We’ve recently been bowled over by The Bowerbirds.  They showed up on WNYC the other day and played their inspiriting song, Overcome With Light.  “And my worries then, were not grand, but I felt them like a hammer pounding…Now I’m overcome with light.”  Indeed.  Amongst others in this great genre, we find a lyric parallel in Robert Nesta Marley who sang:  “Forget your troubles and dance.”  There’s no bad time for a reminder that better times always lie ahead.  Go ahead.  Be overcome with light.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgGWsbTKgoQ&feature=uploademail

Overcome With Light:

“And how I know I’m happy now
I jump right down the shoots of time
And yes the weather was not always grey
But the furrow always graced my brow

Now I’m overcome with light, overcome with light
Overcome with light, overcome with light
Yes we had some hard work but now it’s right
Overcome with light, overcome

And my worries then, were not grand
But I felt them like a hammer pounding
Like I really feel, feel them now
And in the page, I know I’m dreaming

Now I’m overcome with light, overcome with light
Overcome with light, overcome with light
Yes we had some screams but now it’s right
Overcome with light, overcome
Overcome with light, overcome with light
Overcome “

Yellow Ostrich showed up at Radio K and played their winning song Marathon Runner.  Check it out below.  We recently posted an alternative performance of the song HERE (along with two others).  A great song from this up-and-coming band.

Last Fall, Sharon Van Etten played an intimate acoustic set for La Blogotheque’s Les Soirees de Poche in Paris.  The session has just been released today.  Check out all 22 minutes of it below.  Tres, tres charmant.  Et tres belle.  Amor Plus!

You can stream M. Ward‘s new solo album A Wasteland Companion now over at NPR Music.  Check it out.  As listed in the tour dates below, Ward will play a sold out at Soho in Santa Barbara on April 14th courtesy of Club Mercy.

You can read more about the album and also watch the first video (for the song The First Time I Ran Away) from the album HERE.

M. Ward on tour:
April 11 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore
April 12 Santa Cruz, CA The Cocoanut Grove Ballroom
April 13 Indio, CA Coachella **SOLD OUT**
April 14 Santa Barbara, CA SoHo **SOLD OUT**
April 16 San Diego, CA Belly Up **SOLD OUT**
April 17 Phoenix, AZ Crescent Ballroom
April 18 Flagstaff, AZ The Orpheum
April 20 Indio, CA Coachella **SOLD OUT**
May 5 Portland, ME State Theatre
May 6 Burlington, VT Higher Ground
May 7 New Haven, CT Toads Place
May 8 Boston, MA House of Blues
May 11 New York, NY Webster Hall
May 12 Philadelphia, PA Union Transfer
May 13 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
May 15 Durham, NC Duke Performances at Page Auditorium
May 16 Athens, GA Georgia Theatre
May 17 Atlanta, GA Buckhead Theatre
May 18 Gulf Shores, AL Hang Out Music Festival
May 20 Nelsonville, OH Nelsonville Music Festival
May 22 Chicago, IL Vic Theatre
May 23 Madison, WI Barrymore Theatre
May 24 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue
May 26 Missoula, MT Wilma Theatre
May 27 George, WA Sasquatch Festival

Jonathan Richman supports 4/11
fIREHOSE supports 4/12, 4/16-4/18
Lee Ranaldo Band supports 5/5-5/22

Anaïs Mitchell is receiving universal raves for her recently-released fifth album, Young Man in America.  Check her raw and captivating solo acoustic performance of Wilderland and Young Man in America, the first two songs off the album (from last summer in Edinburgh).  And then check out a recent, beautifully-refined version of Young Main in America performed for WBUR’s On Point show.  The third song off the new album,  Coming Down, is a melancholy masterpiece currently on repeat in our jukebox.  If you don’t believe us, Bon Iver gave their stamp of approval to the song when Justin Vernon, S. Carey and saxophonist/vocalist Michael Lewis (!!) covered it last week (watch below).  After watching the cover, you can view Mitchell’s official video for the song at bottom.

Mitchell is currently on a North American tour, with the remaining dates (including a turn through Cali in early April) listed below the video.  She combines some of the best elements of Joanna Newsom and Joni Mitchell on the new album, but adds her own ineffable touch.  Again, go over HERE to stream and buy her fine album.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSbm616eutc

Tour:

March

28 – Doug Fir** – Portland, Ore. @ Doug Fir †
29– Seattle, Wash. @ The Tractor †

April

4 – San Francisco, Calif. @ Freight & Salvage
6 – San Diego, Calif. @ USCD at the Loft
7 – Los Angeles, Calif. @ Edye Theater
12 – Harrisonburg, Calif. @ Eastern Mennonite University
13 – Staunton, Va. @ Mockingbird
14 – Lewisburg, W. Va. @ Carnegie Hall
19 – Ann Arbor, Mich. @ The Ark
20 – Evanston, Ill. @ Space
22 – Minneapolis, Minn. @ 7th Street

Dr. Dog brought their good energy to the Jimmy Fallon Show Friday night when they performed Lonesome from their recently released album, Be The Void.   Check it out below and then check out a couple of their recent KEXP performances after.

Daniel Lanois has established himself as one of the great producers (and performers) of our time.  In advance of his induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, CBC interviewed Lanois this week and asked him to pick five albums he wanted to discuss.  Check out the enlightening interviews below.

Blind Pilot put out one of our favorite albums of 2011 (We Are the Tide at No. 12, to be exact).  Check out the band as they performed their song Half Moon for Yours Truly.

Bon Iver’s uber-talented S. Carey is about to release a new EP, Hoyas, on May 5th.  We loved his 2010 solo album, so look forward to the new EP.  Check out the first track, Two Angles, below.  In its five minutes, this song manages to combine electronica, horns, guitar and Carey’s soothing vocal line into a magnum opus of sorts.  Check it out.

Grizzly Bear’s “Veckatimest” was our Album of the Year in 2009, and their live performance that year at the Wiltern in LA was a revelatory mauling.   While we await their next album (no word yet), one of the band’s leaders, Daniel Rossen, has released a gripping set of songs on his debut solo release, Silent Hour / Golden Mile.  The prolific Rossen has written some of the best compositions of the last several years as part of Grizzly Bear and Department of Eagles, and the new EP is more of the same.  Rossen has said these songs have a unified theme of “unease with the world around you, about indeterminacy in your own life, and the ability somehow to navigate both.”  All is not gloom and doom as Rossen sings on the closing track, Golden Mile:  “For a silent hour, for a golden mile, there’s bliss in this mess. There’s madness all around.”

Listen to Saint Nothing followed by Silent Song below, and then buy the EP HERE.  You can stream it at Spinner HERE.