As much loved as they were (are?), Rilo Kiley was (is?) one of the most underrated bands of the first decade of this millennium.  Jenny Lewis, Blake Sennett, Pierre de Reeder, and Jason Boesel combined in an astonishing creative alchemy that, in their four superlative studio albums, produced songcraft of the highest order.  While it seems the band is on permanent hiatus, earlier this year they gave hope of a return when they released a collection of previously released rarities and unreleased material, titled Rkives.  We’ll see about that return.

Though they have a dense discography of superlative songs to pick from, our pick-of-the-litter is With Arms Outstretched, which you can listen to below.  Though this song may have begat the wave of group-sing bands (you know, The Looming Errors and their ilk) now clogging up the airwaves, don’t hold that against it.  And we always like this song on a Sunday, and here we are.  The lyrics follow the song.  Now heading into those mountains to stretch out.

“It’s sixteen miles
To the promised land
And I promise you, I’m doing the best I can

Now don’t fool yourself
Into thinking you’re more than a man
Because you’ll probably end up dead

I visit these
Mountains with frequency
And I stand here with my arms up

Now some days they last longer than others
But this day by the lake went too fast
And if you want me
You better speak up, I won’t wait
So you better move fast

Don’t fool yourself
Into thinking you’re more than you are
With your arms outstretched to me

Now it’s sixteen miles
To the promised land
And I promise you, I’m doing the best I can

Now some days they last longer than others
But this day by the lake went too fast
And if you want me
You better speak up, I won’t wait
So you better move fast

And some days they last longer than others
But this day by the lake went too fast
And if you want me
You better speak up, I won’t wait
So you better move fast”

Alton and Hortense Ellis grew up in a musical family in Kingston, Jamaica, and Alton began his rise to prominence at the foundational Studio One recording studio of Coxsone Dodd.  But what many don’t recall about Alton is that the “Godfather of Rocksteady” began his career (along with his sister, Hortense) mining the rhythm & blues vein.  We were reminded of this recently when we again ran across the stunningly good Cry Together on which Alton steps aside and lets his sister, Hortense, get sensationally tense.  Check Cry Together out below first (just listen to that chorus, would ya?!) followed by some more crying in their seminal Breakfast in Bed, followed at bottom by Alton’s hit (with The Flames), Cry Tough.  Jamaica had soul.

We know you’ve been missing our National infatuation so below is the band performing Don’t Swallow the Cap (this time with strings) on their recent Artists Den episode. You can check out broadcast times for the episode HERE.

Though our Best Albums of 2013 list is filling up, Parquet Courts’ meaty, brainy and bouncy debut album Light Up Gold is assured a golden spot.  The band confirmed their worth when they lit up the stage when we caught them in LA in June.  On October 8th, the band will release their new EP entitled Tally All the Things That You Broke. The EP’s lead track is You’ve Got Me Wonderin’ Now, and you can listen to it below.  We again love the band’s lyrics.  Listen to the song and check out the song’s lyrics and EP song list below.

“Cavity click keeps the rhythm, keeps it movin’. Any day it’s gonna crack. Popcorn kernel, olive pit, at any moment smashed to bits (yeah). Toothache’s better than heartache baby, I’ve figured that much out. And I thought I knew a thing or two about the blues but you’ve got me wonderin’ now.

Dog-eyed kindess (naive and trusting) fans the purest flame of morning fire. But once it fizzles out into charred, formless evening, how do you ignite without turning to ash (yeah). Seasick’s better than heartsick, baby. I know that much by now. And I thought I knew nausea from sea to cars but you’ve got me wonderin’ now.

Forced into morning, tempted into night. Tally all the things that you broke. Bending her branches. Snapping, sapping and writhing. For me alone. Yeah, I guess sunburn’s better than heartburn (barely). Guess I never figured that out. And I thought I knew a thing or two about the blues but you’ve got me wonderin’ now.”

Songlist:
1 “You’ve Got Me Wonderin’ Now”
2 “Descend (The Way)”
3 “The More It Works”
4 “Fall On Yr Face”
5 “He’s Seein’ Paths”

Did your “post-rock” alert start pinging off the charts yesterday? Ours did because the blognoscenti yet again rushed to use (i.e. cut-and-paste) the nonsensical phrase to describe aspects of Volcano Choir (Bon Iver leader Justin Vernon’s side-project) when the band released a new audio/video for track Comrade off of their impending new album Repave.  Check out the track below in all of its glorious and aspirational majesty.  Given the compelling sounds on Comrade and the previously released Bygone (check it out HERE), we predict that Repave will be one of our favorite albums of 2013.  Repave will be released on September 3rd on Jagjaguwar.  And yes, that is SO “post-rock“!!

We took a brief respite, but we’re back at The National Report with the band’s performances below of This is the Last Time on Conan, followed by Don’t Swallow the Cap and Pink Rabbits on The Current (Minnesota Public Radio).  The band’s mix on Conan is particularly superb.  You can listen to the rest of The Current session and interview HERE.

Photo at top: Minnesota Public Radio/ Nate Ryan

Fiona Apple and Blake Mills recently announced they would be heading out on a tour entitled “Anything We Want: An Evening with Fiona Apple & Blake Mills.” In advance of the tour, Apple, Mills, and L.A. label Record Collection have released a video of the two performing her older song I Know with Mills on guitar.  Throughout this charming video Apple holds the hand of an older woman in a casual setting. We interviewed the multi-talented Mills last year, and you can read it and listen to some of his own fine songs HERE.  The duo’s tour dates are listed below the video.

Fiona Apple & Blake Mills – I Know from Record Collection on Vimeo.

Tour Dates:
10/03 – Portland, OR @ Newmark Theatre
10/04 – Seattle, WA @ Benaroya Hall
10/07 – Los Angeles, CA @ Walt Disney Concert Hall
10/08 – Berkley, CA @ Zellerbach Hall
10/11 – Denver, CO @ Boettcher Concert Hall
10/14 – Minneapolis, MN @ The O’Shaughnessy
10/15 – Chicago, IL @ Bank of America Theatre
10/17 – Toronto, ON @ Queen Elizabeth Theatre
10/19 – Philadelphia, PA @ Merriam Theater
10/22 – New York, NY @ Beacon Theatre
10/23 – Boston, MA @ Emerson Colonial Theatre
10/25 – Washington, DC @ Lincoln Theatre
10/26 – Washington, DC @ Lincoln Theatre

Here at The National Report…sorry, The Lefort Report…we are huge fans of Nada Surf and Juliana Hatfield.  So we were surprised and excited to hear today the impressive first song, Buried Plans, off the impending debut album from Minor Alps, the collaboration between Hatfield and Nada Surf’s leader Matthew Caws.  The new album is entitled Get There, which will be released by Barsuk in October.  The duo will head out on tour in November in support of the new album.  Tour dates, including in California, can be found HERE.

Photo courtesy of Greg Lawler

We were taken aback Saturday when The National’s Matt Berninger announced at the Greek Theater that he (and his family) had moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles (Venice actually, as revealed on KCRW) and loved his new city.  And then we recalled all the mentions of Los Angeles in The National’s songs, and it made a bit more sense.  Like legions of artists before Berninger, there is a fascination with the city that never sleeps.  Following the two shows in LA over the weekend at the Greek Theater and the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, The National piled it on in LA with visits to KCRW yesterday and the Jimmy Kimmel Show on Monday.  With Berninger in residence, even we might eventually like that damned town.

Watch below as The National performs I Should Live in Salt (with superb instrument-isolation audio) and Pink Rabbits.  Then listen to the entire KCRW session HERE (particularly worthy for the stripped down sound resulting from Bryan Devenford’s back-induced absence).  After, check out the band performing This Is The Last Time and Graceless on the Jimmy Kimmel Show.

“Now I only think about Los Angeles when the sound kicks out.“

HP

It was quite a California weekend for The National.  After the band regaled the Outside Lands crowd on Friday in San Francisco (with the Kronos Quartet and Bob Weir invited on stage to assist), The National made their way down the coast to LA’s Greek Theater on Saturday, and then played the best show of the weekend Sunday night at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.  We weren’t about to miss ’em and caught both fantastic shows in LA.  Ultimately, California got Nationalized again.

GL

The National have been on tour since early June in support of their Best-0f-2013 album Trouble Will Find Me so naturally there were those voicing concern that the band would be a bit stale and going through the motions.  Those are the preposterous thoughts of un-believers!  Singer Matt Berninger (with his ubiquitous glass of wine), the Dessner glimmer twins, and the Devendorf rhythm brothers (perfectly augmented by horns/keys/vocals/utility players Ben Lanz and Kyle Resnick) together co-mingled with and gathered energy from the crowds, ultimately playing each night as if it might be their last.  This felt especially the case on Sunday given the grave(yard) environs and the perfect audience.

GL

Having seen the band in concert beginning in 2007, they have never (that we know of) failed to capture the audience with their superb musicianship (it has to be said: Bryan Devendorf rules the world on drums), Berninger’s darkly evocative lyrics and commanding delivery, and the band’s crowd-cavorting, all of which enables them to connect at a deeper level. What this weekend reminded us is that this National rapture might first occur on Bloodbuzz Ohio one night, Squalor Victoria another night, or still another night on Humiliation.  But it WILL occur.  Each audience member will hear a self-deprecating line that resonates deep within or a venomous line that will cause them to scream into the sky.  Or all of the above.  And in this that person will know they’re a regular and will be lifted up.

HP

On Saturday at the pastoral and placid Greek Theater, the band strolled into a setlist dominated by songs off the new album (beginning with I Should Live In Salt and Don’t Swallow The Cap), but also filled out with plenty of older favorites.  Given that Trouble Will Find Me is their “quietest” album yet, there was some concern that the band would sleepwalk through the songs.  But from the start the band played with an energy and verve that soundly enlivened the new songs.  Still it was on the older Bloodbuzz Ohio that the band first enraptured the older Greek crowd, and thereafter The National had them in the palms of their hands.  Highlights of the main set at the Greek included an anger-fueled Squalor Victoria (with Berninger’s first signature knee-buckling) balanced by forlorn horns, I Need My Girl with Bryce Dessner’s adroit headstock-smashing of his (extra) guitar, Slipped (with its stripped-down, drum-less arrangement), Pink Rabbits (our favorite song off the new album), and (of course) England and Fake Empire.  Along the way, Berninger endeared himself further to the crowd by expressing his absolute love for his new hometown (LA) and how the show was a homecoming for him.  Throughout the set we marveled at all of Berninger’s old and new Los Angeles song-references (no matter how disparaging) and how the move might have been foreshadowed thereby.

GL

And then, as with every National show, it was encore-time and the now-expected quantum leap.  Humiliation was revelatory and proved it is encore-worthy.  Next up was the one-two punch of Mr. November and Terrible Love.  Berninger couldn’t help himself and came out into the crowd not only on Mr. November (as he always does), but also on Terrible Love, each time surrounded by fans screaming along in glee with him.  As they have done each night on the tour, the band closed with an acoustic, sans-microphone sing-a-long of Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks.  It’s a perfect way to end their show (though at the Greek a good part of the crowd seemed not to know the lyrics or to be able/willing to sing along–that issue would be soundly rectified the next night).

HP

Sunday’s Hollywood Forever Cemetery setting and audience stood in stark contrast to Saturday night’s.  Gone were the plastic seats, order and somewhat-sedate crowd.  In were the blankets, picnics, a more ardent, grassroots crowd, and (surprisingly) a far superior sound mix.  Though the setlist wasn’t much different from the night before, the comfortable (not comforting) surroundings and engaged crowd made the night particularly special.  You could sense the band being swept up in the HFC sense-surround.  It could not have hurt that the Dessners’ mother was in attendance.  And so The National were particularly on their game this night, vacillating comfortably between bathos and banter (“It’s a pretty dead crowd out there,” Berninger remarked as he gazed out over the tombstones, before breaking out the penis and zipper commentary) and pathos (the much-loved relationship song About Today hit deep).  In between were sweet songs for his wife (I Need My Girl), less-than-sweet songs for his wife (Conversation 16 with its “I was afraid I’d eat your brains”), Anyone’s Ghost, This is the Last Time, and stalwarts Mistaken For Strangers (also the title of a not-to-be-missed new documentary by Berninger’s brother Tom), All The Wine (we had not heard since 2007), Abel (which was redeemed after a somewhat perfunctory performance the night before) and signature song Slow Show.  And then it was on to the superb encore. When Berninger came out into the crowd on Mr. November at the Cemetery there was no hesitation as the crowd rushed to rally around the singer.  For a brief moment it was like being back with The Clash in 1979 at the Santa Monica Civic.  After a tremendous, crowd-raging Terrible Love, the boys (backed by fine openers Daughter) sent the audience off  into the night again with Vanderlyle.  But this time the crowd knew every word of the song and sang along with gleeful abandon.  And all was again right with the world.

See the setlists and more photos below.

GL

The Greek Setlist:

“I Should Live in Salt”
“Don’t Swallow the Cap”
“Anyone’s Ghost”
“Mistaken for Strangers”
“Sea of Love”
“Demons”
“Afraid of Everyone”
“Conversation 16”
“Squalor Victoria”
“I Need My Girl”
“This Is the Last Time”
“Heavenfaced”
“All the Wine”
“Abel”
“Bloodbuzz Ohio”
“Slow Show”
“Pink Rabbits”
“Graceless”
“England”
“Humiliation”
“Fake Empire”

Encore:
“About Today”
“Mr. November”
“Terrible Love”
“Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks”

The Hollywood Forever Cemetery Setlist:

“I Should Live in Salt”
“Don’t Swallow the Cap”
“Anyone’s Ghost”
“Mistaken for Strangers”
“Sea of Love”
“Demons”
“Afraid of Everyone”
“Conversation 16”
“Squalor Victoria”
“I Need My Girl”
“This Is the Last Time”
“Heavenfaced”
“All the Wine”
“Abel”
“Bloodbuzz Ohio”
“Slow Show”
“Pink Rabbits”
“Graceless”
“England”
“Humiliation”
“Fake Empire”

Encore:
“About Today”
“Mr. November”
“Terrible Love”
“Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks”

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All photos graciously supplied by Greg Lawler at HFC (GL) and Hannah Parsons at Greek (HP) as indicated above.