Pitchfork

Human Highway haven't even started their tour yet, but already the mellow folk/country duo of Islands' Nick Thorburn and singer/songwriter Jim Guthrie appear to be losing their heads. The video for "The Sound", from last year's Moody Motorcycle, was directed by Olivier Groulx, of Arcade Fire's "Black Mirror" video fame, and as with that clip there's an interactive element. The proper video, below, disassembles Thorburn and Guthrie's faces and puts them against a black background filled with shifting circles, triangles, hexagons, etc. This site, also created by Groulx, lets you move around facial features to affect the sound. What may not go out of your head, for better or worse, is "The Sound".

Video:> Human Highway: "The Sound"

[from Moody Motorcycle; out now on Suicide Squeeze in the U.S. and Secret City in Canada]

"A Lilt" is the subtitle of the third and final installment in Overture's trilogy of videos from Ferndorf, the latest album by Dusseldorf pianist/composer Hauschka (aka Volker Bertelmann). "I Am the Big Pink Walrus-Looking Guy Whose Tusks Sound Like Booming Brass" would be one of my alternate subtitles. The woodland creatures Byrum and Kapok, whom you may remember from the clips for "Eltern" and "Heimat", have plenty of company this time around to enjoy Hauschka's regally orchestral strains. "I always liked stories that carry on and have a different format from the normal music video," Bertelmann told Pitchfork contributor Mia Clarke. You can watch the full trilogy in one place here. The walrus was Paul.

Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.

[from Ferndorf; out now on FatCat]

What can you say about Tinted Windows, the totally real quasi-supergroup of former Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha, Cheap Trick drummer Bun E. Carlos, Taylor the cute Hanson, and Fountains of Wayne bassist Adam Schlesinger? Their future's so bright, they gotta wear shades. "Kind of a Girl", the first song from the new foursome, is straightforward power-pop-- as if there's any other kind.

What kind of a girl is she? "The kind of a girl you can't get enough of." Buzzsaw Zwan-ish guitars, vocals halfway between Billy Corgan caged-rat and Hanson mmm-pop, and before too long, it was clear as day, she was here to stay, cue raucous rock'n'roll guitar solo. All credit to these guys for pursuing new creative outlets, but what's lacking here is the "creative" part.

Stream:> Tinted Windows: "Kind of a Girl"

[from Tinted Windows' forthcoming debut album; due 04/21/09]

London's the Big Pink-- the 4AD-signed duo of Robbie Furze (Panic DHH, Alec Empire) and Merok Records founder Milo Cordell-- go black and white and loud all over on this Pitchfork.tv-exclusive video from their forthcoming self-titled debut album. "The track nods to such sonic reference points as the shoegaze of My Bloody Valentine or Spiritualized's tender adventures in distortion but the track's chiming chorus and melodic nuance allow it a fragile beauty of its very own," Pitchfork contributor James Knight wrote of previous single "Crystal Visions". The words apply just as well to the stately, treble-enshrouded "Velvet", with droning backing vocals that could suggest Deerhunter if they wrote Echo and the Bunnymen-style anthems. The mirroring-happy clip could be NSFW depending on how your boss feels about brief glimpses of breasts (or UK space rock).

Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.

[from The Big Pink; forthcoming on 4AD]

It's not a long way from breakneck to emotional breakdown. L.A.'s Crystal Antlers push onward from the Stooges-style psycho-punk abandon of 2008 EP highlights like "Vexation" on new song "Andrew", a rhythmically complex garage-rock screamer from the band's upcoming Tentacles. Dusty organs, grizzled guitars, and yowling vocals bring to mind the Black Lips and King Khan, not to mention the Animals or a few of the countless Nuggets bands. Drummer Sexual Chocolate keeps it all together-- and bittersweet.

MP3:> Crystal Antlers: "Andrew"

[from Tentacles; due 04/06/09 in the U.S. and 04/07/09 in Europe on Touch & Go]

Carefree days feel more and more distant with each skim of the ol' RSS reader, and The Boy Least Likely To's happy-sad twee-pop aches all the better for it. The UK duo of Pete Hobbs and Jof Owen can be seen scampering around a field and cruising in goofy vehicles in the video for latest single "A Balloon on a Broken String", from upcoming The Best Party Ever follow-up The Law of the Playground. "I know I look shiny and bouncy/ But I'm all empty inside," TBLLT sing, seconding the emotion of sad clowns since Smokey Robinson. Childlike sincerity-- plus a sound that encompasses zippy synths, chiming glockenspiel, warm California harmonies, and brittle new-wave guitar-- makes the sentiment their own.

BONUS: A video for the flip from this double A-side single, the boyishly valiant Dexys Midnight Runners-style ditty "Every Goliath Has Its David", is also up now on Vimeo.

[from The Law of the Playground; due 03/03/09 in the UK on Too Young to Die and 04/14/09 in the U.S. on +1]

Damon Albarn got away with teasing the music world about a Blur reunion for so long because the style-shifting London art-poppers were actually pretty great. Albarn and long-estranged guitarist Graham Coxon finally reunited for the first time in a reported nine years on stage at the NME Awards last night in London. They did a low-key keyboard-and-acoustic rendition of the very English geographical tear-jerker "This Is a Low", from 1994 Britpop standby Parklife, and there's nobody other than Coxon I'd rather hear strumming those weary chords. A few complaints: this fan-made video's shaky quality, the fact that it's non-embed, and the decision not to have Coxon play an electric guitar and let rip a devastating solo like this one. Have to wait until the full group's scheduled July 3 show in Hyde Park, I guess. (via Vulture)

Video:> Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon: "This Is a Low" (Live at the NME Awards)

[original version from Parklife; out now on Food/EMI]

Remember when everybody was losing their shit waiting for the latest Animal Collective LP to leak? "My advice to those who are so desperate for AC's album to leak is to pick up instruments and make your own version of what you would want it to sound like," wrote Bradford Cox of Deerhunter/Atlas Sound on his bands' blog, recalling how he used to do this while he was anticipating, say, Pavement's Brighten the Corners. "I would record a set of songs that I would want the Pavement album to sound like. Some of those songs ended up becoming Atlas Sound and Deerhunter songs years later."

Taking inspiration from Cox and the AC covers over at the Collected Animals forum, some enterprising fans over on the unofficial Deerhunter message board recorded their own tribute album anticipating the sound of Deerhunter guitarist Lockett Pundt's debut full-length as Lotus Plaza. These pre-cover artists left off LP songs "Whiteout" and "What Grows", because those had already surfaced on the blog; their advance interpretations of Lotus Plaza spans from reverbed-out lo-fi folk to chiming ambience, liquid electronics, and drilling synth-pop. Probably the most unexpected variation on the theme is Spidermums' "Bragging Party", which isn't a Lotus Plaza title at all; instead it's a squealing, straightahead cover of a fuzzed-out rocker from Kim Deal's non-Breeders non-Pixies lo-fi project the Amps. Check out the whole thing below.

MP3s:> Various Artists: The Lotus Plaza Tribute Album

[The Lotus Plaza Tribute Album Vol. 1 is out now via the Deerhunter board; Lotus Plaza is due 03/23/09 on Kranky]

In our latest episode of "In the Studio", we head into Dinosaur Jr.'s Amherst, Mass., headquarters while they lay down tracks for their new album, tentatively due this summer on Jagjaguwar. Along with full versions of new song "I Don't Wanna Go There" and You're Living All Over Me's "Tarpit", there's also a brief interview in which J Mascis, Lou Barlow, and Murph lead us from the past into the present.

The New Record

Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.

"I Don't Wanna Go There"

Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.

"Tarpit"

Pitchfork.tv page with embed code is here.

In less than a week, frequent New Pornographers collaborator and indie goddess Neko Case will release her newest solo outing, Middle Cyclone (whose fearsome cover is pictured here). The Anti- blog has just posted the title track, along with a contest to win an autographed copy of the album and, for one lucky winner, her whole Anti- back catalogue. "Middle Cyclone" is a slow burner, with Neko's strong pipes floating over her spare acoustic guitar strumming. "I could show 'em how it's done," she sings, and indeed she does. With only the slightest accompaniment of guitar and a little music-box bridge, it doesn't get any simpler or sweeter than this.

MP3:> Neko Case: "Middle Cyclone"

[from Middle Cyclone; out 03/03/09 on Anti-]