Ears Wide Open: Jenny and Johnny

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jennyandjohnny

The five-year-old artistic affair between Jenny Lewis and Johnathon Rice has borne a child – “We’re Having Fun Now,” the forthcoming full-length from the duo going by Jenny and Johnny. They released a teaser track this afternoon, the undeniably catchy “Scissor Runner,” and you haven’t heard anything like it since … well, since Evan Dando and Juliana Hatfield teamed up on “It’s a Shame About Ray”? Anyway, the back story goes like this: After Conor Oberst introduced the couple back in ’05, Rice played on Lewis’ “Rabbit Fur Coat;” Lewis contributed to Rice’s “Further North;” and Rice worked on Lewis’ “Acid Tongue,” which included a collaboration with Elvis Costello, with whom both then worked on “Momofuku.” Follow? Lewis and Rice wrote more songs, though, and the new tunes didn’t exactly fit either artist’s aesthetic. So they loosed the new beast with the studio help of Rilo Kileyites Pierre de Reeder and Jason Boesel and Saddle Creek mainstay Mike Mogis. The band will be giving away a limited-edition 7-inch of “Scissor Runner” from 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday at Rudy’s Barbershop in Silver Lake. I think they’re having a contest involving the blue station wagon too, but I’m already confused …

||| Live: Jenny and Johnny open for Belle and Sebastian on Oct. 3 at the Palladium.

||| Download: After the jump, trade your e-mail address for the track “Scissor Runner”: