The outpouring for David Bowie continues unabated. In this device-induced, ADHD (“squirrel!!”)-excused era, the staying-power of Bowie-remembrance is remarkable.

Some appear to have been prescient in their tributes. Or they just may have had good taste. Regardless, this past December Lefort-favorites Chuck Prophet and Stephanie Finch performed the song Sorrow, one of Bowie’s hand-picked covers for his much-loved covers album Pin Ups. Sorrow was originally written in 1965 by Feldman-Goldstein-Gottehrer and recorded by The Merseys.  It remains a gem. Check out below the perfectly-sweet harmonies/round of Prophet/Finch.

Chuck Prophet most recently released a singles collection of his critically-acclaimed 2014 album Night Surfer (pick it up HERE), and will head out on a mini-tour in April.  We’re thrilled that Prophet will stop in at the Lobero Theater in Santa Barbara on April 23rd with his let-’em-know band, The Mission Express.  We last caught Prophet, Finch and The Mission Express at the Make-Out Room last October (a year after this don’t-miss-it annual show), and it was one of the best shows of 2015. To boot, the great Garland Jeffreys will open. Don’t you miss what will be surely be one of the great shows of the year in Santa Barbara (tix HERE).

As posted earlier, we’re still mired in remorse ’round David Bowie’s passing. The many words and homages are helping though. EL VY performed their Best Song of 2015, Return to the Moon, on Colbert last night and it was fantastic (those strings!). And then they paid proper homage to Mr. Bowie with a rousing rendition of Let’s Dance as backed by Colbert’s house band. Check ’em out below. Bowie must be smiling down from on high.  Rest In Peace Sir.

Took the day off.  Maybe more.  Hadn’t fathomed the tenebrous effect The Thin White Duke’s passing would have on us.  Still grappling with that. Like many affected, we’ve watched a lot of Bowie video since we got the news. A good friend passed along the first video below, which is from The Concert for New York City (a musical celebration of gratitude for the 9-11 First Responders).  Watch below as Bowie sings the Texas out of Paul Simon’s America (while seated, simply playing a Casio) and his own emphatic Heroes, dedicated to a local firefighter company.  On the latter, Bowie is backed incredibly well by Paul Shaffer and the rest of Letterman’s band.  It’s a breathtaking combo. Good luck keeping your emotions in check.

At bottom is our own favorite:  Bowie in 1974 on the Dick Cavett Show, looking thin and duke-ish while performing Young Americans as backed by, among other greats, a very young David Sanborn and an unknown Luther Vandross.  So very good.

Oh how he is missed.  RIP David Bowie.  We’ll see you in the bye and bye.

“Young Americans” 1974 from David Bowie on Vimeo.

After giving best-in-shows performances on Fallon and Colbert and any other studio stage he touched, Kendrick Lamar ventured into TV-music’s hallowed Austin City Limits realm, taking over the entire episode last night and showing yet again why he is the artist to beat when it comes to live performances.  Watch below as Lamar performed 13 songs off of his last two albums, including his Best Album of 2015, To Pimp A Butterfly.  Untouchable.

Now resident in LA, new (to us) band Alyeska was formed by Montana singer-songwriter Alaska Reid. Reliable sources speak highly of the band and their live performances (they play the Bootleg Theater in LA on January 16th).  Based on their most recent song, Medicine River, below we like what we hear.  Between Reid’s compelling Joni Mitchell/Rickie Lee Jones-by-way-of- Laura Marling vocals and the band’s Factory-guitar sounds that smack of Joy Division/New Order, we are all in.  Word is that the song’s producer/engineer, John Agnello (Kurt Vile, Phosphorescent, Hop Along, Alvvays, etc., etc.), will helm the production of Alyeska’s debut album expected in 2016.  All of the above bodes well for Alyeska.  Listen in below.

We messed up. Followed some misinformation and mis-timed Kendrick Lamar’s performance on Fallon’s Tonight Show last night (not Friday–apologies).  Thankfully, through the powers of the interweb, we can watch Lamar and his full, fantastic live band below performing a powerful new soulful song “entitled” Untitled 2 [Ed.–“Blue Faces”?].   Lamar lives up to his interview statement when asked how he blows off steam:  “I rap a lot.”  Practice makes perfect.  We were mesmerized by the evolutionary entirety of the sensory overload and the autobiolyrical tour de force (lyrics at bottom). Make sure you hang on through the end as Lamar winds the lines tighter and tighter.  And then tighter more.  Spitting that his best is still to come.  Hard to believe, but we can’t wait.

Untitled 2 (Blue Faces):

Two tears in the bucket I cry with you
But I could never lie with you
I could never afford not to afford
I could never put my plans to the side with you
I could never see a red light
Like a deer with the headlight
I freeze up when I re-up
See I barely had patience
And you’re relating
Only the moment to complete us
Why you hate to work for it?
Went to work for it
See a nine to five was so jive turkey
But when Thanksgiving came, checks didn’t hurt me
You plead the fifth
I read the fifth amendment
We both criminals with bad intentions
They say time heals all
But if I could shortcut
My success, Corvettes by tomorrow

But why you so sad?
Walking around with them blue faces
They say I’m down on my luck
And it’s something I gotta have
Blue faces
I hit the bank today and tell them color me bad
Blue faces
Get that new money, and it’s breaking me down

My home girl got a credit card scam
She got a scholarship to college but she don’t give a damn
Intuition got a black woman wishin’
She sayin’ this on the phone with the noodles in the pan
I know you, woman, I console you, woman
You feel like the universe owes you, woman
Oh the anticipation, hoping you could make it
Women don’t prosper chasing education
But you’re talented, and can’t handle it
And your homegirls can’t be your manager
365 times four, plus more
Can’t get it right, tell me, do you got the stamina?
But ain’t no money like fast money
Even today I’m considered a crash dummy
A rapper chasing stardom, how can I fast forward?
My accolades better than all them

But why I’m so sad?
Walking around with them blue faces
They say I’m down on my luck
And it’s something I gotta have
Blue faces
I hit the bank today and tell them color me bad
Blue faces
Get that new money, and it’s breaking me down

I love god, I love speed, I love drank, I love me
I love oceans in the deep
I love women, I love me
I love God
But I’m scared of god speed
Sometimes

Wrote this song like I never went home and made it
You know the poverty stricken the lyrical broke boy and baby
Somebody say Kendrick American they sho’ is crazy
And I said “why?”
Then he looked me in the eye
He said homie you messed up
You breaking my good luck
You wishing for miracles
Living through shit, you’re crying hysterical
Settle for everything, complain about everything
Say your soul crack, my world amphetamines
You projects ain’t it, I live in the hood
You living to keep warm
I’m living to pay rent
I paid my way through
Praying to Allah
You played your way through dealing with Wi-Fi
Go fuck yourself, you talking to strangers
Same thing go for the ones you came with
We all came on the boat looking for hope
And all you can say is that you’re looking for dope
These days ain’t no compromise
Your pain ain’t mine half the time
A brand new excuse ain’t nothing to me
See I made my moves, with shackled feet

Cape Town, Cape Town, Cape Town, Cape Town
Cape Town, Cape Town, Cape Town

Corn row kenny
I wanna get the mixed dashboards triple digits, skrr
I wanna get the mixed dashboards triple digits, skrr, skrr
Corn row kenny
So many plays on me I finesse
Palisade views with some sex
I lost a lot of love for missionary
This the first time I react
Me and Top is like a Kobe and Phil
A father figure play with him, he get killed
Play with me and he will kill you himself
TDE the mafia of the west
Move in silence, yeah, we juggin’ like that
Act of violence, yeah, we juggin’ like that
I did a lot of dumb things in my past
Love will give me hope and I won’t relapse
Dave just bought a new nine eleven
Almost thought I’d seen another plane crash
Q just bought a brand new McLaren
Rock-a-lack about to buy the projects
Rashad got his son dripping in gold
Me I’m ‘bout to let my hair down the holes
Ali ’bout to let his hair down the holes
Top billing that’s a million a show
Might blow the Whole Remy on Soul
Might tell Obama be more like Punch
Sounwave got a Grammy this year
Mack wop, but he do what he want

[Outro]
Level two, level two
No I’m not done
You ain’t gotta tell me that I’m the one
I could put a rapper on life support
Guarantee something that none of you want
Then hold me down and they yell something like
Rent is like twenty five hundred a month
What if I empty my bank out and stunt?
What if I empty my bank out and stunt?
You ain’t gotta tell me that I’m the one
You ain’t gotta tell me that I’m the one
You ain’t gotta tell me that I’m the one
You ain’t gotta tell me that I’m the one
You ain’t got, you ain’t got
You ain’t got, you ain’t
You ain’t gotta tell me that I’m the one
Yes I’m the one

Photo by Scott Newton

Following on the heels of his undisputed Best Album of 2015, To Pimp A Butterfly, his Best TV Music-Performance of 2015 on Colbert, and 11 Grammy nominations, Kendrick Lamar is set to yet again show the world why he is one of the best live performers on the planet.  Tomorrow night he will appear on Fallon’s Tonight Show, followed on Saturday by his 13-song Austin City Limits episode. To get a feel, check out below the ACL previews of the rarely-performed Wesley’s Theory and Hood Politics.  If you still need further convincing, go over to Rolling Stone to catch his superb performance of i.  Wow.

LA soul-rock artist Gallant gallantly opened for Sufjan Stevens on Stevens’ recent North American tour, and we were impressed by the game gent’s vocal acumen and stage presence.   Now Stevens and Gallant have released a stirring video of Gallant (backed only by Stevens on solo piano and harmonizing) performing Stevens’ stellar Blue Bucket of Gold off his tremendous 2015 album Carrie & Lowell. Watch below as Gallant gives a masterful read of the song (lad’s got serious pipes) with Stevens providing perfectly-restrained backing in a one-take performance. Chills.  Hold on for the end when Stevens explains the backstory of the song (though not the personal contextualization in the song).  Regardless, it’s a moving performance by the duo and Gallant in particular.

At long last, bring on the new year!  2016! Gotta be better than 2015, right?  After a cleansing hiatus (disclaimer: no colon was harmed), we’re back in the proverbial saddle with the critically-acclaimed Foals‘ pounding performance below on Colbert’s Late Show of  Mountain At My Gates off of their most recent album, What Went Down.  Make sure you hang in for the last 45-60 seconds of the performance when the band opens up those gates and gallops up Rock Mountain.  It was so good, Colbert let off one of his rare, trademarked hoots.

Foals’ album What Went Down has been appeared on a good number of Best Albums of 2015 lists (No. 1 on at least two lists), so check ’em out.

Mountains At My Gates:

“I see a mountain at my gates
I see it more and more each day
What I give, it takes away
Whether I go or when I stay

I see a mountain at my gates
I see it more and more each day
I see a fire out by the lake
I’ll drive my car without the brakes

I see a mountain in my way
It’s looming larger by the day
I see a darkness in my fate
I’ll drive my car without the brakes

[Chorus]
Oh, gimme some time
Show me the foothold from which I can climb
Yeah, when I feel low
You show me a signpost for where I should go

I see a mountain at my gates
I see it more and more each day
And my desire wears a dark dress
But each day, I see you less

[Chorus]

Through lanes and stone rows
Black granite, wind blows
Fire lake and far flame
Go now but come again
Dark clouds gather ’round
Will I run or stand my ground?

Oh, when I come to climb
Show me the mountain so far behind
Yeah, it’s farther away
Its shadow gets smaller day after day

Yeah, gimme my way
Gimme my love
Gimme my choice
You keep me coming around
Gimme my fate
Gimme my lungs
Gimme my voice
You keep me coming around
Gimme my lungs
Gimme my, gimme my, gimme my, gimme my
Gimme my, gimme my, gimme my, gimme my, gimme my way
Gimme my fate
Gimme my lungs
Gimme my choice
You keep me coming round”

We glossed over so much in this year’s mix.  Apologies especially to multi-talented artist Blood Orange (Devonte Hynes), whose song Sandra’s Smile and video still mattered much at year’s end.  The song is a moving requiem to, among way too many others, Sandra Bland (the 28-year-old woman found dead in a jail cell in Waller County, Texas after being detained for a minor traffic violation in mid-July).

Musically, Sandra’s Smile is flawless, appropriately-moody R&B, with the heart of the matter found (for us) in the saxophone moments.  Lyrically, devastation, inquiry and resolve (lyrics at bottom).  That’s all.

The black and white video is superb.  Bravo!

Sandra’s Smile:

“Who taught you to breathe, then took away your speech,
Made you feel so loved, then shook your hand with gloves?
You watched her pass away, the words she said weren’t faint.
Closed our eyes for a while, but I still see Sandra’s smile.

Can you see it in my face?
Had enough for today.
It’s hard for me to to stay in place unless I force myself awake.

Look, an hour ago, I read Sybrina’s quote.
I mean, why should she forgive?
D’we lose you if, we don’t?”