We’ve about milked the HSBF for all it’s worth here in post-ville.  So let’s call it a wrap with some remaining videos shot at the event.

First up from Day 1 of HSBF is Bright Eyes (Best Set of Day Winner) and guest M. Ward performing a Monsters of Folk song, Smoke Without Fire.  Bear with the video as it starts out fuzzy, but quickly gets better.  This song provided some of the more memorable moments of HSBF.  The song is great (particularly enjoyable are Mike Mogis’ pedal steel and Nate Walcott’s flugelhorn embellishments), but (sadly?) what will be remembered about this performance is the Conductor of Hands guy who can be seen in a white baseball hat up on a rise behind the band.  He begins waving his hands and carrying on pretty early in the song, and eventually has the entire crowd waving along.  When M. Ward first stepped up to the mike to sing, he could only have been wondering:  what the heck is going on here?  The musicians did their best to ignore the Conductor, but it became laughable.  A classic Hardly Strictly moment in Golden Gate Park.  That’s what you get “for free” sometimes.  Consider it the Conductor’s 15-seconds of fame.

Then check out the poignant This is the First Day of My Life (featuring great, Garth Hudson-esque organ from Nate Walcott), and then Old Soul Song (for the New World Order) (apologies for the sound and the video quality at times, but Conor’s energy is nonetheless infectious).

Next up from Day 2 is Robyn Hitchcock, with guests Gillian Welch, David Rawlings and Abigail Washburn. The first song is the long and winding (and so worth it), (A Man Has Got to Know His Limitations) Briggs with it’s haunting chorus:

“We were riding in your car in San Francisco
We were riding through the weather and the rain
Riding in your car in San Francisco
But we’re never gonna ride that way again”

Check out the beautiful harmonies from the guests and guitar playing by both Rawlings and the multi-talented Hitchcock.

And then check out Hitchcock and crew perform his crowd-favorite, Queen Elvis. Nice do-wop-ish vocal effects by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings.  If you’re not familiar with Robyn Hitchcock, do yourselves a favor and check out his stirring and fantastical songs.  Check out any and all of his albums, but also Jonathan Demme’s great film, Storefront Hitchcock.

Finally, below are three videos from the Best Set of Day 2, Broken Social Scene (featuring Stars’ Amy Millan). First up in the beautiful Golden Gate Park setting is the all-time World Sick, followed by 7/4 Shoreline (nice harmonies and horns at end) and the languid Shampoo Suicide.  The band was in great form, and Kevin Drew’s vocals were as good as we’ve heard from that good soul.  We wish them well in their current “long hiatus,” but hope they will come around again, renewed and shelling out their scintillating songs.

We’ll write another day about Neil Young and our endless numbered nights and days spent lifted from the depths by his songs.  Let’s just start with the looks on these Bridge School kids faces in the above photo. Wow, that hurts and heals all in one motion.

Recently we’ve noticed contemporary artists unabashedly making good use of Neil’s stirring melodies to open their songs, and yet ultimately making these songs their own.  Put another way:  these artists have great taste in music and honor Neil with their open use of his themes, and especially by creating stirring originals stirred up by Young’s original melodies.  And no attribution is needed.  As Neil titled his second album:  everybody knows.  And Young admitted long ago (in song) to using the same tactics–he calls it a “Borrowed Tune.”

Below are three recent examples of such use, coupled with Young’s originals.  Please let us know of any other examples of others’ use of Young’s melodies in their songs.  Keep in mind we’re not talking about cover songs of or by Young, but instead uses of Neil’s melodies in others’ songs.

First up is Gillian Welch’s song, The Way It Will Be, off her new album, The Harrow & the Harvest. Check out Gillian’s open use of Neil’s harrowing melody from the title song off his album, “On the Beach.” Welch and David Rawlings begin with Neil’s melodic theme, but then add thereto to give us a great new song for the ages.

Gillian Welch–The Way It Will Be

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/03-The-Way-It-Will-Be.mp3|titles=03 The Way It Will Be]

Here’s a visual of that song:

And here’s the audio of that original beauty:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKgj1FNToWY

Next up is Megafaun (whose new, eponymous album is in heavy rotation at Chez Lefort) with their stellar song, State/Meant. The song initially borrows heavily from Young’s Cortez the Killer, but then (like Welch) manages to mix in additional musical thoughts and throughlines to render a killer song of their own.

Megafaun–State/Meant

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

Here’s a video of Megafaun delivering:

And here’s the real deal:  Cortez the Killer, as done by the great Young himself.  Don’t judge; just get out of the way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GDIkb5CDUY

Finally, we come full circle with Welch’s beau, David Rawlings, paying direct homage (from a Daytrotter Session with Bright Eyes’ Nate Wolcott on trumpet) to Young and to Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes’ leader) by crafting a medley of Oberst’s song, Method Acting, with Young’s Cortez the Killer.  In so doing, Rawlings honors Young doubly by covering Young’s great song and exposing Oberst’s similar use of Neil’s melody.  Oberst, Rawlings and Megafaun all know a worthwhile melody when they hear it.  Long live Neil Young.

David Rawlings Machine–Method Acting/Cortez the Killer

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/003-Method-Acting-Cortez-The-Killer3.mp3|titles=003-Method Acting – Cortez The Killer]

And for you visual learners out there, here’s a video of the medley performed live:

Speaking of debts owed, the annual Bridge School Benefit Concert (at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View), put on by Neil and Peggi Young and a vast cast of good (musical) souls, is happening this coming Saturday and Sunday (October 22nd and 23rd).  Montreal’s fabulous Arcade Fire is the notable first-time addition to this year’s lineup, and the whole weekend is always a talent-filled love-fest.  The photo at top is from the 2010 Bridge School Benefit Concert.  Check out the lineup HERE and head on up.

Many have fallen under the spell of British singer-songwriter Laura Marling.  We have been resistant, not really hooking into the hoopla for her (mostly) plaintive songs and delivery.  But in a recent Ryan Adams interview Adams said that Marling’s 2010 album “I Speak Because I Can” (2010 Mercury Prize winner) left him “reeling.”  That got our attention.

And then we stumbled upon her recent performances on WNYC’s Spinning Air program.  We’re still waiting to be completely won over by Marling (former Noah and the Whale member) and her music, but the videos below don’t hurt her cause with us.  At a minimum, she has a way with words, and her right hand certainly knows what it’s doing around a classical guitar.  To our ears, Marling can cleave a little too close to certain seminal female influencers (Joni Mitchell in particular–you’ll hear it in her vibrato on Night after Night below), but we’ll listen with more open ears from here on out.

Check out Marling performing three songs (Night After Night, Sophia, and I Was Just a Card) off of her new album “A Creature I Don’t Know,” and then a brand new untitled song that planes the refrain “Pray for Me.“

We have been huge fans of Kathleen Edwards from the outset of her career, starting with 2003’s “Failer,” then with 2005’s “Back to Me,” and then her last album, 2008’s phenomenal “Asking for Flowers.”  She’s about to release a new album entitled “Voyager,” on our favorite day of the year (January 17th).  The new album was recorded in Wisconsin (in boyfriend Justin Vernon‘s neck of the woods) and Edwards hometown, Toronto.  The album was co-produced by Vernon and features collaborations with members of Bon Iver, the fabulous Megafaun and the storming Stornoway, as well as (s)Norah Jones. Based on the two tracks below it sounds like a departure of sorts, but with the same great songwriting we’ve come to expect from Edwards.

Photo by Kathleen Edwards

Check out two new songs, the first off of the new album and the second one a new track that “didn’t fit the album” : Change the Sheets and Wapusk (featuring Bon Iver).

Kathleen Edwards – Change The Sheets by Rounder Records

And here’s Wapusk:

Kathleen Edwards – Wapusk (featuring Bon Iver) by Kathleen Edwards

And then you can go over to Edwards’ website and get caught up on some of her back catalog HERE

One of our favorites, Beirut, performed their song, East Harlem, on the David Letterman Show last night from their recently released LP, The Rip Tide. Check it out.  You can look up the phrase enfant terrible in the dictionary, and Webster’s now just has a picture of Zach Condon.  In a good way.  Letterman loved it.  Good taste, that Dave.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WOv_l8Hg_4&feature=player_embedded

In case you are one of the few cognoscenti that doesn’t already possess it, Wilco is streaming their new album, “The Whole Love,” (along with four extra tracks) this weekend.  Check it out at the link below.

The band also announced that “[t]here’s also a groovy contest with our friends at Hipstamatic to take photos for the package of our very, very ltd. cassette tape edition of TWL.”  Read about it HERE.

And stream “The Whole Love” HERE.

As opposed to many others, we’ve not seen her do wrong.  Karen O (of the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs) continues to solder the heart in her songs.  Sure, we like the band immensely, but Karen is the heart and soul thereof.  Check out this new video which is a part of a worthy campaign championed by Chipotle.  Many will argue, “It’s Chipotle, dude, come on!”  To that we can only say:  you may want to be scanned for a soul.  Give ’em credit for putting up serious money and effort for a great cause during these times.

Check out Karen O’s stirring cover of Willie and Waylon’s Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys. Willie Nelson has spearheaded the Farm Aid campaign, so her cover is particularly apropos given Chipotle’s fundraising for sustainable-agriculture farmers.  Not to mention she manages somehow to twist the song from jaunty to haunting.

Karen O.  She gets it………..just right.

Death Cab for Cutie is coming to the Santa Barbara Bowl on Saturday, with the explosive instrumentalists, Explosions in the Sky, opening.  To get motivated for the show, check Death Cab on Last Call with Carson Daly performing You Are A Tourist and The New Year (courtesy of the Audio Perv).  Death Cab’s rhythm section alone is worth the price of admission.

And here’s The New Year.

Wilco just announced it’s tour plans for 2012.  Included in the U.S. dates set forth below is a night at the Arlington Theater in Santa Barbara on February 10th.  Sweetness.  We can’t wait.  Anyone who missed their show at the Santa Barbara Bowl a couple of years ago, get in line.

01/19 – Denver, CO @ The Fillmore
01/21 – Tempe, AZ @ Gammage
01/22 – San Diego, CA @ Copley Symphony Hall
01/24 – Hollywood, CA @ Palladium
01/28 – San Jose, CA @ Civic Auditorium
01/29 – San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield
01/31 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theatre
02/01 – Davis, CA @ Mondavi Center
02/03 – Eugene, OR @ Hult Center
02/05 – Vancouver, BC @ Orpheum
02/06 – Spokane, WA @ INB Performing Arts Center
02/07 – Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theater
02/08 – Portland, OR @ Schnitzer Theater
02/10 – Santa Barbara, CA @ Arlington Theater

And check out the official video for their fab new song, Born Alone, off their highly-acclaimed new album, “The Whole Love.”

The talk shows have been holding up their end of the musical bargain recently.  As usual there’s a lot we can do without, but check two of the better deliveries below.

First up on the David Letterman Show is Deer Tick (with Late Night horns) performing their song, Main Street, off of their new album “Divine Providence.”  We’ve written about lead singer, John McCauley, before in the context of Middle Brother’s last show at Soho, and loved Deer Tick’s last album and song, 20 Miles. Main Street is a great addition to their discography.  And nice suits and ties lads.  All.  Mod.  Cons.

Then check out Ra Ra Riot playing their song, Shadowcasting, on Jimmy Fallon.  Ya gotta love the violin and upright-cello supplemented attack on their power pop songs.