Pitchfork: Les Savy Fav Reveal Details of Singles Comp, DVD

Les Savy Fav Reveal Details of Singles Comp, DVD
Tim Harrington devours raw meat, destroys San Dimas SportMart

Pitchfork has already reported on Inches, Les Savy Fav's long-awaited seven-inch singles compilation and accompanying DVD, more times than we'd care to remember. We're just excited, that's all. So allow me to be concise: It exists. It has a real release date, a real tracklist, and nestles in a real jewel case I clutch in my really sweaty (metaphorically, it's actually a bit cool in here) hands.

Retraction: Sort of a real release date. Is Frenchkiss hemming or hawing? A little from column A; a little from column B. The most that can be gleaned from the label's site and compilation's press release is that Inches will be released in late April/early May, but the Wal-Mart of indie rock (aka Insound) has it pegged for April 20th. Let me unpack some of the goodies for you, just in time for Easter.

To recap, Les Savy Fav began the Inches project in 1996, before they'd even released an album. They drew the cover art on a cocktail napkin and divided it into nine parts, each of which would be a cover for one of nine singles they would record and release on nine different labels over the course of their career. Here, we find all the singles (18 songs total), some of which have been nearly impossible to find, compiled in reverse chronological order, and produced by everyone from Phil Ek to Trans Am's Phil Manley to Enon's Matt Schulz. Tracklist is as follows, with the labels who released the original seven-inches in brackets:

01 Meet Me in the Dollar Bin [Monitor]
02 Hold Onto Your Genre [Monitor]
03 We'll Make a Lover Out of You [Suicide Squeeze]
04 Fading Vibes [Suicide Squeeze]
05 The Sweat Descends [Cold Crush]
06 Knowing How the World Works [Cold Crush]
07 Hello Halo, Goodbye Glands [Chunklet Magazine]
08 Obsessed with the Excess [Chunklet Magazine]
09 One Way Widow [Tiger Style]
10 Yawn, Yawn, Yawn [Tiger Style]
11 No Sleeves [X-Mist]
12 Reprobate's Resume [X-Mist]
13 Reformat - Live [Self-Starter Foundation]
14 Reformat - Dramatic Reading [Self-Starter Foundation]
15 Bringing Us Down [DeSoto]
16 Our Coastal Hymn [DeSoto]
17 Blackouts on Thursday [Sub Pop]
18 Rodeo [Sub Pop]

And now let me whisk you by the hand on a whirlwind tour through the DVD, with commentary where appropriate. The geometrically soothing red-and-yellow-cube-on-light-blue-background motif belies the weirdo art-punk fury concealed within. The Inches DVD, which, be aware, may not be available with subsequent pressings of the comp, is cleaved into four sections, which we will describe as:

Section the First: Album Tracks. Simply plays the same songs as the CD while displaying aforementioned soothing motif. For those of you with really dope TVs, or without stereos. Please see supra for the tracklist.

Section the Second: Commentary. Pretty much the same idea-- every song on the album with commentary from various interested parties. These include the band, as well as erstwhile tourmates/collaborators/men-about-town David Cross and Fred Armisen, Phil Manley, esteemed and holy Chunklet publisher Henry H. Owings (to whom we still owe a cool $3k-- here's lookin' at you, kid), booking agent Robin Taylor and producer Chris Zane. Seth Jabour speaks remarkably slowly. Owings gets all Jaded Robot on LSF's ass. Tracklist ibid.

Section the Third: Photos. No less than thirty (30) band-related photos from 1999-2003 by Amanda Marsalis, Dan Monick, and Andrew Paynter, set to automatically switch every five seconds. For those of you who enjoy falling asleep to a soothing carousel of Les Savy Fav pictures. Yawn yawn yawn, indeed. Photolist: Nah, just kidding.

Section the Last: Videos. And that's when the fucking started. Headwise, no less. This section includes six music videos and three songs performed live at Brooklyn's Northsix on August 26th, 2003. Here are various deformed animal, banana and band effigy puppets; a stark, animated visual rendition of the plight of a sinking submarine and elusive retribution; dancing cowboy dolls singing in Pixel Vision; and as for the "Blackouts on Thursday" video-- good Lord, I think I just turned into a conservative! What cannot be spoken must be passed over in silence. In the live footage, the stage is exceedingly white, as are the preppy slacks and button-down of singer Tim Harrington, who, of course, by the end of the set, turns into a painted, gibbering, half-dressed mutant, seeming to either lose his breath for the histrionics or just forget the words entirely in the throes of bacchanalia. Featuring dialogue with fake rabbit and chair. The tracklist, with directors:

Videos
01 We'll Make a Lover of You [by Tim Harrington]
02 Reformat - Dramatic Reading [by Rob Hudak]
03 Rodeo [by Syd Butler]
04 Blackouts on Thursday [by Jeff Gutowski]
05 Meet Me in the Dollar Bin [by Doug Jaeger]
06 Hello Halo, Goodbye Glands [by Tarikh Korula]

Live Footage [filmed by Andrew Reuland]
01 Disco Drive
02 Knowing How the World Works
03 Who Rocks the Party?