Pitchfork

The second part of Pitchfork.tv's look at the making of Microcastle is up today. Yesterday we talked creative process with the band as they worked with Nicolas Vernhes in Rare Book Room Studio, and today we get the inside scoop on the creation of "Saved by Old Times". Cole Alexander of the Black Lips contributes vocals to the track via instant messaging (he also sends a dirty photo, prankster that he is, so this one might be NSFW) in what could well be the first intercontinental recording collaboration via iChat. We also learn that Bradford Cox does a pretty fair impression of the B-52's Fred Schneider.

Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.

Max Tundra, the man who observed (correctly) that our parallax error would beheads us, is currently touring with Hot Chip. And he's so excited about it, apparently, that he decided to take "Playboy" from their album Coming On Strong, and make it his own. And does he ever. Domino is giving the track away, but you've gotta sign up for an account at their store to get it.

MP3:> Max Tundra: "Playboy"

Directed by Jess Holzworth and prominently featuring a heavily made-up Chloe Sevigny, this MySpace-exclusive video for Beck's "Gamma Ray" (plugging an upcoming "Beckumentary"-- eat your heart out, Errol Morris) keeps with the psych-kissed simplicity favored for past clips from Modern Guilt (including the earlier one for the same song). We had the title track here a few weeks back. 

[from Modern Guilt; out now on XL/ Interscope]

If you don't think UK dance-pop outfit Friendly Fires were made for love, Belgian electronic duo Aeroplane give "Paris" one more chance. The result is a whole helluva lot better than Billy Crystal-as-NBA-ref 1990s romantic comedy Forget Paris, I can tell you that-- even if this doesn't have Charles Barkley. Synth-savoring Brooklyn indie-poppers Au Revoir Simone add smoky, yearning vocals to make the original's strobe-lit new rave (released as a single last year on Moshi Moshi, and also on Friendly Fires' 2008 self-titled debut LP for XL) more like the sultry Kylie Minogue nu-pop hit that was hiding beneath all those DFA-style cowbells.

Aeroplane's string of excellent remix and original work this year has shown no trouble putting a mesmerizing pop face on gorgeously produced slo-mo house bodies. In this case, they bring the original's flickering synths out from the indie dance-club to someplace where you can probably overlook the city skyline: They open up the beat, getting rid of the clattering live drums to emphasize handclaps, synth strings, and distorted tendrils of guitar, over a cosmic disco pulse. "I'll find you that French boy, you'll find me that French girl," Au Revoir Simone intone, as they make tantalizing promises of endless starlit nights-- starting this time next year. My cherie amour, I will wait for you.

MP3:> Friendly Fires: "Paris (Aeroplane Remix)"
[original version from Friendly Fires; out now on XL]

As instrumental rock bands with strings go, Portland's Talkdemonic have always been more subtle than most, letting chord changes and melodic variation rather than soul-crushing climaxes do most of the emotional heavy lifting. This more low-key and thoughtful approach extends to this video for "Duality of Deathening", by director Orie Weeks, for a track from their new album Eyes at Half Mast. A robot dreams of humanity and does a little research into what exactly that means, and the screen becomes a shifting collage of cool images pulled from all over the place. Gold star for robot boy.

Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.

[from Eyes at Half Mast; out now on Arena Rock]

It doesn't get any more multimedia than this. "Monkey Bee" is a track from Journey to the West, the album accompiament to the opera staged by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett of Gorillaz fame (which opera is based on a 16th century Chinese novel), and Hewlett has created a short film to go with it. I've no idea where this segment fits in the overall story, but the lush and lavish art direction is stunning.

[from Journey to the West; out now XL]

Coldcut have been at this sort of thing for a long time (going back much further than 2002, when they made "Revolution" to coincide with the 2002 elections in the UK) and this sort of media-barrage clip, created in collaboration with TV Sheriff, doesn't have the same sort of force it once did. Still, there's something clever about how it compresses two years of this endless election into 5 minutes and 48 seconds. If you've been sitting the whole thing out (and if so, you're much happier than I am), here is your chance to catch up.

If there's anyone who could hold a clinic on remixing, it's the DFA. Alternately, they could just remix Clinic. The foot-stomping, string-bending, harmonica-blowing psych-blues of "Tomorrow", from this year's Do It!, mostly falls away on this remix by the DFA's Tim Goldsworthy. Lead singer Ade Blackburn stays, his whisper given some robotic doubles. We also get a squishy synth-bass groove, droning strings somewhere between a James Bond theme and "A Day in the Life", tight but live-sounding drumming, and, OK, some low-down 1970s Southern-style funk guitar. 'Cause tomorrow never knows. (The remix is from the brand-new "Tomorrow" single, released to coincide with the launch of Clinic's "Planetarium of Sound" tour with animator Clemens Habicht.)

[from the "Tomorrow" single (digital-only in the U.S.); out now on Domino]

Summing up Deerhunter's output to date in his review of the fine two-fer Microcastle / Weird Era Cont., Marc Hogan writes, " If Cryptograms brutalized the pop ideal like a guitar-wielding David Lynch, leaving the follow-up Fluorescent Grey EP an exquisite corpse, then Microcastle resurrects it, scar tissue and all. The resulting 2xCD set captures urgent and imaginative songs that reorganize 4AD haze, off-kilter indie pop, crashing garage-punk, forward-leaning krautrock, and hypnotic Kranky ambience into a singular-sounding call-to-arms." In April of this year, Pitchfork.tv spent some time with Deerhunter while they were recording Microcastle at Nicolas Vernhes' Rare Book Room Studio in Brooklyn. For this episode of "In the Studio", we spoke to Vernhes and the band about the creative process and how this album came together, and Part 1 includes footage from the recording of "Agoraphobia", "Calvary Scars", and "Nothing Ever Happened". Check back tomorrow for more.

Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.

Either this man doesn't want to pay you alimony, or he's going to beat you until you're dead. That's what the title suggested to me about "I Wanna Deadbeat You", a fast-paced punk rocker from the Night Marchers, the new San Diego-based band led by John Reis (Hot Snakes, Drive Like Jehu, Rocket From the Crypt). The track itself is aggressive but not brutal, swearing off depressants in favor of records, over driving guitars and rapidly ricocheting drums. "Everything is boring when I'm not with you," Reis complains. The video shows the Night Marchers performing (not marching), interspersed with shots of waves breaking in the ocean.

[from See You in Magic; out now on Vagrant]