Every day this week, Song of the Day will showcase a track by an artist playing the South by Southwest music festival. For NPR Music's full coverage of SXSW — complete with full-length concerts, studio sessions, blogs, Twitter feeds, video and more --click here. And don't miss our continuous six-hour playlist, The Austin 100, which features much more of the best music the festival has to offer.
Calling "Thou Shalt Always Kill" a mission statement wildly understates the number of mission statements that come into play during the five-plus minutes of Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip's screwball breakthrough single. Against a backdrop of Sac's springy beats, Pip uncorks a wild string of advice, jokes, frustrated (and occasionally profane) rants, pop-culture references and non-sequiturs — many of them insightful, funny, thought-provoking, baffling or some combination thereof.
Pip isn't afraid to contradict himself, as he lists musicians whose names must not be taken in vain before urging everyone to stop putting legendary bands on pedestals. But he's constantly quotable, whether dispensing relationship advice — "Thou shalt not use poetry, art or music to get into girls' pants / Use it to get into their heads" — or tossing off silly quips. ("When I say 'Hey,' thou shalt not say 'Ho.' ") It's almost too much information to take in at once, but virtually every scrap of advice is worth revisiting, if not implementing.
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