Lefort-faves Band of Horses at long last have a new album coming out this Friday entitled Why Are You OK.  Last night the band performed Whatever, Wherever and Solemn Oath off the new album.  The latter was particularly great. Check out both performances below. The band also announced today their 2016 tour, which will thankfully bring them to the Arlington Theater in Santa Barbara on August 26th.  Check out all the dates at bottom.

Tour Dates:

06/08 – Richmond, VA @ The National
06/10 – Nashville, TN @ The Basement at Grimey’s
06/11 – Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival
06/15 – Bergen, NO @ Bergenfest
06/17 – Madrid, ES @ Mad Cool Festival
06/19 – Hilvarenbeek, NL @ Best Kept Secret Festival
06/20 – Cologne, DE @ Gloria Theater
06/22 – Berlin, DE @ Zitadelle Spandau
06/23 – Odense, DK @ Tinderbox
06/24 – Oslo, NO @ Piknik I Parken Festival
06/26 – Pilton, UK @ Glastonbury
06/30 – Noorkoping, SE @ Bravata Festival
07/02 – Werchter, BE @ Rock Wechter
07/03 – Arras, FR @ Main Square Festival
07/05 – London, UK @ O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire
07/06 – London, UK @ O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire
07/07 – Manchester, UK @ Albert Hall
07/09 – Lisbon, PT @ Nos Alive
07/22 – Byron Bay, AU @ Splendour in the Grass
07/24 – Melbourne, AU @ The Forum Theatre
07/25 – Sydney, AU @ Sydney Opera House
08/09 – Aspen, CO @ Belly Up
08/11 – Bellevue, CO @ Mishawaka Amphitheater
08/13 – Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre
08/15 – Boise, ID @ Revolution Event Center
08/16 – Spokane, WA @ Fox Theater
08/18 – Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theater
08/19 – Troutdale, OR @ Edgefield
08/20 – Vancouver, BC @ Orpheum
08/22 – Bend, OR @ Century Center
08/23 – Napa, CA @ Uptown Theater
08/24 – San Francisco, CA @ Masonic
08/26 – Santa Barbara, CA @ Arlington Theater
08/27 – Dana Point, CA @ Ohana Fest
09/10-11 – St. Louis, MO @ Loufest
09/20 – Boston, MA @ Orpheum
09/22 – New York, NY @ Central Park Summerstage
09/24 – Philadelphia, PA @ Fillmore
09/27 – Birmingham, AL @ Alabama Theater
09/30-10/02 @ Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits Festival
10/07-09 – Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits Festival
10/23 – Asheville, NC @ Orange Peel
10/27 – Charlotte, NC @ Fillmore
10/28-30 – New Orleans, LA @ Voodoo Music Experience
11/03 – Toronto, ON @ The Sound Academy
11/04 – Cleveland, OH @ The Masonic Temple
11/05 – Indianapolis, IN @ Murat Theater
11/11 – Milwaukee, WI @ Eagles Ballroom
11/12 – Minneapolis, MN @ State Theater
11/13 – Madison, WI @ Orpheum Theater
11/16 – Chicago, IL @ Aragon Ballroom

Friends have forwarded fawning words for Paul Simon’s concerts in Berkeley the last two nights. On Friday night, in the middle of his performance of The Boxer, Simon stopped to announce that the great Muhammad Ali had passed during the concert. “I’m sorry to tell you this night that Muhammad Ali passed away. The Greatest.”

Watch the performance below (with Simon’s announcement at the 3:50 mark). A touching moment and performance.

Simon plays the Santa Barbara Bowl tonight, and we hope to be there.

RIP Muhammad Ali.

The Greatest has passed. Upon hearing the news, amidst a myriad of visceral flashbacks, we immediately thought of the great Cat Power’s song The Greatest as performed ten years ago.

There may be no direct correlation between Ali and the performance of the song below, save for Chan Marshall’s telling fist in the air.  But it is one of her greatest songs and performances, and thus seems a fitting tribute to The Greatest. At the height of their powers, two artists dominating (afterwards watch the official video for the song).

RIP Muhammad Ali. “The late great….”

On Tuesday night New Zealand’s Marlon Williams majorly impressed while opening for the great Sam Beam and Jesca Hoop at the Fonda in LA (review soon to come). Williams and bass accompanist (with their expert Everly Brothers harmonies) took the Fonda audience through a compelling mini-history of country music and out the other side. Williams is impressive on many fronts, but wowed with his well-honed vocalese (which at times, bizarrely, reminded us of Antony Hegarty–now Anohni). Williams released his critically-acclaimed debut solo album last year and is clearly headed to higher heights.  Though Williams regaled the Fonda audience with deep-cut murder ballads and other Lomaxian fare, it was his own songs that truly impressed. To get a feel, watch below as Williams performs Dark Child on KCRW. To hear the entire KCRW session go HERE. For more, afterwards check out Williams’ four-song KEXP session with full band.  Wow.

We’ve only previously sampled Sampha as a part of his collabs with SBTRKT and, recently, with some dudes named Kanye and Drake. But after repeated listens to South London’s Sampha’s soulful and lovelorn new track Timmy’s Prayer, we are now all ears for Sampha-proper. Check it out below. The multifaceted lyrics (check out at bottom) of Timmy’s Prayer grab you by the aorta while Sampha vocally combines the best from a spectrum that runs from Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) to Marvin Gaye.  Sampha brings the melange up to date with effervescent electronic embellishments. Superb stuff. We can’t wait for more from Sampha!

Timmy’s Prayer:

“If ever you’re listening
If ever you’re listening
If ever you’re listening

If ever you’re listening
If heaven’s a prison
Then I am your prisoner
Yes, I am your prisoner
I messed up, ooh
I know now
There’s no room for me to play now
Nowhere to dig my way out

My vital organs are beating through
My ribcage opened, my heart ballooned
I… I’ve lost another one
I’m on the floor trying to dress my wounds
Address the fact it was mine to lose
I… I didn’t try enough
And when I’m left without your love
It could feel like a lifetime baby
And somewhere in the start we had it alright
Sunshine and blue skies, yes I call
But now there’s a darker blue
I’m bleeding and you don’t care
The sun sinks and you’re not there

If ever you’re listening
If heaven’s a prison
Then I am your prisoner
Yes, I am your prisoner
I messed up, ooh
I know now
There’s no room for me to play now
Nowhere to dig my way out

My brother always said I’m a dreamer, dreamer
You better watch out where this life will lead ya
And he always said she’s a keeper keeper
She’ll stay by your side when the rest will leave ya
Well I’m looking on my left side, I’m looking on my right
She’s nowhere to be seen now when I close my eyes at night

Dreaming, surely you can find me by the shore
I’m singing so blindly, can you hear me?
Can you find me?
If you find me, wanna tell you I love you so
I wanna tell you that love comes and goes
That it comes and goes
I hear the footsteps in the water and I feel the breeze
I open my eyes and no words, no words…

I wish that I listened when I was in prison
Now I’m just a visitor
I came to the gates but you turned me away
You asked me what am I waiting for
I’m waiting cause I fucked up, ooh
I got thrown out
I don’t know which way to go now
Don’t know which way is home now

If ever you’re listening
If heaven’s a prison
Then I am your prisoner
Yes, I am your prisoner
I messed up, oh
I know now
There’s no room for me to play now
Nowhere to dig my way out”

We’ve still got a lot of work to do. In the name of love: recalling those that have served and those that have met injustice.

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Photo: Maarten Deboer

Sara Watkins has heretofore flown frequently under the new-bluegrass banner as a part of the vaunted band Nickel Creek and otherwise. But with her impending new album, Young In All The Wrong Ways, Watkins seems to have forcefully branched out to include rock and pop realms. We were wowed last week when we witnessed Watkins wailing away on her winsome song Move Me on Prairie Home Companion. Watch below as Watkins is joined beautifully by the Steele Sisters (Jearlyn and Jevetta Steele), Rich Dworsky and the forcefully-perfect The Exchange Street Band. A powerful performance! Afterwards, you can check out the official video for the same sang and listen to another scintillating song, Without a Word, off of the new album. All of the above and below bodes incredibly well for Young In All The Wrong Ways.

Young In All The Wrong Ways will be released on July 1st on New West and you can pre-order it HERE.

We’ll be honest for a change. We don’t know diddly-richard about Oklahoma band Broncho, and we don’t have the time. But, as this song says: we “wanna drop their name.” Yesterday we discovered a well-conceived article on Talkhouse written by Broncho’s lead singer Ryan Lindsey (musicians pay attention: it DOES take all efforts and conceivable measures to connect and make it these days) in which Lindsey drew an Eames-diagram analogy to bands.  And that was enough for us to go down the Broncho hole and discover the catchy-as-chlamydia track Fantasy Boys below. And now the song’s been on repeat for 24 hours. Check Fantasy Boys out below in all its well-wrought melodic-fuzzyness coupled with its heavenly multi-tracked harmonies. Cocteau Twins meet Jesus & Mary Chain?  Regardless, we can’t get enough.

Broncho will soon release their new album Double Vanity on Dine Alone Records, and if Fantasy Boys is any indication, Broncho will soon take everyone for a ride. You can pre-order the new album HERE.  They also begin a tour tonight that will bring them through California in a week.  Check out the dates HERE.

As we’ve repeatedly written, “local” rap-rocker Anderson .Paak is rapidly rising through the ranks and his album Malibu is ascending, ummm, with a bullet.  Last night .Paak  and band The Free Nationals lit up the Fallon Show with Come Down, which included a scorching verse from T.I. (unfortunately, at T.I.’s Irving Plaza show last night following the Fallon taping, mayhem ensued when one person was killed and three wounded in a shooting–when will we learn people?).

Watch below as .Paak opens and closes on drums and throws preposterous verve throughout. Both .Paak and T.I. toss in some ridiculous dance moves to boot. And…standing ovation. Wow! .Paak is out on tour now, and HERE are the dates. Don’t you miss it! We can’t wait.

We’ve been anxiously awaiting new music from Feist.  But not like this.

It was disclosed yesterday on The Tragically Hip’s website that their frontman, Gord Downie, has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. Despite that very sad news, Downie and the band will go out on one last tour of Canada this summer, despite the diagnosis. “This feels like the right thing to do now, for Gord, and for all of us … So we’re going to dig deep and try to make this our best tour yet.” The tour (dates can be seen HERE) will coincide with the release of the band’s latest album, Man Machine Poem.

Today, Feist posted the home-recorded cover of The Tragically Hip’s song Flamenco with the following tribute: “For Gord. We’ll all be there this summer to see you bring out the new songs with your singular guts and panache…. and the golden oldies that are so golden. All my respect, admiration and love, Leslie.”

The song and cover are beauty and the ache in Feist’s voice is palpable.  We wish miraculous remission for Downie and nothing but peace.  We won’t let it it diminish our super capacity to love.