Dan Bejar of Destroyer—who moonlights with the Spencer Krug and Carey Mercer supergroup Swan Lake, as well as the Neko Case and A.C. Newman supergroup The New Pornographers—is known as a writing virtuoso, one of those few and proud and usually-called-crazy in music who bring true artfulness to the words themselves, and not just the instrumentation. Inspired by his upcoming appearance at Fun Fun Fun Fest, we thought there’d be few better things than to give Dan an opportunity to jot a few things down, so we shipped off to him a handful of questions and said have at it. And he did, and delightfully so, citing Lorca and the Duino Elegies, his prejudice for Wallace Stevens over Robert Frost, how fucked most musicians would be if they had to truly worry about lyrics, and why maybe someday he’d write a book if only he weren’t “a complete stranger to real work.” Needless to say, when he takes the Yellow stage at 8:45 on Day One of Fun Fest, we’ll be in the audience, following every word. more ›

There's something surely intriguing when the star-crossed "supergroup" label becomes affixed to three guys who just a decade ago would have found it nearly impossible to develop a following in the first place, let alone such independent fan bases that when they get together to screw off in the studio it elicits all sorts of anticipatory glee-shouts. Yet in these internet times, musicians such as Spencer Krug, Carey Mercer, and Dan Bejar do have a niche in which to survivably produce some of the most intricate and conceptually demanding albums of the last few years, and even afford themselves the spare time to work on the Swan Lake project, a project best described as what happens when three mad scientists meet at a mad scientist convention and decide to be mad scientists together. more ›

Carey Mercer's Blackout Beach project gives him the opportunity to go, without checks and balances, absolutely apeshit. And that’s exactly what he does with Skin of Evil, a deliciously murky concept album built around Donna, the notion of the perfect woman, and her past and present lovers, most of them woefully scorned, yet loving her nonetheless—on a scaffolding of chiming but stark guitar and otherwise complementary instrumentation and backup vocals, rarely is an album elevated so greatly via a close inspection of the lyric sheet. Listen after listen, it’s astounding that a man could make such a romantic album seem so utterly startling. more ›

Seattle's Aqueduct have been doggedly honing an indie/laptop pop sound for several years. Essentially a one-man studio band, David Terry channels influences ranging from a suburban Oklahoma upbringing to fandom of Guns 'N' Roses and The Princess Bride into his catchy, lo-fi home studio creations. Live, the band is a very different animal: at SXSW two years ago, they simply demolished the crowd with a blend of original tunes, rap covers, an Aqueduct theme... more ›

By and large, Canada has never been seen, in the eyes of the world, as quite the bastion of excess that the United States is. But until relatively recently, the world had not seen the spectacle of the Canadian indie scene. A tradition of ridiculous extravagance, borderline nepotistic chumminess, and overlapping personnel in the style of European royalty or American boards of directors is proudly continued in Beast Moans, the outstanding debut from Swan... more ›

If you survived the Deliverance-esque Ikea parking lot this weekend, and didn't get shot trying to get yourself a PS3, you deserve to spend even more of your hard-earned cash on records. Here's what you can find on the shelves at fine local establishments like End of an Ear or Waterloo today. Sufjan Stevens Songs for Christmas (Asthmatic Kitty) Featuring five discs worth of holiday music spanning the course of five years, tinsel used... more ›