Pitchfork.tv: Love: One Week Only: Love Story
Reviewing a reissue of the band Love's immortal third album, Pitchfork's Stephen M. Deusner noted, "Already veterans of the local scene when they released their third and best album, Love captured the city in all its grizzled glory on Forever Changes-- or, rather, Arthur Lee did. A charismatic black singer/songwriter in a mixed-race band but a generally white scene, he had soured on the hippies and sunshine mentality, and instead saw the Vietnam War, his friends' drug addictions, and the end of the world." The 2006 documentary Love Story offers a detailed portrait of the legendary band, and includes extensive interviews with the late Arthur Lee, as well as words from his former bandmates and observers like John Densmore of the Doors and Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream. The DVD can be purchased from Start Productions.
Pitchfork.tv: Anathallo / Centro-Matic / Faun Fables / The Sea and Cake: Archived Videos Round-up
Videos added to the Pitchfork.tv archive this week include a few newer ones. The clip for Anathallo's "Bells", a song from their upcoming album on Anticon, begins with a pattern of the titular sounds and sets them flashes of color in a dark space. Centro-Matic performs "Rat Patrol and DJs" on a gritty porch, and then Drag City band Faun Fables get a whole lot weirder in the video for "With Words and Cake", as a deranged scene in a nightmarish kitchen plays out. Finally, we have some vintage footage of Chicago's the Sea and Cake doing their classic "Parasol".
Anathallo: "Bells"
Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.
Centro-Matic: "Rat Patrol and DJs"
Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.
Faun Fables: "With Words and Cake"
Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.
The Sea and Cake: "Parasol" (live)
Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.
New Music: Mos Def: "Life in Marvelous Times" [Stream]
"May you live in interesting times," goes the saying traditionally attributed to a Chinese curse. Mos Def has a better idea. On Election Day digital single "Life in Marvelous Times", from forthcoming Downtown record The Ecstatic, he argues that "we are alive in amazing times," backed by martial horn fanfares and widescreen blip-swoops aiming (I guess) for something marvelous. First the Brooklyn rapper takes us back to "the pre-crack era... Bed-Stuy '82... Bucktown...", with simple, effective storytelling. "Great heavens, good grief"? Not so marvelous. The sung chorus I'll have to percolate for a while. As Mos Def looks to bounce back from the 2007's embattled True Magic, though, he can take comfort in the fact that he's not cursed. AS FAR AS WE KNOW. Over to you, News. (via RCRD LBL)
Stream:> Mos Def: "Life in Marvelous Times"
[from The Ecstatic; forthcoming on Downtown]
New Music: Love Is All: "Wishing Well" [Video/MP3]
Bonus: Posted this video a while ago, but the mp3 is available now, so dig in.
Who's down for a little sax on the beach? Love Is All take to the sands of Ravenna (Italy, not Ohio, judging by the presence of beach) in this fun, frolicsome lo-fi video for "Wishing Well". Opening with a roll of the drums and a hazy keyboard line with a striking resemblance to the main riff on the Clean's brilliant "Tally Ho", the track appears on the Swedish indie-poppers' recent Wishing Well + 5 EP as well as their forthcoming A Hundred Things Keep Me Up at Night, follow-up to 2005's superb Nine Times That Same Song. Lead singer Josephine Olausson explains: "Yes I know it's silly and out of sync. And that there's a band aid on my nose from hitting the wall the previous day." Great, another worry to keep her up at night: walls, the stationary menace.
MP3:> Love Is All: "Wishing Well"
[from A Hundred Things Keep Me Up at Night; due 11/11/08 on What's Your Rupture?]]
New Music: 100 Suns (Massive Attack) vs. Snoop Dogg: "Calling Mumia" [Stream]
You asked for it-- um, didn't you?-- and now Massive Attack (well, members 3D and Daddy G under the 100 Suns alias they use for soundtrack work) and Snoop Dogg have created the collaboration you've all been waiting for. No, not M.I.A.'s baby, it's a stormy, groove-governed new song about Mumia Abu Jamal, "Calling Mumia" (from the soundtrack to In Prison My Whole Life, opening in the UK this weekend). Snoop's delivery is, as usual, smoothly emphatic, even if he can't always avoid the kind of stupidly obvious lyric required of this whole "Hurricane" genre of protest song: "It's sad, cause a man lost his life/ Family's cryin', witnesses lyin'." Sort of, like... are you even tryin'?
Overall, though, Snoop somehow shows more cultural awareness and linguistic nimbleness than he spread across almost all of Ego Trippin' (I kind of love "Sexual Eruption", though). "I got a lot to say," he says, and know what-- he does. Wha? ...Snoop Dogg?? Hey, his little quasi-ad libs are pretty nice, too: "Tell my homey Jamal/ Whattup, whattup man."
100 Suns' arrangement surrounds a throbbing bassline with Return to Cookie Mountain guitar squall. Snoop starts shouting, but backing vocals about being back against the wall stay soft and stoned. Man, if I had any ideas of my own maybe I could do something other than quote Jonathan Richman lyrics this CMJ week: "So join Nelson Mandela and Susan Sarandon/ Join Harry Belafonte, yes, the list goes on and on/ And protest with a letter, or maybe a phone call/ For there on death row stands Abu Jamal." Hey Mumia, Snoop called. He says whattup.
Stream:> 100 Suns (Massive Attack) vs. Snoop Dogg: "Calling Mumia"
[from the In Prison My Whole Life OST; movie opening this weekend in the UK]
New Music: Eddy Current Suppression Ring: "Which Way to Go" [MP3/Video]
For a song that deals so directly with indecision, "Which Way to Go" hardly sounds wracked. ECSR, belying Brendan Suppression's paralytic stammer, surge forward, never bothering to settle on a destination, let alone ask for directions. And for raw power, these Melbourne-based Aussies aren't afraid to go straight to the source as they channel the Stooges back catalogue. Beneath the Motor City roar, there are subtler nods to the Fall and Sonic Youth, but "Which Way" hardly lends itself to careful scrutiny-appealing instead to more instinctual pleasures. "As easy as it can be, hand it on over to me," demands Brendan S. Pity those who would dare resist.
MP3:> Eddy Current Suppression Ring: "Which Way to Go"
Bonus: Here's a video of the track.
[from Primary Colours; out now on Goner]
New Music: Jonathan Johansson: "En hand i himlen" [MP3]
Yes, there's more than enough room in your life for another sensitive Swede reviving early-1980s new romantic sounds, especially if said Swede has heart firmly clasped to sleeve and hand reaching so valiantly to heaven as Jonathan Johansson. On "En hand i himlen" (which translates to "A Hand in Heaven"), the Stockholm-based electronic artist, whose debut is slated for February on Hybris, harnesses soft vocals and dreamy synths (think A Flock of Seagulls' "Wishing") to a particularly dramatic electric drum and a pulsing bassline (think New Order's... any song). The son of a preacher, Johansson spent three years recording songs in a bunker to get the right sound. "In hand i himlen" is nothing you'd call new, but damned if he doesn't make it all sound freshly autumnal, another ideal song for another overcast day.
MP3:> Jonathan Johansson: "En hand i himlen"
[from a single, out now, and forthcoming album; both on Hybris]
Pitchfork.tv: My Brightest Diamond: Live on "Don't Look Down" Part 2
Oh, what a place for My Brightest Diamond to play "From the Top of the World". Fronting a string quartet and strumming the guitar, Shara Worden looks looks like a pretty commanding figure singing this particular song on a rooftop. For "Black & Costaud", she slips into her Lotte Lenya mode and transforms the setting into a Weimar Republic cabaret. No mean feat. In case you missed, it, here's Part 1.
"From the Top of the World"
Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.
"Black & Costaud"
Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.
[A Thousand Shark's Teeth is out now on Asthmatic Kitty]
New Music: Alexis Taylor (of Hot Chip): "Coming Up" (Paul McCartney cover) [MP3]
Photo by Kathryn Yu
Alexis Taylor of Hot Chip snuck out an album called Rubbed Out and, as Pitchfork news reported, it's a low-key affair all around, created in "places, planes, hotel rooms, and at home" by Taylor. The blog Slutty Fringe has an mp3 of "Coming Up" (<--be sure to check that vid), the Paul McCartney cover found on the record. The gold standard for re-workings of this particular song is Max Tundra's unhinged version, found on his Remixes & Interpretations 1998-2005 CD-R, but Taylor opts for a completely different approach, turning the tune into a warmly sweet ballad with some fuzzily overdriven electric guitar serving as virtually the only accompaniment. Great song any way you slice it. (Slutty Fringe, via Fader)
MP3:> Alexis Taylor: "Coming Up"
[from Rubbed Out; out now on Treader]
New Music: Lily Allen: "Everyone's At It"
A few sites are reporting that "Everyone's At It", now streaming at Lily Allen's MySpace, will be the first single from her forthcoming album It's Not Me, It's You; I can't confirm that, but I can say it stacks up very well next to recent MySpace streams "I Don't Know", "I Could Say", and "Who'd of Known". There's a punchy beat here and finally a bit of energy, as she sings about the perils of a self-destructive lifestyle ("I'm not trying to say that I'm smelling of roses/ But when will we tire of putting shit up our noses." Uh..., never?) The lyrics are preachy, but I guess that's where she's at these days. A video for the song was apparently shot recently. "everyones at it ............... except for me," she adds on her MySpace blog.
Stream:> Lily Allen: "Everyone's At It"
[expected to be on It's Not Me, It's You; forthcoming from Capitol]
Forkcast Playlist
Other Recent Downloads
Fri: 10-24-08
- Pitchfork.tv: Love: One Week Only: Love Story
- Pitchfork.tv: Anathallo / Centro-Matic / Faun Fables / The Sea and Cake: Archived Videos Round-up
- New Music: Mos Def: "Life in Marvelous Times" [Stream]
- New Music: Love Is All: "Wishing Well" [Video/MP3]
- New Music: 100 Suns (Massive Attack) vs. Snoop Dogg: "Calling Mumia" [Stream]
- New Music: Eddy Current Suppression Ring: "Which Way to Go" [MP3/Video]
- New Music: Jonathan Johansson: "En hand i himlen" [MP3]
Thu: 10-23-08
- Pitchfork.tv: My Brightest Diamond: Live on "Don't Look Down" Part 2
- New Music: Alexis Taylor (of Hot Chip): "Coming Up" (Paul McCartney cover) [MP3]
- New Music: Lily Allen: "Everyone's At It"
- New Music: The Decemberists: "O New England" [Stream]
- New Music: CSS: "Beautiful Song (Remix)" [Stream]
- Video: RZA as Bobby Digital [ft. Thea van Seijen and Monk]: "Drama"
- Video: Beach House: "Used to Be" (Live on a beach in Australia for "Shoot the Player")
Wed: 10-22-08
- Pitchfork.tv: My Brightest Diamond: Live on "Don't Look Down" Part 1
- Pitchfork.tv: Rio En Medio: "Umbrella" [Video Premiere]
- Video: Deerhoof: "Family of Others"
- Video: The Verve: "Rather Be"
- New Music: Eric Copeland (of Black Dice): "Alien in a Garbage Dump" [MP3/Stream]
- Pitchfork.tv: Stephen Malkmus: "Gardenia" [Video Premiere]
- New Music: Guns 'N Roses: "Chinese Democracy" [Stream]
- Premiere: The Homosexuals: "Slow Guns" [MP3/Stream]
Tue: 10-21-08
- Pitchfork.tv: Cut Copy: Live at Studio B
- Pitchfork.tv: Danielson: "Idiot Boksen" [Video Premiere]
- Pitchfork.tv: Tobacco: "Truck Sweat" [Video Premiere]
- New Music: Iran (incl. TVOTR's Kyp Malone): "Buddy" [MP3/Stream]
- Video: Of Montreal: "Id Engager" / "An Eluardian Instance" / "Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse" (Live on "Bandstand Busking")
- Video: Feist: "Honey Honey"
- Premiere: Flaming Lips: "Space Bible With Volume Lumps" [Stream]
- New Music: Shrag: "Forty Five 45s" [MP3/Stream]
Mon: 10-20-08
- Pitchfork.tv: Yeasayer: Live on "Don't Look Down"
- Pitchfork.tv: Shugo Tokumaru: "Parachute" [Video]
- New Music: Lemonade: "Big Weekend (Delorean Remix)" [MP3/Stream]
- Pitchfork.tv: Matt and Kim: "Daylight" [Video]
- Video: Jens Lekman: "Black Cab" (Live on "Black Cab Sessions")
- New Music: Department of Eagles: "1997" / "What Is Your Deal?" (unreleased songs; Daytrotter session) [MP3s/Streams]
Sun: 10-19-08
Fri: 10-17-08
- Pitchfork.tv: One Week Only: Kill Your Idols
- Pitchfork.tv: Simian Mobile Disco / The Chemical Brothers / Matmos / The Verve and more: Archived Videos Round-up
- Video: Christian Falk [ft. Robyn]: "Dream On"
- Video Premiere: Beck: "Modern Guilt"
- Pitchfork.tv: The Week That Was: "Learn to Learn" [Video Premiere]
- Video: Lykke Li: "Breaking It Up" (Alternate Video)
- New Music: ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead: "The Bells of Creation (Machete Mix)" [Stream]
- New Music: Windsurf: "Pocket Check" [MP3/Stream]
- On Repeat: Arthur Russell: "Maybe She" [Stream]
Thu: 10-16-08
- Pitchfork.tv: M.I.A.: Interview Part 2
- New Music: Coldplay [ft. Jay-Z]: "Lost +" [MP3]
- Pitchfork.tv: That Ghost: "Open Windows" [Video Premiere/Bonus MP3]
- Video: Islands: "Creeper"
- Pitchfork.tv: The Octopus Project: "I Saw the Bright Shinies" [Video Premiere]
- Video: The Privates [ft. The Walkmen's Hamilton Leithauser]: "Thinking of a Dream I Had"
- New Music: Eminem: "I'm Having a Relapse" [MP3]
- New Music: Kanye West: "Heartless (Unmastered)" [MP3/Stream]
Wed: 10-15-08
- Pitchfork.tv: M.I.A.: Interview Part 1
- Video: Fucked Up and Moby: "Blitzkrieg Bop" (Ramones cover; live in New York)
- On Repeat: Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit: "Boyz" (M.I.A. remix) / "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" (Vampire Weekend cover) [MP3s]
- Video: Kanye West: "Love Lockdown" (Live on "Jimmy Kimmel Live")
- Pitchfork.tv: Man Man: "Hurly/Burly" [Tour Video]
- New Music: Of Montreal with Andrew VanWyngarden of MGMT: "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (Nirvana cover; live in New York) [MP3]
- New Music: Christina Carter: "Hidden Man" [MP3/Stream]
Tue: 10-14-08
- Pitchfork.tv: Stereolab: Interview Part 2
- Pitchfork.tv: Passion Pit: "Sleepyhead" [Video Premiere]
- Video: Q-Tip: "Move"
- Video: Radiohead: "A Wolf at the Door" [live]
- Pitchfork.tv: Of Montreal: "Id Engager" [Video Premiere]
- Video: Robyn: "With Every Heartbeat" (Live in Brussels)
- Premiere: Blackout Beach (Carey Mercer of Frog Eyes): "Cloud of Evil" [MP3/Stream]
Mon: 10-13-08
- New Music: Björk [ft. Thom Yorke]: "Nattura" [Stream]
- Pitchfork.tv: Stereolab: Interview Part 1
- New Music: Smashing Pumpkins: "G.L.O.W." [Stream]
- New Music: Pallers: "Humdrum" [MP3/Stream]
- Pitchfork.tv: Apollo Sunshine: "Singing To The Earth (To Thank Her For You)" [Video Premiere]
- New Music: Pit Er Pat: "Evacuation Days" [MP3/Stream]
- Video: Britney Spears: "Womanizer"
- Videos: Beyoncé: "If I Were a Boy" / "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)"
- New Music: Roots Manuva: "Let the Spirit (Hot Chip Remix)" [Stream]
Fri: 10-10-08
- Pitchfork.tv: Liars: One Week Only: Drum's Not Bread
- Pitchfork.tv: Animal Collective / Cool Kids / Sébastien Tellier / Low / Max Tundra and more: Archived Videos Round-up
- New Music: Tunde Adebimpe: "Unknown Legend" (Neil Young cover) [Stream]
- New Music: DJ Earworm: "Reckoner Lockdown" (Radiohead vs. Kanye West) [MP3/Stream]
- Video: MGMT: "The Youth"
- Pitchfork.tv: Bound Stems: "Sugar City Magic" [Video]
- New Music: DM Stith: "Just Once" [MP3/Stream]
- Video: Beck: "Gamma Ray" (Live on "Late Show With David Letterman")
- Video: Fucked Up: "Twice Born" (Live on "MTV Live")
- New Music: M.I.A. [ft. Jay-Z and Wale]: "Boyz" (Remixes) [MP3s]
- Video: No Age: "Eraser" (Live on "Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson")
- Video: Department of Eagles: "Herring Bone" (DUMBO Session)
- New Music: Juelz Santana & Lil Wayne: "I Can't Feel My Face" [MP3]
Thu: 10-09-08
- Pitchfork.tv: Fuck Buttons: Live From Juan's Basement Part 2
- Video: Robyn: "Cobrastyle"
- Pitchfork.tv: Japanese Motors: "Single Fins & Safety Pins" [Video]
- Video: 77Klash [ft. Johnny Osbourne]: "Mad Again (Whoa!)"
- New Music: Lil Wayne and the Roots: "A Milli" (Live in Miami) [MP3]
- On Repeat: The Notwist: "Boneless (Panda Bear Remix)" [Stream]
- Premiere: Asobi Seksu: "Me & Mary" [Stream]
- Video: Kanye West: "Love Lockdown" (Live on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show")
- Video: Cadence Weapon: "Real Estate"
Wed: 10-08-08
- Pitchfork.tv: Fuck Buttons: Live From Juan's Basement Part 1
- Video: Lou Reed [ft. Antony Hegarty]: "Caroline Says, Pt. II"
- On Repeat: The Temper Trap: "Sweet Disposition (Curtis Vodka Remix)" [MP3/Stream]
- New Music: The Lucksmiths: "A Sobering Thought (Just When One Was Needed)" [MP3/Stream]
- Video: Tegan and Sara: "Call It Off" (Live on "Late Show with David Letterman")
- Video: Kaiser Chiefs: "Good Days Bad Days" [fan video]
- Video: Air France: "Windmill Wedding"
- New Music: Atlas Sound: "Coffin Trick" [MP3]
- New Music: Deerhoof: "Chandelier Searchlight" [Video/MP3]
Tue: 10-07-08
- Pitchfork.tv: Department of Eagles: Live on "Don't Look Down" Part 2
- Pitchfork.tv: Mercury Rev: "Butterfly's Wing" [Video Premiere]
- New Music: Heartbreak: "We're Back" [Stream]
- Pitchfork.tv: Benoît Pioulard: "Ragged Tint" [Video Premiere]
- Video: Kanye West: "Love Lockdown"
- Video: Weezer: "Troublemaker"
- New Old Music: Arctic Monkeys: "The View From the Afternoon" (Live in Texas)
Mon: 10-06-08
- Pitchfork.tv: Department of Eagles: Live on "Don't Look Down" Part 1
- New Music: The Fireman [Paul McCartney & Youth]: "Nothing Too Much Just Out of Sight" [MP3/Stream]
- Video: Jay Reatard: "See/Saw" (Live on "The Interface")
- Videos: TV on the Radio: "Golden Age" / "Dancing Choose" (Live on "Later... With Jools Holland")
- Video: Fleet Foxes: "Silver City" (new song; live in New York)
- Video: Kanye West: "Heartless" (new song; live in L.A.)
- New Music: Japanese Motors: "Spendin' Days" [MP3/Stream]
Fri: 10-03-08
- Pitchfork.tv: Cornelius: One Week Only: Sensurround
- Premiere: Andrew Bird: "Oh No" [Stream]
- Pitchfork.tv: Hot Chip / Fleet Foxes / Okkervil River / Sic Alps: Archived Videos Round-up
- Premiere: Fennesz: "Saffron Revolution" [Stream]
- Pitchfork.tv: Gang Gang Dance: "House Jam" (Live in Tokyo) [Video Premiere]
- Video: Cut Copy: "Lights & Music" (Live on "Last Call With Carson Daly")
- Pitchfork.tv: No Age, Deerhunter, High Places, Erase Errata, Abe Vigoda, Barr, Xiu Xiu, Mika Miko, and many more: Post-Present Medium: New Video Works
- New Music: Davila 666: "Dimelo Ya" [MP3/Stream]
Thu: 10-02-08
- Video: Eagles of Death Metal: "Wannabe in LA"
- Video: Department of Eagles: "No One Does It Like You" (Live on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien")
- New Music: Annie: "Two of Hearts" (Stacey Q cover) [MP3]
- New Music: Jóhann Jóhannsson: "The Rocket Builder" [MP3/Stream]
- New Music: Golden Triangle: "Night Brigade" [MP3/Stream]
- On Repeat: Passion Pit: "Smile Upon Me" [Stream]
Wed: 10-01-08
- Pitchfork.tv: Vivian Girls: Live in Brooklyn at the Market Hotel
- Video: Radiohead: "Reckoner"
- Pitchfork.tv: Final Fantasy: "The Butcher" [Video Premiere]
- New Music: Mighty Mi / Steve1der: "Electric-Touch" (Kanye West / MGMT vs. Justice mashup) [Stream]
- On Repeat: Amadou and Mariam [prod. by Damon Albarn]: "Sabali" [Stream]
- Video: Marissa Nadler: "Famous Blue Raincoat" (Leonard Cohen cover)
- Video: Ratatat: "Shempi"
Tue: 09-30-08
- Pitchfork.tv: Broken Social Scene: Live from Juan's Basement Part 2
- Video: Marnie Stern: "Transformer"
- On Repeat: Crystal Stilts: "Shattered Shine" [MP3/Stream]
- Video: Of Montreal: "Du Og Meg" (acoustic; Daytrotter Session)
- Video: Department of Eagles: "1997" (new song; live in studio in Brooklyn)
- Video: Lykke Li and Bon Iver: "Dance Dance Dance" (live in L.A., acoustic)
- Video: Alicia Keys and Jack White: "Another Way to Die"
- New Music: The Decemberists: "Valerie Plame" [Stream]
- Pitchfork.tv: Antony and the Johnsons: "Another World" [Video Premiere]
Mon: 09-29-08
- Pitchfork.tv: Broken Social Scene: Live from Juan's Basement Part 1
- New Music: Cotton Jones: "Original Bones" [MP3/Stream]
- Video: Fleet Foxes: "He Doesn't Know Why"
- Video: The New Pornographers: "Mutiny, I Promise You"
- Pitchfork.tv: Wye Oak: "Please Concrete" [Video Premiere]
- New Music: Titus Andronicus: "Waking Up Drunk" (Spider Bags cover; Daytrotter Session) [MP3/Stream]
- New Music: The Sight Below: "Dour" [MP3/Stream]
Sat: 09-27-08
Fri: 09-26-08
- Video: TV on the Radio: "Dancing Choose"
- On Repeat: Hauschka : "Freibad" [MP3/Stream]
- Video: Coldplay: "Lost" (Live)
- New Music: Linfinity: "Seasaw Love" [MP3/Stream]
- Video: Okkervil River: "Lost Coastlines"
- Videos: The Walkmen: "Four Provinces" / "I Lost You" (Live on the "Take Away Show")
- New Music: Codebreaker [ft. Kathy Diamond]: "Fire" [MP3]