We wrote recently about Melbourne’s gifted Courtney Barnett and her fertile song Avant Gardener.   Now comes the good news that Barnett has signed to Mom+Pop, and will soon re-release in America her critically-acclaimed recording The Double EP: A Sea Of Split Peas.  In addition to writing mesmerizing and varied melodies, Barnett is that rare lyricist/poet that can in her lyrics elevate everyday events into epiphanic epigrams.  We’re not alone in this–NPR, The New York Times, Pitchfreak and Rolling Stone have all heaped praise on her.

To commemorate the Mom+Pop signing, Barnett today released new song Anonymous Club for our listening pleasure below (if you haven’t already, you can also listen to Avant Gardener afterwards).  Anonymous Club is another great track that will surely help to kick Barnett out of the Anonymous Club.

In addition, Barnett will tour the US this month, playing shows in Chicago, DC, Philadelphia, New York, LA (at the Bootleg Theater on Feb. 23rd) and San Francisco.  Tickets are going fast so pick yours up now HERE.

You can pre-order the vinyl or CD HERE, and buy the digital recording now HERE.

The National announced last week that they would play the Santa Barbara Bowl on April 25th (get tickets HERE). If you’ve never seen the band live and need some motivation, here’s a superb semblance of their show via video of their entire recent concert at the Sydney Opera House (in the video the show proper begins at 14:50).  You can also go HERE to see our review of last years Best Concert(s) of 2013.  Nothing can beat seeing the band live, but this video is superb.  Now combine the best band with the best venue on the planet, and you won’t want to miss it.  Be there on April 25th.

The Sydney setlist (including their perfect cover of Perfume Genius’ Learning) is at bottom.

Set list:

Don’t Swallow The Cap
I Should Live In Salt
Mistaken For Strangers
Bloodbuzz Ohio
Demons
Sea Of Love
Hard To Find
Afraid Of Everyone
Conversation 16
Squalor Victoria
I Need My Girl
This Is The Last Time
Lean
Abel
Slow Show
Apartment Story
Pink Rabbits
England
Graceless
About Today
Fake Empire
Learning (Perfume Genius cover)
Humiliation
Mr. November
Terrible Love
Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks (acoustic)

Last night David Letterman had The Flaming Lips (with Sean Lennon, John’s son) to perform Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.  True to form, the Lips’ performance featured Wayne Coyne’s usual stage ensemble and confetti.  Letterman has this week been commemorating the 50th anniversary of The Beatles first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.  Tonight it’s rumored that Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr will perform.

We love everything about Leslie Feist.  And we love just about everything about M. Ward (we’ll skip the Him part).  Combine the two and you’ve got a recipe for musical magic.  Watch below as Feist covers M. Ward’s superb song Post-War (avec gratuitous, scary performance art).  Superb melange.  We can’t wait for Feist’s next album and tour, hopefully this year.

We were originally sucked into the beauty of Perfume Genius by The National’s live performances last year of that group’s superb song Learning.  Now comes the release of The National’s stellar studio recording of Learning as a bonus track to their newly-released single I Need My Girl.  Both tracks are available for download HERE.   You can listen to their recording of Learning below.

But we can also finally report the fantastic news that The National will perform at our hallowed Santa Barbara Bowl on April 25th.  Tickets go on sale on Saturday HERE.  It will be the Best Concert of 2014.  So you just might want to be there.

While we recover from the news that she won’t be playing anywhere in California OTHER than that damned Coachella, Neko Case has been appearing recently on the likes of Conan and Prairie Home Companion.

Below, first watch Ms. Case and her rousing performance last night on Conan of Ragtime (from her The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You, one of our Top Albums of 2013). We love this version and the full-band, superb support of Calexico (along with her tour band).  It’s a gem, with Ms. Case decked out in skeleton pants (clearly she’s ready for Coachella).

Afterwards, listen to her performances this past weekend (via the embedded widget) of the ever-fantastic American treasure, Prairie Home Companion.  If you don’t have time to listen to the entirety of this highly entertaining show, you can find Ms. Case’s participation at the times indicated above the PHC widget.

• 00:55:00 Garrison Keillor talks with Neko Case
• 00:56:15 Neko Case performs City Swans
• 01:00:18 Neko Case performs Calling Cards
• 01:42:30 GK talks with Neko Case
• 01:43:00 Neko Case performs Night Still Comes
• 01:47:14 Neko Case performs Bracing for Sunday

In case you were on Mars at the time, Kendrick Lamar stole the Grammy Awards broadcast with his performance during Imagine Dragons’ presentation of its top-selling song Radioactive.  And, oops, he (they) did it again on Saturday Night Live. Watch below (with far better sound than at the Grammys). Speaking of imagining, can you imagine how sick Imagine Dragons are of performing this simplistic song and banging those gongs?  The mind boggles and melts, radioactivity or not.

It’s a rare day these days in California–rain is coming as we write.  Good news, even we would say.  But all we can think about this morn is Sam Baker’s song The Tattooed Woman.  Baker is one of our best lyricists, his songs telling keenly observed and eloquently articulated character studies that sail or rend your heart and mind.  The Tattooed Woman is no exception.  Taken from his superb album Say Grace (one of our Top 15 Albums of 2013), Baker sings in the song of a disconsolate woman and her uneasy lover and his foreboding forecast (of rain, trouble, something terribly tenebrous).  It gets under your skin…like a tattoo.  Watch below as Baker, Carrie Elkin and Chip Dolan performed the song last September at In The Woods in the Netherlands.

Rain is coming, that’s how it feels.

The song’s lyrics follow the video.

To see another side of Baker’s songs, watch/listen to his heartwarming song Isn’t Love Great at bottom.

t h e t a t t o o e d w o m a n

the tattooed woman
she sleeps in my bed
the ink is dry
the dogs are fed
the moon is safe
her face is red
the tattooed woman
she sleeps in my bed
her hair is black
her skin is white
she’s pulled the sheets around her tight
i wish i had the right
to comfort her as a husband might
rain is coming
that’s how it feels
now i lay me down to sleep
the lord out wandering with his sheep
there’s oh so many souls to keep
now i lay me down to sleep
rain is coming
that’s how it feels

Arcade Fire (heard of ’em?) are touring through the southern hemisphere right now and recently showed up on Australian radio station Triple J to perform some songs live. Chief among those songs was Normal Person (off of the new-ish Reflektor), which you can watch below.  This is the band at their best, minus the Reflektor production trappings.  Don’t believe us?  Even Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman agrees.  You can listen to the full Triple J session and other Reflektor and non-Reflektor song performances after.