"It's called 'Red River,' and Spider-Man is red. That's pretty good, I think."

The extemporaneous vibe espoused by Hamilton Leithauser and his band the Walkmen might seem an unlikely match for the high-gloss web-slinging antics of Spider-Man. But, improbable though it may seem in theory, Ham and company's "Red River" is the second single from the soundtrack to that highly-successful film series' third installment, following Snow Patrol's lead-off single "Signal Fire".

(As you know, the Spider-Man 3 soundtrack also features the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Killers, Black Mountain, and the Flaming Lips, among others. But you may not know that the Flaming Lips not only contribute their new tune "The Supreme Being Teaches Spider-Man How to Be in Love" to the disc, but they also do a version of the Spider-Man theme song for the special edition of the soundtrack. That deluxe set also comes with "a 32 page embossed hard-cover book featuring movie stills and all five collectible movie cards inside a 7x7 box made from a replica of the rubberized Spider-Man suit"! Daaamn!)

Pitchfork spoke to Leithauser between the Walkmen's dates with the Kaiser Chiefs to discuss his Spidey senses, the real story behind his arrest at this year's SXSW, the band's ongoing book project, and the vagaries of putting out a single in 2007.

Pitchfork: How'd you get involved with Spider-Man III?

Hamilton Leithauser: Our record company is putting it out.

Pitchfork: So that's it, then? You didn't have any particular say in the decision?

Hamilton Leithauser: Oh no, no, they asked us if we wanted to do it. But I think that's probably how we got the nod.

Pitchfork: Did you write "Red River" specifically with the movie in mind?

Hamilton Leithauser: We've been writing a bunch of songs for the last six months like that, or maybe eight months. They asked us while we were writing songs if we would be interested in putting a song on the soundtrack. And we had one that was sort of an aggressive song and that made it work for an action movie. So we figured, why not?

Pitchfork: So, lyrically or thematically, there's not a connection with Spider-Man?

Hamilton Leithauser: Well, it's called "Red River" and Spider-Man's red.

Pitchfork: That's pretty much the extent of it then?

Hamilton Leithauser: That's pretty good, I think.

Pitchfork: I can dig it. Is there any story behind the song? Anything interesting about it or how it came together?

Hamilton Leithauser: No, we just wrote it in our usual way of vaguely writing stuff and finally having it come together. I don't know, I can't think of anything funny about it.

Pitchfork: Understandable. Do you have any personal relationship with Spider-Man? Have you been a fan for a long time?

Hamilton Leithauser: Oh sure, when I was growing up. Spider-Man comics and all that kind of crap.

Pitchfork: Do you like the other two films?

Hamilton Leithauser: Yeah, I did. I saw the first one. Is that the one with William Defoe?

Pitchfork: Yeah, he is. He's in both of them I guess, but mostly the first one.

Hamilton Leithauser: Oh, the second one was with that guy who played Doctor Octopus.

Pitchfork: Yeah, Alfred Molina.

Hamilton Leithauser: Right, right. I like him. I like Alfred Molina a lot. I think he might be my favorite element of all that stuff.

Pitchfork: Do you happen to know anything about what kind of placement the song is going to get in the movie itself?

Hamilton Leithauser: No, I have no idea. These days, when they put out the soundtrack, and I'm not really sure, but isn't it always sort of unrelated to the movie? Or do they have the songs in the actual movie?

Pitchfork: I think from time to time it can be like that and sometimes the song will play in a passing car in cut-away scenes.

Hamilton Leithauser: I don't know if it's going to be in the film, but they did tell me it's going to be one of the singles off of the soundtrack. I was shocked. They all really liked it at Sony or whatever.

Pitchfork: The series seems to be moving away from what you might consider to be traditional summer blockbuster soundtrack fodder. The first movie had that awful song by that dude from Nickelback and a bunch of aggro-rock songs, but there's a lot of indie bands on this one. They're putting it out on vinyl, too.

Hamilton Leithauser: Yeah, it sounded kind of weird. Aren't Spider-Man and Titanic and E.T. the top grossing movies ever?

Pitchfork: It's pretty high up there. I don't know if it's quite that high. [Ed: Spider-Man is the seventh-highest grossing film in U.S. box-office history, and Spider-Man 2 is tenth].

Hamilton Leithauser: Yeah, I was surprised that they'd be willing to put this small act in the movie and then choose our song over the other ones. I think we're one of the smallest groups on that list that I saw.

Pitchfork: Even still, I think Snow Patrol is the biggest band on it. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are on it. I mean, all these bands that you wouldn't necessarily associate with a huge blockbuster.

Hamilton Leithauser: Yeah yeah, definitely not. I'm surprised. I really just don't know how that stuff works. I was surprised as anyone else. It's just one of those things that seems like there's so much money involved, making decisions like that wouldn't really be an option.

Pitchfork: You guys are involved in a book project. How that's going?

Hamilton Leithauser: It's going nowhere right now [laughs]. It's been awhile since we really hunkered down and wrote. We thought it was funny when we'd been on tour for two years and it sort of got to the point where we thought everything was funny. We started writing everything down, and it was really funny at the time. And looking back it's all still really funny. I've just gotten to the point where I'm just so bored that you can just start doing that.

Pitchfork: So you're not sitting down with publishers or anything like that, looking at cover jackets?

Hamilton Leithauser: [laughs] No, I really wish we were but, no, we're not. I love the idea. I really do hope we finish it someday. But I think it'll probably take ten years.

Pitchfork: Is it mostly just tour diary stuff?

Hamilton Leithauser: Yeah, it is kind of like what we did that day, but there's no rock in it at all.

Pitchfork: I can see how that kind of thing would perpetuate itself.

Hamilton Leithauser: Yeah, it's really fun if you're in the mindset where every day is very routine, and you're just trying to entertain yourself. You're just really bored after awhile. It got really funny.

Pitchfork: I've got to ask about your arrest at South by Southwest. Can you discuss that? Are you even allowed to?

Hamilton Leithauser: Yeah, sure.

Pitchfork: Has anything happened since then? Have you talked to the hotel desk clerk?

Hamilton Leithauser: I went back the next day, I was pretty mad at them. But they didn't give us anything for it. They didn't comp the rooms. They didn't do anything.

Pitchfork: Man, that's pretty ridiculous.

Hamilton Leithauser: They didn't even apologize. Matt [Barrick, drums] went in and explained to the porter, 'you know, the only reason this whole thing happened is because your guy got the room number wrong.' I never blew my top. There was no scene or anything. And then Matt said 'do you understand?' and the guy says 'I do now'. And that was it. Matt was like, 'are you going to do anything?' and the guy's like 'well, no.' All right, great, fuck you.

Pitchfork: Care to remind us of the name of the hotel and the clerk?

Hamilton Leithauser: Oh yeah, I'm more than happy to. It's the Crowne Plaza on I-35 North, just north of downtown Austin. The man's name is Marice. M-A-R-I-C-E.

Pitchfork: Duly noted.

Hamilton Leithauser: [laughs] That's about all I've got now. There's nothing I can do. My small, small victory.

Pitchfork: Well, still, it probably stings in some-

Hamilton Leithauser: I hope he reads Pitchfork.

Pitchfork: I hope he does too. So you said you've got a ton of songs. Are you forming those together into an album soon?

Hamilton Leithauser: We recorded about half. That song "Red River" is actually one of those ones. But I'm really happy that one's coming out sooner because we recorded six and we've got a few more and we're going to record those. When you're finished with that it always seems to take eight months before anyone ever gets to hear them on a record. That's the thing that I like most about this is that you finished all these songs and you just give them one and they'll just put out right now. We don't have to worry about taking six months to build up a record or whatever everybody does.

Pitchfork: Do you have plans for the rest of the summer after your dates with Kaiser Chiefs?

Hamilton Leithauser: We really want to first finish the record, and I really would like to have it out in September. That might be wishful thinking, but that's been the plan for a while. We have a date to go back into the studio in, I think, pretty much all of June and really try to wrap the whole thing up. I think that if that goes as planned, if it does, then it will be out this early fall.

Pitchfork: You don't want to give us an exclusive album title several months in advance or anything, do you?

Hamilton Leithauser: I really wish I could. I'm searching, man, if you've got any ideas.

Pitchfork: I've got nothing. Spiderman 4, maybe.

Hamilton Leithauser: [laughs] Yeah, that was Matt's idea; because we had to name our songs, name it Theme for Spiderman.

Pitchfork: I like it. You said there's going to be a single for "Red River". Do you think it's going to have a Spiderman face on it? Or is going to be, like, a Walkmen single?

Hamilton Leithauser: I don't know. It seems to me like it's not really a 7" record that you buy anymore. It used to feel like you got a single with an A side and B side and it had its own cover and everything like that. It seems to me these days when people are saying "is it a single, do you have a single?," it's just the name of a song on your record that people talk about a lot or something. It's kind of intangible.

Pitchfork: You guys have done EPs-- that's similar, although not quite the same.

Hamilton Leithauser: It's different talk than when the five of us get together and say "let's do a single." We would be talking about putting two songs onto a vinyl record or CD and selling it at a show or in a store or, I guess, now, on the internet. Most of your talks you have with other people and you're talking about "the single" and then after awhile you'll be like, "alright, I just don't even understand what it is." People will be like, "Do you want to issue another single? Off your record?" I mean, I don't even know what you mean. The record's been out for six months.

Pitchfork: It seems a little intangible, especially for bands that are on a certain level. That doesn't necessarily boost the record sales or anything like that.

Hamilton Leithauser: Yeah, I guess it all has to do with the sales. I guess it probably boils down to trying to put it on radio. Which I don't think we have to worry about.

Pitchfork: You never know. You are on the Spider-Man soundtrack.

Hamilton Leithauser: Yeah, yeah. Stranger things have happened.

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Win airfare, hotel, and tickets for the San Francisco Walkmen/Kaiser Chiefs/Annuals show on April 27 by entering this contest here.

Walkmen on the road:

04-12 New York, NY - Roseland Ballroom *@
04-17 Montreal, Quebec - Spectrum *@
04-18 Toronto, Ontario - Kool Haus *@
04-20 Chicago, IL - Vic Theatre *#
04-21 Minneapolis, MN - Trocadero *#
04-24 Vancouver, British Columbia - Commodore Ballroom *#
04-25 Seattle, WA - Showbox Theatre *#
04-26 Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom *#
04-27 San Francisco, CA - Warfield *#
04-28 Los Angeles, CA - Echoplex

* with Kaiser Chiefs
@ with Annuals
# with the Little Ones

Spider Man: The Indie Years