Anticipation ran high inside the sold-out El Rey Theater this week as Mondo Cozmo’s hometown fans filled the welcoming art-deco venue for the newly-anointed (by us) Best New Band of 2017. We had tasted the anthemic powers of the band live in July, but after touring non-stop for 180 days (as leader Josh Ostrander emphasized to the crowd) these gifted and indefatigable musicians have taken their art higher and higher. As Ostrander would say, “this is what not giving up looks like!” Mondo Cozmo is rounded out perfectly with talented band members Drew Beck on guitar, James Gordon on keys/vocals, Chris Null on bass/vocals and Andrew Tolman on drums. Null’s stellar bass lines, stage antics and vocals stood out more this night than in July when he seemed (understandably) exhausted.

Just as they did in July, Mondo Cozmo came out at the El Rey with the slow-build-and-bash of Chemical Dream, with Ostrander stalking the stage before taking the audience to a Higher place. The crowd was instantly won over and in step with their hometown heroes and enraptured as Ostrander played musical Pied Piper and implored all to Come With Me on that incessant rocker. After down-shifting briefly and de-jacketing for the affecting ballad Angel, the band performed the unreleased song Future Bends, with its gripping nods to Neil Young (‘My my, hey hey”) and Thunder Road-era Springsteen (“‘Cause tramps like us were born to die”). Hold On to Me, filled with its seeker yearning, brought the first chills of the night. Hit single Shine followed with its prayerful, everyman-Jesus emphases and the crowd singing along at the top of their lungs. Thunder then lit up the room with its Radiohead/Boss elements and powerful lyrics, ending with Beck and Null in musical scrum and Null falling to the floor to finish the song on his back. The new album’s great and languid title-track followed with its well-wrought time-travel homage to a lover featuring ghosted-harmonies and Tolman galvanizing with his effortlessly fantastic drum rolls. We are rarely impressed when new bands do cover songs, but Mondo Cozmo’s cover of The Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony was gigantic with the band pouring everything they had into the song to magnificent effect (Beck’s guitar added immensely to the cover). Ostrander then succumbed to the 180 days of effort and collapsed to his back before bouncing back to give a great reading of Bowie’s Heroes and closing the night with the extraordinarily catchy and striking single Automatic.

With the El Rey crowd giving the band a hero’s welcome, it was a perfect homecoming for a band well on its way to deserved artistic and other riches. Catch ’em if you can (they will head out shortly to support Spoon for a bit–a phenomenal double-bill).

Their outstanding debut album Plastic Soul is out on Republic Records, and you can order it HERE.

Setlist:

Chemical Dream
Higher
Come With Me
Angel
Future Bends
Hold On to Me
Shine
Thunder
Plastic Soul
Bitter Sweet Symphony
11 Acre
Heroes
Automatic

Photos by LA Music Scene

While we were out weeks wandering (wasted and weak) in the wondrous western world, a wealth of new music met the new morning’s airwaves. To begin, on Monday night peerless (Kendrick excepted) rapper Chance the Rapper showed up on Colbert’s Late Show and performed the honest and challenging new Judgment-Day song First World Problems (lyrics at bottom) with Daniel Caesar. The poignant new song, with its heady castigations, witticisms and triple-entendres, is from a highly anticipated new album the artist has been working on in the studio while “cooking up some yammers.” Just to show he’s not too pious or humble, Chance confessed on Colbert that his new songs, “they’re honestly great.” Based on the performance of the song below, we have no doubt about the high standards to be seen on Chance’s upcoming album. Bravo!

First World Problems:

“I get sad when I look at the stars
They so pretty, you can’t tell ’em apart
You think they close but really we far
And really, they ain’t even that much closer to God
It’s much harder to sin naked
I walked past apple trees and didn’t take it
Thought about stone mattresses, thin blankets
Really long winter spent in a windbreaker
I’m a temptation door knocker
Down there on Lower Wacker
I’m a rich excuse for a father
You just can’t tour a toddler
She turnin’ two, she don’t need diapers, she just need her papa
I really need a break, could really use a nap
My daughter barely recognize me when I lose the hat
You go so far, you hit a point where you can’t Uber back
The other day, I told a hummingbird he too relaxed
I did my worst, I did the work, I had to skip the label
I go to church, they want a flick, I want to flip the table
I knew the worth before the birth when it was just a stable
And now it’s just a fable, and it’s just as fatal

First world problems that niggas make up
Have a dream and then never wake up
When so much turns to too much
Have a dream and then never wake up

The day is on its way, it couldn’t wait no more
Here it comes, here it comes
Ready or not, ready or not
The day is on its way, it couldn’t wait no more
Here it comes, here it comes
Ready or not, here it comes

Here it comes
Alright
Spirit’s working now

I think my little cousins want they cousin back
The automatic quarterback that doesn’t rap
They know I used to drive to Hammond for the Roman candles
Lied about coming back, the last straw that broke the camel
It ain’t really fun to hang out with me no more
We can’t go to River East to hang at the beach no more
It’s messed up, I made it this way, and my feet so sore
But it’s all downhill from here, I could teach snowboards
I miss my mom, I miss my time, I miss my prime
In high school, I missed my prom, I ditched my date, I missed my beat
Kissed my teeth, kicked my feet, hooped and hollered
Now I just sip my tea, sit my ass on my ass, send my tweet
Fold my arms, twist my weed
If I hadn’t heard the news, I would’ve known what he say
But the recliner on my chair is like an emergency brake, you know

First world problems that niggas make up
Have a dream and then never wake up
When so much turns to too much
Have a dream and then never wake up

The day is on its way, it couldn’t wait no more
Here it comes, here it comes
Ready or not, ready or not
The day is on its way, it couldn’t wait no more
Here it comes
Ready or not, here it comes

Three verses, hell yes
I still ain’t get my Grammys in the mail yet
I just want my mama happy like a toy sale
And to stay connected to the world like a long-ass voicemail
I hear the scene snappin’, and I’m the team captain
No more knee slappin’ or shoe shinin’ or shoe signin’ ’til the dream happens
I’m just gon’ keep rappin’
And y’all just keep clappin’ and keep actin’
Like Flint got clean water and y’all don’t got teen daughters and black friends and gay cousins, y’all just gon’ say nothin’
Know that the day comin’
Knees bowed, tongues confessin’
The last ones gettin’ first dibs on blessings

Now these the first world problems that niggas make up
Keep on playing we gon’ shake this shit up
Keep on telling us we making it up
The American dream don’t you ever wake up.

The day is on its way, it couldn’t wait no more
Here it comes, here it comes
Ready or not, ready or not
The day is on its way, it will not wait another day
Here it comes
Ready or not, here it comes…”

These times seem to be taking an inordinate toll on folks. There seems to be more depression and anxiety in our society than we can ever recall. But maybe it’s also that people are being more honest and letting others know their issues. Let’s hope so. Coincidentally, it’s National Suicide Prevention Week. If you’re struggling (or know someone who’s struggling) with depression/anxiety and want to get help or you want to find out how you can help/donate to the effort to prevent suicide, please go to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention website HERE.

Related to this, great Canadian band Broken Social Scene has today released a new music video for our former Song of the Week, Skyline, off of their outstanding recent album Hug of Thunder. The video was directed by leader Kevin Drew in which co-founding band member Brendan Canning and photographer Dimitri Karakostas seek the means for “momentary survival” in this day and age. It turns out you may only need peanut butter, a close friend and a good group of friends, a mouthguard, a skateboard, and to hangout with the band Foreigner (please, can we not and instead hang with the far more talented BSS?). Regardless, the video is heartwarming and presents a great message. Check it out below.

Broken Social Scene begins its North American tour tomorrow, and you can check out the dates HERE.

Like many, we’ve been life-long Neil Young fans. From Buffalo Springfield, to CSN&Y, to all the solo albums (we’ll take On The Beach if we have to take but one to that Desert Island), to all the collaborations, to all the cathartic concerts at the Santa Barbara Bowl, the Bridge School Benefit Concerts and elsewhere, we’ve lived a happy musical lifetime with Young. His best-of-all-time bona fides are unchallenged.

After recording a harrowing hat-trick of nonpareil albums (On The Beach, Tonight’s The Night and Zuma), on August 11, 1976, Young recorded a solo acoustic album entitled Hitchhiker in a single session with his producer David Briggs at Malibu’s Indigo Ranch Studios.  That album never made the light of day (though most of its songs appeared elsewhere) until September 8th when Young released it. Among its treasures are acoustic versions of Pocohantas, Campaigner, Ride My Llama, The Old Country Waltz and the powerful Powderfinger.

Best remembered as a rock-anthem featured on the Rust Never Sleeps album, the acoustic version of Powderfinger found on Hitchhiker is a tremendous distillation of the song’s anti-gun/war/violence theme. To aid in our understanding of the lyrics (after all these years and debates), Young has today released a superb, sepia-toned, watercolor video that provides a straightforward narrative for the song (see lyrics at bottom). We love the solo acoustic performance, Young’s vocals and the video. It all adds up to everything. Check the video below, followed by the electric version and the song’s lyrics at bottom.

And go buy/stream Hitchhiker HERE.

Powderfinger:

“Look out, Mama, there’s a white boat coming up the river
With a big red beacon, and a flag, and a man on the rail
I think you’d better call John
Because it don’t look like they’re here to deliver the mail
And it’s less than a mile away
I hope they didn’t come to stay
It’s got numbers on the side and a gun
And it’s making big waves

Daddy’s gone, my brother’s out hunting in the mountains
Big John’s been drinking since the river took Emmy-Lou
So the Powers That Be left me here to do the thinkin’
And I just turned twenty-two
I was wondering what to do
And the closer they got
The more those feelings grew

Daddy’s rifle in my hand felt reassuring
He told me, Red means run, son, numbers add up to nothing
But when the first shot hit the docks I saw it coming
Raised my rifle to my eye
Never stopped to wonder why
Then I saw black
And my face splashed in the sky

Shelter me from the powder and the finger
Cover me with the thought that pulled the trigger
Think of me as one you’d never figured
Would fade away so young
With so much left undone
Remember me to my love
I know I’ll miss her”

“Oh my, oh my, have you seen the weather? The sweet September rain.”

You might think that all we’ve been listening to is The National’s new album Sleep Well Beast, and you’d be mostly right. But other great music has wafted through. There’s both new (Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile’s Over Everything single, Dave Rawlings Machine’s new album Poor David’s Almanack, the Mynabirds’ new Be Here Now album, the recent Grizzly Bear album, etc.) and old high-quality sounds on the air.

Speaking of old, our ears perked up this morning while listening to the incredible, underrated Brit-band Prefab Sprout and their stellar song When Love Breaks Down. Following recent, crazy California weather (last night the Santa Barbara Channel saw lightning, thunder and rain usually only seen in the tropics–see pictures above), the following lines from that great song took us aback:

“Oh my, oh my, have you seen the weather
The sweet September rain
Rain on me like no other
Until I drown, until I drown.”

When Love Breaks Down (lyrics at bottom) is but one of many seminal 80s-Brit-pop songs on Prefab Sprout’s revered and highly-recommended album Two Wheels Good. Two Wheels Good is a great introduction to the complicated-pop of Prefab Sprout and their powerful discography. Check ’em out.

While on the subject of weather, for those in the Caribbean and southern United States suffering from the recent hurricanes, our thoughts and prayers are with you. Go HERE to receive good guidance as to how you can best donate for those in need.

Photos above (top to bottom) by Mike Eliason/Noozhawk; Sophia Dentzel/Noozhawk; and Anneka Purcell/KEYT3.

When Love Breaks Down

“My love and I, we work well together
But often we’re apart
Absence makes the heart lose weight, yeah
Till love breaks down, love breaks down

Oh my, oh my, have you seen the weather
The sweet september rain
Rain on me like no other
Until I drown, until I drown

When love breaks down
The things you do
To stop the truth from hurting you
When love breaks down
The lies we tell
They only serve to fool ourselves
When love breaks down
The things you do
To stop the truth from hurting you
When love breaks down
When love breaks down

My love and I, we are boxing clever
She’ll never crowd me out
Fall be free as old confetti
And paint the town, paint the town

When love breaks down
The things you do
To stop the truth from hurting you
When love breaks down
The lies we tell
They only serve to fool ourselves
When love breaks down
The things you do
To stop the truth from hurting you
When love breaks down
The lies we tell
They only serve to fool ourselves
When love breaks down
The things you do
To stop the truth from hurting you
When love breaks down
You join the wrecks
Who leave their hearts for easy sex
When love breaks down
When love breaks down”

The National were everywhere this past week in support of their just-released album Sleep Well Beast. They performed the entire album live for NPR, performed Day I Die on Colbert, and most recently four songs on CBS This Morning. Watch below as the band performs those songs live on CBS This Morning, presented in the album’s order below. The System Sleeps In Total Darkness is one of the best songs they’ve ever released, and live it is both nuanced (those background, Brian Wilson-influenced vocals) and incendiary (Aaron Dessner’s ravaging guitar solo, Matt Berninger’s vocal fervor, and Bryan Devendorf’s drumming–wow!).

Pick up the critically-acclaimed Sleep Well Beast HERE or buy/stream it HERE.

The National showed up on Colbert’s Late Show last night to perform their impressive new song Day I Die (off of new album Sleep Well Beast, which was just released today). We’ve been digesting the new album for a while and can happily say (full review, soon come) that the band does not disappoint.

Check out the very lively Day I Die performance below, which features guitar hooks aplenty delivered by an enlarged band, including a posse of percussionists and regular touring members Benjamin Lanz and Kyle Resnick, along with Arone Dyer (of Buke and Gase) who adds vocals on the new album. Check it out and go buy/stream Sleep Well Beast HERE. Day I Die’s lyrics are at bottom.

Day I Die:

I don’t need you. I don’t need you.
Besides I barely ever see you anymore,
and when I do it feels like you’re only halfway there.
Young mothers love me, even ghosts of girlfriends
call from Cleveland—they will meet me
any time and anywhere.

The day I die, day I die, where will we be?
The day I die, day I die, where will we be?

Don’t do this, I don’t do this to you.
And don’t expect me to enjoy it.
Because I really don’t have the courage not to turn the volume up
inside my ears. For years I used to put my head inside
the speakers in the hallway
when you’d get too high and talk forever.

The day I die, day I die, where will we be?
The day I die, day I die, where will we be?
The day I die, day I die, where will we be?
The day I die, day I die, where will we be?

I get little punchy with the vodka just like my great uncle Valentine Jester did
when he had to deal with those people like you who made no goddam common sense.
I’d rather walk all the way home right now than to spend one more second in this place.
I’m exactly like you Valentine. Just come outside and leave with me.

Let’s just get high enough to see our problems.
Let’s just get high enough to see our father’s houses.

The day I die, day I die, where will we be?
The day I die, day I die, where will we be?
The day I die, day I die, where will we be?
The day I die, day I die, where will we be?

Here comes The Nationalization of 2017. The National will release their great new album Sleep Well Beast on Friday of this week on 4AD. As lead-up to the album’s release, the band yesterday performed the entirety of Sleep Well Best live in Philadelphia for WXPN’s World Cafe and NPR Music. Go check out the impressive performances HERE while you can.

As you will hear, many of the new album’s songs benefit from their enhanced live treatment. The album’s best song, The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness, is taken to even greater heights live with the added harmony vocals of Arone Dyer (Buke and Gase) and the even-more ferocious guitar solo (which reminds of Jeff “Skunk” Baxter’s searing guitar solos for Steely Dan on their first two albums, Can’t Buy a Thrill and Countdown to Ecstacy–our highest praise possible). The desultory Walk It Back finishes with an unexpected flourish live. Berninger appropriately attacks the vocal on Turtleneck, and I’ll Still Destroy You accomplishes its aim with its dynamics and the dueling guitars in the latter part of the song. Dark Side of the Gym remains one of our favorites and benefits from its scaled-down sound here. And for good measure the NPR set ends with a few songs “from 10 years ago.” Fake Empire and Terrible Love close with a devastating one-two punch.

The band will also appear on the Colbert Show tomorrow (Thursday) night so set your DVRs.

Bring on Sleep Well Beast.