Pitchfork

We all love modern guy Hamilton Leithauser, with his soap opera-worthy moniker and his dumb haircut from 1960, ambling about the stage like some vertigo-addled boxer. Come May 23, we'll have twelve more reasons to adore Hammy and his band the Walkmen, as on that day, they will release their third offering of woozy, fractured pop, A Hundred Miles Off.

The follow-up to 2004's well-received Bows + Arrows, A Hundred Miles Off arrives courtesy of the Record Collection label and is "much more solid than the last record." So said Herr Leithauser in an interview with Billboard.com today. The frontman went on to remark, "We're all very proud of this...there are no dips, so it is very different in that regard. We've always been pretty heavy, and this seems a little lighter. I mean, it still sounds like the same band. But it has a lot less organ involved."

What can we the listenership expect from Miles? Leithauser told Billboard that album opener "Louisiana" is "light and fun sounding. We added a trumpet line, and it has a very Dylan 'Basement Tapes'-era feel to it. But it's a nod, not a ripoff." Meanwhile, "All Hands and the Cook" has a "sort of swingtime feel to it. It is probably our best song we did, and you could say it sounds like a modern Leonard Cohen."

How about "Danny's at the Wedding", Hamilton? "Straight up Walkmen-sounding," says he. "It's a rock song, but in a different way than 'The Rat' [from Bows + Arrows]." Yay! We like rock songs.

Where Walkmen and iPods collide:

01 Louisiana
02 Danny's at the Wedding
03 Good for You's Good for Me
04 Emma, Get Me a Lemon
05 All Hands and the Cook
06 Lost in Boston
07 Don't Get Me Down (Come on Over Here)
08 This Job Is Killing Me
09 Tenley Town
10 Brandy Alexander
11 Always After You ('Til You Started After Me)
12 Another One Goes By

A Hundred Miles Off was recorded at Washington, DC's Inner Ear Studios, with engineering assistance from the one and only Don Zientara (who's twiddled for pretty much every DC act of worth in the past 20 years), and in the Walkmen's own NY headquarters, Marcata Studios. Sadly, Marcata will soon be closing its doors, as nearby Columbia University plans to raze the neighborhood to erect even more shrines to academia. The band is hawking a whole heap of equipment at www.marcata.net in memoriam.

Some dreams die, while others come true: the Walkmen (and, alas, not Xiu Xiu) will open two dates for the legendary Pogues next month. They'll play a few east coast colleges (including Hamilton, natch), followed by a spot at Coachella and a full-scale TBA U.S. and UK tour.

No headphones required:

03-08 Columbus, OH - Skully's Music Diner
03-09 Knoxville, TN - Blue Cat's
03-10 Davidson, NC - Davidson College
03-15 Boston, MA - The Orpheum *
03-17 New York, NY - Nokia Theatre *
03-24 Boston, MA - Northeastern University
04-01 Clinton, NY - Hamilton College
04-29 Indio, CA - Empire Polo Field (Coachella Festival) #

* with The Pogues
# with Depeche Mode, Daft Punk, Franz Ferdinand, Sigur Rós, My Morning Jacket, TV on the Radio, Ladytron, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Cat Power, Animal Collective, Devendra Banhart, Lady Sovereign, Deerhoof, et al

As previously reported, the boys are still slaving over the quill, collectively writing a novel titled John's Journey. But they seem to have found time last month to record a full-length rendition of Harry Nilsson's 1974 LP Pussy Cats, which will see release via Record Collection later this year. A making-of DVD will accompany the dubious spectacle. Oh, the humanity.

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