This week has started out quietly and grayed-out with the yearly fog malaise.  Thankfully, xx’s Jamie xx showed up on Seth Meyers last night in support of his critically-acclaimed solo album In Colour, and performed the poignant-but-lifting Loud Places with xx’s Romy Madley Croft on lead vocals, backed further by xx member Oliver Sim and a rollicking gang of backup singers, including Chairlift’s Caroline Polachek, Savages’ Jehnny Beth, Moses Sumney, Norwegian artist Okay Kaya and others.  I’ve got sunshine in a video.  Superb!

Playin’ catch-up, let’s wrap up the week with four of our favorite live music performances captured this week by the powers that be.

First, check out this heartwarming NPR piece on Kendrick Lamar’s classy visit to Mr. Mooney’s class at High Tech High School in North Bergen, N.J.  Awesome stuff.

Then, watch Dawes impress on Conan with their performance of Things Happen off of their great new album All Your Favorite Bands (they are definitely one of ours).  Dawes never fails to impress live, as you can see below.

Next, check out the ever-impressive Patrick Watson and crew simply wowing on KCRW with their performance of Good Morning Mr. Wolf off his fantastic new album Love Songs For Robots.  You can watch the entire, beguiling 45-minute episode HERE.  We can’t wait to catch Watson at the Teragram in October.

Finally, check out the emphatic delivery below by Brandi Carlisle of her incendiary The Things I Regret off her new album The Firewatcher’s Daughter.  Carlile is one of our most under-appreciated artists.

Torres, led by gifted singer-songwriter Mackenzie Scott, has been wowing critics and fans alike with its fantastic new album, Sprinter, and its scintillating live shows in support.  We caught Torres recently when they played the Echo in LA and were mesmerized by what we saw and heard.

Mackenzie Scott came out at the Echo dressed all in black with leather jacket and her game face and method acting on, and raged through an urgent and occasionally menacing performance of nine songs that electrified the crowd.   After putting flame to herb (no, not that kind) to set the stage, Scott and band kicked off with Son, You Are No Island from Sprinter.  Each song thereafter was performed with intensity (especially on vocals) and heft worthy of Patti Smith or PJ Harvey.  Very impressive, as was the backing by her band this evening.  It wasn’t until midway through the set that Scott stepped out of her persona briefly to cordially thank the audience and admit she is “not a good conversationalist.”  Turning quickly back to her guitar, Scott kicked into the highlight of the evening.  Though Strange Hellos is not amongst our favorite songs on the new album (those would be the quieter The Exchange and Ferris Wheel, which were left off the setlist), her fierce, frothing and singing-in-tongues vocals and delivery of the song sent chills down our spines and admiration up our cerebellums.  It was a simply stunning performance and, together with the rest of the set, gives hope that Torres will continue to gain fans for her well-wrought and intense music.

See the Echo setlist at bottom.  To get a feel for Torres, check out the band’s performances of songs Sprinter and A Proper Polish Welcome recently on KEXP.  To hear the whole KEXP session go HERE.  Afterwards, check out Scott’s solo performance of the latter song for NPR at SXSW.  Beauty right there.

Echo Setlist:

Son, You Are No Island
New Skin
Sprinter
A Proper Polish Welcome
Cowboy Guilt
Strange Hellos
Honey
The Harshest Light
November Baby

Photo by Shawn Brackbill for Partisan Records

We wondered where Santa Barbara-spawned, now LA-resident, Gardens & Villa had wandered off to.  Now we know.  The band is back with a brazen new track, Fixation, from their impending new album Music For Dogs on Secretly Canadian. According to the boys’ press release, the album “is a deeply personal album that pokes, prods, and even strangely celebrates the zeitgeist of music commerce, pleasure culture, technological advances and the new home they’ve found in Los Angeles.”

We’ve had Fixation on repeat, and yes, we have become fixated with it.  We love the pounding keyboards and ethereal vocals, and pretty much everything about it.  The keys and chorus (“My whole life fixation/See if we can make it underneath the radar”) mesh perfectly on the song, which is said to be “a song about the beauty in bottoming out and then finding the false bottom.”  To our ears the song sounds like a great mashup of Animal Collective, The Cars and Tame Impala.

Music For Dogs was produced by Jacob Portrait (Unknown Mortal Orchestra) and band members Adam Rasmussen and Chris Lynch are joined on it by the rousing rhythm section of Dusty Ineman (drums) and Shane McKillop (bass).

You can pre-order Music For Dogs HERE.

Gardens & Villa Tour Dates (Tix HERE)

Fri. June 26 – Los Angeles, CA @ Center For The Arts, Eagle Rock
Tue. Sept. 15 – Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom
Thu. Sept. 17 – Austin, TX @ The Parish
Fri. Sept. 18 – Dallas, TX @ Club Dada
Sat. Sept. 19 – Houston, TX @ House of Blues/Bronze Peacock
Sun. Sept. 20 – New Orleans @ Gasa Gasa
Tue. Sept. 22 – Atlanta, GA @ Aisle 5
Wed. Sept. 23 – Carrboro, NC @ Cats Cradle
Thu. Sept. 24 – Washington, DC @ Rock & Roll Hotel
Fri. Sept. 25 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
Sat. Sept. 26 – Philadelphia, PA @ Boot & Saddle
Tue. Sept. 29 – Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair
Wed. Sept. 30 – Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz PDB
Thu. Oct. 1 – Toronto, ON @ The Garrison
Fri. Oct. 2 – Detroit, MI @ UFO Factory
Sat. Oct. 3 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
Sun. Oct. 4 – Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St. Entry
Tue. Oct. 6 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater
Wed. Oct. 7 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
Thu. Oct. 8 – Las Vegas, NV @ Bunkhouse Saloon
Fri. Oct. 9 – San Diego, CA @ IRENIC

In 1976 many music fans were starved for more music like that of the new-found musical hero of that time, Bruce Springsteen.  Springsteen took the musical world by storm in 1975 with the release of his seminal Born To Run album and live shows.  Unfortunately his subsequent recordings would be put on hold until 1978 because of legal wranglings between Springsteen and his former manager.  So in ’76 the aficionados were desperate for more sounds from the Jersey Shore.  Fortunately, Springsteen’s pal Southside Johnny (& the Asbury Jukes) were there to help fill the void.  E-Street Band member Miami Steve Van Zandt produced and Springsteen contributed a couple songs to Southside’s first album, I Don’t Want To Go Home.  While Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes weren’t going to match the artistry of Springsteen, I Don’t Want To Go Home was a thoroughly enjoyable album, and one cut on it stood out in particular:  Springsteen’s The Fever.  While Springsteen had used this great song as a promotional demo and played it live, he did not release his own version formally until 1999.  Regardless, we prefer the Southside Johnny version, which you can listen to below.  The arrangement and playing are fantastic, and when Southside sings “you’re my sun in the morning and my moon at night” you truly FEEL it.

Afterwards, check out a live performance of the song captured in 1978 at a Cleveland club featuring Southside, Springsteen, Miami Steve Van Zandt and other E Street Band members.  It’s a thrilling performance. But wait for the 7:15 mark when Springsteen, in a singing dual with Southside, let’s loose with some vivid, otherworldly vocals.  Simply wailing.

It’s said that good can come from any bad.  In the wake of his mother’s (Carrie’s) passing, Sufjan Stevens has affirmed this adage with his masterful album Carrie & Lowell.  Adding to the album, Stevens deftly drove this point home last week in LA with consecutive astonishingly-good and heart-stirring performances at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.  It had been nearly three years since Stevens last traipsed through these parts (for his wondrous “Wheel of Christmas” holiday-party at the Fonda) and five years since his Age of Adz tour de force, and so we were determined to catch both nights of his local stand.

Though his live shows bear the weight of the new album and its devastating themes, the performances are also musically magnificent and dynamic, varying from delicate Simon & Garfunkel/Nick Drake sounds to the massive, end-times bombast of Blue Bucket of Gold.  During the first half of the shows, Stevens killed us softly by performing nearly the entirety of the crestfallen-yet-cathartic Carrie & Lowell (though re-sequenced for his tour).  Though the album’s songs are generally quiet affairs (lending a feeling of intimacy at the Pavilion despite the grand surroundings), the pin-drop crowds were kept on the edge their seats by Stevens’ evocative vocals, deft playing and additive arrangements, coupled with the gifted support of multi-instrumentalists Ben Lanz, Casey Foubert, Dawn Landes, and James McAlister.

After the instrumental prelude of Redford (For Yia-Yia & Pappou), Stevens opened on Death By Dignity by singing, “I don’t know where to begin” and “I’ve got nothing to prove.” Despite these concerns he managed to begin anew magnificently and proved both nights that he is a musical heavyweight despite the ostensibly miniature frames of many of his songs.  Stevens went on thereafter to perform nearly the entirety of Carrie & Lowell.  Should Have Known Better is one of the standouts of the new album and was one of the highlights of the evening (see for yourself below in the fan video).  Other highlights included the superb Paul Simon-ish Eugene, John My Beloved (with Stevens’ otherworldly vocals and Dawn Landes’ harmonies), the desolation and beauty of The Only Thing with its musical “sounds and wonders,” the frankness (“we’re all going to die”) of Fourth of July, and the album’s eponymous homage.  Throughout the first half, Stevens’ home movies of Carrie and others were projected onto church-like window-screens behind the stage.

As a transition to the second half of the shows, Stevens treated the audience to a moving/entertaining monologue each night, and a mesmerizing mix of older songs.  On Wednesday Stevens explained his parents indifference to death:  “I blame my parents for everything.  My obsession with mortality comes from them.  They were unflinching on the topic of death.  I remember one time we were driving in a blizzard and my father lost control on ice, and I looked up in the passenger seat and saw my step-mother grab a ginger ale, drink it and say ‘kiss it goodbye kids.’  As the centrifugal force force gathered in me my entire life.”  He then told a story about his father having him put his pet albino rat (“Mr. Bossy Pants”) out of its misery.  After the deed was done, Stevens’ father said ‘Mr. Bossy Pants just went to meet his maker.'”  And Stevens led into the next song by saying “‘Cause we’re all headed there someday.”  On Thursday Stevens discussed how we are all given great encouragement throughout our lives until we graduate from college and are essentially left alone to weather the harsh realities of life.  He closed by calling for the crowd to commit anew to encouraging others in these times.

The shows’ second half songs included the delicate, given-new-meaning The Owl & The Tanager, three consecutive songs (on Wednesday) from Seven Swans (the first banjo moment on the building In The Devil’s Territory, The Dress Looks Nice on You, and superb solo highlight To Be Alone With You), and Age of Adz’s Futile Devices.  And then on Wednesday it was time for one of the greatest songs ever written, the heart-rending Casimir Pulaski Day (RIP Matt and Claire).  Stevens then closed his main set each night with album-closer Blue Bucket of Gold and its release of Carrie to Revelations-worthy bombast and light.  About this song and its high-decibel backdrop, Stevens has said:  “I didn’t know (my mom) well in a lot of ways and I didn’t know how to say goodbye on the last track with articulation. So I quit playing piano and vocals and just stopped. I wanted to surrender her to the beyond with noises that sound bigger than just me.”  Mission accomplished, as they say.

He closed each night with crowd-favorites from the much-loved Illinois album, including Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois; The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!; and Chicago.

Differences between the two nights?  The crowd was supremely reverential on Wednesday with no humming or singing along, which reduced distraction and heightened the focus and intensity of the performance.  And Wednesday was our preferred setlist.  On Thursday the sound and vocal effects had been completely dialed-in and the volume levels had been seemingly doubled as the revelatory bombast at times pounded the Pavilion.  And we were treated to For the Widows in Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti (watch below).

Stevens never fails to impress live, and these consecutive two-hour shows in Los Angeles confirmed he is one of our most gifted songwriters, composers and performers. Stevens received confirmatory standing-ovations each night from all five levels of the Pavilion. It’s telling that a few days later we still find ourselves gleefully singing “we’re all gonna die” over and over as the unforgettable melody continues to scroll through our minds.

Helado Negro opened each night in solo performance (save two tinsel-covered, nebulous beings in tow) and impressed each night with his songs, but especially his uniquely sonorous vocals.  We can’t wait to catch him the next time he returns to town.

Finally, kudos to Stevens for having the foresight to select the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion for his LA stops.  Doing so cut down dramatically on distractions and brought added focus to the superb songs and performance, without the usual chat and scat fests.  Bravo!

Should Have Known Better:

Fourth of July:

For the Widows in Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti:

Casimir Pulaski Day:

Chicago:

Setlist Wednesday:

Redford (For Yia-Yia & Pappou)
Death With Dignity
Should Have Known Better
Drawn to the Blood
All of Me Wants All of You
Eugene
John My Beloved
The Only Thing
Fourth of July
No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross
Carrie & Lowell
The Owl and the Tanager
In the Devil’s Territory
The Dress Looks Nice on You
To Be Alone With You
Futile Devices
Casimir Pulaski Day
Blue Bucket of Gold

Encore:
Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois
The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!
Chicago

Setlist Thursday:

Redford (For Yia-Yia & Pappou)
Death with Dignity
Should Have Known Better
Drawn to the Blood
All of Me Wants All of You
Eugene
John My Beloved
The Only Thing
Fourth of July
No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross
Carrie & Lowell
The Owl and the Tanager
For the Widows in Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti
Heirloom
To Be Alone with You
Futile Devices
Sister
The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!
Blue Bucket of Gold

Encore:
Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois
Chicago

The great band Spoon is experiencing renewed popularity these days and for good reason. Their 2014 album, They Want My Soul, was not only amongst the Best Albums of 2014 but was also one of the band’s best ever.  It is rare to see a band hit such lofty creative heights 16 years into their career, but that’s exactly what Spoon has done.  And the band has been playing live to sold out shows across the planet.  Britt Daniel and the boys continue to lay down intelligently crushing rock and roll, as Daniel continues to cut the quintessential rock n’ roll figure.

We caught the band last Saturday at The Wiltern, and all was right with the rock n’ roll world.  After a solid opening set from Austin’s stage-filling and energetic Sweet Spirit, Spoon hit the floor and gave heaping spoonfuls of propulsive, guitar-and-keys dominated songs that were rounded out perfectly by Daniel’s rasp-accented vocals (he is one of the best, most-unaffected vocalists in rock).  The sold out and souled crowd ate it up, giving back due adulation to the noticeably appreciative band.

During their set, Spoon played songs spanning their 17-year discography (see setlist at bottom), ultimately closing the night with a thrashing, reverb-laden (naturally) cover of The Cramps’ song TV Set.  The band opened the night with a ringing Rent I Pay and the highlight Knock, Knock, Knock, two of the six songs they would play from They Want My Soul (matching the six songs from Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga and featuring five from Gimme Fiction).  Standouts this night were the superbly-spare Inside Out, the groove-heavy and heavenly Don’t You Evah, new song Satellite, the closest Spoon comes to a ballad–Black Like Me, and You Got Yr Cherry Bomb.  But our favorite of the evening without question was Outlier, which gathers and grooves in a rhythmic throw-down that would never end in a better Eden.  It was a great night of music and we can’t wait to catch them again (perhaps when the sound is more on-target than the curious levels at times on Daniel’s vocals and guitar at The Wiltern).

To get a feel, last night on Conan, Spoon let the world experience their fantastically schralping cover of TV Set.  Check it out below, followed by their riveting cover of the great Wire’s Mannequin (Wire played Saturday night at the nearby Echoplex–conflicts, ya know).

And then get ye to a Spoon show. 

Wiltern Setlist:

Rent I Pay
Knock Knock Knock
Don’t You Evah
The Way We Get By
Small Stakes
My Mathematical Mind
The Ghost of You Lingers
Satellite
Outlier
The Beast and Dragon, Adored
I Turn My Camera On
Inside Out
Do You
The Fitted Shirt
I Summon You
Don’t Make Me a Target
Got Nuffin

Encore:
They Never Got You
Rainy Taxi
The Underdog

Encore 2:
Black Like Me
You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb
TV Set

In the wake of her consecutive sold out shows at the Roxy this past weekend, Melbourne’s indefatigable Courtney Barnett slipped in an afternoon show at the Grammy Museum on Sunday afternoon.  And we were there.  Barnett was thoughtful and her usual clever self during her 40 minute chat with Robert Santelli (the director of the Grammy Museum) in the phenomenally intimate Clive Davis Theater.  During the question-and-answer time that followed, Barnett divulged that her record label, Milk! Records, will soon put out a new compilation of her songs and that Whole Foods is her favorite thing about America (really, not LA’s freeways?).  Following a young lad’s diatribe/question about being born in the ’80s, urban flight and the economic collapse of Wall Street, Barnett responded by recommending a “listen to Depreston.”  Afterwards, Barnett performed a small cadre of songs, including Avant Gardener, Pedestrian at Best, Depreston, Elevator Operator and Small Poppies.  Barnett sounded fantastic throughout and gave good indication that at the Roxy that night the punky Pedestrian At Best would blow the doors off.  Depreston best highlighted her unique lefty, claw-hammer guitar-playing style. Unfortunately, Barnett just started getting going at the tiny  Grammy Museum when she had to stop, probably to run over to the Roxy for  soundcheck.  It was like ordering an appetizer and then finding out the restaurant closes in 10 minutes, and the walk out past the Taylor Swift memorabilia on display nearby was just a little bitter sweet.  Oh well.  That’s what we get for missing her at the Roxy!  If you get the chance, don’t miss her and her tight band.  The remaining tour dates, including Bonnaroo, can be found HERE.

To get a better feel for Barnett, check out her performance last night of Dead Fox on Conan.  Barnett and her lads (CB3, as she’s dubbed them) played tight and with aplomb.  Superb!

Elvis Costello is one of the greatest singer-songwriters extant.  His discography soundly shames most of the other pretenders to the throne.  Though he got his start ostensibly as a “punk,” this ruse was quickly routed, and it wasn’t long before critics and fans alike were lauding his songwriting skills.  Though his great songs are too numerous to list, following our stay over the weekend at a Los Angeles motel/hotel we have had Costello’s underrated song-noir masterpiece, Motel Matches, on repeat.  Featuring an alluring melody, well-wrought lyrical couplets and storyline (lyrics at bottom), stellar playing, and above all, Costello’s passionate vocal delivery (he’s one of our best vocalists), Motel Matches is amongst the highest in our ranking of Costello’s great songs.  We only regret it isn’t longer.  Giving you away like motel matches.  Indeed.

About the song, Costello has said:  “Upon my first motel night in Los Angeles I was hoaxed into believing that I had been assigned the very room where Sam Cooke had been murdered. I didn’t sleep much until I found out in the morning that it had occurred in an entirely different location. Such innocence was short-lived, but the infamous Tropicana became the site of many less serious crimes, indiscretions and comedies.”

“Somewhere in the distance I can hear ‘Who Shot Sam?’
This is my conviction, that I am an innocent man
Though you say I’m unkind
I’m being as nice as I can

Boys everywhere, fumbling with the catches
I struck lucky with motel matches
Falling for you without a second look
Falling out of your open pocketbook
Giving you away like motel matches

I wake with the siren in an emergency
Though your mind is full of love
In your eyes there is a vacancy
And you know what I’ll do
When the light outside changes from red to blue

Boys everywhere, fumbling with the catches
I struck lucky with motel matches
Falling for you without a second look
Falling out of your open pocketbook
Giving you away like motel matches”