Coming off their desperately fantastic performance of the song on the Jimmy Fallon Show, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs have released the official video for their great new song Despair off of new album Mosquito.  Once again Karen O shows she has a heart of gold.  The video’s juxtaposition of Karen’s ebullience against the Empire State Building’s prevention-barriers is a little chilling, but her joyous smile carries the day.  Turns out those aren’t chills; they’re goosebumps.  This is the first video filmed atop the building (discounting that gorilla film).

We discovered John Fullbright back yonder, and today he tore us up.  Check out his song for the ages and all ages, Daydreamer, as performed on a Sleepover Show.  And please, don’t look down when you pray.  Daydreamer can be found on Fullbright’s outstanding album From the Ground Up.   The song’s lyrics follow at bottom. Fullbright is out on tour now and headed to Europe in September.  All tour dates can be found HERE.

Daydreamer:

Daydreamer, lost in dreams
Sewn all together with the magic seams
Daydreamer, lost in a crowd all alone
Daydreamer, thinks he can fly
Sees white pictures in a big blue sky
Daydreamer, dreaming of a world all his own.

Young men spend a lot of time looking down at the ground
Looking down when they pray
Looking down everyday
Dreamers know that the finer things wait up in the air
But young men are proud
Sometimes dreaming aint allowed

Dream me a better world and I’ll find a better way
Dream me a bigger sky and I’ll blow the rain away
I’m a young man today
Thats got nothing left to say about tomorrow.

Young men spend a lot of time watching old men make mistakes
But when the young man falls
Well then the old heart breaks
Theres a fire burning deep inside and its as mad as its mean
Its hungry as its lean
And its as fleeting as a dream

Dream me a better world and I’ll find a better way
Dream me a bigger sky and I’ll blow the rain away
I’m a young man today
Thats got nothing left to say about tomorrow.

Today we have Tricky gettin’ trickier.   In support of his beguiling new album, False Idols, check out the new video for track Hey Love, which features fan Instagram photos culled from over 3000 pictures submitted by Tricky fans.  We love this track, and especially its percussion drops (40+ years after the original innovators, Jamaican dub producers such as Scratch Perry and Yabby U).  Check out Tricky below, standing on the shoulders of giants.

Britain’s young wonders The xx solidified their hold on the indie-music world with its superb second album Coexist. The band’s eponymous first album was one of the best of 2009, and Coexist artfully expanded upon their spare sound and romantic mien.  Check out below a just-released second official video for love-song Fiction (lyrics at bottom).  The first “Official Video” for the song follows.

Fiction:

When we’re not together
Mistaken for a vision
Something of my own creation

I wake up alone
With only daylight between us
Last night the world was beneath us
Tonight comes too long

Were we torn apart
By the break of day
You’re more than I can believe
Would ever come my way

Fiction
When we’re not together
Mistaken for a vision
Something of my own creation

Come real life
Why do I refuse you
Cause if my fear’s right
I risk to lose you

And if I just might
Wake up alone
Bring on the night

Fiction
When we’re not together
Mistaken for a vision
Something of my own creation

An uncertain haze
How am I to tell
I know your face all too well
Still I wake up alone

Fiction
When we’re not together

Last night Yeah Yeah Yeahs performed their therapeutic beauty Despair on the Jimmy Fallon Show (from their new album Mosquito).  Karen, O my.  “Through the darkness and the light, some sun has got to rise, your sun is my sun.”  After, watch the Japandroids on Letterman as they continue their assault in support of their (now “ancient”) album Celebration (“Celebrity” according to Letterman) Rock by performing a raging rendition of Adrenaline Nightshift.

We got distracted by last night’s superb Colbert Report episode featuring The Postal Service.  Also on late night TV last night were English electro buzz-band Chvrches making their network TV debut on Fallon and Jim James on Letterman (following up on his ubiquitous Bonnarooing). As you’ll see below, Chvrches performed The Mother We Share from their impending album The Bones of What You Believe, while James performed opener State of the Art (A.E.I.O.U.) off of his recent album Regions of Light and Sound of God.  Check ’em both out below.

The interweb is abuzz this morning with praise for Stephen Colbert’s eloquent, poignant homage to his 92-year old mother, Lorna, who passed last week (which you can watch at the very bottom). It was fitting, then, that The Postal Service chose to make its first appearance ever on television on Colbert and sing their much-loved song Such Great Heights.  After, they performed newish song A Tattered Line of String.  

After the band’s two songs, watch Colbert’s hilarious, insightful interview with the band.  Hometown Santa Barbarian Jimmy Tamborello manages to get into the interview before Colbert properly embarrasses Jenny Lewis with a video of her in a commercial as a kid.

Tamborello returns home with the band to play the Santa Barbara Bowl on July 20th.

Last month at the Ventura Theater, Arctic Monkeys and their fans tore the roof off of the joint during the band’s manic set. The band opened that night with never-before-performed song Do I Wanna Know? from their impending, yet-to-be-titled new album (expected in November).  As we heard in Ventura, the Monkeys have traded in some of their early punkish sounds for more classic-rock/metal elements, which can be heard on Do I Wanna Know?  Check it below as Alex Turner and the boys deliver a stripped-down, elemental rocker.  The video features some cool digital maneuverings in the dark until more coloratura enters later. The Arctic Monkeys headline Glastonbury later this week, and as of now (sadly) we won’t be able to attend.

If you’ve read Neil Young’s telling autobiography, Waging Heavy Peace, you know that old-man Young is now prone to pay tribute to many of the people that have had major impacts on his life.  Young first met Willie Nelson back in the early ’80s, and Young helped Willie on Nelson’s first Farm Aid fundraiser in 1985 and thereafter.  As you will see below, Young clearly has a soft spot (who doesn’t?) for Willie Nelson.  Watch below (via TwentyFourBit) as Young poignantly sings (from the next CMT Crossroads episode) his sweetly nostalgic song Long May You Run for Willie Nelson as a part of Nelson’s 80th birthday celebration.  As Twenty-Four Bit points out, Young joked before playing the song that “I wrote it for my car, but it works for you great.” The hug between these musical greats at the end is priceless.  Long may they both run.

Last night the much-loved Joni Mitchell performed a few songs, including her chestnut Woodstock at Massey Hall in Toronto at a tribute concert arranged in her honor by the Toronto arts festival Luminato. Watch below as Mitchell sings the song with, amongst others, the help of Glen Hansard, Kathleen Edwards, Al Spx (of Cold Specs) and Rufus Wainwright and Brian Blade’s band. Check out the (unfortunately) partial recording below, with Mitchell sounding great and dancing shoe-less (like the old days), and the other vocalists contributing mightily.  At bottom is a more polished snippet regarding the event via CBC News.  Check out Kathleen Edwards’ smiling, pinch-me moments while singing with Mitchell).  Great to see Joni back in her rightful place on stage singing her masterful songs.