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Stream Kelis’ Clattering ‘Jerk Ribs,’ Produced by Dave Sitek

kelis jerk ribs dave sitek tv on the radio

After a decade in the major label system, Kelis is going indie in 2013. She has linked up with Federal Prism, the label run by TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek, for two albums this year. The first single off what figures to be one of those two albums has arrived, and it is produced by Sitek — who’s otherwise kept busy working on Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ searing new album Mosquito and with Beady Eye, the side project of Oasis’ Liam Gallagher (via Exclaim).

The song is “Jerk Ribs” — an odd title until you peruse Kelis’ Twitter, where she tweets about making things like citrus chili sauce with fruit from her backyard — and it’s appropriately ready for summer barbecues. Sitek’s funkily midtempo production simmers and steams with a rolling bassline, junkyard percussion and bursting horns. Kelis’ vocals barely rise above the noise, but as anyone who has spent summer in a city knows, that’s probably the point.

Kelis also pops up in a new short film by Michael Cera called Brazzaville Teen-Ager, based on the story by writer Bruce Jay Friedman.