Pitchfork

Should we brace ourselves for an onslaught of Flying V's? Will Transylvania suddenly be the new Seattle? Like old people when Kennedy was shot, old young people on 9/11, or Stephen Colbert people on the day they found out Kanye West didn't not care about them after all, I'll never forget where I was when I got the news that San Diego lo-fi dude Wavves' (two v's) next full-length will be called Wavvves (three v's): right here, listening to the latest single from English lo-fi dudes Lovvers (two v's).

With a thick layer of grit over its bratty yelped vocals and modicum of scratchy guitar chords, "No Romantics" (no v's) is one of the brighter and more melodic tracks on Lovvers' seven-song, 13-minute EP, Think. "I wanna dance, you wanna fight," lead singer Shaun Hencher seems to be shouting, though the whole thing tends toward willful incoherence. The four-piece are currently on tour with Abe Vigoda and Mika Miko after recently wrapping up dates with Jay Reatard; "No Romantics" sounds like the product of loutish youths more interested in wreaking havoc on their instruments than dancing or fighting. Two minutes at a time, 'cause V's before Z's.

MP3:> Lovvers: "No Romantics"

Bonus: "No Romantics" also has an animated video as bare-bones and chaotic as its sound. Thomas Bush directs.

[from the Think EP; out now on Wichita]

This Crookers remix of Cleveland's Kid Cudi is killing it overseas. The video is also pretty terrific. Thing is, Scott Mescudi, aka Kid Cudi, is not particularly happy about it, as he's made clear on his blog. It's a shame, because it's a little bit of Technicolor fun that presents Cudi as a man with a sense of humor. It's also nice to hear a little taste of the UK mixed with his music: when the tune really gets going (at around 1:30), it screams bassline house. It's been interesting to gauge the differences in the fan reaction-- there's apparently more than an ocean between the U.S. and the UK. The heavy club sound that makes the remix so popular with Brits has much less resonance Stateside. As for the video, it's a little cheesy, but the cute back-and-forth with a British gal that opens the clip seems to point to a line of connection between American and British urban music.

[from the "Day 'n' Night" digital single; out now; also from a fortcoming album expected in 2009 on Data]

A simple, effective video for a simple, effective song. Little Joy's "No One's Better Sake", from their self-titled album on Rough Trade, is pretty hard not to like, easily transcending any notions of dilettantism with its easy musicality and complete lack of pretense. The video, which uses crude but charming split-screen effects from the heyday of 1960s TV, is just as loose and fun. Devendra Banhart-- he's back there shaking maracas while wearing a baja jacket and those oversized sunglasses-- would seem to agree.

Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.

[from Little Joy; out now on Rough Trade]

Perhaps you've heard of Justice, the hedonistic French electro-house duo who so love the † symbol that they're immortalizing their religious-icon-manipulating live show on a new DVD/CD called A Cross the Universe. You may also know they recently performed a series of DJ dates. Here's the set from Justice's stop in Manchester, England, where they put old-school hip-hop rhymes from Fast Eddie over pummeling house rhythms before spinning Soulwax's "NY Excuse", their own "Phantom II" and "D.A.N.C.E.", Justice vs. Simian's "We Are Your Friends", and more, over the course of about 100 minutes. What would Justice choose for a grand finale? Why, Buffalo Springfield, of course.

[the A Cross the Universe DVD and CD are out now on Atlantic / Because Music]

So, we have a new book out, The Pitchfork 500: Our Guide to the Greatest Songs from Punk to the Present, published by the Simon & Schuster imprint Fireside Books. It explores our 500 favorite songs from 1977-2006-- interspersed with sidebars on the most vital subgenres from electro to grime to riot grrrl-- to construct an alternate history of the past three decades of popular music. In the coming weeks we'll be posting streams of tracks from the book here in Forkcast and giving you a sneak peek at some of the entries. 

We recently announced The Pitchfork 500 iPod Giveaway Sweepstakes. Go to the contest's website and type in your information before 9 p.m. EST on December 15 to enter. What might you win, you ask? Well, the grand prize winner will receive an iPod Classic and a $100 iTunes gift card, and 10 lucky first prize winners will score a copy of the book.

Speaking of which, The Pitchfork 500 is available in your local bookstore right now. Or you can order it via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Insound, Powells, or Simon & Schuster.

And now, here's Tim Finney on Madonna's "Holiday", with a stream (good for one free play every 24 hours, via Lala) below the text.

Last week we posted our Top 40 Music Videos of 2008, and also put up a Special Presentation together over at Pitchfork.tv with some highlights from the list. Thing about these videos is that they come so fast it can be hard to get a handle on them, and we're constantly adding new clips to the Pitchfork.tv Archive. So here's five clips from this year you might have missed-- by Lyrics Born, the Explorers Club, the Secret Machines, Dead Confederate, and Frightened Rabbit-- all of which were recently added.

Lyrics Born: "Whispers"

Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.

The Explorers Club: "Do You Love Me?"

Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.

The Secret Machines: "Atomic Heels"

Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.

Dead Confederate: "Start Me Laughing"

Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.

Frightened Rabbit: "Set You Free"

Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.

Animal Collective fans might find the name of this project familiar. Indeed, Reverend Green is one Brad Truax, who tour manages and designs lights for A.C. (he's also in Jah Division). "Be Good to the Earth This Season", the A-side of a holiday-themed split 7" on A.C.'s Paw Tracks label, has production that might remind you of that one time 10 years ago when your senile great aunt fired up the Englebert Humperdink vinyl on the floor-standing music console with the broken needle. Singing over the pinched, woozy loops put together by Truax and co-producer Barry London are Antony Hegarty and another person with an Animal Collective connection, Kría Brekkan, formerly of Múm and currently working both solo and with her husband, Avey Tare. Their voices together, Antony's melodramatic croon and Brekkan's childlike chirp, when heard with this backing, convey a mood that's both grotesque and oddly sweet. It's like two denizens from the Island of Misfit Toys doing the best that they can. Turk Dietrich's version of "Blue Christmas" is no longer the creepiest Christmas song of 2008.

[from the "Be Good to the Earth This Season" 7"; due 12/09/08 on Paw Tracks]

Jesse Rose and Hot Chip go together like Bill Murray and enigmatic randomness, as you might've known if you caught the Berlin-based house DJ/producer's wonky remix of Made in the Dark's deathless "Ready for the Floor". The UK electro-poppers return the favor on "Forget My Name", the nearly 11-minute lead single from Rose's upcoming proper debut album What Do You Do If You Don't, a follow-up of sorts to 2006's fidget-house landmark collaboration set More Than One. Wobbly bass, acid synths, shuffling uptempo beats, and chopped-up vocals are still the order of the day, and Hot Chip's voices are naturally suited to the type of half-soulful, half-nerdier-than-a-"beeriodic table"-T-shirt style required to sing a bunch of letters and insist, Ting Tings-like, on your not forgetting their name. If Art Brut's Eddie Argos isn't the svengali behind the Ting Tings, then perhaps Rose is. (11 minutes leaves plenty of time for coming up with nonsensical conspiracy theories.)

[from the "Forget My Name" single and What Do You Do If You Don't; single out today and album due in early 2009, both on Dubsided]

So that's why Montreal turns out so many good indie-rock outfits: It's a stop-motion fantasyland of unicorns, dirigibles, and pterodactyls. I still haven't been there, but that's how things look in director Louis-Phillipe Eno's video for the Montreal-based Plants and Animals' shaggy rocker "Feedback in the Field", from this year's Parc Avenue. The band is there, too, also in stop motion, with googly eyes behind their glasses. The song is all brisk downstrums and blaring wah-wah solos, as singer Warren Spicer enunciates in the alternately clipped and draw-ahn-ow-how-owt lingua franca of rock'n'roll. Their toy city bustles like an ant colony, and though it may seem like we're looking down on it from a great height, in the end Plants and Animals are the ones floating in air.

Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.

[from Parc Avenue; out now on Secret City]

Shame about the delayed release of Common's new album, Universal Mind Control, because "Make My Day" would've sounded amazing en route to a summer barbecue. Goodie Mob and Gnarls Barkley man Cee-Lo Green is the opposite of the recently trendy T-Pain/Akon breed of robot hookman, infusing the happy-love chorus with good old-fashioned soul amid backing vocals sunny enough for the Free Design. Common is off of the well-meaning seriousness of Finding Forever, sounding pleasantly laid-back as he rhymes about ass cracks, brews, "Fiona A.", and pretending it's Friday, all while "California dreamin' about some Californication." Atlanta producer Mr. DJ ("Bombs Over Baghdad", "Ms. Jackson") completes the upbeat combination with shuffling Gary Glitter rhythms and warm, crackling vinyl. Dirty Harry must be pissed. (via Kanye West)

MP3:> Common [ft. Cee-Lo Green]: "Make My Day"
[from Universal Mind Control; due 12/09/08 on Geffen]