Individually, Nick Zinner and Justin Pearson have made significant contributions to the ongoing post-punk revival. Zinner, in the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, has edifyingly proffered everything from sparse, serrated blasts of underground dance punk to a pop disco anthem that ended up being performed on Glee—mashed up with Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” no less. Pearson, in The Locust, has been a Godfather of the influential Powerviolence micro-genre, a disorienting and challenging chimera of brutish, back-to-basics hardcore and the reductive, mechanical textures of early ‘80s synth-pop.

Together, Zinner and Pearson have collaborated as members of Head Wound City, the band that melted faces as the openers on Savages’ 2016 tour. But more recently, as members of Planet B (along with Locust/HWC’s Gabe Seriban), they’ve collaborated on a cover of an altogether different and more rarefied post-punk icon—“Never Let Me Down Again” by Depeche Mode, one of the most successful electronic music groups in history, ranking alongside Kraftwerk and DEVO in sheer enormity of influence, and surely surpassing both in cultural reach.

“Never Let Me Down Again” is an unshakably dark heroin song that achieves a weird and poignant universality by never explicitly mentioning drugs, and was the lead track and first single from 1987’s Music For the Masses”, which, taken with its follow-up, 1990’s Violator, comprises the band’s high water mark in this scribe’s correct opinion. It’s ominous, beautiful, creepy, and euphoric, and it was a massively depressing track to release as a single to begin with, but Planet B’s version is a lo-fi screamer that significantly ups the ante on the song’s bleakness, stripping it of its drug-high euphoria and leaving in its place a harrowing withdrawal. They recorded it for Love Oakland, a compilation benefitting the Oakland Family Fund, which arose in the wake of last year’s tragic Ghost Ship fire, which wiped out a crucial DIY venue/incubator and took 36 lives. The comp mostly features the obscure artists associated with that scene—apart from Zinner and Pearson, the contributor you’re most likely to know is the Indo-Canadian garage/psych savant King Khan, but other tracks, like Tony Molina’s lovely acoustic instrumental “Fluff” and Naked Lights’ “Hyde,” a jagged gut-punch of a song that recalls Arab on Radar, are absolutely worth hearing. The whole thing is streaming and available for sale on Bandcamp, and Pearson took some time to talk to DM about it:

For Planet B the decision to cover “Never Let Me Down Again” was simple. Musically the song is timeless, and lyrically, it seemed fitting for the Love Oakland compilation. Most listeners of music can connect to certain songs and this one was relevant for all of us. Furthermore, the idea to have Nick Zinner featured on the track was a means to showcase our radical friendship, and the basic idea of community. Over all, the compilation is littered with friends and family, all coming together for a good cause, and ultimately to shed light on a situation that effects a lot of artists.

 
Listen after the jump…

 
Fans of avant-rock percussion should already know the name of Kid Millions. It’s the nom de rock of John Colpitts, best known as the drummer for the long-running, krautrock-influenced NYC band Oneida, who became notorious in 2002 for the 14-minute, one-note song “Sheets of Easter” from their essential 2xCD Each One Teach One. Millions’ uncannily metronomic timing, enviable stamina, and the fact that he’s one of the nicest guys on Earth has made him a sought-after percussionist, and he’s served stints with Ex-Models, Spiritualized, and the terrific Marnie Stern. He’s currently on tour with his recurring heavy-friends project Man Forever, whose new LP is Ryonen, a collaboration with Sō Percussion. From MF’s FB:

Man Forever is actually a band. It’s not a statement about men. It’s a compositional vehicle that tends to have a lot of drums but sometimes it doesn’t.

I’ve seen Man Forever three times, and I’ve yet to see them sans a lot of drums. The first show I caught had pounding from the likes of Obnox honcho Bim Thomas and Call of the Wild’s scary-good Allison Busch. The second time, Millions recruited local musicians at every tour stop to perform a drums-and-drone composition. But last Saturday, Man Forever were in Cleveland, and members of Yo La Tengo were also in town, doing a DJ set for Record Store Day. And so it came to pass that that night, YLT’s Georgia Hubley became a part of Man Forever with Millions, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Brian Chase, and Amy Garapic of the percussion ensemble Tigue. Shame there was apparently only a hi-hat available for Hubley to play, but then Garapic made just a snare go a pretty darn long way.

It merits mentioning that Millions had played with Hubley before—he was one of the supporting drummers in Yo La Tengo’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon appearance in 2013, along with with Portlandia’s Fred Armisen. The clip, sadly, has been nuked from NBC’s website and Hulu, but if you’re really jonesing to see it, there’s a vid posted by someone who shot it off his TV screen here.

Here’s the video of Kid Millions’ ability to make drum circles cool again. I only got a few minutes of the set before my phone’s memory filled up, because I suck at phones. Additional footage comes courtesy of Jon Morgan and Lou Muenz.
 

 
More after the jump…