Natalie Prass, 'Bird of Prey' [Fresh Vid + Fresh Track]

It's been a pretty good day for a Tuesday, what with all the

and

and

going on around here. But every sundae needs a cherry on top, and we've got a super sweet one. Last we heard from locally based singer-songstress Natalie Prass, she was touring as part of Jenny Lewis' band, with more news about her full-length record, due this fall, to come at a later date. The first single from Prass' album is now available from Spacebomb, the studio/label/house band endeavor headed by Richmond, Virginia's Matthew E. White. His name will ring a bell for fans of Mountain Goats (the multi-talented White did brass arrangements for Transcendental Youth and

for the 'Goats while promoting his own Big Inner) and produced

's More Strange News From Another Star.

This inaugural single from Prass' forthcoming LP is "Bird of Prey," a dramatic re-arrangement of one of the strongest songs from her 2011 EP Sense of Transcendence. This take trades in the synth drones for a '70s-R&B-flavored production with brass, strings and winds that's full but still several shades shy of full-on MFSB, using the sparseness to keep things nimble and loose. In the above video (directed by Tony Forgey), you'll see Prass, White and a bunch of performers (and one boxer pup, aww) getting ready to play, though no one's actually playing the song. If you pause the clip at a couple key points — which is the kind of thing I do because I'm a nerd — you'll see sheet music for a few other tunes, bearing lovelorn titles like "Your Fool," "Never Over You" and "If You Believe Me." If you're familiar with Prass, you'll know these aren't likely run-of-the-mill heartache songs; she's always got something odd and maybe even a little sinister up her sleeve (slow down and ruminate on the lyrics to "Bird of Prey" for a second: "You don't leave me no choice but to run away / You're a bird of prey / With a heart like midnight").

You can grab the new single and its B-side, a supple cover of Janet Jackson's "Any Time, Any Place" which also takes some cues from the '70s, over on iTunes. While we wait for more news on Prass' album and ponder making a road trip to Indianapolis for Lewis' show next week (the closest the tour will come to us, not counting the Forecastle gig last weekend), check out a stripped-down, live-in-studio version of "Bird of Prey" we posted a few years back, or stream the synth-enhanced EP version below or via Prass' Bandcamp page.