MITCH ALEXANDER interrupts the dinner preparations of PETE BAUER, once-bassist, now organist for THE WALKMEN, to talk about their new album. Other items on the menu include playing dress-up and video games.

“Oh, I wasn’t sure what time you were going to call. I’m just buying a bottle of wine at the moment, can you hold on one second?”

Ok, so it’s not THE most surreal moment I’ve ever had at Rave, but listening to Pete Bauer exchange goods for services over the phone on the other side of the world would at least scrape into the top 10. But at least I know he should be in a good mood now.

At this point, lazy and clichéd writers would write some limply trite analogy about this New York City quintet being like a fine wine, brimming with rich textures and showing a maturity that is rare in an eight year vintage. So that’s what’s going to happen. Their fifth and most recent album You & Me has a cheeky edge, a subtly somber aftertaste, and too much can probably result in a headache. Given that the band formed with three members of Jonathon Fire*Eater and The Recoys, does that make The Walkmen a Roset? Badoom ching!

Recorded over several months in studios that took them from Manhattan to Hoboken and way down south to Oxford, Mississippi, The Walkmen’s further exploration into the world of melancholic horns and strings is instantly noticeable, conjuring up images of ‘60s soul gathering dust in some derelict jukebox. Guitarist Paul Maroon performed much of the added instruments himself to keep both fans and bandmembers guessing.

“We definitely don’t want to repeat ourselves, so having those horns and strings on this album is like the equivalent of putting piano on our first album. Paul learning to play the viola and horns was just a huge thing for us, anything that gives us a new way to write a song is welcomed”

There are two parts to The Walkmen: their own self-composed output and their frequent enthusiasm towards covering other people’s tunes. Like the combination of wine and a meal, they complement each other perfectly to the point where if one was missing the other may seem incomplete. They’ve contributed a Drifters song to an Xbox game, some Leonard Cohen for radio sessions and a track-by-track reworking of Harry Nilsson’s classic boozy album Pussy Cats in 2006.

“Doing other people’s songs is so much fun when you’ve spent two years panicking about your own,” he says rather distractedly. “That bottle of wine I bought is terrible … it’s just awful. But I bought two of them, it’s going to be ok. But yeah, [Pussy Cats] was something to do with three weeks spare.

“There was not a lot of thought that went into it, and I feel like it came off in a way where people were like ‘well these guys really must have thought this through, they’re being smart or something’, but we were just doing it for fun. I mean we’re dressed like tomatoes on the cover, so it’s not a serious thing”.

With that mental image in my head, I leave Pete to enjoy his evening without further annoyances, but not without passing on my sole piece of knowledge when it comes to drinking wine. Sometimes, just like with friends, lovers and guitar solos, quantity is much more important than quality.

YOU & ME by THE WALKMEN is out now through Etch n Sketch/Inertia. For more details go to www.marcata.net/walkmen

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