Elvis Costello: “The Crooked Line”
It’s hard to tell what’s more shocking here: the twangy vibe, or the fact that Elvis Costello is singing about love without sounding poisonous and bitter. “The Crooked Line,” snatched from his upcoming record Secret, Profane, & Sucarcane, finds Costello going full-on country for the first time since King of America (that album’s producer, T-Bone Burnett, is again at work here) and it’s a welcome return. Strangely enough, those big glasses do sit pretty well alongside a cowboy hat.

Lindstrom + Prins Thomas: “Rothaus (Groove Edit)”
Norwegian disco producers Lindstrom and Prins Thomas have always looked to the past for inspiration, but this time they’re looking further back than usual. Where they were once content to tune the way-back machine into the ’80s, to better feel the pulse of italo-disco, their second collaborative record, Lindstrom + Prins Thomas II, knocks off another ten years, going all the way back to the krautrock-era. “Rothaus” is more than a little jammy, with a handful of keyboards randomly gurgling over a steady rhythm, recalling the more transcendent moments of fusion-era Miles Davis or Ash Ra Tempel.

Animal Collective: “Summertime Clothes (Dam Funk Remix)”
Animal Collective’s much loved Merriweather Post Pavilion proved once and for all that the Baltimore-bred trio could make decent use of bottom end. But getting all of those newfound bass frequencies into the pocket? Well, they aren’t quite there yet. Perhaps that’s why the band commissioned smooth-sounds maven Dam Funk for this remix of “Summertime Clothes.” The Los Angeles-based producer scrapes off the atmospheric gook and rolls in the analog synths, re-shaping the song into something tight and slinky enough to fit comfortably on Prince’s 1999.

The Dead Weather: “Treat Me Like Your Mother”
Speaking of Prince, since when did Jack White become alterna-rock’s answer to The Purple One, jumping from instrument to instrument, and from band to band? “Treat Me Like Your Mother,” by Dead Weather–White’s new super-group with Kills singer Alison Mosshart–finds him serving two roles, drummer and hype man.
Doing both simultaneously must be a bit of a task, given the song’s jagged and bombastic rhythms. But White nails it here with impressive dexterity or, possibly, just a few overdubs. Never the less, for a guy who’s on his second side project, this isn’t too bad.

If funk music has a Zen guru, it’s probably Dam Funk. For the Los Angeles-based producer/DJ, funk isn’t just a style of music, it’s a higher state of being. It’s an inspirational and quasi-spiritual pursuit that one might practice in order to achieve perfect harmony with the past, present, and future. Dam Funk’s answering machine message includes only one word before the beep: funkmosphere. But that’s pretty much all the information that you need. It’s where Dam Funk’s consciousness resides. It’s also a weekly DJ night that he hosts. But even if you live far from the West coast, it’s still a place that he can help you get to, you just have to tune into his music–precision-programmed grooves and lush analog synth chords that ripple through the hi-fi like the water in a freshly chlorinated swimming pool. He was kind enough to talk with Washington City Paper about boogie, modern funk, and, among other things, memories from the future.

Dam Funk will perform Thursday, May 7, at 930 Club with Peanut Butter Wolf, James Pants, and Mayer Hawthorne.
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