Pitchfork

Step into your local Best Buy October 7 to get a copy of Crooked Fingers' new disc Forfeit/Fortune, and the blue-shirted greeter will likely meet your inquiry with a puzzled look and perhaps a sweet deal on a spindle of 100 CD-Rs. That's because, for Forfeit/Fortune, former Archer of Loaf Eric Bachmann's now long-running songwriting venture has inked a deal with Red Pig/Constant Artists Inc. This deal makes the new record available digitally, through the Crooked Fingers website, and through 20 "key independent retailers in the United States." And that's it.

Says Bachmann, "I'm pretty sure [indie retailers] sold a lot more of my records to fans than Borders or Wal-Mart or Satan." You know, I think he may be on to something.

In any case, you've got options. There's the standard edition. There's a deluxe digipak coupled with a DVD that contains performance footage, the first video from the album, and an interview with Bachmann himself. And, if you hit up the Crooked Fingers website, you can preorder a "premium collection," which gets you the DVD-bolstered deluxe edition along with a silkscreen print of the album art and a t-shirt.

But enough about the how; let's move on to the what. Forfeit/Fortune features guest work from Silver Jews' Brian Kotzur, strings from Tom Hagerman of DeVotchKa, and an album-closing duet with Neko Case called "Your Control". The disc reportedly sports the "fullest and most eclectic orchestration" yet from a Crooked Fingers release, and Bachmann himself wrote and arranged all the string and horn parts.

Bachmann and his Fingers will do the walking around North America in the late summer and early fall, touring with Okkervil River and, for a few dates, Neko Case.
    
Crooked Fingers:

08-27 Reno, NV - Robert Hawkins Ampitheter *
08-28 Salt Lake City, UT - Gallivan Center *
09-30 New Orleans, LA - The Republic ^
10-01 Birmingham, AL - Matthew's Bar and Grill ^
10-02 Athens, GA - 40 Watt Club ^
10-03 Wilmington, NC - Soapbox Laundro Lounge ^
10-04 Richmond, VA - The National ^
10-06 New York, NY - Webster Hall ^
10-07 New York, NY - Webster Hall ^
10-08 Northampton, MA - Pearl Street Nightclub ^
10-09 Millvale, PA - Mr. Small's Theatre ^
10-10 Buffalo, NY - Tralf Music Hall ^
10-11 Montreal, Quebec - Les Saints ^
10-12 Toronto, Ontario - Phoenix ^
10-14 Chicago, IL - Metro ^

* with Neko Case
^ with Okkervil River