As mentioned in December, one of our favorite Brit-pop bands Stornoway will release their highly-anticipated new album Tales From Terra Firma in March.  To kick things off, the band has just released the first single from the album, Knock Me On The Head, which you can stream below.  Knock Me On The Head is a supreme slice of brilliant pop-rock replete with ’60s-organ flourishes and plague-catchy chorus.  And the ending?  Perfect again.  If there is any justice in the radio (and digital) world, this will be a huge hit for Stornoway.  We’re going to go way out on a limb and say this is our favorite song of 2013 (so far).  Augurs incredibly well for the impending album.  We can’t wait.

In 2012 Dirty Projectors released their Swing Lo Magellan album to critical claim, ending up on many Best Albums of 2012 lists (including in our Honorable Mentions).   In addition to just being generally superb players and singers, for many the band’s allure lies in leader David Longstreth’s (and band’s) complex, unique, and risk-taking song structures that oft-times employ harmonic, rhythmic and/or lyric eccentricities.   In short:  these ain’t just silly love songs.

Occasionally though, Dirty Projectors will confuse the listener by tossing in a comparatively accessible and straightforward song.  Check the band out below on WNYC’s Soundcheck, unplugged (with warm, upright bass) and harmonizing on their comparatively straight-ahead song Impregnable Question off the album.  An eyes-wide-open love song for realists, we could even imagine Impregnable Question being sung at weddings next summer.  No?  Would you believe at vow-renewal ceremonies?  After are the song’s lyrics.

Lyrics:

“If there is ever the impregnable question of why?
what did or didn’t pass?
it would help to seek comfort in destiny
but I really don’t, we don’t see eye to eye
but I need you and you’re always on my mind

Whether there is or isn’t any position
you care if I take or if I don’t
I will always hold what we shared so long
to be the only love, and though we don’t see eye to eye
I need you, and you’re always on my mind

Through time, and through many a situation
we both look forward, side-by-side
we have shared it all, we have both stood tall
what is mine is yours, in happiness and in strife
you’re my love, and I want you in my life
you’re my love, and I want you in my life
you’re my love, and I want you in my life”

We had lost track of Ireland’s Villagers for a while.  Thanks to a new, sophomore album (Awayland on Domino Records) to be released in the US on April 9th and a newly-surfaced video, they’ve happily been found by us.  While every instrument on Villagers’ Mercury Prize-nominated debut album, Becoming a Jackal, was performed nearly-entirely by songwriter-leader Conor J. O’Brien on his own, on Awayland O’Brien encouraged his touring band members to contribute, resulting in a collaborative inventiveness that informs the songs’ arrangements.  O’Brien has this to say on the band’s site about the new album:

“So I sit down at my desk with a blank sheet of paper, a headful of ferrys and a small collection of half-written songs and all I want to do is to stretch my imagination as far as it can go. I sure as hell don’t want to lose any intimacy in the music, but I need to take this intimacy into a more vibrant place. The furrowed-brow vocal seriousness which I used to engage with has no place here.

And the musicianship is better than ever. My fellow bandmates make the songs sound as beautiful as they could possibly be. It’s a diverse album. It takes you on a trip through a musical landscape, as a tribute to your sense of wonder. It travels through space and time and leaves you back for dinner. It might take a few gobbles. Maybe try it on headphones first, without interruption. I hope you enjoy.”

All of the foregoing can be heard and seen aplenty in the band’s official video for the inventive new track The Waves below.  The video is beguiling, with O’Brien sounding a bit like Sufjan Stevens (never a bad thing in our book).  After, check out the newly-released video for comparatively-straightforward track, Nothing Arrived, off the imminent album, followed by a live performance of the song.  The lyrics to The Waves are at bottom.

There are waves
Up in the diamond sky
Stronger than you and I
Am a wave
I break through the barrier reef
Cut through the carbon sea
Approaching the shore
Look at the sky, look at the trees
Man, it’s all the same to me
Look at the cars, look at the birds
And all of these invented words
One body’s dying breath is another’s birth
What are you running from?
What are you running from?
Sister jewelry, brother judging, you are recognized this grudge
Buried deep beneath the sands of these ridiculous demands
No time for innocence, or sitting on the fence
What are you gonna do?
What are you gonna…
When the waves
Cover the coastal plains
The tents and the cars and the trains
And the trace of honey bees sanitaries
Of well insulated dignitaries
All screaming of the memory of the human love
For anything, or anyone
Look at the birds, look at the bees
Madam, it’s all the same to me
Look at the girls, look at the gold
Gathered, beat and bought and sold
One man’s innocence is another’s chance
What were you thinking of?
What were you thinking of?
Now please let me boil it down to this, my son
This party’s getting wet, but it ain’t over yet
So what is it gonna be?
What is it gonna be?
What is it gonna be?
Just let the waves
Cover the coastal plains
The fear and guilt and the pain
And the trace of honey bee jealousy
Of well insulated bigotry
And if you don’t agree
You better get back inside your cave
’cause we’re all dancing with the waves
Up in the diamond sky
Stronger than you and I
Am a wave
I break through the barrier reef
Cut through the carbon sea
Approaching the shore [18x]

The Best Concerts of 2012

While many of our favorite bands did not release new albums in 2012, a number of them continued to tour behind their stalwart 2011 albums.  Below were our favorite concerts of 2012, listed in order of preference.

1.  Radiohead at Santa Barbara Bowl

Radiohead is the best band currently on the planet (due respect to Arcade Fire, U2, Springsteen, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, and others listed below), and nowhere is this more evident than on stage where their complex, nonpareil songs, arrangements and playing provide the perfect foil to Thom Yorke’s huge presence and visceral voice (not to mention the harmonies of Ed O’Brien and the boys).   Their show at the Santa Barbara Bowl was the most sought after ticket in the entire history of the Bowl’s hallowed grounds.  Fans flocked from around the globe (Hong Kong, Mexico City, Japan, etc.) to catch the band play in the smallest venue of their entire tour.  And the band did not disappoint.  Read our full review HERE.  While they won’t be coming back in 2013, we take heart that Yorke,  Radiohead-producer Nigel Godrich, Flea and the rest will soon release a new Atoms For Peace album.  And unless history does not repeat itself, AFP should find their way back to the Bowl in 2013.  We can’t wait.  It will be the show of the year.  Again.  Below is a clip from the Radiohead Bowl concert.

2.  Bon Iver at Santa Barbara Bowl

Running a close second for Concert of the Year was the big-banded Bon Iver.  For their 2012 tour, Justin Vernon, Sean Carey, Mike Noyce and brethren surrounded themselves with an enormous band of enormously talented players (Colin Stetson, Reggie Pace, etc.).  By the time they got to the Bowl (ten full months after the release of their eponymous album and incessant touring) we were slightly concerned the band would merely go through the motions at the Bowl.  We couldn’t have been more wrong.  Vernon and band have made a meteoric leap from 2008’s cabin-in-the-woods motif (including a concert that year at the venerable, but tiny Muddy Waters in Santa Barbara that year).  Vernon’s exceptionally well-crafted songs, coupled with impeccable and moving ensemble playing left the Bowl crowd in awe.  Despite the length of their tour, if anything the band continued to gather strength and imbue the songs with newfound power, intricacies and heights (this was borne out when we watched, from afar, the final show of their tour in NYC–six months after the Bowl show–when the band seemed to have taken “it” up yet another notch).  At tour’s end, Vernon was noncommital about the band’s future, implying a possible break-up.  For the sake of music, we pray it ain’t so.  You can read our review of the concert HERE, and watch a vignette below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1tTKOWgvlQ&feature=player_embedded#!

3.  Sufjan Stevens at the Henry Fonda Theater

We almost didn’t attend Sufjan Stevens’ Christ-mess Sing-A-Along show in Hollywood at the Henry Fonda Theater.  It was early in the Christmas season, and our hearts weren’t revved up for singing Christmas carols with a throng of LA-ers.  If we had given in to first-urges, we would have missed the most entertaining concert of the year.  Sufjan Stevens, Rosie Thomas and capable, shambolic crew came out and completely captivated the rapt crowd.  The show had something for everyone, ranging from comedy, to Christmas carols, to confetti cannons, to confessional paeans, to cataclysmic cacophonies.  While we had caught the fantastic Age of Adz tour, the Christmess tour was a whole different animal, filled with humanity’s best attributes.  There were the moving banjo/guitar “real songs” of yore (Gacy, Widows, Vito, etc.), hilarious and reverent Christmas carols, and stunning new originals (Christmas Unicorn’s segue into the confetti-ed crowd-sing of Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart was one of the highlights of the entire concert year). In short, ’twas heaven on earth.   You can read our review HERE and watch a vignette below.

4.  Band of Horses at the Troubadour

We had waited nearly a decade to catch indie-rockers Band of Horses, one of our favorites.  So when we managed to corral tickets to the comparatively tiny Troubadour for a first viewing, we jumped at the chance.  And we were not disappointed.  Leader Ben Bridwell, Tyler Ramsey and the boys came out raging and didn’t let up for 21 magnificent songs, including covers of two of our favorite artists of all-time–Gram Parsons (A Song For You) and Neil Young (the nonpareil Powderfinger).  Along the way they played most of the band’s fans’ favorites and played with powerful aplomb.  Most surprising was Ben Bridwell’s supple but strong vocals, but also the band’s energetic drive.  They played more songs at the Troubadour than at any other (save, maybe, one) venue on their entire tour.  A phenomenal, intimate show that you can read more about HERE.  And for a sampling, check the vignette below.

5.  Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco

While 2012’s (free!) Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival could not possibly touch the hallowed heights of 2011 (with Elbow, Broken Social Scene, Gomez, Devotchka, etc.), there’s never a bad year for HSBF and such was the case yet again in 2012, which featured perfect weather throughout and a superb lineup.  While many in the crowd were agog at the presence of Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant and John Paul Jones (both of whom sat in on various sets), our highlights were varied and plentiful.  On Friday, highlights were Chuck Prophet, Ben Kweller, Jenny (Lewis) and (Johnny and) the Watson Twins, and Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band.  You can read our full review of Day 1 HERE.  On Day 2, which you can read more about below in our unpublished post, highlights included a surprisingly-strong showing from much (by-the-young) loved The Head and the Heart, a resilient Dave (and Phil) Alvin and the ever-inspiring oldsters, The Flatlanders (Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock).  And on the last day, highlights included a Best-of-HSBF set from Glen Hansard (with large band), Howe Gelb’s gigantic and varied Giant Giant Sand, and ace songwriter/singer Nick Lowe.  Don’t miss it next year.

Day 2:

On the second day of the ever-invigorating Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, the great weather and magnificent music continued unabated.  We frankly had lower musical expectations for Saturday, but higher anxiety over the circus crowds.  In the end our musical expectations were far exceeded (except by one artist who sorely let us down–again), and though the crowds were daunting, they were not insurmountable (though we admit to having a rather high pain threshold on this front).

First, we caught a portion of the set by tremulous troubadour, Joe Pug, who played affecting, personal songs.  But we needed to get to the Rooster Stage so left and were treated upon arrival to the late, great Warren Hellman’s grandchildren, assorted relatives and a band of supporters (including The Wronglers and Jimmie Dale Gilmore), all under the rubric of The Go To Hell Man Clan (get it?).  Spread out across the entire Rooster stage, they were a sight to see and a heartwarming way to begin the day.

Next up was one of the craftiest of song-crafters, Lloyd Cole, on acoustic guitar and accompanied only by his NYU-attending son, Will Cole.  The Coles played a great set that featured many of Cole’s Commotion-gems, such as Rattlesnakes (featured below) and Are You Ready to Be Heartbroken? along with older solo songs (Best New Friend) and other wistful songs.

After Lloyd Cole’s set, we ventured to the west end of the proceedings for Justin Towne Earle’s fine set of folk-blues and poignant (and humorous) lyrics.  Earle has quite a quiver of songs, and is an adept player and singer.  A little blues-based for our tastes, but he wears it well.

Next up was one of the finest roots-rock performances of HSB–Dave Alvin &  the Guilty Ones.  Alvin can write a song and play roots-rock guitar like no one extant, and he delivered the most incendiary solos of the entire Festival on Saturday.  We were again impressed by his singing and storytelling, but his Telecaster-antics are not to be missed.  Catch him when you can!  To cap it off he brought out heart-attack-recovering brother, Phil Alvin, for a couple of blistering songs and a rousing version of Dave’s chestnut, Marie Marie.

After, we fought the Rooster crowd to get to the front for the much-buzzed Lumineers.  By the time we got there, the crowd was in full-Lumineer-love mode.  Time will tell about this band.  While we get their crowd-pleasing ways, we will have to see whether or NOT they will  be able to hang with their genre’s progenitors such as Mumford & Sons, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, and The Head and the Heart (more about them below).

Next up was the much-anticipated set by Patty Griffin.  And this was the disappointment to which we referred above.  While others were raving about the time-conflicting set of Jerry Jeff Walker, we were watching Griffin come out solo (a major disappointment given her usual musical friends) and immediately have sound problems (a recurring theme at the Rooster Stage in particular, but elsewhere too).  We grant Griffin her songwriting and winning vocal ways, but she certainly didn’t wow solo and concentrated on new songs early in her set.  So we decided we’d wasted enough time (after catching Robert Plant join her for a new song–he added nothing of value to the mix from our perspective–though his head is 2-1/2 times the size of Patty’s pinner-head).  So we scrambled over to catch The Head and the Heart (a daunting prospect given the multitudes) and on our sojourn caught the Cowboy Junkies’ resounding covers of Sweet Jane and Neil Young’s Don’t Let it Bring You Down by the surprisingly big and raucous sounding band.

After navigating their adoring, young audience, we were pleasantly surprised by The Head and the Heart, who put on the set of the day, fully sating us and their fans.  This band is the real deal, with incredible ensemble and solo vocal skills and fine instrumental playing throughout.  It was a harmonic convergence of band, audience and setting that produced repeated chills during their set.  Catch them when you can.

Last up was the biggest surprise of the day, a completely heartwarming and winning set by the The Flatlanders (they are getting old enough to mistakenly be dubbed the The Flatliners, but let everyone know they had plenty of life left in them).  Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock were backed by a crack-band of amazingly gifted players (especially the lead guitarist and accordianist) and gave the feelgood performance of the day.

6.  Kathleen Edwards at the “Majestic” Ventura Theater

We had never seen Kathleen Edwards live until her show in April in Ventura.  Despite an embarrassingly small crowd, Edwards and her great band played as if the venue was filled with VIPs.  We were treated to songs from her phenomenal 2012 album Voyageur, but also favorites from throughout her tremendous songwriting career.  Edwards has a voice for the ages, and never fails to move with her words or her instruments.  As far as we could tell, despite the crowd-size she played more songs in Ventura than any other show on her tour.  With that kind of show-must-go-on attitude, she’s bound to continue to be successful live.  You can read our full review HERE.

7.  My Morning Jacket/Iron & Wine

We caught the second night of My Morning Jacket’s three-night, no-song-repeated stand at the Wiltern (with Sam Beam of Iron & Wine opening solo acoustic), and it was fantastic.  We later somewhat regretted our decision to attend this show instead of the highly-acclaimed Walkmen show at the Gibson Amphitheater the same night, but such is life.  And we wouldn’t have traded anything to see Sam Beam saunter onto stage and absolutely disembowel us with his pantheonic song, The Trapeze Swinger.   After, MMJ came out and assassinated the crowd for 2-1/2 hours of phenomenal playing, and their ardent fans ate it up.  The two artists would later cross paths twice on stage.  The first was a joint cover of George Harrison’s Isn’t It a Pity (seen below) and then on a cover of The Clash’s Rock the Casbah for which Sam Beam held the lyric cue cards for Jim James.  MMJ also covered Erykah Badu’s Tyrone.   We wrote about the crossed-paths HERE.  Together, the two artists provided a great night of resonant, full-throttle music.  Check out a collaboration below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xD1l6U5N3Y&feature=player_embedded#!

8.  Wilco at Avila Beach

We missed Wilco’s highly-acclaimed show at the Arlington in February so were pleasantly surprised when Wilco came back around to the Central Coast in the fall, playing at the Avila Beach Resort.  On a beautiful day, surrounded by our family and friends, Jeff Tweedy and band came out and gave the audience everything it wanted and more.  They played songs from throughout their discography, with our highlight being California Stars (can we just make this California’s Official Song already, and require it be sung in all elementary schools?) You can read our brief review HERE.

Honorable Mentions:  Twin Shadow/Poolside at Soho; Electric Guest/Hospitality (in front of a tiny crowd) at Velvet Jones.

Biggest Disappointments:  Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros (can we just have Jane & the Magnetic Zeros next time and skip the Dirty-Shroud-Dude and his shamanic ways?) at the Santa Barbara Bowl; M. “Photo-Phobe” Ward at Soho.

In case you are DVR-less or organizationally-deprived (guilty), you can watch below last night’s full episode of Jack White (and both all-dude and all-gal alternate backing bands) on Austin City Limits.  We may not always like his blues-based attack, but White never fails to bring the goods live.  Great stuff again from one of our best live performers.  Check it out (the first 20 minutes below and then a jump to the ACL site).

Setlist:

Freedom at 21
Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground
Missing Pieces
Cannon/John the Revelator
You Know That I Know
Blunderbuss
Love Interruption
Hypocritical Kiss
Screwdriver/Blue Blood Blues
I’m Slowly Turning Into You
Top Yourself
We’re Going to Be Friends

Watch Jack White on PBS. See more from Austin City Limits.

We confess to completely missing this until recently checking out TwentyFourBit’s Favorite Covers of 2012.  For 2012’s Record Store Day, Fiona Apple and the multitalented Sara Watkins (Nickel Creek, solo, Prairie Home Companion, etc.) released a driving cover of The Everly Brothers’ You’re The One I Love.  Check out at bottom the leave-you-wanting-more recorded version, but before that watch (by skipping to the song at 1:03) the same crew performing the song live at Largo in 2011.  A great example of artists bringing a new twist to an old song.  The dual-vocal flurry reminds of X’s John Doe and Exene.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlyrIWKoIh0

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds will on Feb. 19th release their first studio album, Push the Sky Away, since 2008’s Dig, Lazurus, Dig!  It’s been far too long.  The record’s first single We No Who U R now has an official video.  The song opens musically like Bon Iver and then vocally a la Interpol/Blue Nile (OK, Nick Cave minus the hector and snarl), and the text-speak song-title is only a shorthand semaphore for classic, menacing Cave: “We know who you are, we know who you live, and there is no need to forgive.”  The song sets the stage for a great album from the band.  Listen/watch the new video (and watch its accompanying lyric video after).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kBl86cIV3g

Jack White will appear on Austin City Limits tomorrow night.  Check out below a preview of that undoubtedly incendiary session, in which White and his all-gal (not all-guy) backup band perform Blunderbuss’ Love Interruption.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oFD5ANxRuFk

Local Natives disappeared for a while after 2010’s superb debut album Gorilla Manor.  As expected, the band spent its time well, prepping their second album Hummingbird (which will be released on January 29th via Frenchkiss/Infectious).  The band recently dropped by KCRW and performed a few songs off the new album.  As a preview of their Morning Becomes Eclectic session (which will be broadcast on January 11th at 11:15 a.m.) check out Heavy Feet, the second track from Hummingbird.  The band’s usual sterling, stirring harmonies and guitar-play ensue below.