In between Coachella weekends the artists continue to spread out in an effort to conquer California.  One of the best-received bands at Coachella was French band Phoenix (yeah, the rumored Daft Punk didn’t show, but R. Kelly joined ’em on stage).  Phoenix showed up at KCRW today and played a session which you can listen to HERE.   To get a flavor, watch the band deliver Entertainment below from their new album Bankrupt!

We’re starting to repeat ourselves, but Phosphorescent’s new album Muchacho is one of the best albums released so far this year and certain to end up in our Top 10 Albums of 2013 at year’s end. Watch the band below deliver a riveting read of Terror In The Canyons off of Muchacho for The Current (89.3 in Minnesota). And go HERE to check out the remainder of the session at The Current.

Awhile back we posted excitedly about the great new project of Will Sheff (Okkervil River) called Lovestreams.  Today Sheff released another strong song off the promised Lovestreams album. Check out the new video (shot and directed by Scott Coffey) and song There’s Video, and listen while Sheff gets his Bowie superbly on (circa  Diamond Dogs/Young Americans).  Check out Sheff as he adds to his horizons by subtracting musicians to get to one.  Bring on the Lovestreams.

According to most accounts, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs received nothing but heck-yeahs for their performance last weekend at Coachella.  Last night the band crossed the desert to perform on the Jimmy Kimmel Show, performing the title track (Mosquito) off their new album and Sacrilege.  Check ’em out below.  The band continues up the coast to Ventura tonight to perform at the Majestic Ventura Theater.

We had the fortune of catching Foxygen live and raging-loud recently in a semi-secret show at The Loft in the Funk Zone. Later that night the band announced the cancellation of its European tour.  Ironically, then, the decidedly European La Blogotheque today released a sweet video of the band strolling around Paris (on the Montmartre steps of Sacre Couer, etc.) singing songs In the Darkness and No Destruction.  Check out the band’s fine group harmonies and lead singer, Sam France, getting his Ray Davies/Mick Jagger on. The bottom line is this band just doesn’t give a good gash what anyone thinks.  And that’s refreshing in this day and age.  We wish them well.  After, check the band performing On Blue Mountain (at 1:50) after a long intro.  Great to see the band suck in the sidewalk Parisians.

The National can do no wrong in our book.  The band has released a superlative second song, Don’t Swallow the Cap, from their new album Trouble Will Find Me out in May.  Check it out below and pre-order the album HERE.

Over the weekend, the steely and sultry Polica brought out Justin Vernon at Coachella to join in a new song entitled Tiff.  All of which is understandable given that Vernon and key members of Polica had ganged up previously in GAYNGS.  Vernon is showing no signs (in a possible post-Bon Iver world(?)) of slowing down given this collaboration and his support of Colin Stetson on Stetson’s new album.

The sublime Sam Beam and his Iron & Wine will release their hauntingly great new album Ghost on Ghost tomorrow.  And there will be joy throughout the land.  Guaranteed.  To properly set the mood, Iron & Wine have released the official video (directed by Hayley Morris) for song Joy off the new album (on Nonesuch Records and 4AD).  Check it out and tomorrow go buy the new album HERE.  Iron & Wine will begin its tour in support of the new album on May 6th at the Grammy Theater in Hollywood.  All tour dates can be found at the band’s site at the link above.

We wrote the other day about Canadian sax colossus Colin Stetson and the imminent release of his new album New History Warfare Vol. 3: To See More Light, the final segment of his New History Warfare trilogy of recordings on Constellation.

Today’s particular highlight (it is Sunday after all) from the new album is the soulful cover of  Washington Phillips’ gospel tune What Are They Doing In Heaven Today?  featuring only Stetson’s circular-sax and the vocals of Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon.  While Phillips’ songs have been oft-covered (by Ry Cooder, Gillian Welch, Ralph Stanley, Will Oldham, etc.), we had not heard this song before.  Sounds heavenly to our ears.  After the song are Phillips’ original lyrics, which have been redacted for Stetson’s cover.

And for more Sunday feel, check out at bottom the video released by Stetson’s camp this week in which Justin Vernon sings (at 1:36 in the video) the beautiful opening track of the album, And in Truth. You can order and read more about Stetson and the new album HERE.

Colin Stetson–What Are They Doing In Heaven Today?

09 What Are They Doing In Heaven Today_

What Are They Doing In Heaven Today?

“What are they doing in heaven today?
I don’t know boy
But it’s my biz to say it and sing about it

Chorus:
What are they doing in heaven today,
Where sin and sorrow are all done away?
Peace abounds like a river, they say.
What are they doing there now?

I’m thinking of friends whom I used to know,
Who lived and suffered in this world below
But they’ve gone off to heaven, but I want to know
What are they doing there now?

Oh, what are they doing in heaven today,
Where sin and sorrow are all done away?
Peace abounds like a river, they say.
But what are they doing there now?

There’s some whose hearts were burdened with care
They paid for their moment to fighting and tears
But they clung to the Cross with trembling and fear
But what are they doing there now?

(chorus)

And there’s some whose bodies were full of disease
Physicians and doctors couldn’t give them much ease
But they suffered ’til death brought a final release
But what are they doing there now?

(chorus)

There’s some who were poor and often despised
They looked up to heaven with tear-blinded eyes
While people were heedless and deaf to their cries
But what are they doing there now?”

Cloud Nothings are playing at Coachella this weekend.  More importantly (selfishly), they’re opening for Japandroids at Velvet Jones here on Monday night. Check out Cloud Nothings below on a brand new Take Away Show for La Blogotheque as they perform Cut Away unplugged at the Brighton Pier (that pier’s been the site of several recent music videos).  After, check out the band in a more representative mode (partially plugged at least, though on a bus in Paris) for an earlier Take Away Show performing Stay Useless.  Come on down Monday for what should be one of the best rock shows of the year.

Cloud Nothings | A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.