Pitchfork

Marriage may be "what brings us together," as the clergyman in The Princess Bride (the movie and the Cloud Cult song both) so memorably phrased it. But as anybody who knows anything about the human condition will tell you, that ain't always the case. I've already called nuptials-related bummer "Cath" the best song on Death Cab for Cutie's latest LP, Narrow Stairs, and this is the straightforward yet affecting video the track deserves. Ben Gibbard and his bandmates all sit mouthing the lyrics, but the focus is, rightly, on a church scene like the one so vividly depicted in the song. For me, the visuals complement the ones the lyrics had already put in my head. The clip also fleshes out the narrator's role by showing a nervous-looking young man looking on as the not-so-happy bride does the wrong thing, the same thing he'd have done. Elaine! Elaine! Son of a bitch.

Video:> Death Cab for Cutie: "Cath"
[from Narrow Stairs; out now on Atlantic]

Broken Social Scene's Brendan Canning, soon embarking on a solo excursion, awakens from uneasy dreams to find himself lying on a bed in the middle of the woods. He's got all of his clothes on, so things could certainly be worse, but the things he sees in the forest are definitely the stuff of Donnie Darko-style nightmares. Eventually, he'll be very glad he's wearing a tracksuit.

[from Something for All of Us...; due 07/22/08 on Arts&Crafts.

Wale took "Seinfeld" as inspiration on his recent Mixtape About Nothing, and on "The Kramer", the D.C. rapper bookends a discussion of racism and the use of "n-word" with both Michael Richards' infamous nightclub rant and his subsequent apology on the "Late Show With David Letterman". "The Kramer" could be a sequel to A Tribe Called Quest's "Sucka Nigga", not just in content but in tone because, like Q-Tip, Wale avoids black-and-white terms in his dissection of race and language. Most Wale tracks are funnier than this one, but few are as moving.

MP3:> Wale: "The Kramer"
[from The Mixtape About Nothing; out now]

Here are three proven ways to make any song sound more exciting: 1. During the intro, breathe rhythmically into the microphone. 2. While singing, yell whoo! anywhere you might use a comma, the more staccato the better. 3. Be sure to include a barely discernible shout-out near the bridge.

The Sammies not only check off all three on this compact rave-up from their upcoming sophomore album, Sandwich (out in September on MoRisen, and who vetoed Samwich?), but they sound like they wrote the song around these elements. Bobby Freedom's ecstatically snappy riffing sounds like he's trying to make up for that last Strokes album, and Frank Backgammon's excitable vocals make "pissed off and broke as hell" seem like an attractive lifestyle choice. Coming across these days like a more nuanced Whigs rather than a bar-band Futureheads, the Sammies have managed to refine their sound without losing any of its loser glory. Whoo!

MP3:> The Sammies: "Glisten"
[from Sandwich; due 09/23/08 on MoRisen]

We continue our march toward the 2008 Pitchfork Music Festival with more visual recaps of last year's big bash. Starting us off is GZA, who brought a sizable crew that included later Wu inductee Cappadonna to rip through Liquid Swords. Here, they perform "Duel of the Iron Mic", some of them clad in special t-shirts made for the event. I said it then, and I'll say it again: I want one of those shirts.



Next up is a smooth little mid-afternoon run through the Junior Boys’ groovy “Under the Sun”. An appropriate tune for the balmy (but breezy!) summer setting; the band’s onstage getups, perhaps less so.

The New Pornographers closed their set out with a performance of "The Bleeding Heart Show", from 2005's Twin Cinema. Frontman Carl Newman starts the video by dedicating the song to "the yelling girl from the front row."

Next up is a group who'll be making their way toward this year's Pitchfork Music Festival, Fleet Foxes. The Seattle based country folkers turn in a claymation clip from their self-titled debut's "White Winter Hymnal" directed by Sean Pecknold, brother of the Foxes' own Robin Pecknold.

Finally, UK hip hopper Roots Manuva turns in a hyperkinetic, hypercolor clip for "Buff Nuff" from his forthcoming Slime and Reason LP. Everybody involved gets hopped up on sweet cream, and everybody winds up good and messy. Sounds like summer to us.

We heard from Brooklyn duo Department of Eagles a little over a year ago, but now they've done signed themselves a new record deal, and the follow-up to their 2003 debut The Cold Nose finally has a name and release date: In Ear Park will hit the streets October 8 on 4AD. In case you've forgotten, the Department is a collaboration between Grizzly Bear's Daniel Rossen and Fred Nicolaus; for their second album two other Grizzlies, Chris Bear and Chris Taylor (a former neighbor to Rossen and Nicolaus) have been brought on for various production duties and instrumentation. The title track here sounds like something you'd expect from three-fourths of Grizzly Bear: atmospheric production quality that conjures images of antiqued wood, gently strummed acoustic guitars swirling around an empty room, and a psychedelic waltz-time piano breakdown with breathy harmonies that could have come out of a Fleet Foxes tune.




MP3:> Department of Eagles: "In Ear Park"
[from In Ear Park; due 10/08/08 on 4AD]

Bloc Party debuted their new single, "Mercury", on BBC's Radio One today, and both the choppy song and its video are online now. The song "may or may not" appear on the band's third album, according to Billboard.com.

The video turns from a fun Planet of the Apes-style Frankenstein experiment into some sort of comment on U.S. government about halfway through. Seriously, dudes? If we wanted to see a fantastical vision of the future, we'd go see WALL-E (and we will).

Stream:> Bloc Party: "Mercury"
[from the "Mercury" single; due 08/11/08 on Atlantic]

In which Mariah Carey rides a dolphin and looks good doing it. The song's laidback beat, syncopated piano, occasional ascending strings, and pleasant T.I. verse make "I'll Be Lovin' U Long Time" a pretty perfect roller rink jam, and that's not even mentioning the fact that Carey hilariously makes a catchy chorus out of a reference to the "me so horny" line from Full Metal Jacket. At the very least, it's a nice breather in between repeat listens of "Love in This Club".

[from E=MC2; out now on Island]

Like Clipse, Killer Mike is one of those rappers whose rhyming abilities far outstrip his marketing abilities. It took three years for Mike's second LP for Sony, Ghetto Extraordinary, to come out-- for free, on the internet. "10 G's", from his forthcoming I Pledge Allegiance to the Grind II, puts Mike's fiery verses over a slowed-down Notorious B.I.G. sample, gliding organs, and a rhythm as abrasive as his delivery. "Like Pimp C and Bun B, I'm an underground king," he says over the sound of an explosion. If "10 G's" lacks the righteous passion of 2005's "That's Life", a topical verbal barrage from the first I Pledge Allegiance to the Grind, it offers some hope that when the new album drops, a few cash registers will be ringing for Killer Mike.

Stream:> Killer Mike: "10 G's"
[from I Pledge Allegiance to the Grind II; due 07/08/08 on Grind Time/SMC Recordings]

Here’s an appropriately alluring clip for "White Winter Hymnal", a clear standout from Fleet Foxes' recent self-titled debut LP. Forkcasting the tune way back in January, Pitchfork contributor Stephen M. Deusner mentioned his awe that the "surprisingly short" song still could "manage to pack an entire winter and part of summer in these two and a half minutes." The video draws on that same passage of time, as the moments from the white winter through the summer’s strawberries sail by on the spin of a wheel. It's always fun to see what a character exerting some agency on a natural process actually does with the power, and it looks like this guy's got some ideas. Besides, if ever there was a band who could stand to be just a bit more animated, it might just be this band. This lovingly crafted affair was put together by director Sean Pecknold, brother of lead Fox Robin.

[from Fleet Foxes; out now on Sub Pop]