Pitchfork

Those dudes and dudettes at AOL's The Interface must, like, know somebody, because they keep getting top crop to drop by their studio and record exclusive sessions. Spoon's Britt Daniel, once-elusive Cat Power, and now, gravel-voiced M. Ward have all taken the Interface plunge.

Perhaps there's just a certain charm in sincerely fielding some hopelessly bland interview questions-- like those Britt and Chan put up with in recent sessions-- from a nervous-sounding gentleman. Poor Ward gets probed on influences, song-writing process, and recent favorites, and you can pretty much see his eyes rolling as he talks up Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Seriously.

Graciously, he shares a few tunes too, including "Chinese Translation" and "To Be Home" from this year's Pitchfork Recommended Post-War, and "Paul's Song" from 2005's Transistor Radio. Both discs are available now from Merge. Ward also kindly shares at least one looooooow sigh into the mic, which some folks out there might find sexy.

Ward's presently flexing his finger-picking muscles in Europe, and closes out the year with a couple festival dates in Australia.

10-21 Gothenburg, Sweden - Pusterviksbaren
10-22 Stockholm, Sweden - Sondra Theatern
10-23 Oslo, Norway - Café Mono
10-24 Copenhagen, Denmark - Vega
10-25 Berlin, Germany - White Trash
10-26 Cologne, Germany - Gebäude 9
10-28 Antwerp, Belgium - Trix
10-29 Paris, France - Le Point Ephemere
10-31 Dublin, Ireland - Crawdaddy
11-01 London, England - Koko
11-10 Catelló, Spain - Tanned Tin 2006
12-29 Lorne, Australia - Falls Festival
12-31 Marion Bay, Australia - Falls Festival