Pitchfork

Welcome to the latest edition of Pitchfork's Guest List. Each week, we ask one of our favorite artists to fill us in on what they've been up to lately: which tracks they can't stop spinning, what books they can't put down, and what new bands they've caught on tour. This week it's Frightened Rabbit's Grant Hutchison, who reveals his love for a chart-topping rising pop star, dissects trendy American indie flicks, and praises his favorite long-running British DJ.

>> Favorite Songs of the Past Year

I can't really name any of their song titles, but the Twilight Sad record has dominated a lot of our year. As far as current stuff goes, there's this artist called Leona Lewis in the UK, who released this great single. The rest of her album sucks really bad, but I think she's just kind of reaching over to the U.S. I wouldn't expect Pitchfork to cover her because she's a total r&b kind of artist, but she released this one great song called "Bleeding Love", which I really liked. [We like it as well, Grant -Ed.] It had kind of dark lyrics for pop music.

We don't keep up to date with current trends, just whatever comes to our ears, so we've been listening to TV on the Radio. "Wolf Like Me" was one of those that really got me. We listen to a lot of pop music. That kind of is really important to us to get a kind of pop grounding in our melody. We're not lucky enough to have [a van] that has a CD player, so we listen to the radio. It's a lot of pop chart stuff.

I just heard and really liked this great record by the Born Ruffians. Our tour manager had it on the van. There's this Scottish band he played us as well, called Close Lobsters. I'd never heard of [them], and Americans tell me about this band who came from my country [laughs]. They almost made it sound really like Echo and the Bunnymen and the Cure and stuff like that.

>> Favorite Older Songs at the Moment

Yeah, I've been going back to the Cure. A lot of that kind of 80s guitar stuff. I saw Echo and the Bunnymen last summer at Connect Festival in Inveraray. It's like this festival on this castle grounds, so that was an awesome show. It really reminded me what I liked about 80s guitar pop music. And we're always listening to the Band.

>> Favorite New Band

That Born Ruffians record was great. We played with them two years ago in Glasgow. I'd just figured they'd already released their first record. They've just got this lovely blend between, it's almost a direct blend of Animal Collective and Talking Heads. That record's definitely more exciting than anything else I've heard at the moment.

>> Favorite Song Ever

I really love this song by the Band called "Jawbone". They have so many great songs, but that one in particular I remember hearing four years ago and just completely stopping everything. It's got a great chorus.

>> Best Recent Concert

Maybe the fact that I was hammered is kind of influencing it, but I went to see the Ravonettes. I'd never seen them before. I wasn't expecting anything, really. Because their records-- I don't actually own any of them and they don't really do it for me-- but we went and it was really beautiful. The most beautiful loud music. It was so loud, but there were these really amazing harmonies coming out. It was this wall of sound. It was amazing. And the drummer was also really hot, which helped.

>> Last Great Film I Saw

In the van I watched this film called Junebug. In fact, the next best one would have the same actress: Amy Adams, who's in Enchanted. I though Enchanted was awesome. I saw it in a plane recently. But Junebug definitely takes over. It was a really nice, clever, naïve film in a way, because you've got Amy Adams being a bit of a kind of dunce, and in fact the super-intelligent ones come off looking stupid. It was a really nice movie. I saw Juno, and that was a little too cute for me, and some of the language was far too preconceived and stuff, just so unrealistic, but I think Junebug got that kind of feeling across better without being annoying.

>> Favorite Piece of Musical Equipment

My guitar. In fact, the one that I do most of my writing on is a Taylor acoustic I got for my 21st birthday, which is really important to me. Yeah, I'd say that one holds the most weight as far as what I've done with it and where it's been with me and stuff. It's pretty important.

>> Favorite Record Shop

There's a tiny shop called Avalanche in Edinburgh. There's one in Glasgow, too, but I prefer the one in Edinburgh. It's up this wind-y, cobbled street. It's the kind of record store where you buy a record because it's on in the shop. I like those kinds. They've got really good prices on CDs, as well. They're much cheaper than even the chains, so it's amazing that they still exist. I'm kind of grateful for that. I got the latest Band of Horses record there, which I've been in love with, as well. I got the National's last record. Neutral Milk Hotel, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, the reissue version. That's about it. I don't have so much money, so...

>> Best Purchase of the Past Year

What did I buy? I don't know. I bought a nice coat. It's kind of able to straddle winter and summer by being that in-between thickness. It's not going to be too hot in the summer, but it keeps me warm in the winter, so when we go into spring and it's still freezing in Scotland, this coat's just doing the work all day.

>> Best Thing I Did This Year

I guess making the record. Making the next record is by far the thing I'm proudest of doing.

>> Favorite Venue

Yeah. It's a place called the Barrowland in Glasgow. It's changed a little bit over the past few years. It's an old building, and fire regulations weren't really in mind when it was built, obviously. It's one of those buildings that suffered because you can't get capacity in there anymore because of regulations, so it feels half-empty when it's a sold-out show. I definitely have some amazing memories of going to see bands there. It just needs to get a couple of fire exits or something and it can go right back up to capacity again.

Pitchfork: Do you remember any bands you saw there?

I mean, it's like a 1,000 capacity, and this was in my teens, so don't judge me. I went to see the Foo Fighters there. I saw Green Day there. They were great shows for when I was that age. Who else did I see there? I saw Eminem there. 1,000 capacity, just after that first record came out. It doesn't get many shows anymore, so I'm having to go back, way back, to remember when I actually saw shows there. Jimmy Eat World and Idlewild. The most recent one was the Shins, but again, it was totally sold out, but it felt like kind of soulless because it was half-empty, and that was disappointing.

>> Favorite TV Show at the Moment

We've been watching a lot of "Flight of the Conchords" in the van. I'd seen them at the Edinburgh Festival, and it was kind of routine-y. I wasn't sure how it would translate into a series, but it works pretty well. I hate musical comedians. It just comes across as so embarrassing sometimes. Like these comedians who wish they were rock stars, but they're making this really nice thing out of the fact that they're trying to be rock stars and failing miserably. It's great.

>> Favorite Video Game at the Moment

I don't really play, but my brother's heavily into "Pro Evolution Soccer". I'm so uncoordinated when it comes to tapping away. I just don't have the patience for it. If he was here, his answer would be "Pro Evolution Soccer". You can put that, and that I hate video games. It's the same reason why I don't read. I'm bad at reading; I'm bad at video games, so I don't play them. I don't really like losing.

>> Favorite Radio Show

There's a guy called Bob Harris. You know "The Old Grey Whistle Test"? Bob Harris from "The Old Grey Whistle Test" does this show on Radio 2. He plays like a really nice mix of Americana and new indie music. I was very pleased when he played one of our songs just before Christmas there. I love the way he's kind of old, but still manages to be current in a really cool way.