Zammuto is the solo project of Books’ guitarist/vocalist Nick Zammuto. His latest track “Idiom Wind” is a pulsating and spacious Dylan-referencing number featuring chill jazz percussion and multitracked fiddle by Gene Back. Download that along with skittering, spliced-up, Battles-y instrumental “YAY” below.

Read More...

At this point people know what to expect from Kutscher’s: The faded Catskills resort’s crumbling walls held together by mold, broken everything (we were forced to do our own DIY toilet plumbing, heard about another one that flushed boiling water), that lost-in-time Tammy Faye Makeup Counter. What we didn’t expect was the persistent skinny dipping from a paunchy and pasty middle-aged man armed with a Budweiser and nothing else. It happened Friday night while we were resting (not raging) in the Down Under Bar: We weren’t the only ones to notice; he was in no hurry to cover up after exiting the pool. When he finally did get dressed — after reclining on a lounger and slowly chugging that beer — he put on his shirt, surveyed the other swimmers, let it hang out for another minute or so, and finally put those trunks where they should’ve been all along.

Read More...

It’s worth noting the Phillie Phanatic, a staple of my childhood, makes an appearance in the Books’ frantic video collage for “A Cold Freezin’ Night.” When Jessica wrote up the track, she mentioned the samples of “kids whispering and singing into tape recorders.” They also talk a lot of shit — the goofy violence comes into sharper focus when you can read along via childlike handwriting. In the process, I’m reminded of the Happy Flowers, aka Mr. Horribly Charred Infant and Mr. Anus, for the first time in ages: “Let’s Eat the Baby (Like My Gerbils Did),” etc. It’s that timeworn mix of innocence/wanting to hack someone from their toes to their brain.

Read More...

Frantic samples and a persistent quarter note beat play underneath the main feature of this song: Samples of kids whispering and singing into tape recorders. All their words sound like confessions, without the guilt — one girl repeats “I wish I was a boy,” other voices promise torture, or utter curses. It reminds me of how much fun it was to record and playback sounds and voices with the old brown Fischer Price recorder. I’m guessing those recorders inspired a generation of sample musicians.

Read More...

Offering some sort of sly commentary (or truism) on looks, the Books’ “Beautiful People” uses vocal clips about math and science to create its vocal textures. It also says something about the electro-acoustic duo that, per usual, they’re able to infuse the ones, zeroes, theorems, and pure abstraction with emotional resonance. The track’s from their forthcoming The Way Out, the first full-length since 2005′s Lost And Safe (though the gap was filled with the Music For A French Elevator And Other Short Format Oddities… EP and Play All DVD). Its Kraut-y drums, closing horns, and Queen-like harmonies add up to a sweet bit of collagist pop.

Read More...

Some 90 acts descended upon Champaign-Urbana, IL this past weekend, performing across 14 venues and four days for the fifth annual Pygmalion Music Festival. We sent photographer John Gitchoff to circle the fest, and he delivers this spread including shots of Low, Iron & Wine, the Antlers, and the Zach Hill-ified Wavves. Enjoy.

That blockbuster Dark Was The Night charity comp is following up on yesterday’s Dirty Projectors & David Byrne MP3 with a new song stream every day over at MySpace. Today’s taste is a take on Nick Drake’s “Cello Song,” which makes sense given the artists covering it. Listen. (UPDATE: You can now stream it at Books’ MySpace.)