Some pertinent St. Vincent news to pass along to end the day today, exactly one week before Dallas product Annie Clark releases her third solo record, Strange Mercy, the most pressing of which is this: In case you haven't yet noticed, the new, made-in-Oak-Cliff, John Congleton-produced album is streaming over on NPR's web site. Our early take: It's more Actor than Marry Me, and definitely a more progressive effort and a more challenging listen than either; whereas Vincent was quick to keep tracks spare and elegant in the past, the new disc is ripe with swirling fills throughout. Lest she wasn't a full-on guitar heroine before, she seems intent on becoming one now and seems well on her way.
Maybe that's why she's scoring such sweet collaborations -- like, her long-in-the-works pairing with Talking Heads guru David Byrne (another Congleton collaborator) and maybe some marching bands. Clark today confirmed to Pitchfork that their collaboration will be a full-length deal. No word yet on when to expect it, though.
Hopefully, whenever it comes to pass, it'll include some Dallas showcases. Byrne, you may recall, has some Dallas ties himself: His 1986 film, True Stories, was filmed at the NorthPark mall.
Clark, meanwhile, in one of -- count 'em -- three stories about her on Pitchfork's main page today, shares a memory of her own Dallas upbringing.
Of those three pieces, the most in-depth, by far, is the site's spotlight Q&A, which is a fairly interesting read (even if it features a surprising lack of "Q's" in favor of statement questions) and, for local obsessives, especially so during this part:
Pitchfork: Did you listen to a lot of punk rock growing up?Ah, CD World, may it rest in peace.
AC: My best friend and I would drive to CD World in Dallas, and listen to Sonic Youth and the Dead Milkmen, but I didn't really listen to a lot of punk. In high school, I was more into what was happening on 4AD or Matador.
(Also, for what it's worth: Don't worry, we did the math; the 11-year-old Good Records, owned by Clark's former employers in the Polyphonic Spree, wasn't open until the very tail-end of Clark's high school career.)
Lastly, remember: St. Vincent returns to Oak Cliff to play the Kessler Theater on Sunday, October 23. Reserved seats are long gone, but, somehow, general admission tickets are still available. Not sure what the hold-up is, if we're being honest.
