radiohead cover; live in Portland on the Hootenanny Tour)
Sun: 06-22-08
Fri: 06-20-08
- Pitchfork.tv: June 20: One Week Only: Low: You May Need a Murderer / Deerhunter / El-P / Amon Tobin
- Premiere: Bill Callahan: "John Tyler: Hindsight Falls On Deaf Ears" [Stream]
- New Old Music: Shugo Tokumaru: "Parachute" [MP3/Stream]
- New Music: The Bug [ft. Warrior Queen]: "Poison Dart"(Skream Remix)" [MP3/Stream]
- New Music: Team Robespierre: "This Feels Perfect" [MP3/Stream]
- Video: My Morning Jacket: "Touch Me I'm Going to Scream (Part 2)" (Live on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien")
- Video: Fleet Foxes: "Crayon Angels" (Judee Sill cover; live on "Black Cab Sessions")
- Video: Port O'Brien: "I Woke Up Today"
Thu: 06-19-08
- Pitchfork.tv: June 19: Animal Collective / Jamie Lidell / Ensemble [ft. Cat Power] / Tickley Feather
- New Music: Girl Talk: "Set It Off" [MP3/Stream]
- Premiere: Alias [ft. Why?]: "Well Water Black" [MP3/Stream]
- Pitchfork.tv: Andrew Bird [ft. Dianogah]: "Lull" [Video Premiere]
- New Music: Diplo: "Brew Barrymore" [MP3]
- Premiere: The Walkmen: "In the New Year" [Stream]
- New Music: System and Station: "The Magnetic North" [MP3/Stream]
Wed: 06-18-08
- Pitchfork.tv: June 18: "Daytripping" With Spank Rock / The Notwist / Xinlisupreme / Erase Errata
- WTF: The Trons: "Sister Robot" [Video]
- Video: Edwyn Collins: "Blue Boy" (Orange Juice song; live in London)
- New Music: The Broken West: "Perfect Games" [MP3/Stream]
- New Music: Don Caballero: "Bulkeye" [MP3/Stream]
- Video: Weezer: "Say It Ain't So" (Live on the "Hootenanny Tour")
- New Music: Clipse: "Fast Life" [MP3]
- New Music: Leila: "Little Acorns"
- Video: Girls: "Morning Light"
Tue: 06-17-08
- Pitchfork.tv: June 17: Sian Alice Group on "Pitchfork Live" / Mudhoney / Liars / Buddy System
- New Music: Conor Oberst: "Souled Out!!!" [Stream]
- New Music: Sally Shapiro: "Time to Let Go (CFCF Remix)" [MP3/Stream]
- New Music: Fabulous Diamonds: "Untitled #7" [MP3/Stream]
- New Music: John Matthias and Nick Ryan: "Cortical Songs (Thom Yorke Neuron Trigger RMX)" [Stream]
- New Music: The Violent Femmes: "Crazy" (Gnarls Barkley cover) [Stream]
- Video: Hercules and Love Affair: "You Belong"
- Video: Booka Shade: "Charlotte"
- Video: The Week That Was [ex-Field Music]: "Scratch the Surface"
Mon: 06-16-08
- Pitchfork.tv: June 16: Sally Shapiro / Silver Jews / Bonnie "Prince" Billy / Múm
- Video: Vampire Weekend With Andrew W.K.: "Don't Come Around Here No More" (Tom Petty cover) (Live in Central Park)
- Video: No Age: "Impossible Bouquet"
- New Music: Starfucker: "German Love" [MP3/Stream]
- Pitchfork.tv: Silver Jews: "Top Ten Redneck Moments" (Reading) / "Aloysius, Bluegrass Drummer" (Live on "Juan's Basement")
- Video: The Last Shadow Puppets: "Standing Next to Me"
- New Music: Girl Talk: "I" [Stream]
- New Music: Spoon: "Peace Like a River" (Paul Simon cover; Daytrotter Session) [MP3/ Stream]
- Video: Bon Iver: "Lump Sum" / "Flume" / "For Emma, Forever Ago" (Live on the "Take Away Show")
Fri: 06-13-08
- Pitchfork.tv: June 13: One Week Only: John Cage: Variations VII / The Books / Mice Parade
- Video: Love Is All: "I Ran (So Far Away)" (A Flock of Seagulls cover; live at the Cake Shop)
- Video: The Apples in Stereo: "The Oasis"
- Video: BPA (Fatboy Slim) [ft. David Byrne & Dizzee Rascal]: "Toe Jam"
- New Music: Megapuss (Devendra Banhart and Priestbird's Greg Rogove): "Crop Circle Jerk '94" [Stream]
- New Music: RZA as Bobby Digital [ft. David Banner]: "Straight Up the Block" [MP3/Stream]
- New Music: Missy Elliott: "Best, Best" [Stream]
- New Music: Ted Leo and the Pharmacists: "The World Is in the Turlet" [MP3]
- On Repeat: Endless Boogie: "Manly Vibe" [MP3/Stream]
Thu: 06-12-08
- Pitchfork.tv: June 12: Joanna Newsom / Ariel Pink / Isis
- New Music: She & Him: "Take It Back" / "You've Really Got a Hold on Me" / "Change Is Hard" (Live on NPR's "World Café") [Stream]
- New Music: Radio Slave: "Grindhouse (Terrence Fixmer Remix)" [Stream]
- Video: Muscles: "The Lake"
- New Music: The Cool Kids: "Unos" [MP3]
- Pitchfork.tv: Damon & Naomi: "Within These Walls" [Video Premiere]
- New Music: Abe Vigoda: "Skeleton" [MP3/Stream]
- New Music: Sizzla: "I'm Gonna to Give You Love" [MP3]
Wed: 06-11-08
- Pitchfork.tv: June 11: Titus Andronicus on "Pitchfork Live" / The Hold Steady / The Beta Band / The New Year
- New Music: Javelins: "Out on the Sand" [MP3/Stream]
- New Music: Nisennenmondai: "Pop Group" [MP3/Stream]
- Pitchfork.tv: Sunny Day Sets Fire: "Smallest Heart on Earth" [Video Premiere]
- Video: Jamie Lidell: "Another Day" (Live on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien")
- On Repeat: Vivian Girls: "Tell the World" [MP3/Stream]
- New Music: Primal Scream: "Can't Go Back" [Stream]
Tue: 06-10-08
- Pitchfork.tv: June 10: "Daytripping" With HEALTH / Animal Collective / Yeasayer
- Video: Caribou: "Hummingbird"
- New Music: Harvey Milk: "Death Goes to the Winner" [MP3/Stream]
- On Repeat: Women: "Black Rice" [MP3/Stream]
- Video: Roots Manuva: "Buff Nuff"
- New Music: Perhapst [John Moen of the Decemberists]: "'Quote'" [MP3/Stream]
- Pitchfork.tv: Ponytail: "Die Allman Bruder" [Video Premiere]
- New Music: The Rapture: "No Sex for Ben" [Stream]
Mon: 06-09-08
- Pitchfork.tv: June 9: Special Presentation With David Byrne / Aphex Twin / Teenage Jesus & the Jerks
- Premiere: Lindstrøm: "The Long Way Home (Prins Thomas Edit)" [MP3/Stream]
- On Repeat: Truckasauras: "Super Copter" [MP3/Stream]
- New Old Music: Karen Dalton: "Green Rocky Road" [Stream]
- New Music: Smart Growth: "Immigration Reform" (MP3/Stream)
- New Music: Santogold, Julian Casablancas, and Pharrell: "My Drive Thru" [MP3]
- Video: Nordpolen: "Skimret"
- Video: Radiohead: "Super Collider" (new song; live in Ireland) / "The Rip" (Portishead cover)
- Pitchfork.tv: New York Dolls: Interview With All Dolled Up Director Bob Gruen
Fri: 06-06-08
- Pitchfork.tv: New York Dolls: All Dolled Up (One Week Only)
- Pitchfork.tv: Kevin Drew: "Safety Bricks" [Video Premiere]
- New Music: Nas: "Black President" [Stream]
- Video: Doseone of Subtle: Readings and Music (Live on NPR's "Bryant Park Project")
- New Music: Adam Franklin (of Swervedriver): "Shine a Light" (Wolf Parade cover) [Stream]
- New Music: The Uglysuit: "Chicago" [MP3/Stream]
- Video: Florence and the Machine: "Kiss With a Fist"
- New Music: The Bridal Shop: "Cloudkick" [Stream]
- New Music: Lil Mama: "A Millie Freestyle" [Stream]