News
Best New Music
One-man noise-pop project Nathan Williams has quickly moved from homemade cassettes to online buzz, and he delivers on his first widely released LP, which recalls No Age's basement punk but feels more insular, self-contained, and unsettling.
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.
Reviews
English twee-pop band follows its 2005 debut, The Best Party Ever, with another collection of anorak pop, sunny West Coast harmonies, Belle and Sebastian-y folk, country, and soul.
[Marc Hogan]To celebrate the first anniversary of eMusic's Selects program, which compiles tracks from favorite unsigned or rising bands, the online retailer gathers the best of their past and presents choices in a handy CD-sized collection. Among those included are the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Girls, and My Teenage Stride.
[Rebecca Raber]Part cosmic fun house, part haunted house, Danielle Stech-Homsy's sophomore release supposedly began as a series of poems, which she subsequently fleshed out and expanded into songs.
[Joshua Klein]Seattle artist inverts the minimal techno aesthetic that Wolfgang Voigt inspired in the Field, burying the thump and emphasizing the ambience, to create consummate mood music.
[Brian Howe]Hushed folk-pop with orchestral flourishes and the occasional whimsically long song title mark this Calgary band's debut.
[Kasia Galazka]Wed: 03-04-09
Tue: 03-03-09
Mon: 03-02-09
Fri: 02-27-09
Forkcast
- Pitchfork.tv: Antony and Johnsons: Various Songs (Live in Washington, D.C.)
- Pitchfork.tv: William Fitzsimmons: "If You Would Come Back Home" [Video Premiere]
- New Music: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah: "Statues" (new mp3 and live on "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon")
- Video: U2: "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight" (Live on "Late Show With David Letterman")
- Pitchfork.tv: Telekinesis: "Tokyo" [Video Premiere]
- Video: Lil Wayne: "Prom Queen"
- New Music: Matthew Dear as Audion: "I Am the Car" [MP3/Stream]
Features
Guest List: Tindersticks
As he kicks off a rare U.S. tour, Tindersticks' Stuart Staples is stuck in a 1970s time-warp, giving his teenage daughter David Bowie lessons, taking in Stooges reunion shows, and revisiting Brian Clough's tenure as manager of Leeds United. [Interview: Tyler Grisham]
[Stuart Staples]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]