Frightened Rabbit appeared on Conan last night in support of their phenomenal new album Pedestrian Verse. Watch below as the band takes their guitars to The Woodpile for a good whoopin’. Nicely done.

Eleanor Friedberger put out one of our Best Albums of 2011 with her sunny-sounding pop-inflected solo album Last Summer, and she is now a perennial favorite at Chez Lefort.  Make no mistake about it:  Friedberger has a way with upbeat, summery pop-rock.  Now comes the good news that Friedberger will release her second solo album, Personal Record, on June 4th on Merge Records.

Before releasing Last Summer, Friedberger spent the prior decade in the critically-acclaimed (but at times maddening) indie-rock “band” The Fiery Furnaces (currently on hiatus) with her brother Matthew.  Let’s see here…hmmm.  Eleanor has now released two comparatively straightforward, but masterful pop-rock albums and Matthew has released…oh.  In 2011 Matthew Friedberger released eight (8!) albums each focusing on one particular instrument.  And then in 2012 he released Matricidal Sons of Bitches, which included 45 tracks for a “soundtrack for an imaginary horror film.”  We may have figured out the maddening portion of The Fiery Furnaces equation.  As we were saying:  we love Eleanor Friedberger’s music!

To get a feel for Friedberger’s post-Fiery-Furnaces sound, listen below to Stare At  The Sun, the first song off the new album.  It’s great to hear Friedberger back with her ever-intelligent pop sounds. After, you can watch/read her comedic trailer for the new album. The new album’s tracklist is at bottom.  We can’t wait for it.

Personal Record tracklist:

1. I Don’t Want to Bother You
2. When I Knew
3. I’ll Never Be Happy Again
4. Stare at the Sun
5. Echo or Encore
6. My Own World
7. Tomorrow Tomorrow
8. You’ll Never Know Me
9. I Am the Past
10. She’s a Mirror
11. Other Boys
12. Singing Time

Back in ancient days we did our best academic work while studying to the sounds of Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures and The Fall’s Live At The Witch Trials and Dragnet set on repeat.  And all was good, albeit not quiet, on the Western (Civilization) front.  The Fall’s Mark E. Smith singlehandedly hit upon a new Rebellious Jukebox sound that we found both danceable and hypnotic in our Psychic Dancehall.  Later, The Fall begat Pavement (Smith famously foamed at the mouth about Pavement stealing The Fall’s sound), which begat countless other bands.  Fast forward nearly 35 years when we fall upon a new rebellious jukebox sound:  Parquet Courts.

The buzz over the Texas-cum-Brooklyn band Parquet Courts has been building for a bit, and we’d listened to a snippet or two and not been hooked immediately.  It was only when we gave their album Light Up Gold a deserved thorough listen (ain’t that the way it always goes?) that we began to get just how refreshingly raucous and heady their songs are.  In an era in which we find the “ho hey” sounds of The Lumineering Magnetic Hearts & Sons entourage taking over the airwaves, we have found ourselves craving the more raucous sounds of Palma Violets and, now, Parquet Courts.  We readily admit to singing the praises of several of the aforementioned, fresh-faced and well-scrubbed folk-pop bands (Typhoon, The Head and the Heart, etc.) now dominating the Northwest and UK playlists.  In an era of Kei$ha and Chris Brown, we will take the folk-poppers any day.  But with all the sweetness, ya gotta have some savory, rocking counterbalance.  Bring on the Parquet Courts.

To our ears Parquet Courts righteously meld the roiling sounds of The Fall, early (circa Johnny Jewel) Television, Pavement, The Feelies, and yes, even a bit of Wire.  You can listen to Light Up Gold in its entirety below.  Make sure to give good listens in particular to Borrowed Time and Light Up Gold II, although the album lights up throughout.  The band’s lyrics are a particular highlight–they are both effervescently-creative and carefully-curated (go HERE if you want to view the worthy lyrics as you listen; you know a band is lyric-centric when they feature their lyrics prominently as done here–bravo dudes!).  A few of the lyrics didn’t pique our interest (e.g. Stoned and Starving), but the wordsmithing here bodes well for the future of Parquet Courts.  After listening below, check out the band’s impending tour and get ye in front of them.  They play The Echo on June 5th.   We intend to be there.  You can see the band in action further below.

The band has also just released a b-side off their upcoming single for a-side Borrowed Time (What’s Your Rupture?) entitled Smart Aleck Kid.  Check out all one-minute-and-six-seconds of its caterwaul below.  You can order the 7″ here.

While you’re at it, check out a great video vignette of the band performing Borrowed Time live below:

Tour:

Thu-March-7 New York,NY @ Bowery Ballroom w/ The Men *SOLD OUT*
Fri-March-8 Mexico City, Mexico @ Auditorio Blackberry w/ Mykki Blanc
Sat-March-9 Monterey, Mexico @ Festival Nrmal
Thu-March-14 Austin,TX @ 1100 East 5th (Pitchfork SXSW Day Party) – 2:30pm
Fri-March-15 Austin,TX @ Mohawk (Ground Control Touring Official SXSW Showcase) – 12am
Sat-March-16 Austin,TX @ Red 7 (Chaos in Tejas Official SXSW Showcase) – 9:45pm
Sun-March-17 Dallas,TX @ Club Dada (Spillover Fest)
Sat-May-4 Philadelphia,PA @ PhilaMOCA
Sat-May-25 Washington,DC @ The Black Cat w/ Total Control
Sun-May-26 Richmond,VA @ Strange Matter w/ Total Control
Mon-May-27 Atlanta,GA @ 529 w/ Total Control
Tue-May-28 Memphis,TN @ Murphy’s w/ Total Control
Wed-May-29 Denton,TX @ Rubber Gloves w/ Total Control
Thu-May-30 Austin,TX @ Chaos in Tejas
Fri-May-31 Austin,TX @ Chaos in Tejas
Sat-June-1 Austin,TX @ Chaos in Tejas
Mon-June-3 Phoenix,AZ @ The Rhythm Room
Tue-June-4 San Diego,CA@ Che Cafe
Wed-June-5 Los Angeles,CA @ The Echo
Fri-June-7 San Francisco,CA @ Rickshaw Stop
Sun-June-9 Oakland,CA @ 1234-GO Records
Mon-June-10 Davis,CA @ Davis 4th
Wed-June-12 Portland,OR @ Doug Fir w/ Naomi Punk
Thu-June-13 Seattle,WA @ Neumos w/ Naomi Punk
Fri-June-14 Vancouver,BC @ Media Club w/ Naomi Punk
Mon-June-17 Boise,ID @ Neurolux
Tue-June-18 Salt Lake City,UT @ Urban Lounge
Wed-June-19 Denver,CO @ Larimer Lounge
Thu-June-20 Omaha,NE @ Sweatshop
Fri-June-21 Minneapolis,MN @ Triple Rock
Sat-June-22 Madison,WI @ High Noon
Sun-June-23 Bloomington,IN @ The Bishop
Mon-June-24 Columbus,OH @ Ace of Cups
Tue-June-25 Detroit,MI @ Magic Stick
Fri-Aug-2 Happy Valley, OR @ Pickathon
Sat-Aug-3 Happy Valley, OR @ Pickathon
Sun-Aug-4 Happy Valley, OR @ Pickathon

Phosphorescent’s new album Muchacho will be released on March 19th.  From all accounts, the album includes more of singer-songwriter  Matthew Houck’s world-weary, earthly assessments, but also accounts of life beyond our atmosphere.  We’ve been huge fans of Houck for years, and on first listen Muchacho delivers on all fronts.  To listen go to NPR HERE.

According to Sufjan Stevens (aka Sloppy Joe):

“Today is Casimir Pulaski Day. Here’s an early demo. Not sure when I recorded this, but I was obviously still working it out. XXOO Sloppy Joe.”

Check the demo of one of our favorites below or HERE.

The musical Victoria Falls continues unabated.  We find ourselves posited in a post-Pro Tools world in which every musically-inclined Tom, Dick and Harrieta has (thankfully) been empowered to inscribe their music in the digital realms, let’s just be candid here: there is no way to know it all Mr. Know-It-All.  Worthy music shoots past, left and right, unapprehended.

Take, for example, the recently unearthed Blue Foundation.  According to the “foundation’s” PR, the Danish-Brooklyn group “explores the porous borders between electronica, industrial, and dream pop, with influences from shoegaze, folk, turntablism, electronica, alternative classical music, film noir and contemporary music.”  Unbeknownst to us their music has appeared on the soundtracks for Twilight, Miami Vice, The OC-Show, So You Think You Can Dance, and elsewhere.  And it turns out that last year its ringleaders, Tobias Wilner and Bo Rande, released Blue Foundation’s fifth (fifth!) album, In My Mind I Am Free enlisting various guest vocalists (Mew’s Jonas Bjerre, British singer/songwriter Findlay Brown, Bichi/Ghost Society chanteuse Sara Savery, and Japanese artist Cokiyu).  Who knew?  The group has now released last year’s album remixed as In My Mind I Am Free Reconstructed.

What finally looped us in was Blue Foundation’s captivating song Lost (with Ms. Savery’s vocals) off last year’s album.  Check out a very inventive fan-made video for the song below, and then just for fun you can check out the acappella vocal tracks below it.  The group has also worked with Sun Kil Moon’s/Red House Painters’ Mark Kozalek, and you can listen to their collaboration on Watch You Sleeping HERE.

One of our favorite singer-songwriters, Damien Jurado appeared on Last Call with Carson Daly’s last night to perform two of our favorite songs of 2012, Working Titles and Museum of Flight from his marvelous Maraqopa album.  The performances were taped at the Troubadour earlier this year before being broadcast this week.  Check out both superb songs below.

According to his label (Secretly Canadian) Jurado is currently working on the follow-up to Maraqopa with his favored producer Richard Swift.

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