Sick of our Sufjan Stevens, Christmas, and Foxygen posts?  Shut the heck up!  You’ll get no relief here.  Check out Foxygen’s official new video for Shuggie from their album We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic (come on guys–think big!!) out January 22, 2013 on Jagjaguwar below.  Glam meets the Beatles in a Fellini film?

Tired of all of our Sufjan Stevens and Christmas posts and want to hear some full-on raging rock n’ roll?  You came to the right post.   Check out NYC buzz-band Foxygen ripping at Le Guess Who? Festival last weekend in Holland, all as captured by 3voor12 below.

Further to the post below on Sufjan Stevens’ Henry Fonda concert, in case you want to listen uninterrupted, below is a playlist compiled from the videos included in our post.  Happy Holidays y’all. Our thanks to YouTubers Wayne Jessup, whchss, starbright31, charlesmcd, howievision, veryloudarray, and Tim O’Nan.

Sufjan Stevens, the supremely talented, inspirational and entertaining (until recently, who knew?) music-mastermind brought his superlative six-piece band (including Rosie Thomas, Nedelle Torissi, Casey Foubert, James McAlister, and Ben Lanz) to the Henry Fonda Theater in Hollywood on Tuesday as a part of his Christmess Sing-a-Long Tour.   To cut to the chase:  it was the most entertainment-fun you can have in the month of December.  On December 4th, all in attendance gladly became Christmas Unicorns.

The sold-out, fresh-faced crowd at the Fonda arrived early and were ready-to-go in Santa hats and good cheer, and ready to abide by the message from John Wesley on the provided Sufjan-missalette (seen below) for the evening’s proceedings.  Don’t most concerts begin with instructions from John Wesley from the 1700s?

At the outset, the stage was littered in all manner of Christmas camp-ery, including blow-up unicorns and Santas (all of which would throughout the night be tossed into the audience by Rosie Thomas and Sufjan), along with a tree, tons of tinsel and, of course, the giant “Wheel of Christmas” that would be spun during the evening to select the carols to be sung.

While we awaited the show proper, Sufjan’s long-time cohort Rosie Thomas came out in character as Sheila Saputo (as seen in Stevens’ hilarious infomercial series for the 58-song Silver & Gold Christmas box set) and riffed comically without taking a breath for 20 minutes.  Thomas may have a career in comedy if this music thing doesn’t work out for her.  Her flip-chart explanation of her “Carols” acronym was tellingly madcap:

C (Carnal Treasure), A (Armageddon [TLR-naturally]), R  (Revolutions; Restraining Orders), O (One-Night Stands; Operation Desert Storm [TLR-both just say Christmas]); L:  (Lying About Your Age; Losing Your Virginity); S (Seven Swans of Swimming; Swapping Spit).

‘Twas all good, mostly-clean, fun and a perfect warm up for the musical night.

Following Saputo, the band members came on in zombie nun, snow-woman (Thomas), skeletron, superhero-chicken and Santa regalia.  For his part, Sufjan was attired in Grinch t-shirt with plaid flannel and a red cape (the Godfather, if you will, of Christmas a la James Brown).  And the show was on.  First up was the big-sound of Christmas Woman off of  Silver & Gold, with the ensemble immediately conveying that this would be a night of miraculous musicianship, massive sounds, wowing vocals, and shear entertainment.  For his part, Stevens has never sounded better vocally and on keyboards, effects, chimes, banjo, guitar, oboe and kazoo.  Following Christmas Woman was Put the Lights on the Tree from 2008’s Christmas box-set, followed by a straight and reverent Bach hymn (we believe Break Forth O Beauteous Heavenly Light).   After was Stevens’ cunning arrangement of Do You Hear What I Hear? and his sobering original Justice Delivers Its Death (a great new gospel-amongst-the-largesse song).

The show then moved into one of two Wheel of Christmas segments, with its various hallowed and not-so-hallowed carols.  One of Sufjan’s little helpers or an audience member would be called to spin the Wheel and off we were into Carol-world.  Stevens and crew spun everything from Jingle Bells to Auld Lang Syne, to Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, to Drummer Boy, to Joy to the World (with its closing segue into Age of Adz’s Impossible Soul).  O Holy Night (the highlight of the Wheel-session) was sung at the top of the audience’s well-formed lungs and noticeably took Stevens and crew aback.  We’ve heard a few (read: 10,000) O Holy Nights, and this was the finest ever.  We will admit to being a tad Grinchy up until this night, but the Wheel helped pull us into the season.

In between and after the Wheel segments, Stevens played his incomparable “real songs,” as he dubbed them (primarily originals, but also innovative arrangements of standards and a straight reading of Come Thou Font of Every Blessing), all of which moved us beyond the holiday-scene into another realm.  Sufjan repeatedly broke out his trademark banjo, acoustic guitar or piano, and took us into more “sacred” song territories (which had been lacking on the Age of Adz tour).  Each of these “real” songs spoke in its own way to the reason behind the season.  At various parts of the evening we heard soul-gripping, affecting renderings of long-time favorites such as  Michigan’s Vito’s Ordination and For the Widows in Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti.

Sufjan and crew ended the set with a Revelatory rendition of new song Christmas Unicorn.  Donned in bike helmet affixed with apropos unicorn horn, and with balloon wings on his arms, Stevens led his band of merrymakers in a true “celebration” of Christmas.  Midway through the song the confetti cannons went off and large red balloons were put into play (veering dangerously close to Flaming Lips territory).  As the confetti rained down, the song transitioned to its (for us) highly-emotive Love Will Tear Us Apart (Joy Division) sing-a-long segment and back again.  And all was right with the world.  Heaven on earth.

After the Christmas Unicorn extravaganza, Stevens came out for an encore of four of his most “real” songs, all from Illinois, and each one strumming the crowd’s heartstrings.  A reverent hush fell over the crowd, which quietly sang along to Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois, John Wayne Gacy, Jr., and Casimir Pulaski Day.  Gacy initially seemed out of place for a Christmas sing, but the song’s punchline (“And in my best behavior I am really just like him”) placed it well within the season.  We had waited seven years to hear Casimir Pulaski Day live, and Stevens’ touching read tore us up (RIP Man of Steele).  The night closed with the always-impressive, mega-sounds of Come On! Feel the Illinoise!

Sufjan never fails to impress, and this night alone made Christmas come alive for us.  And for that, we give thanks.  Check out below the videos from the Fonda that we’ve unearthed so far, presented in order as best we can recall.

Intro/Christmas Woman:

Put the Lights on the Tree:

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Vito’s Ordination Song:

Justice Delivers Its Death:

Sleigh Ride:

Santa Clause Is Coming to Town:

Auld Lang Syne:

O Holy Night

Silent Night:

That Was the Worst Christmas Ever:

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas:

For the Widows in Paradise, For the Fathers in Ypsilanti:

Christmas Unicorn:

John Wayne Gacy, Jr:

Casimir Pulaski Day:

Come On Feel the Illinoise!

Watch Nada Surf perform Looking Through from their fine recent album The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy during a performance for SiriusXM’s The Loft.

Diana Krall appeared last night on the Letterman Show to sing the standard No Sweet Man That’s Worth The Salt Of My Tears.  Oh how the girl can swing.  Great playing by all too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqjPtvGWjg4&feature=em-uploademail

Electronic music maestro DJ Shadow showed up on KCRW today to strut his DJ stuff.  You can listen to the whole show HERE, which is good in itself, but so much better to watch in action below.  Dexterous, to put it mildly.  Check it out.

The great and garrulous Glen Hansard appeared on NBC’s Parenthood show last night to sing his song High Hope.  Hansard obviously has experience in this actin’ and singin’ realm, having acquitted himself well in his fine movie Once.  Check it out below.

If you don’t know or appreciate the great Brit-band Blur, here’s (yet) another example of what you’ve been missing.  Blur closed the Summer Olympics in London with a grand concert at Hyde Park (now included in the new Parklive deluxe edition).  Below is one of the highlights of their set: their great anthem, Song 2 (via Rolling Stone).

We spent many a night back in the day listening to the British band Blue Nile.  Their songs always sounded like they were intended for solitary nights spent looking out over city lights, and always managed to move us.  We couldn’t get enough (we’d recommend Hats if you want to try one of their albums).  And lead singer-songwriter-guitarist Paul Buchanan always sang the soul of of the songs, but without excess despite the emotional heft of the songs.  Blue Nile has only released four albums, the last being released in 2004, with no further recordings in sight.

So we were thrilled to learn that Buchanan has recently released a double-disc album entitled Mid Air (the second disc consists of alternate takes, a live recording and remixes from fellow Blue Nile member, Robert Bell).  We’ve only listened to a few tracks, but are floored by what we’ve heard thus far.  Expect a full review of the album near-term.  To get a feel for the new album, check out below Other Voices’ capture of Buchanan live at the Church of St James singing the title track from Mid Air.  Simply brilliant beauty.  After, check out a great older performance by Blue Nile of their beloved song Tinseltown in the Rain on Later with Jools Holland.  And to read a brilliant interview with Buchanan as done by the Quietus’ David Peschek, go HERE.  Humbled by the brilliance of both men there.  Finally, below the videos is a link to stream God Is Laughing and then the song Wedding Party, both off the new album.

Stream God Is Laughing HERE