On Tuesday we passed along the first of five phenomenally-captured performances by Brit-band Daughter at the hallowed Air Studios with chamber orchestra.  Two more vignettes have appeared since.  Today’s video is of the band performing Still, our favorite thus far (in part because of the best chamber orchestra use).  After, watch yesterday’s Tomorrow.  All beauty.

The affecting Brit-band Daughter recently recorded five song’s in London’s Air Studios (founded by George Martin) with composer Joe Duddell and a 10-piece chamber orchestra.  We were early fans of the band, which continues to grow in sound and notoriety.  To hear the band and get a feel for these classically-arranged performances, check out below Daughter’s superb song Shallows as arranged by Duddell and augmented by the chamber orchestra.  The full five-track session will be released as an EP on April 15th and as a limited-edition 12″ on May 26th and you can pre-order it HERE.

Last Friday Los Angeles waged The War On Drugs.  TWOD first appeared on KCRW in the morning and let fly with a scintillating and superbly captured set of songs (you can listen to the whole set HERE).  Watch the band’s performances of An Ocean In Between The Waves and Disappearing on KCRW below.

Later that night the band played the hallowed, sold-out Troubadour.  The band came out blazing with their wall-of-jangle hypno-taze and took their songs to a higher plane beyond their superb Lost In The Dream studio representations, but especially on Under Pressure, An Ocean In Between The Waves and Eyes to the Wind.  Adam Granduciel was gracious and giving the entire night, whipping up the crowd repeatedly with his Les Paul and Firebird fingerings, feelings and ferocity, the likes of which haven’t been seen or heard outside of the legendary Neil Young and his Old Black throttlings.  While his songwriting and locomotive delivery shine, Granduciel has also grown into a gifted vocalist, with his Dylan-esque mien and variable phrasings.  Granduciel is backed by a crew of gifted musicians (and especially drummer Charlie Hall), who fantastically fill the sound-train’s seats and set it to chugging full steam down the tracks.

One minor complaint about the set would be that with up to seven members and instruments on stage fighting for ear-space, the band members seemed at times to unconsciously be fighting for decibels and to be heard (we could have done with less dominant bass in the mix, as good as it was, and more sound separation to show off all the players–ferheavensake if you’re going to bring a horn player, let’s hear what you’re paying for).  It was not surprising, then, that some of the best moments of the evening for us were when the band down-throttled for the balladry and comparatively-spare sounds and dynamics heard live on Disappearing and Suffering.   The band also seemed to lose the thread towards the end of their main set which belied the wearying effects of incessant touring.  But they came back strong to close out with a powerful reading of Lennon’s Mind Games and Arms Like Boulders before closing with a rousing encore.

The War On Drugs provided some of the most mesmerizing and propulsive ensemble sounds that we have heard in quite some time on Friday at the Troubadour.  If you get a chance to see them, don’t ya miss it (and especially you guitar- and rig-geeks).

The full Troubadour setlist is at bottom.  Photo at top by Debi Del Grande via L.A. Record.

Setlist:

Under the Pressure
Baby Missiles
I Was There
An Ocean In Between The Waves
Disappearing
Eyes to the Wind
Red Eyes
Suffering
Brothers
I Hear You Calling
(Bill Fay cover)
Burning
Lost In The Dream
Come to the City
In Reverse
Mind Games
(John Lennon cover)
Arms Like Boulders

Encore:
Black Water Falls
Comin’ Through

We’ve been entirely enamored with new duo Sylvan Esso since we first heard their addicting jam, Coffee.  Their debut album is out on Partisan/Trekky and is amongst the Best Albums of 2104 thus far.  Check out below a comparatively decaffeinated, (syl)van-emboweled take on their song Coming Down for La Blogothèque.  Even without dancing and at mere frontage-road speed, Sylvan Esso enthralls.  Here, singer Amealia Meath reminds a bit of the much-missed Mary Margaret O’Hara.  There can be no higher compliment in our book.  Get Sylvan Esso’s debut album HERE.

We’ve now heard, watched the video and, after last night, seen the live performance by Joseph Arthur of Lou Reed’s Walk On The Wild Side.   The cover will appear on Arthur’s imminent album-homage to his friend, Lou (featuring only Reed’s songs).  Check out Arthur’s performance last night on the Letterman Show below with the assist of Mike Mills, Peter Buck and an appropriately elegiac string quartet.  Beauty right there.

Turns out it was also a fitting tribute of sorts to Letterman, who announced his retirement “by 2015” on the show.  Time for Dave to walk on the wilder side.

We were first introduced to Aloe Blacc via the throwback sounds of his addicting 2010 song I Need A Dollar (listen/watch at bottom).  Since then Blacc’s developed further and deservedly gained a larger following (most recently appearing as a coach on The Voice) for his music and Gaye-esque vocal shadings.  He has just released new album Lift Your Spirit that’s been warmly received.

We don’t know how it came about (possibly by running into The Voice’s other coach, Coldplay’s Chris Martin), but check out below as Aloe Blacc covers Coldplay’s new song Magic on BBC Radio 1.  We particularly like the Walk on the Wild Side intro and the Lovin’ Spoonful outro, but really everything in between too.  After Blacc’s interpretation, listen to Coldplay’s original off of their impending new album Ghost Stories.  While we like Blacc’s cover of the song, we don’t think the song itself measures up to Coldplay’s high standards (and certainly not lyrically).  We’re hoping there’s much more magic than Magic on Ghost Stories.

The essential Sharon Van Etten recently shared the fantastic first track, Taking Chances, off of her imminent new album Are We There on Jagjaguwar.  As we wrote, while watching the official video for the song below check out “the song’s big, dynamic sound, including Van Etten’s immaculate vocals, reverbed guitar and melodica-esque keyboards.  And woodblock.”  This great new song, coupled with the video’s homage to French New Wave cinema and its “godmother”, Agnes Varda, make this a particularly captivating video.

As for the video, Director Michael Palmieri explains:  “SVE contacted me a few months back to see if I’d like to come up with some ideas for “Taking Chances”, her first single off the new record. When I first heard the song the lyrics immediately made me think about the opening sequence to the great Agnes Varda film “Cleo from 5 to 7“, one of my favorites. I usually mull over ideas for days or weeks before coming up with anything decent to share with an artist, but this one just came out immediately. I sent a sketch of the idea onto Sharon and Zeke Hutchins, her manager, then I didn’t hear back from them for over a week, at which point I thought, well, damn, they must hate the idea, I blew it! But soon Zeke contacted me and asked if Sharon had sent me the album artwork. I said, no, I haven’t even heard anything else off the album yet, let alone seen anything from it. Sharon then texted me pretty much the same question, “Did Zeke send you the album before you wrote this?” Nope. I didn’t understand what the big deal was. Finally they sent me a photograph that’s a big component of the album artwork, it’s this beautiful aged picture of Agnes Varda standing in front of a bazillion reels of 16mm film. This image of one of my filmmaking heroes has been hanging on Sharon’s wall wherever she’s lived for years and years to the point where it’s all tattered and weather-worn. I like to think that Ms. Varda is standing in front of a bunch of reels from Cleo from 5 to 7, but who knows. It’s just one of the strangest coincidences, and it made us all feel like the video had to be made. So now I can safely say the video is inspired by two incredible women: Sharon, for her musical inspiration, and Agnes Varda, whose inspiration on the both of us is quite apparent.”

To see the referenced Cleo from 5 to 7 sequence, check out the video at bottom, which SVE tweeted yesterday.

We can’t wait for Are We There.

The week is barely half over, but the Song of the Week competition is officially over.   The winner was dropped yesterday by one of our long-time favorite bands, the redacted Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.  CYHSY (essentially, now only Alec Ounsworth) has delivered the outstanding Coming Down, the lead song off of “their” impending new album Only Run (out in June).  The song is a tour de (rock et) force beginning with its de rigueur fuzz-guitar and evolving quickly into a huge U2/Radiohead-esque anthem.  You’ll hear shades of both Bono and Yorke (as worked well through the CYHSY filter) in Ounsworth’s vocals, but will later hear the best (only?) counterpoint baritone singer in the business, The National’s Matt Berninger.  The two combine fantastically in this epic jam.

CYHSY were one of the original internet-indie blog bands and blew up huge like a comet in 2005.  They subsequently put out some great recordings, but in this what-have-you-done-for-me-lately era CYHSY were overlooked in the maelstrom. Now that The National have finally blown up (by way of the non-comet slow-burn) it’s great to see Berninger burnishing his baritone on behalf of fellow heyday-Brooklynites.  We can’t wait for Only Run.  Check out Coming Down below.

As advised last week, Athens’ magnificent Manchester Orchestra today released their new, decidely-heavier album Cope.  Last night the band showed up on the Letterman Show and simply let ‘er rip.  Cope with it will ya?  In front, you hear the metallic sturm und drang, but in back you hear a band with talent, touch and ‘telligence.  Storm and drive indeed.  For days.

Hilarious to hear Paul Shaffer exclaim at the end:  “White people party music!”  Well Paul…if you mean heavy music that wails and wallows, but then breaks you down and seizes your heart and your mind–then yes.  Finally, worthy “party” music for evolved people, whatever your persuasion.

Afterwards check out an outstanding raw and unplugged version of Cope by Andy Hull, beginning at 5:53 (after some hi-jinx and hilarity) in the band’s video at bottom.

Pardon us, but we got lost in that dream that stoked The War On Drugs‘ winning new album, Lost In The Dream.  As mentioned ceaselessly before, we have had Lost In The Dream on repeat for weeks on end and cannot see growing tired of it.  The album and sound speak to that part of our musical history when Dire Straits was strutting their sultanic swing, Springsteen was riding that Tunnel of Love, Dylan was busy being born again, and the Rolling Stones were waiting on that friend.  Those sounds and songs have now been taken by The War On Drugs for a longer and luminescent ride that is propelled further with enticing lyrics and the Dylan-esque (but not aping) vocals of leader Adam Granduciel (not to mention he’s got the best hoots of anyone currently in the business).  It’s a potent mix that continues to yield new treasures on each listen.  To get a feel for the band and their current tour, check out vignettes below of the band performing songs off the new album recently in KEXP’s studios.  And last but not least, check out the band at bottom (with My Morning Jacket’s Jim James) performing John Lennon’s Mind Games in Portland a few days ago.  We can’t wait to catch them this Friday at LA’s Troubadour.  We will have a full review of Lost In The Dream soon.