As mentioned repeatedly, we are hopelessly enamored with the heady and hip-y sounds found on the impending Sylvan Esso (Amelia Meath from  Mountain Man and Nick Sanborn of Megafaun).  To get a feel, check out their scintillating live performance below of opening track Hey Mami from their session at the Mood Sound Lab.

In support of his first solo album, Everyday Robots, the great Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz) appeared on Jimmy Kimmel at SXSW (where the show is set all week).  Watch below as Albarn, backed by a crack band with strings, performed up-tempo Mr. Tempo and ballad Lonely Press Play off the new album (which will be released on April 28th).  Check ’em out below.

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In addition to the two other great albums currently streaming, the pick of the litter is the eponymous new album from Sisyphus (Sufjan Stevens, Son Lux, and Serengeti).  We’ve been enamored by this amalgam since we first heard about it.  Sisyphus has begun streaming its self-titled debut album, which will be released on March 18th on Asthmatic Kitty.  We love the intelligence and breadth of the entire album.  Listen to the trio’s superb avant-hip/hop-experimental-soul melange below.  About the project, Stevens has said:  “We have so little in common but we have deep love for each other and we are pushing that stone together.”  Advisory:  there will be “obscenities.”

At bottom, check out a new Stevens-endorsed video featuring Sisyphus’s affecting booze track Alcohol.  The song and video may be more effective than an Al-Anon meeting.  Add that to Kendrick Lamar’s Swimming Pools (Drank) and Al-Anon has two powerful new songs at their disposal.

You can also stream the album over at CBC HERE.

(www.asthmatickitty.com)

Last night at Carnegie Hall, The National’s Matt Berninger, Aaron Dessner, and Bryce Dessner were joined by Sufjan Stevens on stage and Iggy Pop, New Order, and Patti Smith performed at this year’s Tibet House US Benefit Concert in New York City.  Proceeds from the concert benefit the Tibet House US, a nonprofit educational institution whose mission is to help preserve and restore Tibetan civilization and culture.

One of the highlights of the evening was the combination of two of America’s best artists when Sufjan Stevens joined The National dudes onstage for rending readings of This Is The Last Time (hear Stevens show his formidable vocal worth on the song beginning at 3:24) and Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks (with Stevens again aiding).

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Brit-band Warpaint have earned their rock ‘n roll stripes and are regularly heralded for their live shows (including mesmerizingly gifted 10-15 minute song stretchouts).  They’ve been favorites of ours for quite some time.  The band made their late-night debut last night on Conan and performed a shimmering version of Love is to Die off of their eponymously-titled second album released in January.  Check it out below.

Warpaint now heads to SXSW to kick off a long tour in support of their album (which you can buy HERE), including headlining shows and opening slots for The National and Nick Cave.  And festivals.  Speaking of which:  Southern and Central California?  Once again, Corpchella advises you to “suck it and see.”  The band’s tour dates (exclusive of Southern and Central California) are listed at bottom.

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It’s stream-time and we’re alerting you to the two best albums currently available for listening until next week when they are officially released.

Paramount amongst the current streams is Lost in The Dreams, the new album from Philadelphia’s The War On Drugs.  With every release leader/songwriter Adam Granduciel and associates have upped the musical ante, and especially on their last album, Slave Ambient , which was one of our Best Albums of 2011.  As previously warned, the band will soon release Lost In The Dreams, which you can stream at NPR HERE.  As you will hear, Granduciel and the group have done it again.  For those who love/loved Dire Straits, Boys of Summer-Don Henley and Bruce Springsteen, The War On Drugs have taken those influences and made them their own.  These are long songs that subtly build and build.  And then they build some more before resolving.  Come along and join the 21st century with The War On Drugs.

Next up is Broken Social Scene’s main-man Kevin Drew and his new album Darlings.  One of our favorite bands, Broken Social Scene (which has included Feist and Emily Haines from Metric, not to mention mainstay Brendan Canning) has made some difficult but extremely rewarding albums.  As you will hear on Darlings, Drew has stepped out of BSS mode a bit by simplifying and stripping down the new songs to their essence and delivering them comparatively unadorned (including as compared to his outstanding 2007 solo debut album Spirit If…).  The musical rewards resulting from Drew’s efforts on Darlings are rich indeed.  You can listen to it now over at NPR HERE.

Converse has underwritten one more pastiche in their Three Artists, One Song series.  The Clash’s Mick Jones and Paul Simonon have combined with soulsinger Frank Ocean, Diplo and the West Los Angeles Children’s Choir on a great new song entitled Hero.   The track features Ocean’s ’60s soul-croon on top of Diplo’s mix, flavored with the vocals and shimmering/cutting instruments of Jones and Simonon, all as leavened by the sweet sound of the West Los Angeles Children’s Choir.  Superb.  Check it out below.

As hard as it is to believe, America’s best live band, The National, made their first appearance on SNL last night (they have been leading indie-rock and have lived for a decade just across the river in Brooklyn ferheavensake).  Check out their standard, scintillating performances below on Graceless and I Need My Girl from our Best Album of 2013, Trouble Will Find Me.  In addition to some of the best lyrics written in the past year, Graceless features the Dessner twins’ ferocious wall-of-guitar attack to go with Matt Berninger’s emotional, graceless vocal.  In contrast I Need My Girl is appropriately sedate (following Aaron Dessner’s opening headstock-smash guitar effects).  The song is driven by the magnificent, mesmerizingly-metronomic drumming of Bryan Devendorf, which perfectly frames Berninger’s vocals and allows the song’s lyrics to rightly take center stage.

The National play the Santa Barbara Bowl on April 25th and tickets are still available HERE.

As a bonus, check out a particularly-affecting and effective acoustic (with horns) version of the latter song that we featured last October.

Graceless:

I Need My Girl:

We went down the rabbit-hole this week, revisiting Curtis Mayfield’s underrated Superfly soundtrack, Bob Marley’s obscure Tuff Gong catalog and, finally, Marvin Gaye’s back-catalog.  All stupendous.  The song that got stuck on repeat, however, was Gaye’s Trouble Man, taken from the 1972 film’s soundtrack.  We love everything about Gaye, but this (eponymous, it turns out) song in particular.  His soulful scat interlude at 2:12 forward is all-time.  Marvin, you are sorely, sorely missed.  See you on the otherside.

Critically-acclaimed Brit-band Wild Beasts showed up on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic yesterday in support of their most recent album, Present Tense.  As mentioned in their interview with MBE, this album was given more time to gestate than prior records.  The band, Hayden Thorpe (vocals, guitar, bass, keys), Tom Fleming (vocals, guitar, bass, keys), Chris Talbot (drums) and Ben Little (guitar, keys) took a full year from touring to created and record the album.  To get a feel check out their ’80s synth-pop-esque performance below of track Wanderlust.  It’s a builder, and sounds like a great mix of ABC, Soft Cell, and Ultravox, and the vocals of Orange Juice.  If you want to hear the remainder of their session, go over to KCRW HERE.

After, you can watch the official video for Wanderlust and listen to another strong song (Sweet Spot) off of Present Tense.