Austin three-piece White Denim, who self-released an EP last year called Let's Talk About It, are offering a free EP through the RCRD LBL site, one track at a time. "World as a Waiting Room" came out last month, and today they've posted a song called "Paint Silver Gold". Their sound reminds me a bit of the John Spencer Blues Explosion, with crunchy garage-rock riffs hacking away over a heavy-but-nimble rhythm section, though James Petralli has a more versatile voice than that band's namesake. My vehicle is currently parked in another state, but this song would sound amazing in a car.

MP3:> White Denim: "Paint Silver Gold"

A little over a week ago, Hot Chip put together a set for Radio 1's "Essential Mix" series. It's got some material from the new record, and otherwise is all over the map. From the band's website, the tracklist is below.

Stream:> Hot Chip: Radio 1 Essential Mix

One Pure Thought / Hot Chip / EMI
You Have to Dance / Noze / Unreleased
Ready for the Floor (Hot Chip Remix) / Hot Chip / EMI
Golden (Wookie Dub Mix) / Jill Scott / White Label
Drive Your Car / Grovesnor / Greco Roman
I Want Your Love (Todd Terje Edit) / Chic / White Label
Parage / Justus Köhncke / Kompakt
Sensual Seduction / Snoop Dogg / Geffen Records
Bring U Up / Romanthony / Glasgow Underground
Drop / Timbaland / AV8
Matt John / Olga Dancekowski / BAR25
Don & Sherri (Hot Chip Version) / Matthew Dear / Ghostly International
Mandinko / Lanark / Unreleased
Untitled / Alex Under / Trapez
Falling Stars / Smith N Hack / Smith N Hack
Law of the Land / Undisputed Truth / EMI
Ick Muss Aus Dit Millieu Heraus / Paul Kalkbrenner / B-Pitch Control
Space / Minilogue / My Best Friend
Feelin Plastik / Lucio Aquilina / Trapez
Pongo (Extended) / Giorgio Preiozo and Libre / Net's Work International
Where's My Pill? / Minimow / Hell Yeah Recordings
More Weed / The Surgery / Sticky / Social Circles
Snapdragon / Red Robin & Jakob Hilden / Trapez Limited
Original (Carl Craig Remix) / Tiefschwarz / Souvenier
I Think They Are Trying to Say Something / Jeff Samuel / Trapez
Archangel / Burial / Hyperdub

The title track from "Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!", the new Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album due March 3rd in the UK and April 4th in the U.S., continues the vigor heard last year from Grinderman. The music is a bouncy, bluesy squall led by an organ riff that sounds lifted from something on Chess Records. Above the beat looms Cave, talking his way through the story with characteristic intensity. "Well I don't know what it is, but there's definitely something going on upstairs," he sings on the turnaround, and damn if he isn't right. Click on the album's title on the right edge of the screen to hear the tune.

Stream:> Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: "Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!"
[from Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!; due 03/03/08 in the UK on Mute and 4/4/08 in the U.S. on Anti-] 

This song, an intricate stop/start number with prog leanings, introduced people to Hella's new vocal-oriented sound on There's No 666 in Outer Space about a year ago. So why a video now? Well, as director/animator Ian Hill explains, a load of unforeseen technical hurdles had to be overcome before the clip could be finished, and it's taken until now to get them ironed out. When you see the detail of the animation here, each discrete light object rendered in impossibly complex detail, it's not hard to imagine a snag or two along the way. The streaming video doesn't quite do the visuals justice, so if you have the time and the bandwidth, a large (300 MB) QuickTime file is also available here.

[from There's No 666 in Outer Space; out now on Ipecac]

Stripped-down cover versions are practically their own genre by now-- Iron & Wine's "Such Great Heights" and José González's "Heartbeats" are just a couple of the best that spring to mind-- but there's something a little bit different about this rendition of Grinderman's "No Pussy Blues". New York's Mike Bones does more than just take Pitchfork's #11 track of 2007 down a few decibel levels. The guitarist, singer-songwriter, and member of Soldiers of Fortune-- which also includes members of Oneida, Home, and Oakley Hall-- trades Nick Cave's blue-balled squall for the weird (not freak) folk and multi-hued arpeggios of his own solo debut, The Sky Behind the Sea, released in November on The Social Registry.

"No Pussy Blues" has been cropping up in Bones' live shows at least since this summer; the version here is from a November 17 solo set at Williamsburg's Sound Fix, a recording of which was pressed in a run of 350 one-sided 12"s and issued to Social Club subscribers as a holiday gift. On Grinderman's self-titled debut, the track seethes with the frustrated sexual urgency of Cave's lyrics, but Bones opts instead for the traditionally tender and "earnest" tropes of a bare-bones folkie-- and that makes things even more uncomfortable. Without a volcano of guitar noise to add danger to his desire, the singer stands (ahem) completely naked. Paradoxically, though, the sincerity implied by the song's bare-bones trappings also adds an extra degree of arch distance, the kind of trick that helped make Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen so enigmatic. There are a couple of odd lyrical substitutions: "Little Lo" for "little ho"? Still, this is a satisfying cover of a song that can't get any.

Perhaps the Beatles-inspired hooks and juicy Southern sunshine of King of Prussia's debut would have benefited from coming out over the summer-- though, in fairness, it was available as a self-released effort then-- but now that it is getting a proper release by the newly resuscitated Kindercore label in the middle of winter, it will have to serve less as a seasonal soundtrack and more as wishful thinking. But, on the plus side, those with seasonal affective disorder (or really anyone who finds these colder months depressing), will find that a listen to Save The Scene will work as well as sticking your head in a lightbox to up your serotonin production on a grey, snowy day.

The Athens, Georgia-based band traffics in the sounds of its hometown-- both Elephant 6-like psychedelia and the sugary, indelibly catchy pop aesthetic of its new label-- and "Spain In The Summertime" is, perhaps, the record's best synthesis of the two. Starting off with the bass'n'tambourine chug of Revolver's "Taxman", the song abruptly changes its tack about a minute in, as the rhythm section relaxes its grip on the melody so it can evolve into a dreamy, almost waltzing duet. The addition of an airy, girlish voice into the mix, alongside singer Brandon Hanick's buttery, faux-British one (see also: Meloy, Colin or Mangum, Jeff) halts the mod drive of the tune and gives it a Godspell-ish astral frothiness. Though the lyrics can be quite dark-- "She couldn't laugh, so she painted a grin on her face"-- the melody is fueled by levity. After all, everyone can agree that the idea of Spain in the summertime is a welcome one right about now.

The Electric Prunes famously kicked off the original Nuggets compilation complaining "I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)", but the Magnetic Fields' Stephin Merritt prefers the sauce to dreams, thank you. With the release of new Magnetic Fields album Distortion less than two weeks away, RCRD LBL has posted "Too Drunk to Dream", a cheerfully depressive track that takes a welcome, drunken left turn from the organic polish of 2004's i and swerves toward jaunty noise-pop. Aside from sending me scrounging for lamer and lamer missing-vowel jokes, RCRD LBL is suggesting the track's metallic cacophony was probably inspired by a hearing problem Merritt suffers, called hyperacusis.

And that sounds reasonable-- especially given the way trebly guitar, clinking piano, and a characteristically chipper melody are soaked in echoes and screeching feedback. Even more reasonable, after a fashion, are Merritt's conclusions: "I gotta get too pissed to miss you/ Or I'll never get to sleep," he croons. Beer before liquor? Liquor before beer? Instead of trying to remember which is which, sometimes it's best to be an adult about it and stick to whatever Merritt drinks. (Last time I saw him, it was Chivas Regal.)

MP3/Stream:> The Magnetic Fields: "Too Drunk to Dream"
[from Distortion; due 01/15/08 on Nonesuch]

Jens Lekman had one of the best-ever performances on the "Take Away Show" when he covered Arthur Russell's "A Little Lost" in an empty auditorium last year. And we know from numerous Forkcast posts that he loves throwing down with his guitar wherever. So a reprise performance on the La Blogothèque show makes all kinds of sense. Someone going by "One Shot Seattle" filmed these performances, but three hours south, in Portland. The full story is here.

Jens Lekman: "Into Eternity"

I don't have much information about this track, recently posted on the Clientele's MySpace page. Along with the Television cover "The Fire", it's one of two B-sides found on the "Bookshop Casanova" single, which, according to the band, will be a digital-only release for the time being. While "The Fire" sounds like a B-side, an experiment with a slightly grittier sound, "Girl From Somewhere" is brilliant and stands easily with the best songs on God Save the Clientele. There's a distinctly Byrdsian cast to the velvety harmonies that has them floating eight miles high above the jangly guitar line, and the production sounds a bit rougher than the more refined sound of God Save, evoking the band's earlier singles (which makes sense since, per the band, it was written years ago). It's a good reminder that there are certain things the Clientele does better than any band around.

Stream:> The Clientele: "Girl From Somewhere"
[from the "Bookshop Casanova" single; out now on Merge]