Pitchfork

Photo by Nilina Mason-Campbell

Unicorns-spawned pop ragamuffins Islands, responsible for latest year's rather nice LP Return to the Sea (a recipient of the Best New Music seal of approval), have indeed been suspiciously quiet of late.

Sure, there's an Islands track on that David Shrigley-penned compilation, and the promise of an Islands gig during CMJ, but c'mon guys, what have you really been doing?

Well, as it turns out, at least a couple things.

First up is the curiously named Juiced Elfers. The quartet, which popped up at a pair of recent NYC shows headlined by Metric offshoot Bang Lime, consists of ex-Unicorn/Islander Nick Thorburn (aka Nick Diamonds) and ex-Unicorn/ex-Islander Jamie Thompson (aka J'aime Tambeur), along with a chap named Chris Taylor and a certain Syd Butler (whom you may recall from beloved adult contemporary combo Les Savy Fav).

The Elfers have but a handful of songs to their name, though they've also been known to cover the Troggs and the Trashmen. It remains to be seen whether these boys will have a fruitful and enduring career together, but for the moment, alas, there's no further activity on the Juiced Elfers radar.

Butler, Thorburn, Thompson, and members of Wolf Parade and Black Mountain previously collaborated under the bummer of a name Final Fantasy: Online a.k.a. Internet at a McSweeney's-sponsored benefit this past spring.

Thorburn's kept especially busy, as he's also one half of "Hawaii-inspired indie superduo" Reefer (er, not these guys). The other half is noted Los Angeles hip-hop producer Daddy Kev, whose label/distro Alpha Pup served up the quoted descriptor above and will also serve up Reefer's debut mini-album, The Life Narcotic.

The six-song/three-interlude LP, tentatively planned for release in spring/early summer 2008, was in fact recorded in Maui, Hawaii, and L.A. Reefer hope to also release an album of remixes to compliment The Life Narcotic. No word yet on who's contributing.

Along with Reefer, Alpha Pup also has releases in the pipeline from Daedelus, Omid, edIT, Carlos Niño & Gaby Hernandez, Kail, Nocando, and Existero.