Pitchfork

Mercer, Bejar, and Krug. Slimy investment firm? Used car sales-team? Or-- god help us-- nu-jazz combo?? Nope. We're talking Carey "Frog Eyes" Mercer, Dan "Destroyer" Bejar, and Spencer "Wolf Sunset Parade Rubdown" Krug, Canadian indie luminaries, and now, supergroup partners.

The three originally hoped to call their collaborative band "Thunder Cloud", but since that machismo moniker was already taken, the boys have instead donned metaphorical leotards and christened themselves Swan Lake. Oh lord, not another animal band name!

Pitchfork caught up with Carey Mercer to get the full scoop on how this unlikely confluence came about. The nutshell version: "I proposed that we each bring in four songs and put them together to make a record. It worked!"

There's a bit more to it than that, however. Mercer and Bejar previously hooked up for Destroyer's Notorious Lightning and Other Works EP, and all three toured together behind the record in Europe. One thing led to another and, mused Mercer, "we wanted to formally have a chance to contribute/collaborate on each other's songs; I have never actually sung with Spencer, and Dan and Krug have never recorded together. These songs were all written with the other two members specifically in mind."

"It blows my mind with friendly joy that this can actually happen. It should be stated here that we are friends outside of music as well as inside." Aw shucks everybody, group hug!

What can fans of three of Canada's leading indie stars expect from Swan Lake, apart from pirouettes? Mercer shed some light: "hard [to say], because each band is both Protean in its slipperiness but at the same time always, always, always sounding exactly the same. If not surprised, then [fans will] hopefully [be] impressed. It is kind of trippy."

Song titles include "Shooting Rockets" ("a fucking wicked" Dan Bejar-penned track "that reminds me of "Your Blues"), "Nubile Days" (a Krug ditty that reminds Mercer of Dr. Dre's 2001), and "The Partisan"--not a Leonard Cohen cover--"which might be the best song I have ever written," Mercer enthused.

Although the group lost the name Thunder Cloud, Mercer hopes to keep his cumulonimbus aspirations aloft with the album title. "Sometimes I want to call it Thunder Cloud Reverberates Off Port so that our t-shirt makes sense," remarked Carey. "I had this idea that we could make T. Cloud t-shirts with our faces in the cloud, like in the Lion King or something else that I am confusing for the Lion King."

The tentatively-titled Thunder Cloud was recorded at Dante DeCaro's (Wolf Parade, ex-Hot Hot Heat) studio in Shawnigan Lake, British Columbia. Mercer playfully credits the production to "my will, Spencer's grace, Dan's poetry." If all goes according to plan, the disc will dive-bomb record racks courtesy of Jagjaguwar toward the end of 2006.

Frog Eyes has also begun recording its next LP, titled Tears of the Valedictorian and set to dock early next year. "[I'm] trying to take my time so it sounds good," said Mercer.

Mercer's Frog Eyes and Krug's Sunset Rubdown kick off a tour this May, sure to be laden with jittery guitars and vocal hysterics. Spazz responsibly:

05-06 Victoria, British Columbia - Logan's
05-07 Vancouver, British Columbia - Richard's on Richards
05-09 Calgary, Alberta - Broken City
05-10 Edmonton, Alberta - Starlight Room
05-12 Winnipeg, Manitoba - The Collective Cabaret
05-13 Fargo, ND - VFW
05-14 Mount Vernon, IA - Orange Carpet (OC) at Cornell College
05-17 Northfield, MN - The Cave at Carleton College
05-18 Chicago, IL - Schubas
05-19 Toronto, Ontario - The Opera House *
05-20 Montreal, Quebec - El Salon
05-23 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church
05-24 New York, NY - Mercury Lounge
05-25 Cambridge, MA - T.T. the Bear's Place
05-26 Hanover, NH - Fuel Rocket Club

* with Islands, Busdriver, Cadence Weapon

Meanwhile, Destroyer (or Big D, as we affectionately call him) is wrapping up his spring jaunt with Magnolia Electric Co. He's just tacked on a few solo dates stretching into May, and will of course totally destroy at the Pitchfork Music Festival this summer. TICKETS ON SALE NOW! Yes! Shameless plug! Yes!:

03-28 New York, NY - Avalon *^
03-29 Washington, DC - Black Cat *
03-30 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle *
03-31 Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse *
04-01 Louisville, KY - Uncle Pleasant's *
04-02 Kansas City, MO - Record Bar %
04-12 Vancouver, British Columbia - Richard's on Richards
05-05 Seattle, WA - Crocodile Cafe &
05-06 Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge
05-08 San Francisco, CA - Café du Nord
05-09 Los Angeles, CA - Spaceland
05-21 East Sussex, England - Camber Sands Holiday Centre (All Tomorrow's Parties) #
07-29 Chicago, IL - Union Park (Pitchfork Music Festival) $

* with Magnolia Electric Co
^ with Nedelle
% with White Whale
& with White Rose Movement, Hudson Bell
# with the Shins, the New Pornographers, the Decemberists, Clinic, Big Business, Triangle
$ with Silver Jews, Ted Leo/Pharmacists, Mountain Goats, Band of Horses, Man Man, Hot Machines, et al