Pitchfork

If you weren't able to catch Hercules & Love Affair on their all-too-brief tour last year, here's a chance to see what you were missing. Brooklyn disco revivalist Andy Butler brought his eight-person band to a New York rooftop for the latest episode of "Don't Look Down". In part one, they stretch out the elastic grooves of 2008's brilliant self-titled debut, transitioning flawlessly between standout tracks "You Belong", "True/False, Fake/Real", and "Athene", as the sun sets behind the Manhattan skyline. Stay tuned tomorrow for part two.

"You Belong"

Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.

"True/False, Fake/Real"

Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.

"Athene"

Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.

The Bruce Springsteen song featured in the Darren Aronofsky film The Wrestler, which shocked fans when it failed to earn an Oscar nomination, now has an official video. We see Bruce looking grim and buff as he paces around an empty ring and sings into the camera, intercut with footage from the film. Now, I haven't seen The Wrestler yet, so I can't comment on how it was used in the movie, but I'm not quite feeling this song the way everyone else seems to. Latter-day slow acoustic Bruce is a harder sell for me, and I could name a half-dozen songs from Working on a Dream I'd rather listen to, even if the self-doubting lyrics are pretty powerful. (via Stereogum)

[from Working on a Dream; out now on Columbia]

Amon Tobin lived in Montreal for a while, and during his stay he played rhythm pen-pal with Brighton-based Joe "Doubleclick" Chapman. Together they've christened themselves Two Fingers, and this recent (and unlikely) combination with UK MC Sway is the first piece of evidence that the upcoming LP (which, in an also unlikely turn, matches the production duo with dancehall bad gyal Ce'cile and hip hop hustler Ms. Jade) will be both a little odd and potentially good. When listening to this track, it's hard not to think that Tobin was inspired by the weather of a French Canadian city that can change from icy winter to sweltering summer within a week-- its all about extremes. The tune has a crunchy, lonely, cold industrial sound paired with what might be the opposite-- honest, earnest, thoughtful lyrics. And then mixed on top of it all is a bit of English dreariness.

(from the "What You Know" single; out now; also from Two Fingers; due 04/14/09; both on Paper Bag)

In the current cluttered dance-pop and/or blog-house landscape, it's hard to stand out-- harder still for all those blog-ready remixes. England's Friendly Fires are starting to earn my grudging admiration for their soaring, heartfelt hooks and their openness to ambitious remix overhauls. Belgian electronic duo Aeroplane brought in outside vocalists Au Revoir Simone to make "Paris" sound more like a brightly lit Richard X production on their great remix last year. Now Air France-- who also happen to have done impressive work with Au Revoir Simone-- turn the Cut Copy-esque catchiness of Friendly Fires' "Skeleton Boy" into the kind of yearning oceanside disco that makes their No Way Down EP such an ongoing pleasure.

"We almost always turn remix jobs down," Air France half Henrik Markstedt told Pitchfork in a new interview posted today. "[I]f we do a remix, we have to be totally ruthless and make it our own. Otherwise it's fucking pointless. We'd never just change the beat and have massive intros that take forever building up, an outro that takes forever to end, and one million refrains in between." Do they go back on their word here? No, better.

MP3:> Friendly Fires: "Skeleton Boy (Air France Remix)"
[from the "Skeleton Boy" single; due in the UK 03/02/09 as 12" and download and in the U.S. 03/03/09 as a download, both on XL]

"'Can You Tell' represent[s] the breezier, brighter side of the band, taking perky melodies and swelling them with luscious string arrangements." So wrote Rebecca Raber in her review of the band's 2008 album, The Rhumb Line. The video for the track, directed by Taryn Gould and Emily Kowalczyk, has been floating around online for a minute, but we held out until we could get it all looking nice on Pitchfork.tv. Like the song, it's sweet and sincere, portraying a John Hughes-ish front-porch drama while the band plays along in the freezing cold.

Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.

[from The Rhumb Line; out now on Barsuk]

Retro-futurist meets actually retro-- that's pretty much what guitars are nowadays, right? Although Anamanaguchi hail from the "chiptune" scene probably best known around here for outliers/standouts like Crystal Castles (or else for Wham City 8-bit aficionados Adventure), this New York outfit throws some guitars and drums in alongside the hacked Nintendos. The title track from Anamanaguchi's upcoming debut LP, Dawn Metropolis, also shows some flair for melody in between the blips, bleeps, fuzzed-out power chords, and frantic beats. Apparently the live performances of this song may require some highly developed clapping skills.

MP3:> Anamanaguchi: "Dawn Metropolis"
[from Dawn Metropolis; due 03/03/09 on Normative]

The panic, the vomit, the new off-kilter piano-based ballad from the supergroup side project to the Canadian supergroup side project stars, Swan Lake. "A Hand at Dusk", from upcoming Beast Moans follow-up Enemy Mine, is all slow-building, cryptic grandeur, with Spencer Krug (Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown), Dan Bejar (Destroyer, New Pornographers), and Carey Mercer (Frog Eyes, Blackout Beach) trading intricate lyrics about getting old and holding your hair back when you're sick-- plus, um, the Emperor of Time, or something like that. Droning synths, shrill guitars, and, briefly, some low-key percussion join the grandiose six-minute affair. Somebody totally kills Mercer's appetite, and then the song ends.

MP3:> Swan Lake: "A Hand at Dusk"
[from Enemy Mine; due 03/23/09 on Jagjaguwar]

This is how he does it. The one-of-a-kind Max Tundra, he of last year's fine Parallax Error Beheads You, does "A>D>D" all by his lonesome, assembling that album's "Will Get Fooled Again" one piece at a time. Switching between drums, guitar, piano, keyboard, melodica, vocals, and handclaps, he provides a version that's a bit more raw but no less seductive. Now you understand why he takes so long to make a record!

Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.

[original version from Parallax Error Beheads You; out now on Domino]

Kanye West found out that money doesn't buy happiness, and he expresses that notion here in the latest video from 808s and Heartbreak. Hard to tell how much of the pixelization in this "Welcome to Heartbreak" clip is due to my computer and how much is in the video. Lots of brightly colored Kanyes are singing sadly to each other about the emptiness of wealth and fame.

[from 808s and Heartbreak; out now on Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam]

Cole's "Nature Boy" (no relation to the Nick Cave song, or the Sea and Cake song) has been probably one of the hallowed crooner's most visible tracks in recent years-- covered by My Brightest Diamond for the I'll Stay 'Til After Christmas comp last year, and popularized for millions who may not have known there was a Nat King Cole version via Moulin Rouge. You know the AIM profile: "The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." TV on the Radio's gale-force electronic beats and guitar drone makeover isn't the greatest thing you'll ever hear, but then again, these things rarely are.

Stream:> Nat King Cole: "Nature Boy (TV on the Radio Remix)"
[from Re:Generations; due 03/10/09 on Capitol/EMI]