FOR THE NEXT 48 HOURS ONLY, you can watch the full 97-minute show from Bon Iver, recorded live at Radio City Music Hall last Friday and brought to you by The Bowery Presents.  Their show at the Santa Barbara Bowl remains one of our highlights of the concert year thus far.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqnb8_w38PQ&feature=em-uploademail-new

As previously mentioned, on October 9 A.C. Newman will release his third album, Shut Down The Streets, which follows in the wake of personal loss for Newman.  The first song released from the album, I’m Not Talking, displayed in spades Newman’s fine songwriting craft.  Now comes another slice of pop perfection, Encyclopedia of Classic Takedowns, which you can download HERE.

As we’ve written previously, R&B legend Bobby Womack released a fine album (The Bravest Man in the Universe) earlier this year produced by Damon “Olympic-Killer” Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz, etc.) and Richard Russell.  Last night Womack, Albarn (on piano) and a big band performed the title cut, Whatever Happened to the Times and Jubilee.  We particularly loved Albarn’s piano feel and the steel drum sound on the title cut (not to mention the entrancing main event, Womack’s vocalese).

The Head and the Heart performed unplugged and underwrought (a welcome change-of-pace) on KEXP last week.  Check out their performances of an as-yet-unnamed new song, two other unrecorded songs (Fire/Fear and Ever Since) and Honey Come Home off of their debut album.  The band will perform on October 6th at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco.

The Preservation Jazz Hall Band is set to release its new album, St. Peter and 57th St. (A 50th Anniversary Celebration), which was  recorded at Carnegie Hall on January 7th of this year for Rounder Records.  The album features special guests My Morning Jacket, Allen Toussaint, Trombone Shorty, GIVERS, Tao Seeger, King Britt, Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs, Mos Def, The Del McCoury Band, The Blind Boys of Alabama, and the Preservation Hall Junior Jazz Band.

Download the song St. James Infirmary HERE (featuring Jim James and Trombone Shorty), and check out the video about the band and its history below.

Allo Darlin’s effervescent album Europe is a pure portion of pop-rock and one of our favorite albums of the year.  Months later we can still listen to it on repeat.  The band has just released its official video (via NME) for Northern Lights, which was “written about a New Year’s Eve spent in Sweden.”  How the video relates thereto?  We’re not sure, but boatloads of salt and light are exhibited.

Patrick Watson and band recently performed his song Lighthouse from Adventures in Your Own Backyard at the Village Underground.  Watch Watson shine across the entire wavelength spectrum on this song.

In case you don’t have time for the full concert put on by the Band of Horses for Live on Letterman earlier this week, check out the band performing Knock Knock off of their intermittently rocking new album Mirage Rock.  ‘Tain’t no mirage.  These boys can rock.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_FKnnhum5s&feature=player_embedded

As noted earlier this week, you can now watch Feist’s fine From the Basement episode on Crackle.com.  Check out the superb sound and camerawork in her/their performances in the two parts below.

Mumford & Sons are about to release their sophomore record, Babel, on September 24th, and we are anxious to assess it.  Make no mistake, this band can rile up a crowd like few others with their foot-stomping, guitar-flailing, banjo-inflected live act.  As the 2010 Grammy Awards made almost painfully evident, Mumford & Sons share these motifs with the Avett Brothers, who have also released a new album in the wake of a highly regarded, well-received album.  Expectations are high for both bands, but time will tell whether either of these acts have anything substantive to add to their prior output.

As an opening gambit, check out Mumford & Sons perform new song I Will Wait from Babel in Studio Q.  And bring on Babel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9aju9u2KB4&feature=em-uploademail