Atoms For Peace are currently out blowing minds on their world tour, and played the Lotto Arena in Antwerp this week. Check out the superb multi-fan-video-compilation below of Thom Yorke performing unreleased song The Present Tense solo during the Atoms For Peace concert on July 9th.  Yorke himself blessed it by Tweeting the video earlier.  Afterwards is an alternative video cut by talented YouTuber “JohnnyAirbag” followed by a similar video-treatment for AFP’s AMOK, the title-track of their recently-released debut album.  Don’t miss AFP’s show at the Santa Barbara Bowl on October 17th.

Following on the heels of their performance last month on Conan, Louisville’s Houndmouth showed up on the Letterman Show last night and played the crap out of Ludlow from their debut album From The Hills Below The City.  Thankfully the band veered away from their Alabama Shakes-y performance on Conan, sounding on Letterman more like their admitted-influences, The Band.  Houndmouth is out on tour and will be back to Cali in August to play the High Sierra and Outside Lands Festivals.

The ever-pleasing Eleanor Friedberger and her rippin’ band showed up last night on Jimmy Fallon and performed Stare At The Sun off of her scintillating new Personal Record album.  Watch the be-banged Friedberger all decked out in denim and lighting up the studio.  Go buy Personal Record HERE.

As we’ve mentioned before, the masterful Joseph Arthur is winning ears and souls with his autobiographical new album The Ballad of Boogie Christ.  Last night Arthur and his big band slaughtered on the Letterman Show, performing It’s Ok to Be Young/Gone in self-painted garb and backdrop.  Check it out below, followed by Arthur’s own backstage capture of the pre-show warm-up and proceedings.

Atoms For Peace our out on the road finally in support of their debut album AMOK. A video has now been released of the band’s recent Amsterdam concert. Check it out below. We can’t wait for their October 17th show at the Santa Barbara Bowl.

This week the L.A.-based Rhye partially came out of their mysterioso cloud and performed The Fall (from their debut album Woman) as their TV-debut on the Jimmy Kimmel Show.  Watch below as Toronto-born singer Michael Milosh properly sets the mood, backlit for obscurity, and backed sparingly by piano, cello and percussion.  Milosh is the latest in a long line of androgynous-sounding male singers that’s included everyone from Curtis Mayfield to Jimmy Scott to Boy George, to other purveyors of blue-eyed soul.  This version is shear beauty.  You heard it here last:  Rhye are going to be huge.

If you like what you hear/see, afterwards check out Rhye’s even-better, NPR-captured set at the candle-lit Le Poisson Rouge in NYC in April.  Check out an actual analog sextet stretching out in jazz-inflections, led by chief component and songwriter-producer Robin Hannibal.  Killing softly, but with occasional bullets, and sounding at times like mid-’70s band War at its best. But then add in Milosh’s vocals and you have a beast of a whole different color and gender.  A great new addition to the music scene.  They play Outside Lands Festival on August 9th in Golden Gate Park.

And finally, at bottom check out the band’s performance of 3 Days for KCRW.

It’s official.  As witnessed in the Best-Albums-So Far lists, most everyone agrees with us that Mikal Cronin’s latest album, MCII, is very near (if not at) the top of the best albums released so far this year. It’s a California pop-rock masterpiece. Check out Cronin and crew below performing his superb song Weight for WNYC.  You can listen to the full WNYC session and interview HERE.

We have been listening to and writing about marvelous new chanteuse Laura Mvula (Dolores?) for a while now. She recently stopped by NPR and performed a three-song Tiny Desk Concert.  Check her intimate set out below (with strings) and pick up her debut album, Sing to the Moon, which is one of the best female albums of this year.

Set List:

Father, Father
Diamonds
She

It’s Sunday.  If you need us, we’ll be swimming.  Likely in the ocean.  Likely in the aquamarine of Windansea.  You might be at a river hole, or the municipal, or the club.  Regardless, get in the water.  Below is the perfect accompanying soundtrack, The Swimming Song, from the legendary Loudon Wainwright III (off of his 1973 album, Attempted Mustache).  If you need further inspiration, at bottom check out the Beach Boys’ California (part of the California Saga off of their under-appreciated 1973 album Holland).

National treasures Clem Snide (Eef Barzelay) have made available for streaming their brand new album We Leave Only Ashes. Barzelay has this to say about the new release:

“This record is a rough and tumble collection of songs that giddily disregards any attempt at a sense of cohesion. Some songs may be familiar to long time fans while others may not. Some songs are fast while others are slow. Long time favorites “We Are Flowers” and “Enrique Iglesias’ Mole” are once and for all available along with some Beautiful and Moment In the Sun EP tracks.”

Listen below and go buy the album. And be better for it.