We agree one thousand percent with Ben Folds who has said this about Clem Snide’s Eef Barzelay: “I can listen to that guy sing anything, all day.”  And judge ye not, Folds knows a thing or two about singing.  We’ll just say this about Eef Barzelay:  he is America’s most underrated living singer (which is to take nothing away from his stellar songwriting), with phrasing skills to shame the Famers.  You don’t need any more proof of the foregoing than in the recent A.V. Undercover video in which Eef enthralls while covering (of all things) Journey’s song, Faithfully, and accompanying himself beautifully on ukelele. Turns out you can, in fact, turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse.   Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr2woarCpCY&feature=player_embedded

If you enjoy this video, make sure you check out more of Clem Snide’s musical offerings HERE (including a 6-song EP of Journey covers).  Says there that he’ll also write you a song for $200, or if we can pull together $1,000 (plus traveling expenses), we can get one of the nation’s musical treasures to do a show in Santa Barbara.  His Lobero show for Sings Like Hell a couple of years ago was simply spell-binding.  Who’s in??

And while you’re at it, check out the other A.V. Undercover offerings at the link above.  A.V. also has a hilarious interview with the witty Eef HERE.

P.J. Harvey has yet again left her mark on musical history, this time winning England’s prestigious Mercury Prize for best album, “Let England Shake.”  We have sung the praises of Ms. Harvey previously, and can’t think of a more deserving winner.  Brava!

If you haven’t seen them before, Ms. Harvey and Seamus Murphy collaborated to create verity videos for each of the 12 tracks of Let England Shake.  The videos and Ms. Harvey’s album are worthy of all the accolades.  Check out a few of the videos below and then check the rest out HERE.

Wilco just released the official video for new song Born Alone from Wilco’s upcoming album “The Whole Love,” out September 27, 2011 on dBpm Records.  Check it out below.  It’s merely more of the usual Wilco magic, with Glenn Kotche’s drumming and Nels Cline’s guitar-work carrying the musical load.

We’ve been accused of being somewhat humorless here at The Lefort Report.  Point taken.  So, in case you missed it, we found humor in Josh Groban’s lampoon of Kanye West on The Jimmy Kimmel Show.  Kanye, Kanye, Kanye….

The impending Girls album, “Father, Son, Holy Ghost,” is streaming over at The Hype Machine. The album hits on September 22nd and you can buy it HERE.

Girls also hit the road next week:

September
Wednesday 14 – Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse
Thursday 15 – Asheville, NC – The Orange Peel
Friday 16 – Nashville, TN – Grimey’s (instore performance – 5PM)
Friday 16 – Nashville, TN – The Mercy Lounge
Saturday 17 – Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
Monday 19 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
Tuesday 20 – Philadelphia, PA – Theatre of Living Arts
Thursday 22 – New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
Friday 23 – New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
Saturday 24 – Boston, MA – Paramount Center
Sunday 25 – Montreal, AL – Corona Theatre
Tuesday 27 – Toronto, ON – The Mod Club
Thursday 29 – Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall
Friday 30 – Madison, WI – Majestic Theater

October
Saturday 01 – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
Tuesday 04 – Vancouver, BC – The Biltmore Cabaret
Wednesday 05 – Seattle, WA – Neptune Theatre
Thursday 06 – Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom
Saturday 08 – San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall
Sunday 09 – San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall

France’s M83 have been making soaring synth sounds for almost a decade.  Their ambitious new double-CD record, “Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming,” is due in October.  In advance of that release, M83 just released a new song, Midnight City.   We love the retro mix (yet again–is there a Retromania going on??) with synth, harmonies and the old-school sax that enters at 3:02.  Check it out below and then the Big Black Delta Mix of the same song further below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDyonn3mQj8

Midnight City (Big Black Delta Remix) by M83

If you were there, you know that My Morning Jacket’s show at the Santa Barbara Bowl on July 2nd was one of the musical highlights of 2011.

If you were there or if you missed it, you can download the show in it’s entirety HERE.  The particulars of the set follow below.

1	Victory Dance	6:98
2	Circuital	7:91
3	First Light	4:25
4	Off The Record	6:91
5	Anytime	3:01
6	Gideon	3:99
7	You Wanna Freak Out	3:31
8	At Dawn	3:94
9	Golden	5:98
10	Outta My System	3:99
11	The Way That He Sings	5:02
12	I’m Amazed	5:14
13	Dancefloors	5:99
14	Phone Went West	7:75
15	Slow Slow Tune	5:75
16	Dondante	4:95
17	Holdin’ On to Black Metal	4:25
18	Smokin From Shootin	5:98
19	Touch Me I’m Going To Scream Pt. 2	9:45
20	Mahgeetah	7:77
21	Wordless Chorus	5:02
22	Highly Suspicious	3:02
23	One Big Holiday6:98

We have been enamored with the “band” Mountain Man for quite some time, and today we were reminded why when we ran across this performance of Holy Father on LaundroMatinee. These Mountain Mens can sing!!   Check it out.  A joyous, belated Sunday to you.  And afterwards, check out the phenomenal Play It Right. They play it right.

Mountain Man – Holy Father from LaundroMatinee on Vimeo.

Here’s Play It Right.

Mountain Man – Play It Right from LaundroMatinee on Vimeo.

Friday night Feist played a secret show at the Del Monte Playhouse in Venice.  Amongst others, Feist previewed some songs from her impending album, “Metals.” Check out a few vignettes of the show below, including new single, How Come You Never Go There, along with another new song, A Commotion, and a newly configured Mushaboom.

Enigmatic Portland band, Glass Candy, plays Soho tonight with openers Chromatics.  Glass Candy is the duo of Ida No and Johnny Jewel, and they clearly don’t play by the normal promotion rules.  You can barely find any meaningful info about them on the entire interwebs.  About all we could unearth is that they’ve just (re)released two songs, Beautiful Object and Warm in the Winter.  Oh, and a video or two (see one way below).  Both songs have a retro electro-disco backbone to them, with Beautiful Object reminding us of Destroyer’s recent retro-sound in Kaputt, but with Blondie on vocals.  It’s melodically insidious and has been on repeat at Chez Lefort since we first heard it.  Warm in the Winter starts out with a Where the Streets Have No Name-esque intro before shifting into love-rave mode that’s bound to get you moving live. Check out these songs and video below.

Beautiful Object

“In love’s golden ocean
No emotion
Fake a smile for charity
Cry in trauma for the drama
Oh no
Real love a golden rarity
Beautiful object
Ooh
I hang them from the walls and ceiling
What more can I do
I want to put my hands deep into feeling
Hands only get so far
Depth for me is just a possibility
And all my misguided desire
Will freeze me deep with pent-up hostility
What’s the meaning of the mask
You can’t be asked
Oh oh
Is life a social fiction?
Not to see but be seen
Oh no
Now that’s a ghost’s ambition
Beautiful object
Ooh
As if a pretty face is so revealing
Hey what I can do
If what I’ve got isn’t as appealing
Beautiful object
Ooh
Soul is sold to portray a perfection
A beautiful object true
It’s just a parody of a person”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-g4QxTndRk&feature=player_embedded

And then there’s Warm in the Winter:

“Love is in the air… love is in the air
We’re warm in the winter
Sunny on the inside
Love is in the air
I’m crazy like a monkey
Ee ee / Oo oo!
Happy like a new year
Yeah yeah / Woo hoo!
That’s right everybody
This is Glass Candy
Making our way around the world
Searching out a face-to-face with you
One more time
Looking for a heart-to-heart
Whenever you’re ready
We want you to know
If ever you should look in the mirror
And wonder who it is that you are
And wonder what it is that you came for
Well… I know the answer
You’re beautiful
You came from heaven
You came down to this place
To fill out the dark corners
With your everlasting light
And that’s why… I love you
We love you
C’mon shout / Hey shout
Shout
Yeah you
I love you
We love you”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oX922LVpULM&feature=player_embedded