The Pickathon vignettes just keep poppin’ from KEXP.  Check out Pure Bathing Culture below unplugged and performing their ode to true love, Ivory Coast.  We caught the band’s impressive opening set for Foxygen when they came through Santa Barbara in March, and they continue to impress here.  Pure Bathing Culture’s Richard Swift-produced debut album Moon Tides hit last week, and you can buy it HERE.  The band will head out on tour again starting in Cali in October in support of the new album, and while opening for Widowspeak.  You can check out their tour dates below the video.

10/10 – Visalia, CA – The Cellar Door
10/12 – Tucson, AZ – Solar Culture
10/13 – Albuquerque, NM – Low Spirits*
10/14 – Phoenix, AZ – Rhythm Room*
10/15 – San Diego, CA – The Void*
10/16 – Los Angeles, CA – The Echo*
10/17 – Santa Cruz, CA – The Crepe Place*
10/18 – San Francisco, CA – The Chapel*
10/19 – Davis, CA – Sophia’s Thai Kitchen*
10/21 – Eugene, OR – Cozmic Pizza*
10/22 – Vancouver, BC – Media Club*
10/24 – Portland, OR – Bunk Bar*
10/25 – Boise, ID – Neurolux*
10/26 – Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge*
10/27 – Denver, CO – Larimer Lounge*
10/28 – Omaha, NE – Slowdown*
11/1 – Ferndale, MI – The Loving Touch*
11/3 – Montreal, QC – Il Motore*
11/4 – Winooski, VT – The Monkey House*
11/5 – Boston, MA – TT The Bear’s*
11/6 – New Haven, CT – BAR*
11/8 – New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom*

* – w/ Widowspeak

We became fans of Michigan’s Breathe Owl Breathe in 2010 when they released their Magic Central album, and their superb single Swimming.   The band has just announced the self-release of their new album Passage of Pegasus, which will come out on October 15th. To give a flavor for the new album, the band has shared a track entitled Silent Movie Reel, which you can listen to below.

One of our favorite female singer-songwriters, the always-earnest Sharon Van Etten, performed at the recent Pickathon music festival. While there, Van Etten performed an unplugged version of her trembling new song Tarifa for KEXP.  Van Etten explained the song thus:  “this next song is about a vacation, it’s a new one that we’ve been working on, it’s call Tarifa….it’s [in Spain] on a f!@$ing cliff overlooking Morocco,  but it is amazing – in the middle of nowhere. There was a bunch of bulls, that I was afraid of, in the pasture next to me, but they could give a shit that I was there. They didn’t try to run me over or anything weird. I had to ask my boyfriend, I was like ‘can I wear red? Are they gonna charge at me?’ They didn’t. I tried it out. It was fine. Anyway, this song is about that.” Go figure.

After, listen to one of her best, Give Out. And while you’re at it, go over and buy a Van Etten-made t-shirt (shown at bottom) to support a good cause: The Yellow Bird Project.

Austin’s Carrie Rodriguez has been on the Americana scene for over a decade, getting her start as fiddling/singing accompaniment for country stalwart Chip Taylor.  Since then Rodriguez has gone solo and continues to up her game as a songwriter/performer. Check out below her performance of Lake Harriet (off her most recent album Give Me All You Got) with guitar-player Luke Jacobs on KDHX.  We love the soul and swing on this.

“Won’t you walk me around Lake Harriet
and hold my hand

Whisper those sweet nothings
like no other man can

And when the sun goes down on Minneapolis
I see the master plan

Won’t you walk me around Lake Harriet
and hold my hand

Movin’ too fast, think I never can stop
I’ve been runnin’ from the past
trying to beat it to the top

The miles add up, I hate to see another town
I try to look up but all I feel is down

Baby you’re the only one
that makes me come undone

REPEAT CHORUS

Gravity pulls too much
I buckle underneath the weight
memory of the country calls a higher state

Where the sea is calm, I know right from wrong
And there’s love in every minute
I’m loving every minute

Baby you’re the only one
that makes me come undone

REPEAT CHORUS”

Tres triste. Once again we have missed the summer jet to Paris. Been too, too long.  In lieu take a virtual trip to Versailles with Phoenix below and watch them perform their song Entertainment for La Blogotheque on the Versailles Palace grounds.  Tres bon.

Yet another British band, London Grammar, have been buzzing from across the Pond.  Their debut EP Metal & Dust was released in February, and their debut album If You Wait will hit on September 9th.  The trio’s lead-singer, Hannah Reid, does not hide her vocal resemblance to Florence (& The Machine), but the band’s backing is comparatively stripped-down and they mostly avoid Florence’s grandiosity and histrionics.  In their comparatively-spare sound, London Grammar also remind of the atmospheric The xx, but perhaps minus some of that band’s fine dynamism.  The jury’s still out for us on this group, but there’s no refuting that Ms. Reid has serious vocal talent (if you can get past the obvious Flo-rishes).  Watch below as the band performs Strong for The Line of Best Fit.

London Grammar is about to embark on a US tour, beginning in LA at the Troubadour on September 25th.  All tour dates can be found HERE.  Strong’s official video can be seen below the live performance.

Laura Marling appeared on the Letterman Show Monday night and performed Master Hunter off of her most recent album Once I Was An Eagle. Stripped down to girl and guitar, Marling gives the venomous lyrics their proper due, practically spitting the words at times behind a seething smile.  It’s a tour de force performance of Dylan proportions, replete with jean jacket.  The song’s lyrics follow the video.  Afterwards check out her recent performance of Where Can I Go? for Minnesota Public Radio’s 89.3 Current.  Marling exhibits better here her formidable vocal chops, all with Joni-esque flair.  You can listen to her entire Current set and interview HERE.

Ms. Marling clearly has aspiration and supreme confidence in taking on her idols Dylan and Mitchell, and acquitting herself well in the process.

“I am a master hunter I cured my skin, now nothing gets in
Nothing not as hard as it tries

You want a woman because you want to be saved Well I’ll tell you that I got a little lot on my plate
Well if you want a woman who can call your name It ain’t me babe
No, no, no, it ain’t me babe

I don’t stare at water anymore,
Water doesn’t do what it did before,
It took me in into the edge of insane when I only meant to swim,
I nearly put a bullet in my brain when the water took me in

I am a master hunter I cured my skin, nothing gets in
Nothing not as hard as it tries

You let men into your bed
They don’t know you well
They can’t get into my head
Oh they don’t have a hope in hell

See the thing is that we’re so alone
There’s nothing we can share
You can get me on the telephone but you won’t keep me there
No, no, no, you won’t keep me there

Take me somewhere I don’t know Give me something let me go
Tell me something I can grow
Cause, I have some news

Wrestle in the rope from darkness is no fucking life that I would choose

Take me somewhere I can grow
Give me something Let me go Tell me something I don’t know
I had some news

Wrestling with the rope from darkness is no fucking life that I would choose

I am a master hunter I cured my skin, now nothing gets in
Nothing not as hard as it tries”

Sam Beam’s Iron & Wine has released one of the Best Albums of 2013 with its Ghost to Ghost album (if it wasn’t for Trouble Will Find Me, we would say THE best).  The 13-piece live band also put on one of the Best Concerts of 2013 (again, only rivaled by The National’s shows) at the Unitarian Church in LA in June.  Watch below as Beam and the band perform live for SiriusXM “Outlaw Country” three songs from Ghost on Ghost.

First up is one of our favorites from Ghost on Ghost, the California-centric Desert Babbler in which a homesick Beam sings about himself: “You left to look for heaven, but you’re far from that hard light tonight.”  The band lays out fully on the song, with sax and all filling the void vivaciously.  Next up is Grass Widow, with its jazzy mien that reminds a bit of Steely Dan (in the wake of their tour).  Finally, there’s the Smokey miracle, Lean Into the Light.  Oh, baby baby.  Iron & Wine are still out on tour in support of Ghost on Ghost, and it would be a crime if you missed them when they come to your town (November 1st in Oakland and November 4th in Seattle).  Check out the tour dates HERE.

The National’s members have mentioned in the press the mayhem that they engaged in during the making of their new video for Graceless off their Best of Year Album (take that, Arcade Fire) Trouble Will Find Me. You may notice that a beer or two (OK, maybe three), were consumed during the filming, which took place at singer Matt Berninger’s folks’ house in Cincinnati. Berninger told Rolling Stone that along the way the band “kind of destroyed the place and ourselves along the way.” And no stunt men were injured (or used) during the filming of the video. “I gave myself a minor concussion, head injury on the slip and slide,” bassist Scott Devendorf told RS. “I had a serious face injury, Bryce [Dessner] had a back injury,” Berninger said. Berninger also got beat up (repeatedly) filming the sequence in which he rides a bike into the family pool. “My face hit the water hard all three times,” he told RS. “I had glasses on, I had bruises around my eyes where the glasses hit. It was the most brutal video we’ve ever done. It was really fun, but it cost us. No one died, though.”  Berninger’s father can be seen in the background sweeping up the mess and mowing beer cans on his sit-down.  Heartwarming stuff.

To us it just looks like 40 year-old guys (in suits of course) refusing to grow up while acknowledging their inner juveniles.  Who would do such a thing?

Check out the Graceless video below.  As the band said with its’ release: “Graceless is full of punks and cannonballers.” The songs’ lyrics follow.  The lyrics mesh well with the video, including the “bullets [potatoes?] through rotten fruit.”  When performed live, Berninger sings the last portion of the song with vitriol, which belies the fun-for-all treatment in the video.  Read a little closer and let us know what you think.

“Graceless
Is there a powder to erase this?
Is it dissolvable and tasteless?
You can’t imagine how I hate this
Graceless

I’m trying, but I’m graceless
I don’t have the sunny side to face this
I am invisible and weightless
You can’t imagine how I hate this
Graceless

I’m trying, but I’m gone
Through the glass again
Just come and find me
God loves everybody

Don’t remind me
I took the medicine and I went missing
Just let me hear your voice
Just let me listen

Graceless
I figured out how to be faithless
But it would be a shame to waste this
You can’t imagine how I hate this
Graceless

I’m trying, but I’m gone
Through the glass again
Just come and find me
God loves everybody

Don’t remind me
I took the medicine and I went missing
Just let me hear your voice
Just let me listen

All of my thoughts of you
Bullets through rotten fruit
Come apart at the seams
Now I know what dying means

I am not my rosy self
Left my roses on my shelf
Take the white ones they’re my favorites
It’s the side effects that save us
Grace

Put the flowers you find in a vase
If you’re dead in the mind it’ll brighten the place
Don’t let ’em die on the vine, it’s a waste
Grace

There’s a science to walking through windows
There’s a science to walking through windows
There’s a science to walking through windows
There’s a science to walking through windows without you

All of my thoughts of you
Bullets through rotten fruit
Come apart at the seams
Now I know what dying means

I am not my rosy self
Left my roses on my shelf
Take the white ones they’re my favorites
It’s the side effects that save us
Grace

Put the flowers you find in a vase
If you’re dead in the mind it’ll brighten the place
Don’t let them die on the vine, it’s a waste
Grace

Grace
Put the flowers you find in a vase
If you’re dead in the mind it’ll brighten the place
Don’t let them die on the vine, it’s a waste
Grace”

As mentioned before, the heady Nicolas Jaar has quickly become one of our (including the AWOL Jeune Lefort’s) favorite electronic artists.  Jaar has now released, via the Other People site, eleven-plus minutes of his upcoming album collaboration with Dave Harrington, Darkside (thankfully, no mention of any side of the moon).  Listen in to the scintillating new sounds below, which take flight at around the 4:58 mark.  Mesmerizing stuff.  We can’t wait for the album.  After, check out the previously released official video for Darkside track A1.