News
Best New Music
Red Hot's latest all-star charity comp features 31 new and exclusive songs from Arcade Fire, Spoon, David Byrne, My Morning Jacket, Feist, Ben Gibbard, the Decemberists, Conor Oberst,Stuart Murdoch, Yo La Tengo, the New Pornographers, Cat Power, Antony, Bon Iver, and members of Sigur Rós, among many others. Yes, it's good.
This new Slumberland band will be bracketed with other lo-fi/noise-pop peers, but they have songs that will appeal beyond the confines of subcultures: Anyone with a weakness for trebly, melancholy pop music will find a lot to like about this record.
Reviews
Neko Case crafts another strong entry in her strange catalog, a culmination of some of the lyrical and musical concerns she's been exploring since Blacklisted.
[Stephen M. Deusner]On their debut, L.A.'s Abe Vigoda made self-described "tropical punk," mixing steel drum-mimicking guitars and stilted, hard-to-play rhythms; on this new EP, the band takes the next logical step in the development of their easy-to-peg sound: they abandon it.
[Jessica Suarez]Brighton, UK's Shrag are a sharp, up-and-coming poppy post-punk band smearing their own dark lip gloss on sex and gender while also looking for real, vital connection.
[Marc Hogan]Dent May and His Magnificent Ukulele: The Good Feeling Music of Dent May and His Magnificent Ukulele
Mississippi native's debut on Animal Collective's Paw Tracks imprint finds him working in the realm of schmaltzy barroom pop with a style that's sometimes evocative of Jens Lekman or Stephin Merritt.
[Joe Colly]New York band's latest again infuses turn-of-the-millennium Strokes moves with more bombastic stadium rock.
[Ian Cohen]Mon: 03-02-09
Fri: 02-27-09
Thu: 02-26-09
Wed: 02-25-09
Forkcast
- Video: Sébastien Tellier: "Roche"
- Pitchfork.tv: Winter Gloves: "Let Me Drive" [Video Premiere]
- Video: The Black Keys' Pat Carney: Art Spiegelman's Be a Nose! clip
- Video: David Byrne: "Life is Long" (live on "The Colbert Report")
- Video: U2: "Breathe" (live on "The Late Show with David Letterman")
- New Audio: Sonic Youth: The Eternal mashup
- Video: Tim Exile: "Family Galaxy"
Features
Interview: Fucked Up
We speak to the members of Toronto's Fucked Up about their childhood record collections, the inevitability of being thrown out of venues, and why nicknames come in handy with the U.S. border patrol.
[Grayson Currin]Guest List: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart give us a brief travelogue from their tour of Sweden, debate which punny Pains merch would be the cheesiest, and reveal their Moldy Peaches-linked claim to fame. [Interview: Tyler Grisham]
[The Pains of Being Pure at Heart]Live Review: Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction played a small club show in L.A. last week and Pitchfork was there to see how it all went down. The band also taped the show and provided video of six of its classic songs, including "Mountain Song", "Stop", and "Ain't No Right", all of which can be viewed here.
[Ian Cohen]Appreciation: Touch and Go Records
This week, Touch and Go-- one of America's foremost independent record labels-- announced that they are tabling new music and shuttering their distribution arm. It's impossible to calculate the importance Touch and Go had to the rock'n'roll landscape of the past three decades; we scraped just the surface in 2006 when, to celebrate the label's 25th anniversary, Pitchfork published a few features about the imprint's history.
[Pitchfork]Interview: Air France
Air France members Joel Karlsson and Henrik Markstedt talk to us via email about high school, the economy, and the life-changing power of Saint Etienne.
[Marc Hogan]Guest List: Diplo
Diplo reveals which two classic producers he admires most, tips us off to a new venue in Philly, and divulges a family relation to a prominent indie-rock frontman. [Interview: Tyler Grisham]
[Diplo]