Cuaderno ContableThough Pitchfork’s double-whammy of a perfect 10.0 score and “Best New Music” laurel certainly don’t hurt, the legend of Serge Gainsbourg’s 1971 album Le histoire de Melody Nelson is well-established. Tremendously influential and infamously lecherous, the musical tale of an affair between an older French gentleman and teenage girl is a notorious one - even if you haven’t heard the record, you’ve heard OF the record.

It’s difficult to come up with words to describe the album. The proper adjectives - seedy, creepy, sleazy, debauched - all seem like negative descriptors but in this context, they imply perfection. It’s all deliberate and perfectly arranged with the orchestral strings, greasy funk guitar and most importantly Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin’s voices - the embodiment of lech and ingenue respectively - bring their story vividly to life. Even if you don’t speak French, and I don’t think that they would have taught me the necessary vocabulary in my 9th grade class, the record gets the message across musically and by the end of its sub-30 minute running time, you’re left feeling not a little bit dirty. Which I suspect is entirely the point.

Though it’s been almost 40 years since the album’s release, it’s only just been released in North America for the first time in deluxe CD form, with extensive liner notes, and heavyweight vinyl. And, courtesy of Light In The Attic, I’ve got a prize pack consisting of both the digital and analog forms of the album, along with a limited-edition poster, to give away. To enter, email me at contests AT chromewaves.net with “Je veux l’histoire de Melody Nelson” in the subject line and your full name and address in the body. Contest is open to residents of North America and notes that though the CD was released this week, the LP has been delayed till mid-May so if you win, that’ll come a bit later. But in the meantime, watch some video clips by Jean-Christophe Averty. And then wash your hands.

Video: Serge Gainsbourg - “Melody”
Video: Serge Gainsbourg - “Ballade de Melody Nelson”

Kyle from Information Leafblower interviews Bloc Party for DCist. Express Night Out and Boston Music Spotlight also have interviews.

Explosions In The Sky give Filter their guide to Austin, Texas. Well that would have been handy… a week ago.

NPR profiles Elvis Perkins In Dearland, who will be at the Horseshoe on April 29.

The National Post interviews Decemberist Colin Meloy.

Bry Webb of Constantines discusses getting older with The Toronto Sun.

St Vincent’s Annie Clark discusses her forthcoming album Actor with Spinner. The record is out May 5.

The AV Club gets a Drive-By Truckers update from Patterson Hood, including a progress report on their new album(s).

Just reminding you that we unveiled a new Listen@MBV entry this week: The Luck of the Singers, the latest from Toronto’s Hank, out now from Blocks Recording Club.

Hyunkoo Lee

Josephine Foster - “Nähe des Geliebten” My goodness, I must say you have very fine manners! You have such fine manners, the way you curtsied just under waistline and smiled upwards towards the lights, I've never seen such pleasant behaviour! You removed your shoes and left them hanging to dry, you crept snake-like across the floor to the chair and sat knees at a square right angle, how kind. You've kept your singing voice practiced and moist, what care! You eat nothing outside the proper colour spectrum, and drink nothing less viscous than peanut butter, you certainly have done your homework. You've even taken the care to carve the names of all the members of the visited household on the fleshy part of your belly. And such penmanship with that pen knife! Cared enough even to learn the dimensions of the house in advance so you could navigate to and from the bathroom and bedroom eyes closed and without hands rudely outstretched. Your appearance is even tempered to be that of a single degree below your host, but worlds beyond any of my many pets. How ugly my birds look when you are here, yet I feel so perfectly jolie. May all the blessings of your politesse come to you instantly, quicker than this instant dinner will be ready for you to enjoy. May God text message you from heaven with thoughtful wishes of success and achievement. May your health treatments be totally functional and errorless, may nothing go wrong with the lasers or weights. The vision of the future that generations had before did not quite turn out so excitingly, did it? How odd. [Buy from Insound]

Beach Boys - “Kokomo” I was taking Montreal's famous metro the other night. It was the last train of the night before it stopped. I got into my car, getting ready for the 5-stop wait to get off again, when I found myself in a new and strange situation: I had the car all to myself. And it dawned on me immediately that I had never experienced this before. I looked around, up and down, checking to make sure I wasn't missing any slumped over drunk or sleeping hooded figure. No, I was really alone in this train car. So I thought, in a weird knee-jerk i'm-never-going-to-get-this-chance-again kind of way; I have to take advantage of this situation.

Now, rides between metro stops are usually under a minute, so these thoughts were coming very quickly, and I knew I was running out of time even as I considered my options. Kick something, break something, write on something, wait, why are my first instincts to Destroy and Deface? So I just started singing. And before I knew it, I was singing, of all things, "Kokomo". I sang it loud, as loud as I could, really belting out all the notes that were in my range. And then the doors opened at the next stop and I stopped. And no one got on. So when the doors closed and the train started moving, I sang it again. [Buy]

Shawn Brackbill

I’m very happy I was able to tip off Great Pumpkin Tom about how and where to snag the Kurt Vile God Is Saying This To You… LP (even though stores were claiming it wasn’t out yet), because it just sold out from Mexican Summer. If you’re extremely lucky, you may still be able to grab one at your local record store, but I’m guessing it’s going to be tough. I hope you pre-ordered when I advised you to awhile back.

MP3: Passion Pit – “Sleepyhead”
Chunk of Change EP, French Kiss, 2008.

The Lemonheads will be releasing a new LP, Varshons, on Brooklyn’s The End Records on 6/23. The record is an all-covers affair, is produced by Gibby Haynes, and features songs by a slew of musical geniuses, including Leonard Cohen, Wire, Townes Van Zandt, and GG Allin.

At Drowned in Sound, Grizzly Bear frontman Ed Droste shares experiences from touring with Radiohead.

The Cleveland Plain-Dealer lists the city's top 10 rock and roll landmarks.

JamBase interviews folk legend Roy Harper.

Daytrotter's Thursday session features in-studio mp3s from singer-songwriter Lisa Hannigan.

Lullabyes continues its SXSW coverage with two live tracks from Wildbirds and Peacedrums.

At Oregon Public Broadcasting, Southerly is giving away a new song every week.