The great San Francisco band, Girls, today released their new album, “Father, Son, Holy Ghost.” The album is getting universal praise, including receiving raves from The Lefort Report (full review to follow).  Oh yeah, and Pitchfork recently gave it one of Pitchfork’s highest album ratings in the last couple years.

The band will pay homage to indie record stores across the nation who have the new album on sale by webcasting Friday’s Nashville concert from Grimey’s across the websites, blogs and Facebooks of participating independent record stores across the nation.  Matador claims it’s the “first ever NATIONWIDE in-store performance.”

So this Friday 9/16, at 3pm Pacific time (since we all know you West Coast slackers knock off at noon on Friday anyway) make sure to tune in to your favorite record store’s website, blog or Facebook to watch the performance live From Nashville.

We recommend accessing San Luis Obispo’s Boo Boo’s Records website to check it out, but other participating stores can be found HERE.

On 9/11/11, America’s masterful Paul Simon delivered a moving version of his salient song, The Sound of Silence.   Not much more need be said, except that if you’re not affected by the video, you may require a soul-check.  Check the performance below the lyrics, which seemed to  only find their purpose 37 years after having been written (in 1964).

“Hello darkness, my old friend
I’ve come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence

In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
‘Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turn my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never shared
No one dared
Disturb the sound of silence

“Fools,” said I, “you do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you”
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said “The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sound of silence””

Hank Williams III lured Tom Waits over to his side to record together.  Check out the results in the song Fading Moon below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBTafnMs-Hs&feature=player_embedded

We’ve been dreading this day since well before June 6, 2010 (and after).  Needn’t say anything more than Tom Rush’s song.  That’s life…..and we feel fine.

Tom Rush–Child’s Song

We discovered a bit of musical bliss for Sunday.  Check out the video below by A Story Told Well from Cincinnati’s 2011 MusicNOW Festival (this year curated by The National’s Bryce Dessner).  As is stated, this collaboration between Sharon Van Etten, Bon Iver, Megafaun, and Fight The Big Bull (collectively called Sounds Of The South), was considered one of the highlights of this year’s MusicNOW Festival.  Here, Justin Vernon and Sharon Van Etten duet in a performance of “Trials, Troubles, Tribulations,” one of the re-imaginings of the songs recorded by ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax in his early travels.

Speaking of The National, oh how we wish we were headed to their headlining show tonight at the Hollywood Bowl with Neko Case (backed by T Bone Burnett, who’s producing her new album) and Sharon Van Etten.  We can’t imagine a better musical place to be on the planet today.  Tomorrow is Departure Day, however, so we have a higher calling this day.

Check out the MusicNOW performance below.

ASTW Presents | Sounds of the South @ MusicNOW ft. Megafaun, Fight The Big Bull, Justin Vernon & Sharon Van Etten from A Story Told Well on Vimeo.

While words can oft-times fail to fully convey an emotion, music never fails to do so.

It’s 9/11, and there remains a weighty world of woe.  Fortunately, we have found solace (or at least catharsis) in music related to that ridiculous day.

Mark Knopfler wrote the song, If This is Goodbye, from the perspective of someone trapped in the Towers calling their loved one for the last time.   While obviously old-school musically, the song roundly resonates.  Many great songs have been written about or relating to the events of 9/11, but for us Knopfler’s song hits amongst the hardest. In the performance below, the emotion in Knopfler’s and Emmylou Harris’s voices is palpable (apologies for the early ending).

But in each goodbye, we believe there may also be a hello.  Sarah Kirkland Snider‘s song cycle “Penelope“ (commissioned by the Getty Center and inspired by Homer’s “Odyssey”) tells the story of “a woman whose husband appears at her door after an absence of twenty years.”  The smart folks at The Believer magazine included Snider’s song, Nausicaa, in their 2011 Music Issue (this year devoted to “New Work by Contemporary Composers”). The straightforward lyrics of Nausicaa are sung beautifully by Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond and supported by chamber ensemble, Signal.  In the song Worden sings:  “You look so lost stranger.  But you’re not lost ’cause I’ve just found you.  Just take my hand stranger.  Just take my hand, and I will lead you home.”  The swelling chamber sonorities and hauntingly sung melody together provide perfect solace and comfort in their greeting.  Upon hearing the song today, we  could only think of what comes after, and the 9/11 victims being similarly greeted and led home.  We wish you comfort and peace.

Sarah Kirkland Snider–Nausicaa

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/02-Nausicaa.mp3|titles=02 Nausicaa]

You can listen to the entire song-cycle HERE.

Boise’s Youth Lagoon recently released its video for their haunted song, Montana.  The song/video provides a very apt soundtrack on this Eve of Destruction.  We’re suckers for reverberating piano, vocals and whistling, and the build within a harrowing haze.  Their album, “The Year of Hibernation,” is due soon on Fat Possum.  You can pre-order it and check their tour dates HERE.  You can also download two other similarly-motifed Youth Lagoon songs (July and Cannons) for free HERE. They will be opening for Santa Barbara’s own Gardens & Villa on their tour of America in September and October.

Youth Lagoon – Montana from Tyler T Williams on Vimeo.

John Doe and crew let the truth fly on the Letterman show last night.  “We got a house full of junk…..But it’s never enough!!  But it’s got to change!!”   Stirring wisdom imparted.  And as he is prone to do following particularly inspiring performances on his show, Letterman proclaimed:  “Come on!  Let’s turn this dump upside down.  We’re not payin’  nobody.  That’s all you need.  That’s all you want!!!”  Letterman is the rare late-night dude who gets it.  Vive le Letterman!

We are huge fans of Neko Case, whether solo or as a part of super-pop-group, New Pornographers.  She is amongst our most evocative singer-songwriters (lyrics being her particular strength), and a brilliant live performer (our fave instance being her show in the early millennium at the small ole Brown Derby in LA).  We’ll write more about her another day, but on her birthday check out two videos of one of her mini-masterpieces, I Wish I Was the Moon.  Happy Belated Birthday Neko (yesterday, Sept 8th).

Below the two Neko videos is a repeat of Jesse Winchester drawing tears (at 3:12) from Neko in a performance of Winchester’s love song, Sham-A-Ling-Dong-Ding, on Costello’s spectacular Spectacle show.  As she confesses in I Wish I Was The Moon, those tears evince that she carries her “heart in [her] lap.”  You can see Costello also fighting it off throughout the song until he too is “finished.”  The performance is proof positive of Jesse Winchester’s soulful ways.  Sadly, in July Winchester posted the following to his website:  “I have been diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus, and will have to undergo treatment for the next couple of months. I’m very sorry if any plans have been disrupted; I do hope to see you again soon, and we’ll pick up where we left off.”  According to CaringBridge, Jesse is in the middle of “chemo, radiation, and neupogen shots” while surrounded by family.  Our prayers for healing, Jesse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fhur6g8_BM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4op5mUtyIw&feature=related

Band of Horses played their song Infinite Arms (yep, off their now-“ancient” May 2010 album of the same name) on Conan Wednesday night.  And in more regrets-we’ve-had-a-few news, we couldn’t make the band’s Wiltern show last night.  Check out the video below where the band augurs great harmony vocals and guitar (though we could do without the cheezey-organ and whistley bits).