The National has only so far released their scintillating song The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness from their upcoming new album Sleep Well Beast. Tonight the band dropped new song Guilty Party via the song’s official video.  Once again we’re smitten.  There are no sea-changes on Guilty Party, but inspired twists and turns with added electronic elements, melodica and Joy Division-esque guitar-overtones to accompany Matt Berninger’s always-affecting lyrics and vocals. As usual, a great song from this national treasure of a band.

“Another year slips away, another summer of love.” Indeed.

Sleep Well Beast will be released on Sept. 8th on 4AD. Pre-order it HERE.

As mentioned repeatedly on these pages, the considerable Canadian collective Broken Social Scene will next week drop their long-awaited new album Hug of Thunder. The band is out on tour tightly re-knitting their social scene to support their impending album, including a “Best of Festival” outing at the Arroyo Seco Weekend this past Saturday. Continuing to stoke the scene, BSS today released the album-version of formidable new song Stay Happy and announced additional West Coast dates to their fall tour (see dates at bottom), including the Wiltern Theater on 10/28. Get tix HERE.

Without further adieu, compare and contrast below the recorded version and the live version of Stay Happy as performed on KCRW last week. Newcomer Ariel Engle delivers the enlivening vocals on the song. There will be verve. Hug Of Thunder was produced by the acclaimed Joe Chiccarelli (White Stripes, Spoon, The Strokes) with Nyles Spencer, and mixed by Shawn Everett (Alabama Shakes, Weezer).  You can pre-order Hug of Thunder HERE.

Tour dates:
7-21-23-17 Edmonton, AB @ Interstellar Rodeo
8-05-17 Montreal, Quebec @ Osheaga
9/16/17 Ithaca, NY @ State Theatre ~
9/17/17 New York, NY @ Meadows Music & Art festival
9/19/17 Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club ~
9/21/17 Asheville, NC @ Orange Peel ~
9/22/17 Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle *
9/24/17 St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant *
9/26/17 Des Moines, IA @ Hoyt Sherman *
9/27/17 Milwaukee, WI @ Pabst Theater *
9/28/17 St. Paul, MN @ The Palace *
9/29/17 Chicago, IL @ Aragon Ballroom *
9/30/17 Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore *
10/1/17 Pittsburgh, PA @ Byham Theater *
10/3/17 Philadelphia, PA @ The Fillmore
10/5/17 Portland, ME @ State Theater *
10/6/17 New Haven, CT @ College Street *
10/7/17 Boston, MA @ House of Blues
10/21/17 Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom ~
10/23/17 Seattle, WA @ Neptune Theatre ~
10/24/17 Portland, WA @ Crystal Ballroom ~
10/26/17 Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater ~
10/28/17 Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern ~
11/1/17 Windsor, ON @ Family Credit Union #
11/3/17 Toronto, ON @ Air Canada Centre #
11/4/17 Toronto, ON @ Air Canada Centre #

~ – with The Belle Game
* – with Frightened Rabbit
# – with Arcade Fire

Celebrating the 20th anniversary of their Glastonbury Festival debut and the release of their seminal OK Computer album, Radiohead showed yet again tonight why they are the perfect match with the Glastonbury fans (the best there is).  Watch the set below.

Setlist:

Daydreaming
Lucky
Ful Stop
Airbag
5 Step
Myxomatosis
Exit Music (For A Film)
Pyramid Song
Everything In It’s Right Place
Let Down
Bloom
Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
Idioteque
You And Whose Army?
There There
Bodysnatchers
Street Spirit

Encore 1
No Surprises
Nude
2+2=5
Paranoid Android
Fake Plastic Trees

Encore 2
Lotus Flower
Creep

Yesterday Lefort-faves Broken Social Scene appeared on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Electic to perform a full set of songs with a full group (including Emily Haines of Metric, but minus Feist). Among the fantastic songs performed was previously unheard song Stay Happy off their impending new album, Hug of Thunder, which is due on July 7th.  Stay Happy features an intro of harmonizing horns and voice and impressive horn playing to augment the sunny songwriting. After Stay Happy, check out two other performances of faves from the new album, Halfway Home and Hug of Thunder. What’s not to love? Superb stuff yet again from BSS.

The Canadian ensemble will perform tomorrow at 4:50 pm on the Sycamore Stage at the Arroyo Seco Weekend Festival.  Be there!

Photo above: Davis Bell

Tonight in Paris The National played a comparatively intimate live performance as a warm up before heading to headline Glastonbury this weekend.  As you can see from the setlist below, nine of the thirteen songs are songs from the band’s next album, Sleep Well Beast, which will be released in September on 4AD. The band has only previously revealed one of the new album’s songs, The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness, so this setlist is a major treat for the band’s ardent followers.  Watch the performance below.

Setlist:

Nobody Else Will Be There
The Day I Die
Walk It Back
The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness
Guilty Party
Empire Line
Carin at the Liquor Store
Apartment Story
Daughters of the Soho Riots
Sleep Well Beast
Fake Empire
Terrible Love
Turtleneck

Having just discovered the talented Aldous Harding a while back, we now have a much better feel for this extraordinary performer. Harding has received rave reviews from her current tour and recently stole the stage on Later with Jools Holland (watch below after the new video). Now Harding has released the official video for scintillating song Blend off of her critically-acclaimed new album, Party. About the video (directed by Charlotte Evans), Harding has said, “The concept is based on that awful scene from ‘Apocalypse Now’ where the playmates pile out of the helicopter. The costume [Ed.: nearly identical to one of the Apocalypse Now playmates’ get-ups] was handmade for me, it turned out great. It’s in the bin. I spent eight hours dancing on a Lazy Susan, it was easy really. Obviously I know what it is… The song itself was written in an AirBnB in Bristol the night before going into the studio.” Watch the alternately hilarious and beguiling new video below followed by her performance of Horizon on Jools Holland.

Check out and obtain tix for her Tour Dates afterwards (including tomorrow night-6/22-at the Echo in LA) and pick up Party HERE.

Tour Dates:

Wed 21 Jun 2017 Club Congress Tucson, AZ, US
Thu 22 Jun 2017 The Echo Los Angeles, CA, US
Fri 23 Jun 2017 Soda Bar San Diego, CA, US
Sat 24 Jun 2017 Swedish American Hall San Francisco, CA, US
Wed 12 Jul 2017 Montreaux Jazz Festival 2017 Montreaux, Switzerland
Thu 13 Jul 2017 – Sun 16 Jul 2017 Latitude Festival 2017 Southwold, UK
Sat 15 Jul 2017 – Fri 21 Jul 2017 Valkhof Festival 2017 Nijmegen, Netherlands
Sun 16 Jul 2017 Citadel 2017 London, UK
Thu 20 Jul 2017 Iveagh Gardens Dublin, Ireland
Fri 28 Jul 2017 Kilby Court Salt Lake City, UT, US
Sat 29 Jul 2017 The Olympic Venue Boise, ID, US
Sun 30 Jul 2017 The Tractor Tavern Seattle, WA, US
Mon 31 Jul 2017 Biltmore Cabaret Vancouver, BC, Canada
Wed 02 Aug 2017 Palomino Smokehouse & Social Club Calgary, AB, Canada
Thu 03 Aug 2017 The Bartlett Spokane, WA, US
Thu 03 Aug 2017 – Sun 06 Aug 2017 Pickathon 2017 Happy Valley, OR, US
Fri 11 Aug 2017 Haldern Pop Festival 2017 Haldern, Germany
Sun 13 Aug 2017 Ypsigrock Festival 2017 Castelbuono, Italy
Thu 17 Aug 2017 – Sun 20 Aug 2017 Green Man Festival 2017 Brecon Beacons, UK
Tue 22 Aug 2017 Hana-Bi Marina di Ravenna, Italy
Thu 24 Aug 2017 Circolo Magnolia Segrate, Italy
Fri 25 Aug 2017 – Sat 26 Aug 2017 Sea Change Festival 2017 Totnes, UK
Wed 30 Aug 2017 Landmark Bergen Kunsthall Bergen, Norway
Thu 31 Aug 2017 – Sun 03 Sep 2017 End of the Road Festival 2017 Salisbury, UK
Fri 01 Sep 2017 – Sat 02 Sep 2017 Electric Fields 2017 Dumfries, UK
Thu 07 Sep 2017 – Sun 10 Sep 2017 Hopscotch Music Festival 2017 Raleigh, NC, US
Wed 25 Oct 2017 Musik & Frieden Berlin, Germany
Thu 26 Oct 2017 Nochtspeicher Hamburg, Germany
Mon 30 Oct 2017 Feierwerk / Kranhalle Munich, Germany
Wed 01 Nov 2017 – Sun 05 Nov 2017 Iceland Airwaves 2017 Reykjavík, Iceland
Sun 05 Nov 2017 Bogen F Zürich, Switzerland
Thu 09 Nov 2017 – Sun 12 Nov 2017 Le Guess Who? 2017 Utrecht, Netherlands
Mon 13 Nov 2017 Point Ephémère Paris, France
Fri 17 Nov 2017 The Art School Glasgow, UK
Sat 18 Nov 2017 Brudenell Social Club Leeds, UK
Sun 19 Nov 2017 Manchester Gorilla Manchester, UK
Mon 20 Nov 2017 Islington Assembly Hall London, UK
Tue 21 Nov 2017 The Haunt Brighton, UK
Wed 22 Nov 2017 O2 Institute3 Birmingham, UK
Fri 24 Nov 2017 SWX Bristol, UK

We last wrote about a new video for Elbow’s altruistic song All Disco. Now comes a fantastic live performance of the song by the band for the BBC. Check it out below followed by the official video.

Early this year, the magnificent (we says) Elbow released new song All Disco, continuing the band’s history of sonorous/observant anthems. At the time of the release in advance of their superb album Little Fictions, the band’s leader Guy Garvey confessed that the song’s title stemmed from The Pixies’ Frank Black’s claim that compared to other matters in life, whatever music you’re fawning over it’s just “all disco.”  So it’s fitting that All Disco’s new video below features interviews with record shoppers on 2017’s Record Store Day about music that moves them. It’s a heart-warmer. Check it out below followed by the song’s lyrics.

Buy or stream Little Fictions HERE.

Also, this fantastic live band will be touring in North America in November, and you can get tickets HERE.

Live performance on BBC:

All Disco:

“Who am I to tell you to care less
Wish I’d have met you never forget you

Young man with your bruised old soul
One snap to bring you back
Hands black with smudging the night into day
There’s lemon and thyme in the alley you could slip away
But there are still fences to squeeze through
And I’ll meet you
Spirits decanted

Come to the river son
Let your obsession go
What does it prove if you die for a tune
It’s really all disco
Everything

Let’s join the yellow eyed snug-flies
Rejoicing in choices they made
Let’s be the burned
Laughing at not having learned
Let’s be a hundred and five you and I
And sing out a tune of regrets and the moon
Perverted old-timers
I’ll feed you one-liners

Nick Cave has once again come through tumult and tribulation, and remains a triumphant live performer. Don’t believe us?  Just watch Cave’s smoldering performance below of muse-homage Rings of Saturn (worthy lyrics below) off of his haunted and haunting album Skeleton Tree. Cave and his Bad Seeds are out on tour now, and you can check the dates and get tickets HERE (including impending dates this month in Cali).  Don’t you miss it.  He’s one of the greatest ever to grace a stage.

Rings of Saturn:

“Upside down and inside out and on all eights
You’re like a funnel-web
Like a black fly on the ceiling
Skinny, white haunches high in the sky
And a black oily gash crawling backwards across the carpet to smash all over everything
Wet, black fur against the sun going down
Over the shops and the cars and the crowds in the town

And this is the moment, this is exactly where she is born to be
Now this is what she does and this is what she is
And this is the moment, this is exactly where she is born to be
This is what she does and this is what she is

Her eyes that look at me through a rainy hair
Two round holes where the air buckles and rushes in
Her body, moon blue, was a jellyfish
And I’m breathing deep and I’m there and I’m also not there
And spurting ink over the sheets but she remains, completely unexplained
Or maybe I’m just too tongue-tied to drink it up and swallow back the pain
I thought slavery had been abolished
How come it’s gone and reared its ugly head again?

And this is the moment, this is exactly what she is born to be
And this is what she does and this is what she is
And this is the moment, this is exactly what she is born to be
This is what she is and this is what she does
And this is the moment, this is exactly what she is born to be
And this is what she does and this is what she is
And this is the moment, this is exactly what she is born to be
Then this is what she does and this is what she is

And now she’s jumping up with her leaping brain
Stepping over heaps of sleeping children
Disappearing and further up and spinning out again
Up and further up she goes, up and out of the bed
Up and out of the bed and down the hall where she stops for moment and turns and says
“Are you still here?”
And then reaches high and dangles herself like a child’s dream from the rings of Saturn”

The past twelve months have been halcyon music days for West Coast fans of Iron & Wine and its leader Sam Beam. During that time, Beam has passed through these parts performing live at least three times, once with Jesca Hoop in support of their mesmerizing Love Letter for Fire album, and twice while getting back-to-basics with stirring solo outings. And Beam hasn’t otherwise just been lolling around, having managed to release a covers album with Band of Horse’s Ben Bridwell and release additional Archive recordings. And if that weren’t enough, we now know Beam has been laboring on a proper new Iron & Wine album, entitled Beast Epic, that will be released on Sub Pop on August 25th (the ensemble’s first since 2013’s fine Ghost On Ghost album). To give a feel for the new beast, Iron & Wine has given us the album’s Call It Dreaming single in the form of a heart-and-blood-warming video directed by J. Austin Wilson. Check it out below, followed by the new album’s tracklist, the band’s announced tour dates (with some great openers) and Call It Dreaming’s lyrics. We can’t wait for Beast Epic!

You can pre-order the new album HERE.

Beam shared a rare missive regarding the new album:

“I must confess that I’ve always shied away from album introductions citing the usual “dancing to architecture” cop out. Speaking to their own work is uncomfortable for many artists, but I’ve made a new album called Beast Epic which is important to me and I wanted to take a moment to talk about why. I’ve been releasing music for about fifteen years now and I feel very blessed to have put out five other full lengths, many EPs and singles, a few collaborations with people much more talented than myself, and made contributions to numerous movie scores and soundtracks. This is my sixth collection of new Iron & Wine material and I’m happy to say that it’s my fourth for Sub Pop Records.

It’s a warm and serendipitous time to be reuniting with my Seattle friends because I feel there’s a certain kinship between this new collection of songs and my earliest material, which Sub Pop was kind enough to release. In hindsight, both The Creek Drank the Cradle (2002) and Our Endless Numbered Days (2004) epitomize a reflective and confessional songwriting style (although done with my own ferocious commitment to understatement, of course.) I have been and always will be fascinated by the way time asserts itself on our bodies and our hearts. The ferris wheel keeps spinning and we’re constantly approaching, leaving or returning to something totally unexpected or startlingly familiar. The rite of passage is an image I’ve returned to often because I feel we’re all constantly in some stage of transition. Beast Epic is saturated with this idea but in a different way simply because each time I return to the theme I’ve collected new experiences to draw from. Where the older songs painted a picture of youth moving wide-eyed into adulthood’s violent pleasures and disappointments, this collection speaks to the beauty and pain of growing up after you’ve already grown up. For me, that experience has been more generous in its gifts and darker in its tragedies.

The sound of Beast Epic harks back to previous work, in a way, as well. By employing the old discipline of recording everything live and doing minimal overdubbing, I feel like it wears both its achievements and its imperfections on its sleeve. Over the years, I’ve enjoyed experimenting with different genres, sonics and songwriting styles and all that traveled distance is evident in the feel and the arrangements here, but the muscles seemed to have relaxed and been allowed to effortlessly do what they do best.

I’ve been fortunate to get to play with some very talented musicians over the years who are both uniquely intuitive and also expressive in exciting ways. This group was no different. We spent about two weeks recording and mixing but mostly laughing at The Loft in Chicago.

To be honest, I’ve named this record BEAST EPIC mostly because it sounds really fucking cool! However, with that said and perhaps to be completely honest, “a story where animals talk and act like people” sounds like the perfect description for the life of any of us. If not that, then it’s at least perfect for any group of songs I’ve ever tried to make. I hope you enjoy it.”

Tracklist:

01 “Claim Your Ghost”
02 “Thomas County Law”
03 “Bitter Truth”
04 “Song In Stone”
05 “Summer Clouds”
06 “Call It Dreaming”
07 “About A Bruise”
08 “Last Night”
09 “Right For Sky”
10 “The Truest Stars We Know”
11 “Our Light Miles”
12 “Heart Walk Anywhere” (Deluxe Edition Track)
13 “Kicking The Old Rain (Deluxe Edition Track)
14 “About A Bruise (Demo)” (Deluxe Edition Track)
15 “Claim Your Ghost (Demo)” (Deluxe Edition Track)
16 “Summer Clouds (Demo)” (Deluxe Edition Track)

Call It Dreaming:

“Say it’s here where our pieces fall in place
Any rain softly kisses us on the face
Anywhere means we’re running
We can sleep and see ’em coming
Where we drift and call it dreaming
We can weep and call it singing

Where we pray when our hearts are strong enough
We can bow ’cause our music’s warmer than blood
Where we see enough to follow
We can hear when we are hollow
Where we keep the light we’re given
We can lose and call it living

Where the sun isn’t only sinking fast
Every night knows how long it’s supposed to last
Where the time of our lives is all we have
And we get a chance to say
Before we ease away
For all the love you’ve left behind
You can have mine

Say it’s here where our pieces fall in place
We can fear ’cause the feeling’s fine to betray
Where our water isn’t hidden
We can burn and be forgiven
Where our hands hurt from healing
We can laugh without a reason

‘Cause the sun isn’t only sinking fast
Every moon in our bodies make shining glass
Where the time of our lives is all we have
And we get a chance to say
Before we ease away
For all the love you’ve left behind
You can have mine”

Feist is seemingly everywhere these days. After completing one leg of her tour (including an outstanding three-date residency in LA at the Palace Theater) in support of her latest album, the preeminent Pleasure, she is now out on the next leg of her tour in North America. And when she’s not performing alone, she’s finding the time to convene with her Broken Social Scene pals on stage at various festivals (watch joyous Field Trip collabs at bottom). And last night, she took time to appear on Stephen Colbert’s Late Show (her first TV appearance since releasing Pleasure) to perform the scintillating song Century off the album. Watch the performance below in which Feist is surrounded by her band and joined by Colbert (subbing for the record’s contributor, Jarvis Cocker of Pulp) for the song’s spoken-word interlude. Feist rages through the song in fine fettle, only breaking briefly after looking over at Colbert. If you haven’t seen her current tour, get on it.  The announced dates are below the video.

Tour Dates:
06/07 – Washington, DC @ Lincoln Theater
06/08 – Washington, DC @ Lincoln Theater
06/10 – New York, NY @ Town Hall
06/11 – New York, NY @ Town Hall
06/12 – New York, NY @ Town Hall
06/14 – Chicago, IL @ The Vic
06/15 – Chicago, IL @ The Vic
06/17 – Eau Claire, WI @ Eaux Claires Festival
06/30 – Saskatoon, SK @ Saskatchewan Jazz Festival
07/02 – Ottawa, ON @ Ottawa Jazz Festival
07/04 – Montreal, QC @ Festival International de Jazz de Montreal
07/09 – Winnipeg, MB @ Winnipeg Folk Fest
07/19 – Paris, FR @ Olympia
07/20 – Mainz, DE @ Zitadelle Open Air
07/22 – Wiesen, AT @ Out of the Woods Festival
07/24 – Berlin, DE @ Tempodrom
07/27 – London, UK @ O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire
07/28 – London, UK @ O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire
07/29 – London, UK @ O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire
07/31 – Milan, IT @ Teatro Dell’Arte
08/02 – Munich, DE @ Circus Krone
08/04 – Katowice, PL @ OFF Festival
08/05 – Luhmuhlen, DE @ A Summer’s Tale
08/07 – Trakai, LV @ Trakai Island Castle
08/10 – Oslo, NO @ Oya Festival
08/11 – Gotenburg, SE @ Way Out West Festival
08/12 – Copenhagen, DK @ Haven Festival
08/14 – Brussels, BE @ Brussels Summer Festival
08/18 – Biddinghuizen, NL @ Lowlands Festival
08/19 – Winterthur, CH @ Winterthurer Musicfestwochen