The Shins are now streaming their new album, Port of Morrow, over at iTunes.  The album will be streaming until it is officially released on March 20.

The Shins are now comprised of James Mercer, Modest Mouse drummer Joe Plummer, ascendant producer/performer Richard Swift, Yuuki Matthews from Crystal Skulls, and guitarist Jessica Dobson (of Deep Sea Diver and Beck’s band) .

We’ve been smitten with Lost in the Trees ever since we heard their song Fireplace in 2010 and made it one of our Best Songs of 2010.  The band’s finally about to release a new album entitled, A Church That Fits Our Needs, which is an ambitious work inspired by “loss and transformation.”  The group’s writer, composer and singer, Ari Picker, lost his artist mother in 2009 to suicide.  Picker has transformed this unfortunate event into an evocative and moving musical celebration. Far from being a somber affair, the classically trained Picker has used propulsive rhythm to inveigh.

To stream the new album in its entirety, go over to NPR First Listen.  You can also check out the first video of the new album below for the song Red.  Their North American tour dates in support of the new album follow at bottom.

03.16.12 – Austin, TX – SXSW @ Antone’s
03.19.12 – Tucson, AZ – Plush [Tickets]
03.20.12 – La Jolla, CA – The Loft @ UCSD
03.22.12 – Los Angeles, CA – The Echo
03.23.12 – San Francisco, CA – Bottom of the Hill
03.24.12 – Arcata, CA – Arcata Playhouse
03.25.12 – Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge [Tickets]
03.27.12 – Seattle, WA – Tractor Tavern
03.28.12 – Boise, ID – Neurolux
03.29.12 – Salt Lake City, UT – The State Room
03.30.12 – Denver, CO – Hi Dive
03.31.12 – Omaha, NE – The Slowdown
04.02.12 – Minneapolis, MN – Cedar Cultural Centre
04.03.12 – Chicago, IL – Schubas
04.04.12 – Evanston, IL – Space
04.05.12 – Columbus, OH – Wexner Center
04.06.12 – Toronto, ON – Drake Hotel
04.07.12 – Montreal, QC – Il Motore
04.09.12 – Burlington, VT – Burlington City Arts Center
04.10.12 – Portland, ME – Space
04.11.12 – New York, NY – Le Poisson Rouge
04.13.12 – Boston, MA – Boston Museum of Fine Arts
04.14.12 – Washington, DC – The Black Cat

KEXP had yet another great week last week.  In addition to Chuck Prophet & The Mission Express (check yesterday’s post), Damien Jurado showed up and played a magnificent mini-set with a band consisting of members of The Head and the Heart and Jessica Dobson (from The Shins and Deep See Diver–girl gets around, having also appeared this past Saturday night on SNL with The Shins–see our post below).  Jurado and band were on KEXP in support of his phenomenal new album, Maraqopa. According to Damien, Maraqopa is a “concept-album” built around a character dreamed/imagined by Jurado.

Our pick of Jurado’s KEXP-litter is Working Titles, found first below.  Jurado and band are in perfect form, and the lines, “What’s it like for you in Washington? I’ve only seen photos of Washington. I’ll never know,” never fail to stir.  Then check out So On, Nevada, with its fine harmonies and poignant refrains (“The birds will fly south, so you take their advice, and leave also”).  Then watch as Jurado and band break out a new song not found on Maraqopa, entitled Horizons.  The song is pure late ’60s/early ’70s throwback, starting out falsetto-ballad-Youngian (not unusual with Jurado), but then at 2:51 kicking in to a full Crazy Horse-lite jam.  Oh how that Richard Swift has had his way with Damien’s music.  Superb stuff.  Afterwards check out another Maraqopa gem, This Time Next Year.

Apparently the band had only rehearsed once prior to their performance on KEXP.  Wow.  We can’t wait to hear what they sound like after jelling and building (though minus the “backup singers” as Jurado says).  They’ll be heading out to Europe on Tour before coming to Cali and North America after (see the apres-Europe list way below).

04/13/12 San Francisco, CA – Bottom of the Hill w/ Peter Wolf Crier BUY TICKETS
04/14/12 Los Angeles, CA – Bootleg Theater w/ Peter Wolf Crier BUY TICKETS
04/15/12 San Diego, CA – Soda Bar w/ Peter Wolf Crier BUY TICKETS
04/17/12 Denver, CO – Hi-Dive w/ Peter Wolf Crier BUY TICKETS
04/18/12 Salt Lake City, UT – Velour w/ Peter Wolf Crier BUY TICKETS
04/19/12 Boise, ID – Neurolux w/ Peter Wolf Crier BUY TICKETS
04/21/12 Vancouver, BC – The Biltmore Cabaret w/ Peter Wolf Crier BUY TICKETS
04/22/12 Portland, OR – Holocene w/ Peter Wolf Crier BUY TICKETS
05/16/12 Chicago, IL – Schubas w/ JBM BUY TICKETS
05/17/12 Pittsburgh, PA – The Andy Warhol Museum w/ JBM BUY TICKETS
05/18/12 Boston, MA – RADIO w/ JBM BUY TICKETS
05/19/12 New York, NY – Mercury Lounge w/ JBM BUY TICKETS
05/20/12 Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s w/ JBM BUY TICKETS
05/21/12 Washington, DC – Black Cat w/ JBM BUY TICKETS
05/22/12 Raleigh, NC – Kings Barcade w/ JBM BUY TICKETS
05/23/12 Atlanta, GA – The Earl w/ JBM BUY TICKETS
05/25/12 Nashville, TN – The Basement w/ JBM
05/26/12 Bloomington, IN – Russian Recording w/ JBM BUY TICKETS
05/28/12 George, WA – Sasquatch Music Festival BUY TICKETS
08/09/12 Haldern-Rees, DE – August 9th-11th: Haldern Pop Festival BUY TICKETS

At long last, Chuck Prophet & Mission Express appeared recently on KEXP and played five great songs off his rockin’ new album, Temple Beautiful.  The new album is an expressive homage to Prophet’s home, San Francisco, and its heroes and denizens.  As we’ve written before, Prophet is a national treasure and one of the most enjoyable live performers extant.  Get out and see them when they come near to you.  Check out Castro Halloween (with its Nada Surf-meets-George Harrison’s gently-weeping-guitar-meets Tom Petty ending), Temple Beautiful, Willie Mays Is Up At Bat, The Left Hand and the Right Hand (a poignant song about the nefarious porn-palace owners, the Mitchell Brothers), and White Night, Big City.  Great stuff.  Check it out.

The Shins were the musical guests on SNL last night in support of their fine new album, Port of Morrow.  We’re happy to report they soundly overcame the SNL musical hex.  Check out their performances below, replete with back-up singers, of Simple Song and It’s Only Life off of Port of Morrow.  Leader James Mercer was in fine vocal form throughout, even dropping down briefly (at minute 3:00 on Simple Song) into “human.”  Mercer also seems to have dropped his lyrics down to a discernible sub-Jabberwocky compared to prior albums.  The newly-added Jessica Dobson (of Deep Sea Diver) gave her best St. Vincent-simulacrum in both guise and guitar-playing (a compliment we assure you).  Though the band fared far better than other recent SNL musical guests, once again the SNL sound was suspect on Simple Song, with the other vocalists’ vocals mixed way too low.  Thankfully the sound was fixed by the time the band came back for It’s Only Life, with the background vocals sounding simply charming.   Check ’em both below courtesy of the Audio Perv.

It’s that time of year again.  Whether you’re at Cal Poly, Westmont, UC Irvine, San Marcos or The World Indoor Championships in Istanbul–it’s Track and Field season.   We’re extremely partial to the sport.  No judges, ya know?  This ain’t no ice-skating, diving or gymnastics.  To add to last year’s pre-race mix, check out Edinburgh’s Django Django and the title track to their recent album, Default.  With it’s “you thought you’d set the bar,” “take one for the team,” and “you missed the starting gun,” and driving beat, the song seems a perfect addition to your pre-race warm-up.

To make the video for Default, drummer David Maclean printed out over 4,000 frames to add paint to each of them.  Check it out below.  The band is one of the most anticipated acts at SXSW next week.

Iron & Wine’s performance last fall at Atlanta’s historic Buckhead Theatre comprised a homecoming of sorts for leader Sam Beam, who grew up a few hours from Atlanta.  Accordingly the eleven-piece band delivered a two-hour, 24-song set featuring nearly all of Iron and Wine’s most recent album, Kiss Each Other Clean, plus favorites like Naked as We Came and Boy with a Coin, before closing with a solo version of the brand-new Flightless Bird, American Mouth from the (horrors!) Twilight: Breaking Dawn soundtrack.  Live from the Artist’s Den captured the show and will bring it to you on TV starting tomorrow (good luck with that if you live in Santa Barbara) and, starting on Saturday, March 10th, you can catch it online HERE.  You can check out a preview of the show below, in which Sam  jumps on the ever-growing Janelle Monae hairstyle-bandwagon that is apparently taking over music (see Alicia Keys and Bruno Mars, amongst others, at the Grammys).   Great stuff from one of our favorite artists.

As reported yesterday, The Shins performed an iPad-accessible-only show last night for NPR.  The hour-long concert is now streaming for the unwashed at NPR HERE.  Below is the Setlist.

Setlist

• “Kissing The Lipless”
• “Caring Is Creepy”
• “Simple Song”
• “Bait And Switch”
• “Saint Simon”
• “It’s Only Life”
• “September”
• “New Slang”
• “The Rifle’s Spiral”
• “Australia”
• “No Way Down”
• “Phantom Limb”
• “One By One All Day”
• “Port Of Morrow”

Yellow Ostrich (originally from winning Wisconsin) showed up on The Big Yellow Couch recently in support of their fine new album, Strange Land, on Barsuk.  The hark and harmonies continue unabated on the new album.  In addition to those songs performed below, we particularly love the song Daughter.  We wrote previously of Yellow Ostrich’s fine cover of Sharon Van Etten’s phenomenal song, Love More.  Check out below the trio performing three songs off the new album below for The Big Yellow Couch.  You can also still stream their new album at Paste Magazine HERE, go download their song Bread at the widget way below, and then go HERE to buy the new album.  Their entire tour itinerary can be found at bottom.

Marathon Runner.   Given the start of track and field season, this is a great companion piece to Sea Wolf’s Middle Distance Runner on your Track and Field Mix Tape.  We love this song’s percussive schtick, if you will.

The Shakedown.

When All is Dead.  Check out the accomplished sax accompaniment.

Bowerbirds’ brand new album, The Clearing, on Dead Oceans is getting rave reviews across the board.  If you check out the official video for Tuck the Darkness In below, you’ll better understand why.  The video is inventive and the song is anthemic, which is a winning combo at Chez Lefort.  What child has not felt similar pangs in these settings?  The video answers the question:  why do we buy filets and not whole fish?  Enjoy, and then check out and download another new song off the album below, entitled In the Yard. And assuming you like what you hear and want to hear more, you can watch a mini-documentary about the making of The Clearing way below.  The band is headed out on tour in support of the new album, which you can stream in full HERE.  The tour dates are listed in full way below.

In the Yard

03-17 Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
03-21 Washington, DC – Black Cat
03-22 Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s
03-23 New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
03-24 Boston, MA – Paradise
03-26 Montreal, Quebec – La Sala Rossa
03-27 Toronto, Ontario – The Garrison
03-29 Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall
03-31 Minneapolis, MN – Cedar Cultural Centre
04-03 Seattle, WA – The Crocodile
04-04 Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge
04-06 San Francisco, CA – The Independent
04-07 Los Angeles, CA – Troubadour
04-08 San Diego, CA – Casbah
04-11 Austin, TX – The Parish
04-12 Dallas, TX – The Loft
04-14 Birmingham, AL – The Bottletree
04-15 Atlanta, GA – The Earl