Hamilton Leithauser: Cock o' the Walkmen

Eight years and four albums into things, New Yorker moodists The Walkmen are in career form. Their latest longplayer, You & Me seems, with every successive spin, to be firming as their best-record-yet. It's certainly been their most successful; its spike of digital sales on its initial online release helping the record bother the Billboard chart (#29 digital! #71 regular!).

The quintet's 2008 has also included a couple of visits to Daytrotter HQ in scenic Rock Island, Illinois. After knocking out a set of Leonard Cohen songs early in the year, last month the Walkmen dusted off a foursome of tracks pulled from the fearsome, track-marked back-cat of gonzo Royal Trux/Howling Hex honcho Neil Michael Hagerty.

Given how good things're going, Hamilton Leithauser has every right to strut. The Walkmen's dude-ish, hoarse-throat'd vocalist —so peripatetic during their anthemic liveshows— sat still long enough, earlier this week, to field a session of searing questions. Read on, gentle children.