Pitchfork

Here's an encore presentation of Yeasayer's appearance on "Don't Look Down", filmed on a rooftop on a very cold afternoon earlier this year. Several of their best tunes are featured here in compelling live versions, including the much buzzed-about "2080", the hypnotic "Wait for the Wintertime", and the neo-tribal "Sunrise". On a cold day up there you can see forever.

"2080"

"No Need to Worry"

"Wait for the Wintertime"

"Final Path"

"Sunrise"

Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.

The stateside arrival of Japanese avant-popster Shugo Tokumaru's Exit last month on Almost Gold was welcome and long overdue. The Yusuke Koroyasu-directed video for "Parachute" has been floating around for at least a year, but it's still a fine introduction to the toy-loving singer and songwriter-- particularly if you missed his previous lighthearted albums, Night Piece and L.S.T. Chanson Sigeru's childlike but rapidly changing animations of trees, fish, stick figures, and natural phenomena accompany Tokumaru's sprightly voice, acoustic guitar, and various eccentric music-makers. A great melody keeps the whole thing from falling on its face.

Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.

[from Exit; out now on p-vine/Almost Gold ]

Life gave them Lemonade, so Delorean took it to a beach to drink. On San Francisco new-ravers Lemonade's globe-trotting self-titled debut LP, produced by Chris Coady (who has contributed to records by TV on the Radio and Blonde Redhead), "Big Weekend" rides disco-punk basslines and similarly Rapture-ous percussion through a psych-tinged miasma of wobbly synths and overlapping vocals. The remix by Spanish electro-house outfit Delorean, whose Teenagers remix is one of my 2008 favorites, is at once mellower and more blissed-out.

Lemonade singer Callan Clendenin winds up sounding like an American Muscles as he speak-sings about meeting girls on beaches-- the appropriate setting for this remix, anyway. The mood is more tropical and subdued than the hectic urban dancefloor bazaar of the original, with sustained synth chords stretching out languidly in the background. The title of Muscles' quite good 2007 debut, Guns Babes Lemonade, even suggests some directions that Lemonade could try next. Humble suggestion: Babes first. No matter how much good gun-related criminal charges have done for T.I. musically.

MP3:> Lemonade: ""Big Weekend (Delorean Remix)"
[original version from Lemonade; due 10/21/08 on True Panther]

Smiling Brooklyn keyboard-and-drums duo Matt and Kim bring electro-pop sunshine with them wherever they go, and sunshine has been pretty good to them, too. Must be the vitamin D. On jaunty new single "Daylight", Matt Johnson enthuses, "In the daylight anywhere feels like home," as Kim Schifino taps out a clattery backbeat. Directed by Micah Perta, the video shows the cheerful couple making themselves at home in all kinds of places, from cabs to dumpsters to refrigerators. Then there's a surreal stop-motion bit where they float away on an umbrella, ultimately landing back in bed. Still smiling, of course.

Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.

[from the "Daylight" single; out now on Green Light]

What better subject for Black Cab Sessions than Jens Lekman, the whimsical, melodic Swede whose "Black Cab", found on 2005's Oh You're So Silent Jens, still ranks as one of his best songs. Lekman leaves behind the the Left Banke- and Belle and Sebastian-derived orchestration of the original version to play his "Black Cab Sessions" "Black Cab" on a kalimba. The moment is reminiscent of his recent cover of Arthur Russell's sublime "A Little Lost" using the same instrument. This performance isn't quite as flawless, but it's still an inspired black-cab reworking of an evergreen tune.

[original version from Oh You're So Silent Jens; out now on Secretly Canadian]

A low-key environment suits the psychedelic pop of Department of Eagles' new In Ear Park, as we heard in a recent "DUMBO Session" and on Pitchfork.tv's "Don't Look Down". In addition to performances of the latest record's "Phantom Other", "Herring Bone" and "Balmy Night", the Brooklyn duo of Fred Nicolaus and Grizzly Bear's Daniel Rossen recorded two previously unreleased songs during a live session over at the Daytrotter studio. Nicolaus' "1997" dates back to when he was living in "a yuppie apartment on the Upper East Side that my boss had hooked me up with," so his songs tended to be more quiet; it's a reflective tune marked by dusky melisma and trebly guitar arpeggios. "What Is Your Deal?" is a volatile, Rossen-penned work in progress, perhaps indicating the influence of Grizzly Bear's Radiohead opening slot in its paranoid mantra, "Come on, man, get off it." Hey man, slow down.

MP3s/Streams:> Department of Eagles: "1997" / "What Is Your Deal?"
[In Ear Park is out now on 4AD]

Photo by Derrick Smith

"Maybe next time we could get a Neutral Milk Hotel tune?" This thought had to have run through the heads of a few NMH fans when last weekend we posted video of Jeff Mangum joining his large cast of E6 friends for some songs at the Knitting Factory. Not that the show in New York didn't look like a total blast, and not that it wasn't special having him onstage at all, and not that the Olivia Tremor Control and Elf Power don't have some great songs of their own. But still... Neutral Milk Hotel. It was something to wish for, given how rare Mangum's appearances have been, and how incredible his songs can be.

Well, it's happened: Last night in Pittsburgh, Mangum again joined his mates on the "Elephant 6 Holiday Surprise Tour", and at one point he apparently took to the floor to play the "Holland, 1945" B-side "Engine" with Julian Koster on singing saw. The video we have at this point requires some imagination. It looks like it was almost pitch black in the venue, and only a few frames in several minutes show anyone at all (these when cameras would flash). And it sounds as though a chunk of the crowd was talking through the entire performance, and their voices almost drown out Mangum's. Still, that it was documented at all is something, and inside the din there is that voice. Big thanks Derrick Smith for the tip and the photo.

Update: Derrick also sent us some video that he shot of "Engine" which, while not quite complete, has better sound. Also, it was shot from another angle that allows you to see Mangum's face when those flashes go off. It's below the YouTube-- thanks again Derrick!

Update No. 2: Third time's a charm. This would seem to be the definitive "Engine" from the Pittsburgh show.

Update No. 3: They played the song the next night in Columbus, and the audio is better still

"Engine" live in Pittsburgh

"Engine" live in Columbus

This week Pitchfork.tv is pleased to offer you our latest full-length feature in the One Week Only series, S.A. Crary's documentary Kill Your Idols. Comprised of live footage, interviews, and plenty of vintage reels, Kill Your Idols explores the art-punk scene in New York, from early Suicide performances to Sonic Youth and Teenage Jesus & the Jerks-- and ties it back to the artists carrying on the tradition today, with interviews of Liars and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs interspersed with reminiscences from Martin Rev and Thurston Moore.

The collection of music videos at Pitchfork.tv continues to expand, and in case you just can't keep up, here's a little reminder of some of the captivating clips we've uploaded recently. We got Richard Ashcroft singing at your face, a psychedelic daydream with the Chemical Brothers and Wayne Coyne, and, uh, some chicks stuffing their faces with sweets. Sweet!

The Verve: "Love Is Noise"

Laura Marling: "Night Terror"

The Chemical Brothers (ft. Wayne Coyne): "The Golden Path"

Simian Mobile Disco: "Hustler"

Temper Trap: "Sweet Disposition"

Matmos: "Exciter Lamp"

The endless succession of new and alternate Robyn videos would be easier to resist (so don't get any ideas) if she didn't have so many clever, spirited, and-- sigh-- yes, replayable songs. The Swedish pop superwoman safeguards our bodies and souls with the Ark's Ola Salo as her harmonizing sidekick on Christian Falk's "Dream On", an electropop anthem that's been re-recorded for the U.S. release of Robyn's  self-titled album. The track made our top 10 of 2006; the original video didn't even show the singers, focusing on two Stockholm teenagers instead. In the new video, Robyn is front and center, calling on us to get through our troubles through her power of song. It's like something out of that WFMU "Peanuts" strip.

[Robyn is out now on Konichiwa/Interscope]