As 2017 broke, Phoebe Bridgers broke out her brilliantly-semaphoric song Smoke Signals, and our obsession with Bridgers’ music broke wide-open.  In July Bridgers bared her mesmerizing Motion Sickness, a well-wrought winner about a losing proposition.  And at long last her debut album Strangers In The Alps has been released to critical acclaim. And we can’t resist that bandwagon. On the new album, Bridgers has picked out heart-string melodies that are counter-balanced by vocal restraint. But Bridgers’ lyrics are the highlight of the show (see examples below), evincing incision amidst minimalist modulations. It’s a winning formula, coupled with subtle production values (thanks to Tony Berg, Ethan Gruska and Mike Mogis).  In addition to the aforementioned songs, highlights include Funeral, Scott Street (with its Elliott-isms and steady build), Killer (with John Doe’s killer harmony), Chelsea and Would You Rather (with Conor Oberst’s lived-in vocals counterpointing Bridgers’ silken sounds). Joining her friend Julien Baker’s new album, Bridgers’ Strangers In The Alps is one of the Best Albums of 2017.  You can pick it up HERE.

Check out below recent videos for two of Bridgers’ songs below. And afterwards, check some examples of her fine poesy.

Inspirational Verses:

“I want to live at the Holiday Inn, where somebody else makes the bed,
We’ll watch TV while the lights on the street put all the stars to death,
It’s been on my mind since Bowie died, just checking out to hide from life,
And all of our problems, I’m gonna solve ’em, with you riding shot-gun, speeding, ’cause fuck the cops”

“Jesus Christ, I feel blue all the time/ And that’s just how I feel/ Always have, and I always will.”

“Walking Scott Street, feeling like a stranger
With an open heart, open container
I’ve got a stack of mail and a tall can
It’s a shower beer it’s a payment plan”

“But I can’t sleep next to a body
Even harmless in death
Plus I’m pretty sure I’d miss you
Faking sleep to count your breath”

“I hope you kiss my rotten head
And pull the plug
Know that I’ve burned every playlist
And given all my love”

In dishonor of Harvey Weinstein (the callous iceberg at the tip of the proverbial iceberg) and his predatory ilk, we’ll close out the week highlighting some phenomenally independent female artists. Yesterday was Miya Folick and her firestorm. Today, we feature Julien Baker.

We’ve been huge fans of Baker’s music ever since we first heard her great Sprained Ankle in the fall of 2015. Since then Baker has signed to Matador and will release her follow-up album, Turn Out The Lights, on October 27th. Baker has thus far released the revealingly raven Appointments song and powerful video (watch below) and she recently released the title-track to the new album via the song’s official video (watch the affecting video immediately below). When Baker turns out the lights at 2:30 and turns up her vocal siren, we hear a primal call of self-preservation, resolve and fortitude that a million Weinsteins can’t suppress. Clearly Baker has also turned up the production values with Matador. Brava Ms. Baker!

Afterwards, check out superb vignettes from Baker’s recent appearance on Chris Thile’s Prairie Home Companion. In addition to a stellar read of Appointments, Baker performed another affecting new song, Hurt Less, with Camille Faulkner on violin. And then gave a luminous reading, with Chris Thile on mandolin and harmony, of the uplifting hymn It Is Well With My Soul. It is well indeed. Go forth in that spirit.

Baker heads out on her world tour in support of the new album on October 20th, which will bring her to the West Coast and Cali in December. Get your tickets HERE.

You can pre-order Turn Out The Lights HERE.

We have been fans of Miya Folick’s music since we first heard her in November of 2015 following the release of her Strange Darling EP. She has continued to impress since and been signed by Interscope (Terrible Records). And today Folick has revealed the title track of her impending Give It To Me EP via an ecstatic video in which she gives a raving delivery from the front seat of a rollercoaster. Turns out our various relationships have both downs and ups.

Folick has written this about the song: “Some people see this as a last chance at love song and idgaf what you take from my music, but to me it’s more about insidious people who take and take and make false promises. And about feeling let down by the narrative you’ve been fed. It’s about recognizing your worth and demanding it.” Take that!

The song climbs slowly and then rushes headlong with Folick belting at the top of her lungs while seemingly having an out-of-body/out-of-seat experience. And back again. We love everything about it!  Check it out below.

You can pre-order Give It To Me HERE.

We have been repeatedly enthralled by the Take Away Shows released by French site La Blogothèque. Watch below as Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon performs a convincing and affecting solo acoustic take of song 8 (circle) from last year’s superb Bon Iver album 22, A Million.

About the video, La Blogothèque writes:

“It was in Oct. 2016, in Berlin, during Michelberger Music. Between each show of the festival, we were kidnapping a person in the audience, which we were taking to a secret room where an artist was waiting. Based on an idea by Damien Rice, developed by Damien Rice and Chryde during Michelberger Music in Berlin, Oct. 2016.”

Check it out below, followed by the recorded version. This’ll be our first and last call for more kidnappings.

La Blogothèque also recently released a superb video of Bon Iver’s entire Cork Opera House concert, which you can watch at bottom. Awesomeness abounds within.

Sufjan Stevens will release a Carrie & Lowell “mixtape” entitled The Greatest Gift, on 11/24 via Asthmatic Kitty. The mixtape will include unreleased outtakes, remixes, and demos from the album, which is said to be an “investigation of love, life, death, God, and the beautiful state of Oregon.” A portion of the proceeds from The Greatest Gift will be donated to Cancer Community Support, which it is said “is dedicated to ensuring that all people impacted by cancer are empowered by knowledge, strengthened by action, and sustained by community.”

Stevens has given us a glimpse of The Greatest Gift via Wallowa Lake Monster, one of four new songs (“outtakes”) on the new mixtape (see tracklist below). The new song was recorded during the Carrie & Lowell sessions, but for some reason was left off the album. As much as any other song on Carrie & Lowell, the new song is about his and his family’s relationship with his troubled mother, Carrie. Wallowa Lake is an Oregon lake in the northeast corner of Oregon that carries the legend of a water-bound monster. During the song Stevens alludes to the monster and manages to weave in haunting allusions to Carrie abandoning her children on a rainy day, being drunk and eventually passing from this earth (see lyrics at bottom). And just like much of Carrie & Lowell, the song wallows in stirring and sophisticated melodies, but this time particularly cloaked in a rapturous ghost-choir treatment. Few in music are doing what Stevens seems so to do so effectively, whether on his own or with others (e.g. Planetarium). Bravo!

You can pre-order The Greatest Gift HERE.

The Greatest Gift tracklist:

01. Wallowa Lake Monster
02. Drawn to the Blood — Sufjan Stevens Remix
03. Death with Dignity — Helado Negro Remix
04. John My Beloved — iPhone Demo
05. Drawn to the Blood — Fingerpicking Remix
06. The Greatest Gift
07. Exploding Whale — Doveman Remix
08. All of Me Wants All of You — Helado Negro Remix
09. Fourth of July — 900X Remix
10. The Hidden River of My Life
11. City of Roses
12. Carrie & Lowell — iPhone Demo

Wallowa Lake Monster:

“As if you know the story of Wallowa Lake
Leviathan first hid in the deep where her children sleep
She kept them hidden from the plague
But have you heard the story of my mother’s fate?
She left us in Detroit in the rain with a pillow case
Fortune for the paper weight

We followed her to Joseph, near the Indian raid
She wept among the weeds, hide and seek, for the fallen chief
Spathiphyllum on his grave
And like the cedar wax wing, she was drunk all day
We put her in the sheet, little wreath, candles on the crate
As the monster showed its face

As she waits for her children in the shade
Demogorgon or demigod the ghost parade
No oblation will bring her back to our place

She stayed within the deep end of Wallowa Lake
The undertow refrained with the flame of a feathered snake
Charybdis in its shallow grave
She gave us one last feature, the fullness of her face
In the shade of Hin-mah-too-yah… (Red Napoleon)
As the demon took her place

As we wait for the waters to reside
Her remarkable stoicism and her pride
When the dragon submerged we knew she had died”

Spoon can do no wrong in our book. Their latest album Hot Thoughts is easily one of the Best Albums of 2017. They’ve now released the official video for stalwart song I Ain’t the One off the album and announced new tour dates in January on the West Coast (including Santa Barbara on January 18th). Check out the video below in all its alienated, brooding, and film noir beauty.

Presale tickets for Santa Barbara are available now while the general public sale begins is tomorrow at 10 am. Go HERE to get tickets.  See all the tour dates below, including Red Rocks tonight!

And in case you missed it, afterwards check out the band’s recent, raving performance of Can I Sit Next To You on the Colbert Show. Another phenomenal live showing from this great band with Britt Daniel’s howls hurling the song along. And those drums! Tour duh force!

Spoon 2017-2018 Tour dates:

10/05 – Denver, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheater
10/07 – Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits Music Festival
10/10 – San Antonio, TX @ Aztec Theater #
10/12 – Dallas, TX @ House of Blues #
10/13 – Austin, TX @ Stubb’s
10/14 – Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits Music Festival
10/15 – Houston, TX @ House of Blues #
10/17 – New Orleans, LA @ House of Blues #
10/18 – Memphis, TN @ Minglewood Hall #
10/20 – Columbia, SC @ Music Farm #
10/21 – Jacksonville, FL @ Mavericks #
10/22 – Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore
11/02 – Brussels, BE @ Orangerie at Botanique
11/03 – Den Haag, NL @ Crossing Border Festival
11/03-04 – Wessenhauser, DE @ Rolling Stone Weekender
11/06 – Brighton, UK @ Concorde 2
11/07 – Liverpool, UK @ Invisible Wind Factory
11/09 – Cambridge, UK @ The Junction
11/10 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso
11/11 – Basel, CH @ Kaserne
11/12 – Milan, IT @ Santeria Social Club
11/14 – Barcelona, ES @ Sala Apolo
11/15 – Madrid, ES @ La Riviera
11/16 – Porto, PT @ Porto Coliseum
11/17 – Lisbon, PT @ Coliseu dos Recreios
11/28 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
11/29 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
12/01 – Poughkeepsie, NY @ The Chance
12/03 – Stroudsburg, PA @ Sherman Theater
12/05 – Clifton Park, NY @ Upstate Concert Hall
12/06 – Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground
12/30 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
12/31 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
1/12 – Seattle, WA – Showboxb &
1/13 – Eugene, OR – McDonald Theater &
1/15 – Napa, CA – Jam Cellars &
1/17 – San Francisco, CA – The Masonic &
1/18 – Santa Barbara, CA – Arlington Theater &
1/20 – Las Vegas, NV – Cosmopolitan &

! = w/ The Shins
# = w/ Mondo Cozmo
& = w/ White Reaper

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”